Equipment Inspections
It’s the last Friday of the month, and that means it’s equipment inspection day!
Do you ever find yourself half way up the silks wondering, “when’s the last time someone inspected this?”
Awesome question! The regular maintenance of the equipment you use in your classes and other training sessions is integral to your safety, so it’s totally okay to wonder how often we check it.
The answer is: every 30 days! Every single month we take an afternoon to wheel our scaffolding around and climb up to personally check each and every point. If a student, instructor, or performer could use it, we inspect it. What kinds of things are we looking for?
Hardware: what kind of wear and tear is evident? If it looks like the friction has worn away more than 10% of the metal, we retire it (or use it only for swagging equipment). We also check the gates on carabiners to make sure they haven’t warped, and listen to swivels to make sure they’re rotating smoothly.
For silks: are there any holes or burns? Are they in need of a wash?
For anchors (such as the black slings you see wrapped around the joists in the ceiling): have they been rubbing on the joist? Are there any holes in the protective sheaths? Do we need to add more padding, or replace them entirely?
There’s more to it than that, but those are some of the general things we look for. Having a constant awareness of the state of our equipment goes a long way towards keeping everyone safe, and is a big part of our safety protocol.
Additionally, all of our instructors know what to look and listen for when they’re using the equipment on a daily basis. If anything needs attention before the next inspection, we know right away!
If you ever have any questions about our equipment, how it’s used, or what we’re doing to keep you safe, just ask! We’re kind of nerds about it.