I own my own business. I earn my living with a variety of different activities. As I like to say, it takes a lot of peanuts to feed an elephant. Part of my living I earn from designing and installing aerial systems for those who want them. But more and more, other businesses are cheaping out and not hiring skilled, competent people for their rigging. They instead rely on “a guy”. I say this gender neutral, but I mean like “Don’t pay for that, ‘cause I got a guy...”. And what these places end up with are unsafe, dangerous, shade-tree monstrosities that will eventually fail and injure someone. It kills me to think that some child somewhere will be injured due to either unknowing incompetence, or deliberate action, all in an effort to save money. That stops now.
I live in South Florida. If you are in Broward, Miami-Dade, or Palm Beach counties, And you run a facility that is offering aerial of any sort, I will FOR FREE come inspect your system, and let you know if this is safe to use or not. If it is, great, good for you. Go become a member of American Circus Educators and go through their Safety Program. http://www.americancircuseducators.org/ I am a Safety Consultant, and likely will be the one inspecting your facility. Then you can show people that your rig, curriculum, and facility, are as safe as can be.
If your system is NOT great, I’ll tell you how to fix it for free. Am I shooting myself in the foot by doing this? Perhaps. But I will be able to sleep at night. I don’t want a facility to not have the knowledge about what makes for a safe system because their bank account is tight. I get it, you have to prioritize. But you cannot, should not, DAMN WELL BETTER NOT just use what you have because someone was lucky and has not yet injured anyone. Just because you have metal in your ceiling does not mean you can hang people from it! Might that mean you don’t get to offer aerial? Perhaps. Get over it, and do the right thing. What happens if someone gets hurt because of you? It’s not worth it.
So if you have aerial classes that you offer, give me a call. I will check out your rig, and let you know if it’s safe. No agenda. I’m not telling you things so you will pay me. I’ll tell you what you need to make it right, no charge. If you just don’t want to do it yourself and would rather have me do it, great. I’ll give you a fair price, and guarantee my work. And you can relax knowing that someone who is insured, trained, and specializes in putting people in the air has done their best to make you the safest you can be. I will even offer free training at my studio in Sunrise once a month, for anyone who wants to come learn about what makes for safe rigging. Just reach out to me for details.
So there you go, no more excuses. Be safe, keep your people safe, and learn to KNOW what is right and what is not. No charge, just an investment of your time. Give me a call, I’m here to help.
Jonathan Givens
EPS Productions
954.908.5377