Suspension - Evaluating a Hard Point

This is a long article, but you need to understand this stuff before you try suspensions.

This page contains many important details that you need to consider in deciding to accept the risk of trusting a hard point. The scene is all about Risk-Aware Consensual Kink (R.A.C.K.). When your partner is helpless, their life is literally in your hands. So read fully and understand.

This article is advice only. Gathered from personal experiences and those of others. It is intended to help you better understand what is involved and the associated risks so you can better make your choice.

I have made this point in this site's Terms & Conditions and several other places: but you and your partner(s) undertake any activity in this or any of our tutorials at your own risk.Rope bondage is inherently risky. More than any other kind of bondage, rope bondage is prone to injury. It has a wide variety of risks that you need to fully understand if you are to engage in it safely. You need to study safety and take safety techniques to heart, but risk can never be reduced to zero. That is why we talk about Risk-Aware Consensual Kink. You need to be aware of the risks and then make your choice to participate or not. But it's important to understand that risks are higher when you suspend your helpless partner. They can't catch themselves if they fall...

Big shout-out to several great folks from Fetlife who helped review early versions of this article and who's input has made it much better, more complete and more balanced. Carnal_Tutor, JakeLackless and the several others that made suggestions but opted to not be named, thank you!This material is provided solely as an addendum to practical, hands-on experience. This guide strives to cover common issues you may come across, but it can’t cover everything. Some of the information in this article is opinion either of myself or of others in the community, but there is no one true way, nor one truth. Others may have differing opinions and may be comfortable suspending on equipment that I would not personally use; that doesn't mean they are wrong or are reckless. Personally, I am strongly risk averse when talking suspensions, so I mark to very high standards and this article reflects that. You need to balance this with what you learn elsewhere and learn how to make sound judgements on you own. Find an in-person mentor, practice suspension with them guiding you the first few times, get live advice and correction from someone who knows suspension well before you fly solo.Hard point – This is a general term used by riggers to refer to a point, usually overhead, that is designed and rated to support the weight of a human safely. It has to be much stronger than you might think. See below to learn why.

Rigging – A collective term referring to any and all elements that connect your partner to the hard point. Any chain, webbing or rope around the hard point or the attachment point, any rings or carabiners, any rope, all of that is collectively “the rigging”Working Load Limit (WLL) - When we say something is “rated”, that means it has a tested engineered capacity of how much weight it can hold. It is often called a Working Load Limit (WLL) expressed in lbs or tons where 1 ton = 2000 lbs (900 kg)

In climbing gear, it is usually expressed in terms of kilo-Newtons (kN) where, for purposes of suspension, 1 kN = 220 lbs (100 kg). The carabiner shown can hold 22 kN (4840 lbs) when properly loaded.Safety Factor & Minimum Breaking Strength (MBS) - The Safety Factor is that multiple of the rated WLL that the item can withstand before reaching its Minimum Breaking Strength. OSHA recommends a safety factor of 10:1 for overhead suspensions like for aerial silks.Rope – Okay, admittedly, you may not need a definition on this, but let me say one quick word about the type of rope that you want for suspensions: Find natural fiber or, if you need some synthetic version for some reason (like allergies), find some variant with “tooth” (friction) similar to natural fiber, like the cool variants of synthetic hemp that are being manufactured now. The reason for this is that you really need (1) that level of friction to ensure your knots stay exactly where they should be and (2) the greater degree of consistency of stretch that you find in such rope as compared to cheaper synthetic ropes like nylon or poly-pro. There are some types of synthetic ropes that many riggers trust -- MFP and POSH are frequently recommended.When evaluating a hard point, what you want is something that just seems ridiculously strong. Something that can hold at least 2000 lbs (900 kg). Basically, you should be able to hang a small car from it.

There are some really important reasons for this; the forces that will be felt by that hard point are much higher than you might at first imagine! By the end of this section, you will understand why.

Stresses that occur upon hoist are at least double the weight of your partner

First, let’s say that you want to suspend someone who is 150 lbs (68 kg). You might be tempted to think that something that can hold 300 lbs would be plenty. You’d be absolutely wrong. If you are suspending a 150-lb person, you have to get them up there. If you do that by running some rope over the hard point and then pulling the rope to hoist them up, the hard point does not feel just the 150 lbs of your partner; it feels their 150 lbs plus the 150+ lbs you are exerting to lift them up plus some additional forces due to friction! So you have over 300 lbs (136 kg) on the hard point right there.

More than that, if your partner moves at all (a dynamic suspension), the amount of force felt by the rigging can vary wildly. See below:

Stresses upon drop

One rule of thumb is that for every foot (12”, ~30cm) that a load drops, you add another factor of that weight. Basically, if your 150-lb partner falls and is stopped dead by the rigging before landing, the force exerted on that rigging works approximately like this:

Force of your partner: 150 lbs
Fall of 1 foot: Add 150 lbs for a total of 300
Fall of 2 feet: Add another 150 lbs for a total of 450 lbs
Fall of 3 feet: Add another 150 lbs for a total of 600 lbs
…and so on…

(Yes, this rule of thumb is not precisely correct from an engineering perspective, but it’s close enough at the distances we are talking about. It certainly helps to illustrate the point that the stress can be highly variable and much more than one might expect.)

An important rule for riggers: “Always be more than one failure away from catastrophe”

Well, the hard point is a single point of failure. It is extremely rare to come across one that has redundancies built in to it. So if the hard point fails, then your partner, the rigging, the hard point itself, and perhaps some of the ceiling are all going to come crashing down, maybe on top of you and your partner. So we purposefully want things this strong in an attempt to ensure that this single point of support cannot fail.

People who create suspension points for aerial acrobatic shows in the theater typically have a WLL of 900 lbs (~400 kg) with a safety factor of 10:1, so an MBS of 9000 lbs (~4000 kg).

Climbers routinely work with gear rated to withstand 22 kN (5000 lbs of force)

But their rigs are designed to withstand stronger forces than we encounter in regular suspension. Both acrobats and climbers need equipment that can hold more than one person and can withstand the forces of significant drops. Far more than the 3-5 feet at which most bondage suspensions are done.

So if I am building a hard point, I try to go for the overkill, targeting a 2+ ton | 4000 lbs | 20 kN range, but if you are evaluating one provided by someone else:

If you are suspending someone up to about 200 lbs (90 kg), you want a hard point that can hold 1 ton | 2000 lbs | 10 kN.

The logic works like this: Your detected working load is 200 (partner) + 200 (you, when you pull up your partner) + a bit more for the rigging and friction, so call it 500 just to use round numbers. Add a 4:1 safety factor, and that takes you to the neighborhood of 2000. Obviously, if it is stronger, that is great; the more it can withstand, the better the safety factor.

When might you need a hard point with greater capacity?

If you are planning to suspend more weight--someone over 200, perhaps two people, etc.-- you need to consider what this means to the hard point. Is it just a little over 200? You should be well within the safety factor. Is it a lot over that 200? Well, I personally would be looking for a higher rated capacity.

Another rare case where you might want greater rated capacity is if you intend to suspend someone much higher from the ground! This discussing is assuming that your partner is at a normally comfortable working height of 3-6' (1-2m) and remains at that height. If you intend to lift your helpless partner higher after they are tied (maybe you have a mechanical hoist or something), they would be falling from a much higher height and the risks are correspondingly higher.If you cannot inspect the hard point yourself and evaluate for yourself that you are willing to accept the risk to use it, DO NOT USE IT.

That may be a tough call. You may have been working with a potential partner toward a suspension scene for a long time and be intensely excited by your plans, but you need to set all that aside if you are not 100% sure you can trust that hard point.

That means looking at it yourself and understanding how to evaluate what you are looking at.

It does NOT mean saying to yourself, “People have been using this for years and have had no problem - I’m sure it will be fine.” It does NOT mean, “I’ll ask these two big blokes over here to dangle themselves from it - that will prove it’s strong enough”. Neither of these test are sufficient on their own. Repetitive stress on the hard point and rigging can result in wear and tear on the components. Just because something was fine moments ago, doesn’t mean its fine now. As a famous example, check out this video of the I35W bridge in Minneapolis, MN, USA collapsed with cars on it in 2007, after being trusted for decades. You need to evaluate the situation with more than just those things. If a venue's track record is flawless, that is a great point in their favor, but you still want to check things out for yourself. Understand what they did to make it trustworthy so you can evaluate for yourself if you agree.

If you have any doubt about the safety of, just shift to some floor rigging or other kind of scene. Wait to do your suspension until you can have a hard point you are confident of.

“Beloved Local Killed in Freak S&M Dungeon Disaster – Details at 11…”

A hard point is comprised of a number of parts. Not every hard point has each of these parts, but you need to separately evaluate each part that is present, so read and understand all the details of each of these sections:

What is holding the hard point up? Building Structural Elements, Frames
What connects the hard point to its support? Spans, Frame Elements
Is the attachment point itself safe? Spans, Rings, Welded Elements
Does the venue supply any Rigging? Is it safe? Chains, Webbing, Rope, etc. to bring the hard point down to a comfortable working level
How about your equipment? Is it safe? Your rope, your rings, carabiners, ...your skills...
What is the floor under the point? Concrete? Hardwood? Carpet? Is there a mat?

I separate all these ideas because it is good practice to evaluate each separately. Every part is a potential failure point, so every part needs to have your complete attention in turn and must be validated by you as being safe.

Building Structural Elements – Beams, Girders, Joists, Trusses

You will often come across hard points built using the structural elements in the ceiling above (especially in basements or in commercial spaces / warehouses). There are a few things to look for in evaluating these:If the hard point is supported by the building’s main support Beam or Girder – typically a steel I-Beam or a wooden beam at least 8” (20 cm) square – the beam is just fine. It is holding up a house and everyone upstairs at the party; it can hold up you and your partner. The trick is to evaluate how the venue has rigged the point you attach to:

If the venue has chain, rope or climber’s webbing wrapped entirely around the beam, you need to evaluate the condition of that rigging. See the Supplied Rigging section below
If the venue has installed some sort of ring, you need to evaluate that. See the Attachment Point section below.

If the hard point is supported by Joists or Trusses – those boards that run from the beam to the walls that support the ceiling or floor above, you want to see the load spread across more than one truss/stringer. These are typically 2x8 or more often 2x10 wider and are very strong boards, yes, but you want the load spread just in case there is an internal defect.

If you ever see a “hard point” that is nothing more than a single hole drilled into a Joist with webbing or something through it, be cautious. You are, in reality, trusting the weight of your partner to a board only as thick as the portion under the hole. Do not use such a setup unless the amount of wood under the hole meets the recommendations found in the Evaluating the Span section below..
Far better is this kind of construction:
For ceilings, the load is spread across several trusses
For joists, the load is spread down a wide area and is shared between two joists

Special considerations for steel trusses. These are great if used one way and not to be trusted if used another. There are load-bearing and non-load-bearing parts. (This picture is an example of just one of many types of steel trusses). Rigging.net is a great resource if you want to get into this a lot more...

OK: Rigging is wrapped entirely around the lower rail and is in good condition
Not OK: Rigging is attached to a single one of the angle members, especially if done so in such a way that a failure in the weld will cause the suspension rigging to pull the angle member away from the truss

Purpose-built Frames

Another popular option is a portable frame built specifically for suspension bondage. For these, the primary thing is to test that it was assembled correctly.

Walk around it and look at all the joints. Are the components fully and firmly seated?
Push on it from various angles. Do the joints or bolts rattle, wiggle, give or move in any unexpected way? They may need to be tightened or there may be wear that means the frame is no longer sound.
Dangle from it yourself. Look to see if the span containing the hard point moves. It should not bend (“deflect”) significantly with your weight. (No, you are not conducting a “two big guys” test here, you are seeing how the frame reacts and testing its assembly 😊)
With your full weight on it, swing back and forth and side to side on a bit. There might be a little bit of movement, but not more than a little. If it is moving much, it will be subjected to greater forces in a dynamic suspension. You want something rock solid. (This test does need to be done with weight on the frame. The industry is producing some really cool light-weight frames these days that can be moved quite easily with no weight on them, but that are solid when loaded.)
Is the frame tippy at all? Tripods and inverted T’s can be of particular concern here. While they can be fine for relatively static suspensions, they can be tipped if your partner likes to move a lot and swings their center of mass outside of the plane of the legs.

If you conclude that the Support itself is acceptable, now you need to evaluate how the hard point itself is connected to the support. Not every hard point has a separate span (webbing wrapped around a beam does not have a separate span), but some do. If a horizontal pipe is fixed between supports, the pipe is the span I am talking about. If a board is connected to two columns, it is the board that I am talking about.

The thing to evaluate here is whether the span will take the needed weight. You use different rules of thumb for different materials.

Structural Steel

Despite it being relatively inexpensive, you don’t often find spans made from actual structural steel unless it is a beam or joist built into the building, but if you do see it and cannot ask the venue what the rated load is, look for something at least 2” (5 cm) thick if the span is 6’ (2m), 3” (8-9 cm) thick if the span is 10’ (3m).

Wood

There are many sources of official engineering span tables that will tell you the load capacity of a specific wood, but they require you to know what type of wood it is. (“Why of course that is Southern White Pine, you can tell by the…” ::eyes glaze over::)

So we need a general rule of thumb that will give you an over-engineered answer—an extra safety factor. Fortunately, we have a simple one: You want the width of the board (in inches) to be the distance (in feet) between the supports, divided by 2, then add 2’’ …then sandwich together two boards with that dimension – clear as mud I know, but the examples below will clear it up. (You often see this in children’s swing sets.)

So let’s work through some examples:

If the distance between the supports is 8 feet, you need (8’÷2)+2, so a board at least 6” inches wide, so you want to see two 2x6” boards sandwiched together and attached to the supports.
If the distance between the supports was 10’, (10’÷2)+2=7”, so you would want to see two 2x8” boards.
Again, you really do want to see things over-engineered – stronger than you think you need

Pipes

Note that standard schedule 40 steel or “Black Iron” pipe, like those available from a hardware store, Menard’s, Home Depot, Lowes, etc., is not rated for a load like this. It is not intended to support weight across a span. That said, many people do use it, but again, you want things over-engineered. If it is schedule 80 pipe (thicker wall) vs. schedule 40, that is better.

5” Schedule 40 pipe with a span of 60” (1.50 m) will deflect ~0.5” with a load of 1000 lbs (450 kg). This is not nearly enough to support the forces we need to be planning for.
If the span is shorter than 48” (1.2 m) the load it can take will be much higher and 1.5” can be plenty.
But at over 48”, you want to see at least 2” Schedule 40, 2.5” is better or schedule 80 (thicker) instead of schedule 40
At over 96” (2.4 m), you want 3” or more

If the pipe being used is actually structural pipe designed for this purpose by an engineer, you can see pipe with much smaller dimensions holding this kind of load. So if you see a smaller pipe, ask the host if it was purpose designed. Ask if the pipe is structurally rated and designed for this kind of load.Many hard points will feature some kind of explicit attachment point. An eye bolt or something. Given an option, riggers will often ignore that provided point and will run their own rigging around the span. This way they know the condition of rigging and are eliminating failure points that they themselves do not control. But sometimes it is not possible to do this and you must rely on the provided attachment point.

Eye Bolts

It is critical that any Eye bolt be actually designed and rated to carry a load, or do not use it!You want a forged or machined, load-rated eye bolt like this:

You want them at least ½” to give you a WLL of 2200 lbs or moreEven better is one that has a shoulder on it, because this can take a load not just straight down, but at a slight angle. A shoulder looks like “collar” right below the circular part of the eye bolt.Always look to see (if you cannot see, then ask) if the bolt is secured through a washer or steel plate, and not just by the bolt. This spreads the force over much more area and makes things much more secure. It is also best if the nut be held in place with a lock washer or perhaps welded--something to keep it from coming loose unexpectedly. You don't often see that, but at least make sure the bolt is tight and the bolt is firmly held with no play or slop. Also, be sure you can see some of the threads above the nut to ensure it is fully engaged.

Do not trust Wire "Eye Bolts" or Eye Lags:

This type of “eye bolt” made of bent wire; it is really no more than a glorified hook. Even at ½” steel, bolts like this are only rated for 200 lbs. You do hear differing opinions on this, if you see one of these made from a very thick iron bar, it might be fine, but I would personally have to see something truly impressive before I would ever consider using it.Eye Lags have no rated WLL. They are screwed in to wood or into a lead slug embedded in concrete, so you are relying on whatever part of the wood the threads are biting into to be strong enough to hold the load. For me, there are too many variables that I cannot confirm for me to trust eye lags.

Eye bolt loading angle!!

One very important thing about any such bolt is how the load is applied to it. The load for any bolt or hook of this type is intended to be aligned with the shaft of the bolt, not at angle to it. If the eye bolt has a shoulder on it, the load can be on a slight angle (e.g. if it is bolted to a slanted surface), but the load rating drops to half as the load gets up to 15º off axis, and gets really untrustworthy after that.This means that if you ever see an eye bolt stuck into the side of a board, run away. NEVER use something like this:However, something like this is OK because even though the ropes are pulling off each direction at 45º, the effective force on the ring is still straight down.

Rings welded to the span

I talk about the problem of trusting this configuration above. Unless you know something about welding and have special skills to evaluate what you are seeing, I would avoid trusting it. Put your rigging around the bar itself instead and use the provided rings to help anchor your rigging from sliding to one side.

Anchors into concrete

This is a special headache for experienced suspension riggers. Yes, it is entirely possible to mount a ring into concrete in such a way as to be able to hoist a car. However, it also very easy to fuck up the installation of something into concrete and there is no way for you as the rigger to evaluate its safety. If it was not done correctly, that hard point could give way at any time and with no warning. This is one of those cases where the “two big guys” test is especially deceptive. The anchor could be getting less and less secure all the time, then they do this test and break all but the last little shred, which finally DOES break in the middle of your scene. Catastrophe.Remember the code of the rigger: “Always be more than one failure (or fuck-up) away from catastrophe.”The only version of this I would trust is if the bolt passes all the way through the concrete to the floor above, through a steel plate and then into the nut—which is secured to the plate with a lock washer or weld. I would check that there is no visible debris or damaged concrete near the site and that there is no evidence of water either on the bolt side or the eye side—both of these are indicators that the concrete is not in prime condition and may be weak. Then and only then, would I consider trusting the set up.This is any gear provided to bring the hard point (often higher up in the ceiling) down to a comfortable working height. It is often a strong chain, a climbing strap, or rope wrapped around the hard point, with a ring set at a comfortable working height, or perhaps (this is becoming more popular) a mechanical or motorized hoist.

Chains, Tubular Webbing and Ropes

You need to visually inspect these. Make sure they are load-rated and in good condition.
If wrapped around a square beam or I-Beam, something with an edge, you want to see the chain/webbing/rope wrapped loosely rather than tightly. If wrapped tightly, the force between it and the edges of the beam are significantly higher than if it is wrapped loosely.
Speaking of square beams, if the rigging is rope or webbing, and the edge of the beam is rather sharp, you would hope to see something to help protect the rigging from undue wear—being cut through—by the beam edge. Perhaps some form of thick cloth or rubber padding.

The rigging must be secured appropriately.

With chains, this is often done with a carabiner or anchor link (see below)—whatever it is, it should also be load rated. I like to see locking carabiners for this purpose as they are designed for almost exactly this purpose.
With rope or webbing, you need to see a strong knot, well tied. With rope, multiple loops around the beam, with the ends secured with a double fisherman's knot and the ring or carabiner around all the loops is good, but there are a variety of other knots that will work in this situation. For webbing a good choice is the water knot.

Carabiners

DO NOT USE any sort of “carabiner” that has no rating information, such as those intended as key chains or novelties.

DO USE actual climbing gear or rated rigging/hoisting gear :)

You need to see something like the writing on the side of this carabiner below. This tells you that the Carabineer is rated.

1 N ≈ 220 lbs of force. So this one can hold 22kN (4840 lbs) with the gate closed, 7kN (1540 lbs) if side loaded or with the gate open.While you may choose spring-gate carabiners for your own use, on supplied equipment I am more comfortable if I see a carabiner that is twist-lock style so I am sure that it cannot come undone accidentally. Something like this:Loading a carabinerCarabineers are designed to hold a single load, in-line:Their strength drops significantly (like 1/4) if side-loaded:Tri-loading – If the angle of a tri-load is too great, the carabiner is also less effective. Up about 45º is OK; but as you start to get above that, the forces are such that you quickly get as weak as side loading

This is OK:

This is not OK:

Swivels (a.k.a. Pivots, Spinners, etc.)

Some venues will provide a swivel as part of their gear. I like to see these. They help ensure that any rotation that may be generated do not get transferred to the anchor point. If the anchor point is a bolt, this means that the risk of it being worked loose over time is significantly lower.

Swivels also can add fun element to your scene, allowing you to spin your partner gently around while in bondage. This, of course is also subject to negotiation and its own risks and considerations.

As with all other components, make sure you understand what a swivel is rated to carry. This picture shows a rescue swivel that is rated to withstand extreme stress and can support several people. You don't need something this strong, but you still want it to handle the loads we have discussed above. Any swivel designed for rock climbing--if in good condition--should be fine.

Quick links

Quick links are often seen in supplied equipment, but you should check them. They come in load-rated and non-load-rated types. If you see them as supplied rigging, see if they have the load rating "WLL" stamped on them. That is what I always look for. Unfortunately, even ones that *are* rated sometimes don't have a stamp, so you don't know if it is rated or not. Trusting it is a decision you will need to make for yourself.

Two things about these though: (1) Confirm their orientation: Like is shown in the picture, the screw nut should be going toward gravity when being screwed tighter: "Screw down so you don't screw up." is the phrase. (2) Always check that that nut is screwed fully down and is tight.

Anchor links

Anchor links are designed to be loaded with the load on the pin and both are rated to hold similar amounts but be very careful here. These pins screw in. Is the pin held in place is some way to prevent it from unscrewing? If this is supplied rigging, I far prefer to see the Safety Anchor type with the cotter pin in place to keep the bolt from unscrewing.

If it is the Pin type, it is just as strong, but be very cautious here and confirm that the pin is fully screwed in and that either something is run through the eye of the pin and connected to the shackle to prevent the pin from unscrewing or there is no force on the pin that could unscrew it (there is nothing that can slide against it).

Safety Anchor Type:

Pin Type:

Mechanical Hoists - Block and Tackle, Electrical Hoists

These are mechanical lifting systems that allow the top to lift the bottom higher or lower over the course of the scene. A very important point that applies to both: Do not use one of these unless they are rated for human lifting and have a safety feature to prevent catastrophic release. If it fails, there is no time to react; this aerialist broke her neck due to such a failure.Block and Tackle – A Block and Tackle is a hoisting system featuring a rope or cable run through a series of pulleys. The thing to look for in evaluating the device itself is the condition of the block and pulleys and the condition of the rope or chain. The ropes and pulleys can sometimes get misaligned when in motion and the rope can get chewed by the pulleys. Over time, this can cause frayed rope and you should never suspend with rope in anything other than top condition.Hoists – What you look for here is: (1) Is it a HOIST or is it a WINCH? Winches are designed for pulling along the ground, not lifting, so the ratings on them don’t apply to this situation. (2) Is it rated for 2 tons or more? (3) (As always) Is it in good condition?IMPORTANT: Don’t tie someone on the ground, then connect them to a lift system and pick them up. Tension in rope changes dramatically when that rope comes under external forces and lines that were laying perfectly when your partner was on the floor can suddenly slip to a different location or otherwise move in unexpected ways and make your partner deeply uncomfortable or even put them in danger of injury. So when getting your partner initially suspended, treat the hoist like any other hard point; position it so your working ring is at a comfortable height, then do your tie like you normally would, then have your fun in raising or lowering them.What about the equipment you brought? Is it still sound, in good condition and appropriate for the job? Much of this page can also help you evaluate your own equipment, but here are a few extra watch-outs.

Rope

What kind of rope do you have? When did you buy it? Is it still in good condition? A rope that has been used for a long time and is starting to lose fibers and get worn can be far weaker than it was originally. (While many riggers--including me--really like natural fiber rope for suspension, keep in mind that it does degrade over time and can fail much sooner if you don't take care of it. Despite what you may hear, natural fiber is no the only way to go. There are some very nice synthetic products out there as well. Hemp X is neat stuff.)
What is it rated for? How many up lines are you going to want to have to carry your intended load? Do you know?
Does it have low stretch and consistent stretch? You want a rope that doesn't stretch much and does so in a very consistent way. This helps make the bondage more comfortable; with one cord becoming too tight or loose compared to the other cords it is laying with.
Does it have sufficient friction ("tooth") to hold a knot well? If not, do you know how to tie knots that hold even in slippery rope? (See the forthcoming post "Your first suspension" for great choices)
The primary reason that I formed an affiliation with Twisted Monk is not that they have a lot of quality offerings, but that they have an amazing guarantee: If you have to cut your rope for a safety situation, they will replace it -- free. That guarantee, I feel, deserves support from the community, when we can.

Rings

Riggers will often connect a ring to the attachment point so they have much more surface area to tie to and ropes can lay attractively next to each other instead of on top of each other or through a series of different carabiners, etc...
You can get them from BDSM supply stores or use a gymnastics still ring, etc. There are lots of choices here.
As always, understand your ring's capabilities.

Carabiners, links, etc.

We covered this topic kind of ad-nauseum in the "Supplied Rigging" section above, but be sure that you apply no less rigor to your evaluation of your own gear as you do to others...

This one is pretty easy. One of your most important jobs as a suspension top is to make sure that your partner's head *never* comes into uncontrolled contact with the ground. But if something unexpected and awful happens and they do fall, what will their head be hitting?

Falling, unprotected head hitting anything = bad

Head directly hitting concrete, tile or hardwood = BAD-BAD-BAD

Even a little bit of padding can make the difference between something that is simply a very unpleasant experience and something that requires a trip to the hospital or worse.

In the best of worlds, there is a good mat in place, but that is pretty rare. Sometimes you see a good thick carpet with a nice under pad; that's not too bad an option. I personally don't suspend over hard flooring unless I brought a mat to put down.

Gym Mat > thick carpet with good padding underneath > thick carpet with little/no padding > hard wood > tile > concrete > pit with pointy spikes

> = "is better than"

Watch for Slipping/Tripping Hazards

If you have things under your feet, you might slip or trip on them. This even applies to a mat if it is loose on the ground. So keep an eye on that as you move about the space. Be especially careful when you are raising or lowering your partner. If your feet slip or a mat slides under you then, it could end in a fall. = Bad. So move deliberately and with balance.

Suspension - Evaluating a Hard Point