I need some help. I decided to give hammock camping a try, but something has gone awry. For my first hang, I took my gear to a local state park here in South Florida. My hammock was a Grand Trunk Ultralight, that I hung with Marlinspike hitches in both the suspension ropes and tree straps, which I learned from GizzlyAdams excellent videos (thank you, THEY worked perfectly). Unfortunately, about 2 hours into my night's sleep, I found myself unceremoniously dumped on my butt when my hammock ripped in half. The first picture I attached shows my set-up not long before I crawled in for the night. As you can see, there is some sag in the hammock, but is it enough? I have seen other places on the web advocate hanging your hammock completely taught, so I assume they're designed to withstand that level of tension safely. Is the GT Ultralight simply too ultra light for me? I'm 6-2, 200. Not the tiniest guy ever, but not THAT far from average. As you can see from the second picture, the rip was across the width of the hammock, at right about the spot my butt was. It's making me feel like something out of one of those bad Subway commercials, and is not doing wonders for my self esteem. I didn't have anything in my pockets when I went to sleep that would have torn it, either. The mosquitoes were so bad that I was frequently shifting from side to side, because they were actually biting me through the hammock. Could that have caused it? Any guess as to what I did wrong? I was really comfortable right up until the moment the ground came rushing up to meet my rump, and I'd like to give this hammock hanging another shot. But before I go spending money on another hammock, I'd like to figure out what happened this time. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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