Too scared to get in a hammock

[Big Wheel]

Yesterday when I got home from work my wife told me something funny...
While I was gone her parents had stopped by to visit and since I had my ENO double up , she went out to show her dad.
She tried to get him in to see how comfy they are.
But, after one look at my thin whoopies going up to a pen sticking out of my marlin spike hitch......
No way !!
Guess it looks a little unstable or too risky?
she tried explaining that it holds the both of us but no help
He he .... To scared to try
So anyone else scare people away from hammocks?
Perhaps with tiny dynaglide whoopies going up to twigs?

[bigbamaguy]

I have many people give me crazy looks and lots of different comments when they see me hanging in my hammock from the Amsteel Whoopies, Dutch Buckles and straps. Then I show them that I am not lying about how it will hold my big carcass off the ground and hop in. This usually get them into the hammock. A 300lb man telling you "string" will hold you off the ground and a 300lb man proving it, what hammocking is all about for me!!!!

[dragon360]

I strung up my GT UL (on amsteel whoopies) for a friend the other day since he couldn't understand my fascination with hammocks and it must have taken over 20 odd minutes to finally get him to try!!

[Owl]

I have to admit that a large part of my hesitation in switching over to whoopies on my HH Explorer is due to the apparent "flimsiness" of them.

I'm going to be a bit nervous in hanging with them until they've demonstrated their strength to me over time.

It's one thing to have the intellectual knowledge that they have the strength to support my weight...it's a fair step to overcome the PSYCHOLOGICAL portion of hanging from something that simply doesn't appear to have enough "oomph" to hold my weight.

With that said...I switched my suspension over this past weekend. We'll see how it goes!

[timabababaluka]

My mom loves the hammock I gave her with the mule tape suspension... 7/64 amsteel whoopies? Not so much.

She didn't seem to put too much faith in the turtlelady bamboo hammock stand either (although, in her defense, she did witness my six year old daughter tip it over while she was trying to "rock daddy to sleep"--read as "swing daddy up and over the bar--(daddy's screaming, "You fool! You Fool! You'll kill us all!!!" probably didn't give my mom that warm, fuzzy reassurance that we so love when plopping down into a hammock, either)).

[JasonJones]

Owl, to put it in perspective, Amsteel has been the GO-TO replacement for steel winch cables in the off-road world for quite a few years now. For the same diameter you get much more strength than a steel cable... Would you hang from steel cables without worry?

[Owl]

Owl, to put it in perspective, Amsteel has been the GO-TO replacement for steel winch cables in the off-road world for quite a few years now. For the same diameter you get much more strength than a steel cable... Would you hang from steel cables without worry?

Understood...intellectually.

Don't take me wrong...I get that they're stronger. And...I've swapped my suspension over and will be doing test runs as available.

But...emotionally, it's not easy looking at supporting all of my weight on what appears to be a slender cord.

That's the point that I think the OP was seeing from friends/family...and one I can understand. They have to overcome their EMOTIONAL distrust of something that doesn't appear to have sufficient strength to support them and trust the INTELLECTUAL viewpoint that it IS strong enough to do so.

I'm going to have to adjust and get comfortable to the whoopie slings...have their ability DEMONSTRATED to me repeatedly so that I can learn to trust them...which is an emotional, not an intellectual concept.

[timabababaluka]

I'm going to have to adjust and get comfortable to the whoopie slings...have their ability DEMONSTRATED to me repeatedly so that I can learn to trust them...which is an emotional, not an intellectual concept.

Nothing AT ALL wrong with that. It is kind of a leap of faith (or rather a slow-easing-back-with-most-of-your-weight-still-on-your-legs of faith). I remember sitting back and thinking, "This better not be one of the world's most un-funny practical jokes." It wasn't, but there are still a lot of things that can go wrong with whoopies if you aren't careful in your set-up and diligent in observing where the whoopies are in relation to your knot. Due to user error, I have been forcefully introduced to the ground with perfectly functional whoopies.

Caution is the better part of valor, so there's nothing wrong with taking your time to get acquainted with the whoopee sling. For me, it's worth it .

[pullarius]

I actually went through all kinds of suspensions in my head before I even hung for the first time (I must've watched Grizz's videos about 80 times). At first I was convinced that whoopies just weren't going to be my thing - one more datum in the information overload. However, by the time I finally got outside and got my hammock hung, I had already ordered some amsteel and spliced my own. I was more skeptical of the bury holding than the strength of the line itself. But, I figured if everyone else is doing it, it should be relatively well tested - I don't weigh all that much.

Some of my friends are skeptical of the whole hammock thing in general, but they've seen my hammock in action. And by now I've already accumulated a small amount of surplus gear . Hopefully I'll have a few converts in two weekends when we go for a short AT weekend hike.

[Beast 71]

I just tell people that amsteel is "Made by the elves.".