I have had some great experiences since finding this crazy place. Great experiences out in the creation. Great experiences with new friends. And great experiences with some of the friendliest business people I've ever dealt with.

I bought an Incubator from Adam and Jenny a couple of years ago. I was having trouble with a little CBS, and Adam was fiddling with designs, so HE contacted me, and asked me to send my Incubator back. He was "upgrading" me to a new prototype Incubator. He didn't have to do that. I've never had CBS since. I'll always buy from Hammock Gear.

Well... I'm a believer in Tree to Tree Trail Gear and the hammocks that those boys make. Hammocks are as individual as people, and some of the other, more popular hammocks just didn't work for me. It took one time in my Light Hiker to know I'd found a great fit. It's still my favorite hammock. When Dale announced a 1.1 dbl Switchback, I immediately grabbed one of those too. I wanted to try a netless hammock, so when they became available I bought a 1.9 SL netless Switchback to finish the TtTTG collection.

When the WL Lite Owl came out, I grabbed one of those just to try something different. I liked it well enough that I could let my netless Switchback go. Here is where the story begins. Quite an introduction.

I took the netless Switchback to the fall Texas hand at Fairfield this last November, and A LOT of people gave it a test drive. Enter USER ERROR. Without naming any names, I let some try it out that probably tested the limits of the hammock. It never seemed to budge - bombproof. Alas, no one wanted to buy it. That really isn't bad news. I'd just try to sell it here on the forums, or just keep it. You can't have too many hammocks.

Enter USER ERROR again. I listed the hammock and HobieCat did his best to whittle me down on price, but finally gave in. I sent it, and he said "Shane, this thing has issues." I said "Send it back." No harm no foul. I should have looked over it before I listed it. Turns out the hammock had a spot on one of the sewn channels where it had been stressed and, for lack of a better work, ripped.

Enter Dale @ TtTTG. I contacted Dale about a possible repair of the hammock. I explained that in no uncertain terms, the cause of the damage to the hammock was user error - too much load. Dale said "Send it back and I'll just send you a new one." Whoa. I tried again. "Hey Dale, what about I pay for a simple modification? Cut off the damaged end, re-sew the channel, and it'll just be a netless SL Light Hiker?" Dale just said "Let me send you a new one."

Today, when I got home from work, a package was waiting from Dale. It's a brand new 1.9SL netless Switchback. Dale's only request was that I pay it forward someday. I'm still trying to figure out how best to do that. I just wanted to take a couple of minutes to post this here. Some already know about Tree to Tree and how they go out of their way for their customers. This is for those of you that don't. Businesses just don't take care of customers this way any more.

Dale, you have a customer for life, or for as long as you are in business. Thanks buddy. I hope I get a chance to hang with you some day.