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  1. #1
    Senior Member
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    Apr 2013
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    Portland, OR
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    Forum "elders" hammockbiographies?

    Thanks to this forum, I have gotten more and more into hammock camping and now DIY projects, and it has been great. However, I sometimes find myself reinventing the wheel or making mistakes that I later discover had been talked about in some thread I hadn't seen. There is an amazing amount of knowledge and information here, but there is so much activity that sorting through it could take a very long time. Stickies help, but even reading all of the 47 stickies is a pretty hefty time commitment. Some threads, like the mini-spreader bar thread, could literally take hours to read through, only to find that many people eventually gave up on the idea for various reasons or for particular purposes – and sometimes you don't find out what all the participants concluded or why.

    My thought is that it would be tremendously helpful to have the "elders" of the forum – i.e., experienced, knowledgeable, skilled members – give hammockbiographies. This would be their story of hammock exploration. The emphasis would be on what they have tried (buying, making, techniques, etc.), what worked for them or didn't and why, what they settled on for the present, etc. It might include relevant personal info, for example: "I moved into a tiny apartment and decided to sleep in a hammock to save space, and these were the things I learned/developed as a result. Later I got into ultralight backpacking, and these were the things I learned/developed that did or didn't apply from my apartment hammock". Reasons for (for example) moving from bridge hammock to gathered-end (or vice-versa) could be widely applicable or very person-specific, and the hammockbiography could help differentiate them. "As I gained/lost weight, got older, developed a medical condition, etc. this became more comfortable or more practical than that."

    For active forum elders, their hammockbiography might be like a high-level summary of their forum postings over the years, but hopefully with some context and perspective about what they were doing and thinking at the time and the eventual outcome.

    And it would be awesome if the final section of the hammockbiography was a list of things that the elder now knows (or believes) that they wish they had known sooner, the setup they settled on (for now?), and what they are still wanting/trying/dissatisfied with.

    I can imagine a hammockbiography being a few lines or "War and Peace"-sized; that, of course, would be up to the elder writing it.

  2. #2
    Senior Member Bubba's Avatar
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    May 2010
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    SW Ontario, Canada
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    Interesting idea especially from the perpsective of finding out more about some people here which I find kind of nice. It puts more of a face to the name so to speak.
    Last edited by Bubba; 06-25-2014 at 11:54.
    Don't let life get in the way of living.

  3. #3
    Senior Member WV's Avatar
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    Yeah, I'd like to find out what those old guys know. It could save me a lot of time thinking.

  4. #4
    SilvrSurfr's Avatar
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    Jul 2011
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    Jersey Shore, NJ
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    Dutch PolyD
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    Sounds like a homework assignment. Any chance you're one of my old teachers?
    "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Ralph Waldo Emerson

  5. #5
    Senior Member MAD777's Avatar
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    May 2009
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    White Mountains, New Hampshire
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    Quote Originally Posted by WV View Post
    Yeah, I'd like to find out what those old guys know. It could save me a lot of time thinking.
    Ha! I choked on this one WV!
    Mike
    "Life is a Project!"

  6. #6
    Senior Member
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    Portland, OR
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    I would like to point out that I explicitly defined "elders" as "experienced, knowledgeable, skilled members". If the elders are coincidentally predominantly youth-challenged, it surely only points to the wisdom that comes with age. Or the free time that comes with retirement?

    Seriously, I know this would require effort on your part. However, I believe it would make the valuable contributions you have already made to this community accessible to many more of us, for which we would be eternally grateful. (How's that for sucking up?)

  7. #7
    Senior Member lazy river road's Avatar
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    Sep 2009
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    Baltimore, MD
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    I like the logice behind the idea. The more experienced forum members have and continue to teach me so much but the majority of my learning is from reading a bit trying it out at a group hang trying it out on my own on the trail and reading more tweaking ideas trying it again at a group hang and then on my own and on and on and on it goes. There are also so many variables like weather conditions and temperature and region of the country I'd have to write a thesis and by the time I was done writing I'd have to edit and include all the new ideas I learned tried and tweaked. Best way to learn is to attend a group hang and gets to talking with people's like WV and some of the more experienced hangers.
    Sometimes I like to hike and think, And sometimes I just like to hike.

    Hiking is'ent about waiting for the storm to pass its about learning to hike in the rain.

  8. #8
    Senior Member
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    May 2011
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    Maryland
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    Heck, I'd settle for just hearing what WV has forgot.

  9. #9
    Senior Member Zilla's Avatar
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    Jun 2013
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    Quote Originally Posted by MAD777 View Post
    Ha! I choked on this one WV!
    Right !!!!!

  10. #10
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    Martinsville, VA
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    eno single
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    I log about 18 trips a year

    I got into hammocks about 7 years ago when I kept hearing about "The Dark Side" on Whiteblaze. Our scout troop were about to go on a lightweight backpacking trip and wanted to give it a try.

    I bought an ENO singlenest and tried to hang in my front yard by ropes from trees that were about 40' apart. I had it about five feet off of the ground and stretched piano string tight. I got in and sank to the ground. That's when I went back to the store to by the slap straps which I didn't get before, thinking them unnecessary and for people who didn't know knots. This sent me into a different part of the yard to find "The Right Trees" which was a disappointment because I wanted to hang by the road.

    Some more research and I felt I was ready to go. I didn't have a real tarp, but had a 9x6 nylon tarp that I took.

    First trip:
    Eno Single
    9x6 tarp
    slap straps
    ridge rest pad
    sleeping bag.

    And the trip went great. We had some rain, and the ends got a little wet, but I was very happy. I have not been to ground since.

    Since then, I added a Hexfly, my first and only which I still use.
    I replaced the carabiners on the ENO with Oz. Biners.
    I replaced the slap straps with a Whoopie/Tree Hugger combo suspension.
    I replaced the Ridge rest with an Incubator. This was really the best refinement to my system and made me fall in love with hammocks all over again.
    I removed the heavy black knotted cord on the Eno gathers with dog bones
    I started sleeping with my sleeping bag as a topquilt. This was the second best refinement I made.

    Now I am happy as I can be with my system and probably won't change it, aside from modding my sleeping bag and replacing anything that fails. Once I hit that point, I probably stopped looking for innovation and visited here less. But I can setup blindfolded.

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