Paging all sages of Hammock Forums. Looking for a history lesson/discussion.

[2ply]

I've been a member from the first week we made the change over from White Blaze. I had an old Army surplus hammock that finally bit the dust in the 80's. Around 1995 I was looking to replace a tent and remembered the comfort of my old hammock and started looking at what was out there. I had looked at the Hennessy but liked the features and entry of the Clark better and went with their North American model. From the Clark website Gary gives this info.

beginning in the 1960s when Gary Clark produced the world's first light-weight camping hammock in his Salt Lake tent shop.

[SGT Rock]

Great memoir, Rock. Thanks.

I don't recall exactly when I decided to get off the ground again. Maybe it was 2002 or 2003. I had used a jungle hammock as a kid in the 50s. I found the Yahoo HammockCamping group, and learned most of the basics from Ed Speer and Youngblood. I bought a discounted Hennessey Hammock for $50 (the only camping hammock I have ever purchased, though there are more out there now that I'd like to try). It was an early model they had on sale because they had just switched to asym tieouts and bugnet. I found a place called Quest Outfitters, and asked Kay what fabric people were buying for hammocks. She said Ed Speer bought Supplex nylon, so I got some of that for my first insulated hammocks. I later found out that Ed used Supplex for his "heavyweight" hammocks, and I could have used a lighter fabric. Supplex feels great, though, and it's tough enough to withstand dog toenails. I converted an early insulated hammock to a dog hammock. I also made these hammocks adjustable by cutting off all the fabric that wasn't touching me and replacing it with lots of small whoopie slings - about 20 on each end of the hammock. I used bungee cord for the strings at the edges so they would hold the foot end up to keep my top quilt from sliding out, but still let the side of the hammock stretch under my knees when I sat in it. A couple of years later, in a 3-way PM conversation with Dutch and Knotty we were talking about floppy hammock edges and tight hammock edges, and I told Knotty to try my side-stretch on a regular gathered end hammock. He engineered it to perfection, and it took off. I took my first right-angle hammock to the Mt. Rogers winter hang around 2012, I think. It was a year or two before Exped introduced the Ergo. I didn't sleep in the right-angle hammock, though, as it wasn't insulated. I was using my old Supplex insulated hammock inside a hammock sock-tent with an additional insulated pod-like cover. I still use that for very cold weather. The tarp design for that setup was based on an asym rectangle with triangular additions on all four edges. I used the same design for a summer tarp, too, and I recall one guy at Ed Speer's Hot Springs Hang who asked a lot of intelligent questions about it. Afterwards, a bit embarassed, I asked one of the guys there who I had just been talking to. He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "That was Sgt. Rock."

I remember that hang. You were the first person I talked to who had any practical experience with Cuben Fiber. That was when I had decided to take "The Five Pound Challenge" and be the first nutbag to do it with a hammock. That year it didn't have a cuben fiber tarp (used a Warbonnet Spinn Tarp) and a Nano hammock (which was the first one I had ever used with a line through the gathered end. But soon after that I learned what I wanted and I made my Cuben Fiber tarp (with consults from you on things) and made my first footbox, all with help from a few members here at HF and came up with the 1 pound hammock system. That is when I also talked to Mac about the IX insulation.

[OutandBack]

Sgt rock- great write up full of info, as a relatively new guy with 3 yrs here and backpacking in general, I appreciate all you did for the sake of others. Both professional and personal. Like your videos straight and to the point...very interesting read..thanks

My sentiment as well mountainhanger.

Thank you SGT Rock that was a good read and I did learn quite alot.

[SGT Rock]

I tell you what is truly humbling: When people say something like you guys have about how I influenced you in your hammocking experienced. To you guys all I can say is thank you for not holding my early idiotic ideas and tips against me LOL.

Years ago when I started doing this I never realized what an impact I would have. I was just trying to find a solution for what I wanted out of my backpacking camping experience. When I decided to go hammock I had no idea where it would lead. And when I wrote about it I just wanted to be honest about what was and what wasn't working for me.

Today there is a wide base of good places to learn about hammocks and share ideas which creates good synergy and I read comments here about other innovators like Just Jeff, WV, Dutch, Derek Hanson, Professor Hammock, Shug, Paul Gibson, and many others I am sure I am unintentionally slighting by not mentioning them. I don't hear my name so much anymore because at a certain point there came a time when I was no longer as relevant as these new guys. I thank God that we have this base, as I recently said in another thread that I constantly learn stuff even though I was around pretty much since the beginning of the modern hammock age. I don't know that I have ever invented or innovated anything myself, I just look around for solutions to issues I face in the next challenge and see what is here that might fit the bill. I also wish I could have continued the Ultralight Hangs, that was a great place to see what other people are using and maybe someone with more time can start that back up again and I would love to be just another random hanger there looking around at the other rigs.

[arczeneb]

I don't hear my name so much anymore because at a certain point there came a time when I was no longer as relevant as these new guys.

My not here your name but you are relevant Around the Campfire member 2003 a lot of info hikinghq. Shows how it was back in the day. Very helpful.
Thanks SGT. Rock

[SGT Rock]

Thanks man

[nothermark]

I can remember reading Sgt Rocks web page for tips back when he was a Hennessy guru. ;-) Didn't he do a big or heavier duty one for you when you were on tour?

[SGT Rock]

I can remember reading Sgt Rocks web page for tips back when he was a Hennessy guru. ;-) Didn't he do a big or heavier duty one for you when you were on tour?

In 2002 (I think it was) he sent me a heavy duty hammock to test as a continuation of the evaluation for military contract/AAFES, I think that was a military version of the Safari hammock. In 2003 he sent me a coyote brown ultralight asym to Iraq as that is the one I like the most at the time of the ones he sold, and I found coyote brown one of the best color options for fitting into a variety of foliage. In 2003 I was lucky enough at the end of the invasion to end up in a camp where there was a small eucalyptus grove inside my troop AO and I was able to hang there. I literally lived in it for 6 months through the hottest part of the summer until the winter (which isn't that cold there) and monsoon season which was an eye opener when I woke up to find myself suspended over a small pond one morning. I had to create a cargo pallet boardwalk out to my hammock LOL. In 2006 when I went back over I was given a desert cammo Safari to use, but I didn't have the luxury of a good place to hang and by then they had us some air conditioned huts to live in, so that was preferable to sleeping out in the heat and risk getting hit by random fire and incoming artillery.

True story: In 2003 we had a bad time in Sadyr City and things were very tense as we staged for possible action against insurgents. Sometime after midnight it was looking like nothing was going to come of it and I told my guys I was going to go lie down and get a short nap before sun up. One of our artillery units was laid on for a fire mission that we were on hold to shoot. Sometime after I laid down I heard a series of booms and thought: "If How Battery was going to shoot an outgoing mission I wish they would call and say so". About a second after I thought that I realized that if How Battery was going to shoot an outgoing mission they would have said something... this was incoming! I tried to get out that hammock faster than was humanly possible and ended up sticking my arm through the bug net trying to get out - the only time I have ever had a Hennessy bug net not hold up to use. I sewed it back shut later. My oldest son still uses that hammock to this day and likes to point out the hole in the net.

[UncleMJM]

This is an interesting discussion, I don't know who was first on a lot of this stuff, but I can reminisce about how I remember the evolution of hammocking.

Great posts SGT Rock! As I reminisce, I'm reminded of my very early hammock info coming from Around The Campfire and JustJeff's page.

This weekend is my 10th anniversary of joining Whiteblaze, my time flies. Anyway, my first hammock was a "test hammock" off of IMRISK's site. It wasn't long before my Hennessey purchase at REI, (so I could return it if it didn't work out), and from there, I can't recall how many hammocks I've made or purchased, but there have been a few.

I've been a member from the first week we made the change over from White Blaze.

Mine is a similar story. Hammock forums started in October of 2006 and I recall reading about the kickoff on Whiteblaze and joined from the start. I've sure learned a ton and developed some friendships around campfires that never would have happened without having met here.

Thanks for the stimulus for a trip down memory lane.

[SGT Rock]

Great posts SGT Rock! As I reminisce, I'm reminded of my very early hammock info coming from Around The Campfire and JustJeff's page.

This weekend is my 10th anniversary of joining Whiteblaze, my time flies. Anyway, my first hammock was a "test hammock" off of IMRISK's site. It wasn't long before my Hennessey purchase at REI, (so I could return it if it didn't work out), and from there, I can't recall how many hammocks I've made or purchased, but there have been a few.



Mine is a similar story. Hammock forums started in October of 2006 and I recall reading about the kickoff on Whiteblaze and joined from the start. I've sure learned a ton and developed some friendships around campfires that never would have happened without having met here.

Thanks for the stimulus for a trip down memory lane.

How could I forget IMRISK?