Maybe I've been doing this long enough that it is just old hat or maybe I've forgotten how strange and amazing the hammock world we, at least the hammock world the majority of this forum lives in, really is.
I have a guy from my church. He is a casual friend. His son is best friends with my son. He tells me that he and another guy are going to Colorado in a few weeks and he wants to know if I can loan him some hammock stuff to use while there. He has no idea what he needs, but he does state that his friend has experience with hammocks and has for some time.
So I loan him my HH Exped, a hex tarp and all the suspension bits and bobs he needs. He comes to my home to pick it up. I give him a quick walk through of the suspension hook up (hammock anchors) and the tarp and have him lay in my sons hammock to see how to lay on the diagonal and how a hammock feels. I ask again about his friend having hammock experience. He's all good and takes the stuff. I recommend that he try setting it up a few times before they leave just to be sure he is familiar enough with the where and the how of it all before he gets to CO. That was Thursday last week. He calls me Sunday afternoon to ask again how it all goes together. I drive to his shop and walk him through again. He describe my set up to his friend and he tapped out in about three seconds saying it was more complicated than the set up he has. I still don't know what his friend is using but I suspect it to be of the ENO ilk or some variant thereof.
I honestly didn't have that much of a learning curve when I started all this hammock stuff. It just clicked for me. Doesn't make me better or more gifted. It just was what it was and I got it intuitively. I've sewed my own hammock, designed a hammock, modified an existing hammock three different times in three different ways and designed my own tarp. That is a small level of success but I have failed in another way. I forgot that sometimes, things just aren't that easy. I need to learn how to describe it more succinctly, more clearly, and get the terms we use so flippantly out of the way. I'm not a "pro" nor do I claim to be one. I'm just a little further down the road than some others. A little longer in the tooth as they say.
I want to apologize to all the new hammock folks out there. I need to up my game to help others enjoy and grow in this very blissful world of hammocks. Here's hoping I can do that in the very near future.
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