What made you a "hanger"?

[gingercooks]

Some of my friends run an ecig business that sets up booths in music festivals which is how they got turned on to hanging and then later when they came out to camp on my family farm they brought their hammocks along to show everyone and I was pretty much hooked immediately. Even more so after doing some googling and watching all of Shug's videos.

[_Blue_]

I have been noticing, especially on this forum but also on general hiking forums, there have been several new "hangers" popping up and introducing themselves. Out of sheer curiosity, I wanted to ask all of you fine new hangers exaclty how/when/why you first decided to give hammocks a try?
Is it something you saw in a magazine ad? Is it something you saw on the trail? Or was it something your friends talk about?

I first started seriously considering hammocks after searching for DIY quilt instructions, when I came across Just Jeff's site. I soon realized that if I can sleep under a tarp on the ground, I can do it above the ground.
the rest is history! (thanks, Jeff!)

so, how'd you learn the ways of the Ewok?

I honestly can't remember exactly...I think it may have been an online advertisement. But I remember being very intrigued and considered delving into the hammock world risky for some reason. But, I took the plunge.

Then, the first thing I noticed was how well I slept in the hammock on the trail! I was sold.

Since then, everything about hammocking has made my trail life more enjoyable. I like the better sleep, being off the ground, playing around with tarps, trying new knots, suspension systems, the sense of liberation a hammock can give... etc.

[Detman101]

Bushcrafting videos on YouTube clued me in to hammock camping. I bought my first hammock April of 2014...a grand trunk SBP. I took my lunch break and went to the local lake to try it out.
I've been taking my lunch breaks at the lake in my skeeter beater almost every day (if I'm not hiking at lunch) since. I upgraded to a WBBB recently, but I don't ever see myself using a tent again.
Like...ever.
I'm even putting together a pole system so I can use my ground sheet, WBBB, inflatable pad and tarp for a bivy setup when there are no trees around.

[accrete]

( ; My wife dragged me into it ; )
Really.
During a shopping spree at REI she _had_ to get an ENO SN... a month later she is researching others. About two weeks after that and we are purchasing a Hennessy Expedition for her. Of course at that point I could not go without one of my own. So doing some research I believed a WBBB would be a good fit for me and ordered it. We are hooked. Our van conversion's bed is not hearing many zzzzz's out of us these nights!

Thom

[ellisfamilyokc]

After 3 of five nights at my son's BSA camp in southeast Oklahoma, I was sick of cooking in the heavy canvas tents. The store at the camp had a hammock for sale and I spent the next two nights getting the best sleep of my life.

[RichardJ]

My daughter bought a ENO Doublenest and brought it on our day hikes. I was amazed how quick and easy she would set it up for sitting or lounging around on breaks. I always thought I would hate hammocks and was surprised how comfortable I was in hers. Soon after I got a Hennessy and we hammocked over snow on a steep slope. Very comfortable and easy. I loved it.

[KBr00ks]

Hello!

I first encountered "serious" hammocks, Mayan style, on a college trip to Belize in the mid-'90s. While there I bought a beautiful and durable canvas hammock as a gift for my then-boyfriend, who didn't own a bed. Hindsight is 20/20 -- I should have kept the hammock and ditched the boyfriend.

Fast-forward 10 years... at a mountain bike event in New England, Treehugger was displaying their hammocks. I bought a single and used it the rest of that weekend, hanging dry and comfy under the big festival tent while everyone else got soggy. I did not understand, however, that this modern hammock need not be ultra-wide to accommodate laying off-axis in it, and thus was experiencing the folded-up sort of position -- not all that comfortable. But I kept it just in case the right camping situation cropped up again.

Fast-forward another 10 years, to last summer... I was aiming to do some bikepacking and thinking about the smallest and lightest setup I could muster without spending a lot of money. A bivy was not appealing, as I had witnessed the ziploc-bag condensation effect. I remembered my Treehugger hammock, dug it out, and started doing some research. From this site and others I learned the correct way to hang. I acquired an ENO tarp and made a bugnet out of some old sheer curtains. Success! My setup was reasonably light and small, and SO comfortable. The off-axis orientation is so key and something that is apparently not widely shared...

Funny, the ENO hammocks I'm starting to see everywhere look like a direct ripoff of the US-made Treehuggers. But maybe all the similar cottage brands resemble this style...? I've only ever seen Hennesy A-Sym style ones in comparison.

Now I'm getting into lighter weight bits of kit and looking at possible mods and other DIY projects. Part of the fun for sure.

[Mellob]

After a couple of horrible nights on the trail in a tent, I decided that I would would check out a hammock. My wife bought me an ENO DNDeluxe for xmas that year and I have never looked back. Between me and her we have 8 hammocks (2 of which are Mayan hammocks from Merida, Mexico - if you have never been, GO!). I have also converted a couple of (older, like myself) backpacking friends to the dark side as well. With the help of this forum, other hanging sites, and, of course, YouTube I am continuing to refine my setup to the lightest and most comfortable that I can afford.

[Norshorguy]

I'm definitely new. This is my first full season of hanging. What got me into the hammock was a combination of a back injury and the rooty, rocky and uneven campsites on the SHT and BWCA. The final push came from watching Shug's videos and seeing him have fun in places that I regularly frequent. I now sleep well, usually.

[Wookus]

The final push came from watching Shug's videos...

I've got a feeling that's a line I'd see a whole bunch of if I went back through the almost 200 pages before this one, and I'm about to give it a +1.

I've been getting back into the whole outdoors scene over the last year or so and it was time to turn my day pack into an overnight pack... hammocks stood out for all kinds of obvious reasons, I'm sure I don't need to preach to the choir on that one! But the big pushes for me were the way the community here has every little detail worked out to a science (pushing towards an art) and Shug's vids with him having so much fun demystifying it all. Between all that I was sold!

That and I'm just getting too old for every camping story to somehow have a root/rock/flood making a guest appearance somewhere along the way.

I've seen a lot of people talking about the comfort of hammocks and the utility of hammocks, but for me the personality of them were a big deal too. With so many options, preferences and different ways of doing pretty much everything around here there's this individualism to hammocking that beats traditional camping hands down. How to set up a tent or lay out a sleeping bag aren't long conversations, I don't care how LNT you want to get with it. On the other hand, "how do you set up your hammock" seems like the kind of conversation that can go on for a while and manage to always stay fresh.