Comprehensive chronology of modern hammock camping innovations?

[jhawk]

Greetings! I am absolutely fascinated with all the comforts and innovations that comprise my current hammock sleep system, and I'm really curious as to where I could find out the sequence of events that have led to the current state of camping hammocks.

That is, things like the origin of an integrated bug net, evolution of materials (fabrics, webbing, dyneema, etc.), inclusion of structural ridgelines/continuous loops, ridgeline organizers and peak bags, changes to suspension, asymmetrical designs, modular/convertible designs, creation of the underquilt (and what old standards were eliminated by these), etc.

Thus far, I've read The Ultimate Hang by Derek Hansen, and I absolutely LOVED it, and I also love the Hang Your Own Hang podcast for this very reason, but I would love even more in-depth information in this area if it's available.

If there's a book or anything out there that has this kind of timeline and identification of key innovations, and especially stories told directly by some of these key players, that would be a dream.

Does any such book yet exist? Sorry if this is a question with a very simple answer - there's only so much searching you can do before it's just faster to ask the experts!

Thanks in advance for any recommendations! Cheers!

[DannyII]

In the beginning
Back in BC nineteen fifty-five
Mayans knew about hammocks, but not 'bout tarps, and all that jive
The Hansen man had the book
The Shug man had the videos
No one knew what they was gonna do
But Dutch had the news
He said

Let there be bling
There was bling
Let there be Flyz
There was Flyz
Let there be Whoopie hooks
There was Whoopie hooks
Let there be StingerZ
There was StingerZ
Oh, Let there be hammocks!

[dakotaross]

There is something on HF somewhere, but I'm lousy at searching those things out. I can only tell you that when I started in late 2005, there was a very healthy cottage industry already. Folks like JRB, OES and Speer to name a few were making basically the same products you see today. Since that time, there has been a lot of little innovations here and there, very significant ones, but pretty much it was all there before.

[sidneyhornblower]

Check out tothewoods.net or search for Just Jeff's hammock page. While it's not exactly the chronology you seek, it does have a lot of that type of info simply because it's not being updated. In effect it's like a snapshot from ten years ago. I love reading it and hope it stays just the way it is.

[TallPaul]

OutandBack has a thread on this. But searching in TapaTalk isn't the easiest.

Found it

https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/...son-discussion

[GilligansWorld]

Check out tothewoods.net or search for Just Jeff's hammock page. While it's not exactly the chronology you seek, it does have a lot of that type of info simply because it's not being updated. In effect it's like a snapshot from ten years ago. I love reading it and hope it stays just the way it is.

Yep was just looking at some of this stuff today - Wow I thought I was the only weird one wanting to know what happened when and what to led to what. He has a TON OF STUFF so be prepared to loose some time

[jhawk]

Awesome! Thanks for all the replied, everyone. This all looks great!

[OCDave]

Tom Hennessy's story https://hennessyhammock.com/pages/tom-s-story#
HYOH Podcast does a great job finding pioneers of this hobby http://www.hyohpodcast.com/
Jacks R Better has an interesting history http://www.jacksrbetter.com/about-us/

Or just spend time here: hammockforums.net

Good Luck

[gargoyle]

Ed Speer was a true innovator in what we know as modern hammocks, and a driving force that brought hammocks out of the backyards and into backpacks.
He published the first book, in 2003. That may the first comprehensive gathering of how-to hammock tech?

Lots of changes in gear have been made in hammockland since the book was published. New materials, new techniques, new doo-dads.
Still a lot of practical use tips and tricks.

https://www.amazon.com/Hammock-Campi.../dp/0971859442