Hi all!
I decided to join this forum yesterday because I intend to use my hammock more.
Some background;
I'm an industrial engineer in daily life, designing the automation elements of bridges, locks and sluices wit System Engineering principles, or managing information security as CISO.
During the weekends (and often weekday evenings too) I do some volunteer work; I am a scouts leader for a group of 25 scouts aged 11-15, I do this every Saturday with 4 other leaders. Second thing I do to occupy my Saturdays is to provide swimming lessons to people with a mental disability, that's voluntary/charity work as well. I hope this will start up again soon, we aren't able to give swimming lessons since the pandemic hit.
How did I end up in a hammock?
part 1: "hammock = bad for your back"
When I was 16 my group had a summer camp where we either made simple individual shelters for the week or slept in hammocks. I figured hammocks would be bad for one's back (banana shape and all) so I opted for a shelter. The guy I made a shelter with was "not very good" at it so he got a shelter after 3 hours and I ultimately had to put my canvas/tarp next to someone's else's tarp, fold it back to the ground and sleep under that.
I was laying on top of a tree root, and as soon as it started to rain there was a big pool of water 5cm from my face. Needless to say I did not sleep at all, my back hurt a lot and my canvas was wasted.
Part 2: good to be proven wrong
Luckily there was a shop at this camp site, I went there, bought the cheapest hammock I could find and after some trouble I hung this between 2 trees. Guess what, I slept great for the rest of the week.
The next summers I used this hammock with very good results, but later on I became a leader of the girl cub scouts and there I could not use it.
However, during my study I lived in Sofia (BG) for half a year and when I entered my apartment for the first time I immediately saw 2 big hooks, across the room from eachother. Landlord used to have a hammock there.. So I asked the first friend who visited me to bring my hammock along.
The past 2 years I have been a scouts leader and there I can sleep in a my hammock once more. With 2 other leaders using a hammock this is quite nice. Three of us sleeping side by side, great success. Minus the wind, that's been the only issue we had. Oh and a leaking canvas/tarp once, but that is why you have some backup stuff.
However i noticed my hammock was falling apart so I treated myself with new gear. Got myself a lot of cool stuff, and I hope to find tips & tricks here, as well as a few people who'd like to go on a weekend trip or something like that.
Cheers
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