Five Basic Principles of Going Lighter (not me... the great Cam Honan of OZ)
“If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.” ~ Gen. George S Patton
I'm not an expert but I think the term assymetrical refers to the cut/design of the bugnet. If you unzip the bug net off the XLC, you have a simple, gathered end hammock. The hammock body/fabric is symmetrical about the ridge line. I toss and turn in my XLC. I'll start off head left, feet right, but I will often switch (I just neutral bias my underquilt). At o' dark thirty when I switch the opposite direction, I don't notice the spacing with the bugnet.
DH Sparrow, Chameleons, an assortment of 90* hammocks all symmetrical and although I have owned asyms I wouldn't even consider limiting my sleeping options with by owning another asym.
I also used to have a OneWind and flipped around a lot; I replaced it with a bridge, the Warbonnet Ridgerunner, which I love, and flip around all I want. But eventually for backpacking weight and volume purposes, I also went ahead and got a Warbonnet Blackbird, which is asym, and while I can deal with it for a few nights at a time, I gotta say, given a choice I'd prefer having a symmetrical again. Given your comments, I'd say you will likely be happier in a symmetrical; you can also get a TrailWinder UQ from Jared at Simply Light Designs which works like a Warbonnet Wookie UQ but is synthetic, and Jared can make it symmetrical for you if you want. So that would take all the fiddle factor out of the UQ issue, if you can deal with a little extra weight of symmetrical amounts of fill vs asym-- Jared's also started making add-on mods so you can get a lighter base quilt and add-on more fill for different seasons.
My wife can switch between head left and right in the middle of the night. I feel like I'm about to fall out of the hammock if I lay head right. To each their own.
An asymmetrical hammock is all about the attached bugnet. Different cuts allow for options around your head or your feet, which then makes it a hammock with distinct ends for head and feet, and therefore, asymmetrical. In general, the lay is not different, just not switchable.
I like a netless hammock which is always symmetrical (with very few exceptions). Not to be confused with an asymmetrical hammock with the net unzipped and removed, which I found out affected how I laid in it (not the lay itself).
"I wonder if anyone else has an ear so tuned and sharpened as I have, to detect the music, not of the spheres, but of earth, subtleties of major and minor chord that the wind strikes upon the tree branches. Have you ever heard the earth breathe... ?"
- Kate Chopin
One of the main reasons the WBBB and WBBB XL are so popular is that fact that they have that nice footbox which gives you an automatic asymmetrical lay. I have three and personally like them so much I don't think I could go back to a symmetrical. I have several symmetrical hammocks that just collect dust and I don't remember how many I have sold since getting a warbonnet. But as Shug would say, my opinion differing from yours does not mean yours is wrong (or something like that).
Five Basic Principles of Going Lighter (not me... the great Cam Honan of OZ)
“If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.” ~ Gen. George S Patton
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