DD Hammocks DD Tarp 3x3 MC

The best purchase I made in years...

DD tarp MC from DD Hammocks

I’ve owned several tents, from a heavy duty Albatros, a durable Dutch cotton tent to super lightweight one-roofed fancy but expensive hiking gear from MSR—until I came upon some YouTube videos about tarps and a huge amount of different ways to set them up. Some hilariously difficult, but most of them super fast, versatile, and handy.

I fell in love with the idea, so the Big Search began. Reading reviews, learning about materials, searching for non-addressed solutions like bug control, very stormy or snowy conditions etc. It had to be stealthy. I bought a very cheap pvc tarp, very ugly two colors, green and blue, with twenty steel eyelets to try and play with the setups. Don’t go there. It is bulky, the eyelets tear out easily,  makes lots of noise, and smells like petrol.

Then I found the DD tarp MC from DD Hammocks. A multicolour camo tarp, 10 x 10 feet, several rows of sewed on straps, good reviews, and fairly priced at €55. It is a polyester tarp with a special coating to endure 3000mm water pressure. The 19 canvas loops are strong enough to withstand storm winds and the seams are taped.

Several years back I accidentally punctured the tarp with an arrow. I never did a decent repair, other than a piece of Gorilla Tape (which is also good stuff and mine has also a camo color) but is not forever (I thought). It sits for seven years now and never teared out.

It is really absurd how many types of shelter one can create in minutes, on one or more trees, a roof from a shed, walking sticks (I carry two telescopic ones), even folded in two it is a fast poncho-like solution over your backpack and yourself or even two people, if surprised by heavy weather. I prefer a triangle roof with the backside closed, a small strip for my sleeping bag, and three open sides. If you wake up by animal noise, you don’t have to make a lot of noise yourself to open your shelter

Con is, to be honest, animals find an easy shelter too. So in my case a few toads, a dutch brown snake, and a Swedish lynx, mosquitos and crickets, name it and you get them in. It is preferred to make use of some kind of net. I’m also a beekeeper and my beekeepers hat is always in the neighbourhood.

I changed the standard pins to MSR Groundhog Stakes, expensive but very durable, and have lots of heavy duty 4mm paracord.

Background

This is my first and only tarp untill now. Eight years in a row backpacking and canoeing in Sweden, for 32-40 weeks and several thousands of miles self supporting, fishing, hunting, and collecting food from nature. Lots of rocky circumstances.