The Eureka Chrysalis Hammock

The Chrysalis Hammock Tent was born out of my own need for a more comfortable camping experience. When I bicycled from Vancouver back to my home in Tillsonburg, Ontario in 1968 at age 18 I could sleep comfortably on solid rock and sometimes did! By middle age however, camping on the ground meant discomfort, even agony at times. An enclosed hammock seemed the obvious solution to getting me off the hard ground and potentially provide much improved comfort too. So in 1993 I designed a simple enclosure for an “off-the-shelf” hammock, and tried it out in Algonquin Provincial Park (along with my dog inside too).

As it turns out, conventional hammocks aren’t nearly as comfortable as they look. Over the next several years I modified the design of the hammock to suspend the body in a much more comfortable position. The result is the (now patented) Helsdon Hammock that supports your body in a comfortable, level, body contoured position and is also much more stable than a regular hammock.

After getting the hammock just right, I spent even longer getting the enclosure just right too. I tried out a wide variety of prototypes for over ten years with the help of all the people I took on canoe trips in Northern Ontario, as well as at camp and in my backyard. In 1997, I partnered with Johnson Outdoors Canada to develop the Eureka Chrysalis Hammock Tent available today. It is much lighter and even more affordable than the “homemade” hammock tents I could offer myself.