We’re all about “green” here (our name probably should be the “The Extreme Sustainability Underground”), so when somebody comes up with a harebrained use for bamboo (which grows really, really fast), we’re duty bound to report it.
That’s why these bamboo tent poles caught our eye – especially since they’re being aimed at the ultralight backpacking crowd, who – believe me – make fly fishermen look like dilettantes when it comes to gear.
From the Gear Junkie:
The plan is to bank on a bamboo variety called Tonkin cane, which is sometimes dubbed “steel bamboo†for its dense fibers and long sections between nodes. Working with an Alaskan fly rod maker, NEMO’s prototype poles — which I handled and flexed at a recent press meeting — click together like any typical tent pole and whisk into nylon sleeves to support a shelter that might be put to endure hurricane-force winds.
But initial tests at NEMO (www.nemoequipment.com) give bamboo a green light for its strength and performance under pressure. “The benefits of bamboo are that it is lightweight, flexible and highly elastic,†wrote Kate Ketschek, the company’s director of marketing, in an email interview. “Fishermen have been using bamboo for its strength and flexibility for over 100 years and NEMO believes that these benefits will correlate with the essential properties of tent poles.â€
Note the use of Tonkin Cane in the tent poles – the same bamboo used to make bamboo fly rods.
Note also the fact that the bamboo pieces are hollowbuilt, though I don’t know if they’ve got dams in them or are hollow from tip to butt.
See you setting up the tent, Tom Chandler
Bamboo is bloody amazing stuff.
As a living thing, it even multiplies by itself. No factories required*.
I’m amazed we still (in the West) don’t use it for more applications.
*then again, no jobs, either.
paul w(Quote)
Who you calling a “dilettante”? Watch it or I’m gonna tell mom you’re picking on me.
But I just wonder if these tent poles are going to cost a million dollars, the same as a bamboo rod, and take two years to from date of order to get them? And do you think these tent poles will come in different weights and actions?
“It looks like we’re going to have good weather, so I’m taking the 3 wt Light Flex poles.” versus “Might be a light snow, I’m taking the 8 wt Mid Flex poles on this trip.”
Smarter and Better Looking Brother(Quote)
This a very unique product.Now they need to figure out how to turn those tent poles into a fly pole when they’re not being used.
Jeff(Quote)
Harebrained. I’ll tell ya what’s harebrained: a bamboo rodmaker turning the attention of the big boys toward the small patch of Tonkin cane–the only one on the planet–in Guandong Province.
split-cane(Quote)
It’s bamboo, baby. Let’s call it green steel, eh?
Tom Chandler(Quote)
“Fly Pole”…yea right. Nailed that one.
samistopdog(Quote)
Will we have to call them cane tent rods?
And what if they take a set?
Jim Ferguson(Quote)