THE WATER BOWLINE

Due to the fact that I was never into bowline’s I always found them difficult to tie first go – which is a bit off putting if you’re taking a novice climbing, as you have to have several goes at tying them in correctly (“don’t worry, I’ll get it this time”). The bowline is a very useful knot, in that it can be adjusted very easily, making it a perfect knot for tying into belays with (instead of clipping in with a krab). It’s also a compact knot and easy to tie and untie – maybe a little too easy sometimes! Luckily for me I found an alternative in the water bowline and infinitely better knot in many ways especially if you’re bowline challenged. With this knot instead of making a loop into which the rabbit runs, you tie a clove hitch, and the rope just goes through it, around the rope, and back through. Once pulled tight the knot is very solid and secure – much more so them a trad Bowline, and is almost impossible to tie incorrectly. My main use for this knot is for tying back into belays, and it works well with a bite of rope just as well as a single strand – being easily adjustable (unlike a double backed figure of eight) and quick to untie.

UPDATE:

Andy, you need to really slow down and LEARN your knots! --to wit, you write"

"THE WATER BOWLINE Due to the fact that I was never into bowline’s I always found them difficult to tie first go – which is a bit off putting if you’re taking a novice climbing, as you have to have several goes at tying them in correctly (“don’t worry, I’ll get it this time”) . . . and it works well with a bite of rope just as well as a single strand – being easily adjustable (unlike a double backed figure of eight) and quick to untie."

Firstly, that part of rope referred to in knots is "bight", not "bite". Now, you show not the Water Bowline but rather a non-bowline knot tied through the Clove hitch in the opposite way--collaring the wrong end, i.e.. And your variation will jam on a hard load, precisely what the Water Bowline was allegedly designed to prevent (there is some question as to the real history of this--and maybe most(!)--knot); note that the in the older images for this knot, the clove hitch aspect doesn't obtain: the 2 Half-hitch/turns are spaced apart.

Learning how to tie a bowline in the one-handed way should help avoid some of the orientation problems found in mis-remembering the rabbit, hole, & tree way--although this latter way better presents the *structure* of the knot, visually.

You can find a single bowline in the bight on this here.

along with some other ideas. The particular SBBight is more easily remembered by starting with a Clove oreintation (but that hadn't occurred to me at the time of the illustration).

Let me suggest a bowline variation using the Clove (better, the Cow/Girth/LarksHEAD (kill "l-foot"!) as a start: form the said hitch (around air/fingers), and then do the rabbit-hole-tree threading on BOTH SIDES of it (but, please, go through in the right orientation, entering the hitch on the side away from the mainline!). This structure can be left relatively loose, but isn't going to shake looser very easily (and has some *give* even if it does let the end slip out of the final tuck). Call the Cow version "Mirrored Bowlines", for that's what it's like--having a mirror as a perpendicular plane to the trad. bowline. Conceivably, the link between the two like halves could be used as an eye/loop, too.

Cheers, --dl*

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