Alpine WebLock 5 Tail Tie-off

Please note, there may be updates below. This page is in order from oldest to newest (top to bottom). Scroll down for updates.

What is happening with the Alpine WebLock 5 Tie-Off Method?

This is an update on the state of the Alpine WebLock 5 tail tie-off method that was described and suggested when the device was first released. We have found that under certain circumstances where the tail tie-off becomes very tight, trying to remove the carabiner can cause irreversible damage to the slackline webbing in the device.

As we have studied the problem in greater detail, we have found the following:

The top bar on the front becket has a very minor radius applied to it that is not quite substantial enough to prevent damage to webbing that becomes tight around it, which is the case for the previously recommended tail tie-off method.

The ratcheting of a carabiner while the webbing is tight within the tie-off rubs webbing on this less-than-favorable edge, causing damage to the fibers in contact with the edge. The tighter the webbing, the more exaggerated this damage can be.

We have found that this issue is the worst in the following situations:

- Highly dynamic highlines that see a LOT of oscillations (freestyle lines)

- Lines rigged on high tech webbing (Dyneema, Vectran, etc...)

- Lines that see a lot of highly dynamic events (leash falls)

- Very low tension lines rigged with low or lower stretch webbings

- Any line rigged and sessioned over multiple days

All of these things contribute a lot to how much a webbing slips inside of the weblock. The more slip there is, the more the tail tie-off will be loaded. The more the tail tie-off is loaded, the more force you will have to put into removing the carabiner. That force leads to the damage discussed above.

This flaw in the tie-off method is a big oversight on our part that has resulted in a few people to damage critical areas on some of their most important slackline webbing's. For that, we are deeply sorry. We hope that this updated method of webbing slippage mitigation will help prevent further webbing damage when using the AWL5.

Our updated tie-off method recommendation

As we have experienced issues using the carabiner tie-off method off of the front becket in the Alpine Weblock 5, we are moving back to using a knot for anti-slippage.

We recommend the use of a "Poppable Fishermans Knot", which is fancy way of tying a Double Fishermans knot around the weblock body that has the ability to be released under tension. You can see how to tie this knot in the above video.

We strongly recommend you use this method for the tie-off on your weblock 5.0 moving forward. We do not recommend using the carabiner method on the front becket any longer.

Our plan for a more robust testing protocol

During our preliminary tests with the previously recommended tie-off method, we never experienced a situation where the carabiner was exceedingly difficult to remove, even with hundreds of simulated leash falls. This tells us that we need a more robust and closer-to-real simulation of leash fall events to properly test these types of situations. We are working on a way to be able to do this in house in a repeatable manner.

If you have ideas on this front, we would absolutely love to hear from you. Please reach out to us at info@balancecommunity.com with any sort of ideas you have for this.