It came to the community’s attention that most weblocks, when tied-off to the point where no more slippage occurs, produce a specific friction pattern on the webbing inside the weblock.
The ISA Safety Commission and our Safety Partner Slacktivity have performed tests on these parts and found significant weakening of the webbing to the point where it is no longer safe to highline on.
All these webbings had in common that they were installed over a prolonged time (several months) in a intensively used freestyle highline setup. They were installed on the static side with a weblock tie-off. The webbing had not been changed or moved inside the weblock for a longer period of time.
We recommend that people with permarigs check, document and move their webbing every other month in order to prevent webbing damage or a full webbing failure!
You should still do proper weblock tie-offs, if not, they will slip and lead to a failure!
If you find damaged sections it would be nice if you could send us this webbing for testing.
