The Water Knot (also known as Ring Bend, Grass Knot, or Overhand Follow-through) is a MUST-KNOW knot in canyoneering.  It’s primarily used to join one end of webbing to the other end, whether you are using a single piece of webbing or two pieces.  Since webbing is a staple in canyoneering, you’ll be using this knot a lot, so get used to it.

When you come across a cliff or drop that requires rappelling, you’ll tie your webbing around natural anchors (rocks, trees, boulders) or man-made anchors (bolts) using the Water Knot.  However, always check your knots – canyon conditions do change, and the webbing can get brittle from sun exposure or waterlogged from flashfloods or constant rain.  Look for cuts, abrasions, discoloration, and ensure the tails of the webbing strands are at LEAST 3 inches long.

The Water Knot is quite simple to tie and everyone in your group should know how to tie this.

Pros:

• Highly effective for joining webbing; ideal for anchors in canyoneering.

• It is safe to rappel on!

• t is easily identifiable by most canyoneers.

Cons:

• Requires careful dressing and sufficient tails of a minimum of 3” in length

• It is said about the knot that after each rappel, the tail becomes a little shorter.

• Eventually it will need to be retied (which is okay!)

• Hard to untie. If you are having to untie it, using a knife to cut the webbing maybe be faster.

Caution:

• Leave three inches of tail on both strands of the water knot.  Any more than 6 inches is unnecessary.

• Just like webbing, check every water knot, every rappel, every time.  And when it doubt – just rebuild it!  It takes literally two extra minutes to tie it correctly.

• Replace webbing if it looks cracked, cut, has abrasion marks, brittle, stiff, or sun-bleached.

Canyoneering Usage Examples:

• Joining two pieces of webbing to create a sling for an anchor or rappel station.

• Building an improvised harness with webbing in emergencies when a commercial harness is unavailable (or someone forgot theirs or lost it in the canyon!)

Additional Reading:

• Wikipedia.com: “Water knot”

• CanyoneeringUSA.com: “How to Tie a Water Knot and Build a Webbing Anchor”

• DyeClan.com: “Water Knot (Tape Knot)”