Bondage Knots: single bowline | tutorial for beginners

This knot is the traditional way for getting a fixed size loop, one that doesn’t open or close under tension. It is used by rescuers for making a loop around the waist or upper chest of a person for rising or moving him or her.

With practice, you can do it with one hand (I know you can. I even used to know how to do it). The scenario they taught me was with me standing on a small boat, holding the victim with one arm, while doing in the air the knot on the rope that was being thrown to me with the other. (I still wonder why the fool on the other side, with both feet on solid ground (or at least at a larger deck) and both hands free, couldn’t throw the rope already knotted).

But for our needs, feel free for using both hands. We will not use this knot often, but you must understand it for learning the variation we will use on subs.

Anyway, it can be used for tying around your sub’s chest (just under her arms) when you need to tie your sub to the ceiling, for instance when you want her to kneel without falling. DON'T USE FOR LONG-TERM SUSPENSION, because your sub's full weight on the rope will restrict breathing.

Begin by making a loop on the rope, leaving a long tail (what we show as a short red segment will have to go around the object we want to tie, and back, and twist).

Note the rope passes over itself after looping.

Once you went around the object, you enter the loop from the back

Out of the loop, go under or at the back of the original rope...

And come back to the loop, entering it from the upper side.

Remember: The rabbit goes out of his hole, around the tree, and back to his hole (hasn’t the creature anything better to do?).

(Did I tell you that most knots work because the rope passes by the same loop in both directions, etc?)

Adjust the size of the loop as needed, and tighten by holding the main rope, and pulling from the short end.

The tightened knot.