American mountaineer, inventor and manufacturer, Yvon Chouinard, created his first ‘Tube Chocks’ back in 1973; designed as a relatively lightweight way to get anchors/protection in the wide cracks of Yosemite and other American climbing areas. Early versions were a simple tube slightly tapered at the ends with holes for the rope. The later versions that we have in the collection have a little notch( Chouinard calls it a fillet) cut out of the edge which is supposed to stop the chock rotating in the crack. A few of these chocks made their way over to the UK in the 1970/80’s though they were pretty much an American thing which became somewhat redundant when large camming devices took over in the 80/90’s. Thanks to our fellow collector, Art McCarthy for sending them over from America.