To me, it looks like the bend is opposite of the way I would've expected it to bend. If you have weight on the platform, the cable has a lot of weight pulling on it, and the bottom tree grabber portion should also have a lot of weight bearing on it, but it seems to me like the tree grabber should want to bend down, not up, when weight is on the platform. I mean our body weight on the platfrom is pushing down, but the opposite is true of the tree grabber, it's being pushed up, so it should bend down, not up. Wierd!

Glad you didn't get hurt.