SoftBankHawks
Branched out member
- Location
- Japan
I just wanted to say a little about a workshop that recently ran in Mie prefecture, Japan.I and another chap, Robert Knott, had been speaking and prepping ideas for it for a couple of years, the thrust and motivation was to run an arborist w.shop that looked at fundamentals of physicality, something that we both felt was alarmingly missing from most, if not all, arborist training. Not just stretching and remedial workouts but a shifting of conscious understanding, of realising that we can put our mind in many places, our toes, knees, centre and in fact outside of ourselves, which of course has relevance when climbing through a tree crown. We were a little nervous to run it because we had no idea how it would be received. A ballet teacher came and ran two stretching sessions on each morning of Roberts w.shop, she managed to get the students doing a little ballet too. Funny! The guys loved it. The ballet and stretching had instant positive feedback, Roberts ideas and process may take a little longer to sink in, just have to wait and see what comes of it.
I asked Eric Whipple (Oceans) if he could come over to shed some light on the DSRT process and he happily extended his stay for the whole week. What a lovely chap Eric is and so comfortable around people, he has vibes and talent in abundance, the students took to him despite language and cultural barriers. Eric made light work of a pretty huge Quercus gilva with his great belay set-up and Ghost technique. DSRT is completely relevant, I urge those that don't know it or use it to seek instruction out. Why Ghost technique? well, you can pass through branches, that's why.
Finally, a very cool guy called Komatsu Seiji ran a 2 day rigging shop, the guy has talent in abundance and it was an honour that he taught because Komatsu san is a worker through and through, he was struck by the passion from the students and said he may come out of hiding to teach again!
Something that I wanted to do was give a feeling or tone for the 6 days so we started the training off with a Mountain Festival, something that is seen less and less but has a strong tradition with foresters. Usually it involves song and ritual throwing of salt and sake, a way to say thank you to the natural world and ask for safe passage as you work alongside it. We tweaked things slightly and my colleague, Sekine Takashi played a 2000 year old song on traditional Japanese flute, Yuji Kitaoka sang, we all threw salt and sipped a little sake. It was moving to say the least, the reverberations through the hinoki cypress stand was beautiful and I felt, from everyone there, a passionate attempt to connect
Finally and as a momento we gave out small aroma pots that had been created from locally extracted essential oils. A small mobile memory.
I have attached some photos, there will be no video I'm afraid.
