The Benefits of the I.S.A./Local Climbing Comps.
TreeCowBoy,
Your post was great! Once again being associated with the TreeBuzz has brought me into contact with folks whom care about our industry.
I started my tree career over 20 years ago. I needed a job and heard about this guy who needed a worker. I showed up began dragging brush. The work this guy did was almost pure removals. We removed Pines and Eucs. in a fairly wealthy area that was very hilly.
Day in and day out we rigged out trees, removed 'hazard' branches and never once did I learn a thing about plant health care. Just rigging and humping brush and wood out of tight areas.
I remember once the boss was ragging on this crew we saw working out of a pick up truck. Calling them 'scabs'. The thought came into my mind that they were not too different from us. I said "the only difference between them and us is that we have a chipper". BIG silence after that remark!
Once we showed up on a job and their was another tree company working next door. By that time I was climbing, so I got out the spurs and prepared to spur up this Monteray Pine to remove some branches.
This guy from the other company comes over and askes me if I am going to use spurs to prune this tree. I said sure, why not?
He said that it will damage the tree and I should not use spurs to prune a tree. The customer heard this and told my boss to not use spurs.
My boss got really pissed off and in a huff, had us leave the job.
For some reason I felt ashamed.
I can say that was the very start of my learning that their was a whole different world of tree work out there.
As time progressed I turned into a 'contract climber' just doing bigger removals for various companies. Did this for a few years.
Then while working for another local company, the boss asked me if I wanted to check out this local climbing competition.
I went, and saw all these guys with bright shiny climbing equipment running around in the tree, setting lines, climbing up them, and doing their thing.
I have to admit, I got an attitude that they were not 'real' climbers. I told myself that they would not last a day doing the type of work I did every day. Removing some euc. with a crane over a house, or roping out tops, or pushing chunks into a nest of brush.
They seemed like pansies to me. Why do all this footlocking and stuff when I could spur up and piece out a tree in half the time?
Then I got a job where the company required all climbers to become certified in Aerial Rescue. I went, and was told that my non-locking snaps on my climbing line were unsafe.
I remember that on my Cert. Tree Worker Test, my manila cable core flip line was about 25 feet long, and the tree was only about 40 feet tall! Everybody was laughing at me because when I got to the top, the end of my flip line was almost touching the ground!
Well, I became interested in all that tricky new gear and went and spent some money and got outfitted.
Using all the safety gear slowed me way way down.
I started going to the local climbing comps. and trying to see how they could move around with all that crap dangling from their saddles.
It built up alot of respect in me for the skill it takes to move through a tree and always be tied in.
From then on my career has been one of going to lots of comps. talking to and meeting new climbers from all over, and volunteering when possible. I went and got my Cert. Arborist cert. , Contractor's License, and have been running my business and promoting our industry for a good while now.
My career has been a great ride so far, and I love it.
If it had not been for the folks who dreamed up the idea of workshops, climbing comps. and 'raising the bar' on our industry standards, I would still be hacking trees and maybe have a broken body by now.
Sam Noonan, Joseph Schinder, Bob Phillips, Claus Mattack, Don Blair these are just a few of the folks who influenced me in the early years.
So thank you for your great post, Treecowboy.
You are right, my post was sarcastic and two wrongs dont make a right.
I firmly believe that the comps. are essential to our industry.
