Welcome to the forum! There are a number of us on here who are also rec climbers and relatively new to tree climbing, like yourself. I have been doing it about 1-1/2 years now and I bought a Bulldog Bone after about six months of hanging out on here. It is a compact, simple device, ruggedly made, easy to maintain, and works great. Surveyor is the guy. He makes an adjustable version which is quickly adaptable to a range of ropes. The device is very easy to mid-line attach. I recommend it. For recreational climbing, I am not sure the Akimbo would work that much better to justify the extra expense. Both work on roughly the same principle. As to saddles, a tree climbing harness costs a bit more but they are well worth it. And there are versions suitable for rec climbing which cost less. New Tribe makes a couple that are very comfortable and affordable, but simply lack some of the bells and whistles that a pro needs for serious tree work. For the actual climbing part of it, while it is important to learn your basic knots and such, a lot of us have moved pretty quickly to SRT and rope walking. Yoyoman, on here, makes a great knee ascender called a MiniSAKA which is very compact for hiking and backpacking, and is also easily shortened up for a foor ascender if you bought two of them (one on each foot and one left full length). At 42, if you are not as thin as you used to be, a chest roller is nice, to keep you upright on the rope without a lot of extra struggle. With my chest roller, Bone, and pair of SAKA's, I can literally walk up a rope hands-free. Also, you want to nail down what sort of lanyard works best for you. There are many possibilities but for sure you want to get used to using a lanyard throughout a climb. This is one of the things that makes it so safe. My final thought would be to see if there are any other climbers near you. There is nothing like shared experience, and it is safer and more fun too, to climb with others. Anyway, good luck and welcome aboard. Cheers, Stewart
