Who needs spurs?

this guy ranked ten in the natcc and he is not lazy by any means. i don't use spike on removals if the tree is real limby. does that make me lazy? cause i will work you till you puke and then call you buddy to come over and take up your slack and then work him until he pukes. 110 degrees with 100% humidity no problem. 16 hours no problem. 10 hour straight with no break climbing a large removal, no problem. pruning large trees for eight hours and eat lunch in the tree while cutting a sucker, no problem. -10 and ice on the tree and no spurs, no problem. rain sleet snow, no problem. a super long drag out no problem, power line clearance work no problem. so now that i have fully explained my work ethic; i want to know wtf no wearing spurs has to do with being a lazy bum or a hard worker. spurs or no spurs has to do with climbing technique. i'm not going to negative block without spurs, but i can do everything else, including climb tall straight limbs with a low tie in and no spurs without girthing a sling and can probabbly move faster through the tree without spurs than you with them on and still get more work done and i know ack could.
 
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i'm not going to negative block without spurs

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why not?
 
Your missing the point.

You wear spurs when blocking a stem down because they aid your climbing, work positioning and cutting on the stem/spar.

Now if they aid you in a blocking situation it stands to reason that they would aid you when your rigging out the branches from the tree. My point is that anyone who does not wear spurs when dismantling/rigging down/craning out a large tree is making life unnecessarily difficult for themselves.

The key to working a tree is optimum work positioning, the ropes and harness are just the tools we use to get to that point where we need to make the cut, your so busy being obsessed with the climbing aspect you neglect the most critical components which were afterall developed, designed, built and used solely for the purpose of making our lives a little less arduous.
 
i use spurs when necessary. i used them today. your broad statements suck and now your crawfishing.


ricky it's called a jam knot and will power. for shorter jaunts use the tie in point and your lanyard to provide your purchase more friction
 
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i use spurs

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Good, your learning fast, keep it up and rememember - we're here for you Jeff, to guide you towards the path to enlightenment.

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i used them today.




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Great! small steps to start with Jeff, be patient....soon you'll be taking big leaps forward with your climbing techniques with our help.




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your broad statements suck and now your crawfishing.


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Jeff, we know its hard trying new things, stop being so obstructive and rude, lets all just concentrate on the treework.
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Be positive!
 
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I dont remember Godzilla having those big SPIKES on his back? he's a good guy that Godzilla, he knows that SPIKES are necessary for removals. He's gonna remove the Mogladon that's sporting the camel pak in no time....or is it a giant crawfish?
 
I don't use spurs on a certain removals. I went through a phase of not really using them at all for removals except on certain species. Another technique I use is just one spur (the left one) and a Pantin on my right foot. Especially on large conifer removals that I have to go up and down a lot I find it less tiring and more ergonomic to not be on the spurs all day long and to have the ability to use the Pantin to ascend rapidly. On many of the removals that I do spurless I will put on the spurs in the tree when it is time to do the top and bring down the wood. Whatever I feel is safe, and will get the job done fastest is what I usually choose to do. Spurs or no spurs I find that the ground crew typically isn't waiting on me. It is the other way around.

Being adaptable and willing to use many tools and techniques is the name of the game in tree work. Being willing and able to go spurless or single spur on removals is another tool in the tool box.
 
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Being willing and able to go spurless on removals is another tool in the tool box.

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Ryan,

I respect your opinion but I disagree with your statement above. Going spurless on a removal will not be a tool that I add to my tool box. The Spur/Pantin combo thing on the other hand is one I will consider.
 
Climbing spur-less on tree removals makes no sense at all to me.

Well... unless you are uncomfortable with them and you can't use them like they are part of your body.

If you are uncomfortable with them, then I guess you haven't used them enough.

Spurs give me the opportunity to place my feet exactly where comfortable for making a cut, fractions of an inch even.

When i have spurs on with removals, i don't even think about them, no more then walking up a set of stairs. I don't think about how hard to put them in, I don't think about angle of my leg to keep them from gaffing out. I just walk. You don't think about how hard you are stepping on a tread of stairs do you? you don't think about leg angle and placement of foot when walking up stairs do you? What if spur use was as easy to you as walking up stairs, wouldn't it be a good climbing tool to use? Well, use them more then, because it can be just as easy. Stubborn baztards.

and if walking up a tree and taking any step anywhere I want is a negative thing; then call me wrong. But I can't see this as anything but positive.

I use pole gaffs 98% of the time, vs. tree gaffs. I pretty much never get sore in them. (You need good boots, with steel shanks, not flexible hiking boots by the way. Makes a world of difference.) However, TREE gaffs DO get my shins tired and I do have to think about not gaffing myself when walking on a limb or land. The tree gaffs are so long, they keep my foot too far away from the tree and my shin is bending the whole time to compensate. But occasionally I use tree gaffs on thick bark old trees, or really decayed trees where the outside 2 inches is rotted mush.

Pole gaffs; I never think about them, I just use them.
 
It depends....

Me personally, i'd take the sprurs every time.

but...

I've got a new climber working with us, most productive climber i've ever had, top competition climber and he does not use spurs for removals.

And we do some big open canopied Eucs too, still no spurs.
Might put them on after lunch when there is just a pole left to block down, but will often still do that without them.

I couldn't do it, but it does not slow him down.
Just a bloody good climber & after watching him i can see that it only makes him a better climber overall by developing the skills to do what most cant.

He feels that spurs only get in the way & slow him down.
I wouldn't have believed it till i had seen him work.

It means when you do a big prune where no spurs are a given, there is no part of the tree he cant access.
 
You spurless climbers should sell your trucks and haul all your gear to jobsites on bicycles, its totally feasible and eco friendly too. Imagine all the credit you'll get for going green.

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If someone said to me today that using climbing spurs was illegal on removals I'd quit the job today, happy in the knowledge that the industry was finished, over, the arboriculture dream - over.

What is arboriculture anyway, its just a bunch of people who failed at everything else in life so they took up treework and pretended that it was a worthwhile job. We like to think that arboriculture is important, its not, its just random people cutting branches off trees, thats it, thats treework.

The only good thing about it is we get to go somewhere different everyday, we can sometimes make decent money from certain jobs, but we will never accumulate any real wealth.

We climb...yes....its good to get up into a treetop and watch the world go by but you can't do it forever, a time will come when you have to hang up your spurs and stay at home or drive the wife out to the grocery store, then what? what will you be then? you'll be a spurless climber....thats what.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCrsRMjRrgM
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