I knew a guy once who had balls the size of grapefruit....he'd do what needed to be done, damn the consequenses to his body. He wasn't a climber, but the only job openings were for climbers......
So naturally, come interview time, Jimmy was a climber....he'd done it for a few years working for a tree service, he could do it all, no problem. Ok Jimmy, says the foreman, we'll give you a try, and see what you can do.
So the next day they head out to the r.o.w. to let Jimmy show off his stuff, and see if he was worth keeping around. They give him a rope and a saddle, a lanyard, and a pair of gaffs.
Well after a bit of jangling around he gets the saddle cinched up into a nice ball breaker, and goes to put on the gaffs. Puts the left gaff on first, with the pad on the inside of his left calf, cinches it all down tight, and goes to the right. Get's it all cinched down, with the pad on the inside of his right calf.
Then grabs his rope and lanyard and proudly marches up to the tree ready to go to work. He's ready to start climbing up the tree, but he just can't figure out how that works with the spikes on the outside of his feet......
Four or five guys are just standing back, waiting for the moment of realization to strike him, and crack up simultaneously when it did.
The moral of this story is:
Learn what the hell you're doing before you go putting yourself in harm's way with no knowledge and second hand equipment you don't know the history of.
