Openly admitting being an "amateur" + free gear = good idea or irresponsible?

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VTabone123

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I would love to read your comments on this. He got all the free gear he needed to accomplish this job due to his popularity on youtube, carried himself like he knew what he was doing during the video, but it looked to me he like he almost killed himself and maybe almost taken a few fingers off a time or two, and then at the end said, "well not to bad for a couple of amateurs" Anyone else see a problem here? I mean should amateurs be ordering their own gear from the site he is plugging and start doing stuff like this themselves? Looked super dangerous and just plain irresponsible to me. But maybe I'm wrong. Love to read your comments.

 
I'm not sure what to think. They didn't die so that's a plus. I'm sure they all learned a lot. All in all, I completely understand what your saying. How would treestuff feel if someone had got injured or killed? That's not good advertisement and I wouldn't want it on my conscience. Maybe it's just a little population control.
 
I'm surprised Treestuff would give them gear. That guy has absolutely no business being in that tree. He's clearly inexperienced but what may be even worse is his inexperience coupled with the inexperience of everyone on the ground. They have to be instructed on how to use a friction device....that means if something happens to the climber...he's going to be hanging up there for a while....probably until the fire dept arrives to get him down. Yet another video of someone getting lucky.

This reminds me of a time I was driving home from work and I saw something just like this happening (shorter conifer...maybe 40-45 ft tall). I stopped to watch and then texted my wife to tell her I'd be late. I had all of my gear with me so I asked if they wanted some free professional help. I think they knew they were in too deep and readily accepted my offer. I climbed up to where this guy was lodged in with no climbing gear at all. He had just cut out the very top of the tree as I arrived. It went the wrong way, nearly knocked him out of the tree and barely missed the house (he hadn't bothered to remove and lower branches...just cut the top and pray). When I got up there he introduced himself and said "Boy, am I glad to see you!" I introduced myself and said "Interesting place to meet someone for the first time" and asked him to climb down and keep the area clear. I got it all on the ground for them and there was a huge mess left but it was free and nobody got hurt. They offered me some minimal amount of money. I politely declined but told them "Just please don't try that again."
 
I don't know what to say. IMHO you need a climber familiar with his gear (and the tree) to preform a good, safe take down, and ground workers familiar with a take down around power lines. I'm not sure of how close the work was to the lines, not something that should be left to more luck than knowledge and experience. Having said that, I've seen "big tree companies" use some seriously bad practices around HV lines, but it was evident they had rookies doing the job.

Glad it came down and no one was hurt.
 
Just for a moment here, Let's skip the power lines and other targets
and assume his hinge was good, plus properly aimed.
Alrighty then. Was the climber getting trunk-slapped just simply
the ground crowd didn't feed the line when it time to do so?
That's my gut thought at least.
If not:
Was the friction device rigged correctly, enough wraps on the tube, too many?
I expect that may be very much influenced by the particular rope used and it's condition.
Rope on the correct side of the tree?
Now if the rope snagged or tangled, I'm sorry that I couldn't see it in the video.
My eyes and flash video don't mesh so greatly.
 
They said they had five wraps on the porty. They should have had one wrap and a loose grip just to slow it down. There were no targets under the tree so a controlled crash would have been fine if they had just let it run all the way to the ground while they are getting a feel for the porty.
 
Looked like too many wraps the on port-a-wrap which caused the top to come to a dead stop resulting in serious shock force. I read a comment on the video where someone asked him if his chest is bruised, which he replied saying that it was. On his newest video he also states he has some serious arm pain and that he taking a couple days rest.

My biggest issue with the video, aside from the fact that the shock load caused by his ignorance could have killed him, is the irresponsibility of the whole thing. He carried himself and instructed his crew as though he knew what he was talking about, and in reality only "kinda" knew. He has a large following, people do what he does. After the whole thing he openly admits to being an amateur, plugs a company for all the "free gear" provided, and praises himself for a job well done. All the time having no regard for others who will watch it, who may be ordering gear with the intent to attempt something like this, thinking "if amateurs can do it...well i'm an amateur I can do this", and getting seriously hurt or killed in the process.

I'm not going to lie. I have done stupid stuff before. Now had I video taped myself doing it, I certainly wouldn't post it online. Now lets say I was ignorant to the fact that what I was doing was stupid, and posted the video thinking I had done "good" but in reality just got lucky. I would hope I would have enough sense to take the video down after learning of my ignorance.

But what can you do. I just wanted to hear your all's take on it.
 
Am I allowed to feel disgusted with treestuff.com? This man could have killed himself.. Its like handing a 395 to the kid that just started working for you...
 
Well if you take all of the "oops" vids down, Seems you loose a lot information
about the things to Not do.
I always thought the Three Stooges films were some of the better safety videos.
If there was a way to set something up for an accident, They worked it into the script.
But then that's just the racket from one city-idiot (me) holding a coffee mug, while sitting on his backside
in front of a computer.
 
They said they had five wraps on the porty. They should have had one wrap and a loose grip just to slow it down. There were no targets under the tree so a controlled crash would have been fine if they had just let it run all the way to the ground while they are getting a feel for the porty.
5 wraps would hold the whole tree !
 
They had to have had at least some idea of what he was doing to give him all that gear. A pro would probably have his own gear. And they didn't just donate $100 worth of stuff. They gave him a lot. They probably instructed him on how to use it...which only further supports the idea that they knew he didn't know what he was doing.
 
FWIW this guy has all kinds of videos; he is a self proclaimed evaluator of just about everything. Here's one of his axe tests gone a muck: Ron

What a dork! I've seen several of this guy's vids and they are lame. P.S. Why is this guy filming his girl while driving his car????!!!!!!!!! More dangerous than all of his "homesteading" activities combined.
 

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