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

[rwoods]

Looked like too many wraps ... 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.

...

VTabone123, welcome to AS. I don't know squat about climbing and topping trees but I do understand your point that I highlighted. Checkout the other AS forums, especially the chainsaw forum, and you will see many examples of the same irresponsibility. I doubt most of them are intentionally disregarding the potential bad consequences to those who follow. It seems that there is something about a video camera that shuts off part of the brain. Ron

 

[VTabone123]

Hi rwoods. I will check the other AS forums. I appreciate the welcome and agree with you. The video camera must shut off part of peoples brain.

 

[lone wolf]

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 he didn't know what he was doing.

That makes sense too.

 

[TaoTreeClimber]

Not my circus, not my monkeys. I seem to say that alot these days.

 

[Zale]

That was entertaining. I liked when he got slammed by the tree and you hear his breath getting knocked out of him. Good stuff. Lets see, new rope and new porta-wrap along with five wraps and it locks up? Go figure. Notice how he didn't block down those pieces. He had probably had enough and would take his chances free falling them.

 

[tidy]

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.

He told the groundies to put FIVE WRAPS on the porty lol. I love seeing numpties instructing other numpties on expert numptyness

 

[7highclimber7]

So many things running through my mind after watching this video. This post might get a little scrambled. First, how was there not a proper explanations on how to rig out a top. This climber has obviously been around some sort of tree service work prior to this tree. He said he had old gear and no one just jumps into an 80 foot removal totally green. Top priority in his eyes is to stay in the tree, while the top is coming down. 5 wraps on a porta wrap is basically locking it off. Any body that has been around this line of work knows how to use a porta wrap, and SHOULD know that it needs to run. There didn't seem to be any detailed explanation on how the rigging should go. If I'm in a tree, I'm making damn sure the ground guys are on the same page as I am. I can't believe treestuff(company I use for most my gear lately) would allow there name to be connected to such a sketchy removal. I guess it shows even though the gear should be used by trained "professionals", it can keep a sketchy rookie from falling out.

 

[TC262]

Because the thousands of people who watch this guy probably think he did a great job and treestuff was able to reach out to a huge new audience by having this moron plug their name. It's cheap marketing to an entirely new audience.

 

[TC262]

Just looked it up, he has 171,000 subscribers on his U Tube channel. I've seen other tree videos he has and some are pretty sketchy, but his followers praise his jobs well done because they don't know any better.

 

[lone wolf]

What I dont understand is how hard would have been to get a real tree crew to do all that? I guess they may have believed these guys were the real deal ?

 

[ArcticOverland]

Cody Crone is the guys name. 'His girl' is his sister, Corrin. His lovely wife is in many of his videos.

I think anyone with a bit of common sense can see that everyone in that video is a bit green when it comes to taking down that tree. He didn't hold himself up as an expert, just a guy helping a friend.

Cody is just a guy who does his best and works with what he has. He's a good guy, loves his family, gives back to his community and volunteers with the local FD and WFS. He's been around saws and big trees a long time and it's clear from his other videos that he tries to be safe and sensible in his approach to things.

He's not a 'know it all', he's not trying to give instruction either on that video. He's just showing how it went for them and in all fairness, he'd openly admit there's plenty of room for improvement I'm sure.

The company who supplied the gear didn't do a bad thing here. Cody had almost 200k subscribers and they're in business to supply what people want to buy. If they can sell basic tools and equipment to his viewers, why not? Not everyone will agree, but not everyone's going to rush out and buy a full climbing rig to go topping trees. Most will want some axes, chainsaw supplies and PPE.

I'm new to AS but I've been a Wranglerstar viewer for a long time now. I don't like everything he does or agree with some of his beliefs about certain things, but it's clear to see that he's a good man. We should all remember that with regard to EVERYONE we don't actually know. Give some benefit of the doubt while you get to know a man for who and what he is.

Criticise the actions in this case but don't belittle or judge based on your impression from this one video. If you have something to share, do it on his YouTube channel. Be honest and be kind and he will appreciate every bit of constructive feedback he receives.

He has this saying, I believe from scriptures, which goes something like 'As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another'.

I may get a real roasting here for this reply. I hope not. You're good guys too, so cut the guy some slack!

 

[TC262]

I've seen quite a few of his videos in the past, mostly looked up stuff tree related. I remember some of his other videos giving some pretty bad advice, but you are def. right about him being an all around good guy.

 

[Wannabe123]

Well if nothing else this discussion provides the wiser greenhorns out there with some perspective on what you ought not take on without some expert guidance. Seldom do things in real life work like you think you saw on youtube.

 

[TheGoodFellers]

Nice guys die all the time. Its not about the character its the work. He is getting ripped into because of the job he took on & the quality of his work... He has promoted a tree removal for do it your selfers... Now we are going to see a couple of his viewers spend a few hundred bucks & do their own work... I can not stress how dangerous that sounds.. There will be major injuries over this video. What about the primary's!! If the top went any other way... He would have been a candle. Maybe I'm confused but didnt we need to get certified to work near power lines? I would have more respect for him if he consulted an expert.. We all know accidents happen in this trade.. Perhaps its best to leave things to the professionals. This video made it look possible for an amateur with a rope and saw to do work in a tree..

tree stuff.com slapped every one of us in the face for supporting this guy. It makes me sick because I liked them so much. I hope this plug was worth it.

 

[rwoods]

ArcticOverland,

Welcome to AS.

There is no doubt in my mind that Cody is "good" guy and that we sometimes overreact. But I for one am not going to second guess the posters that do tree work for a living when they say his disclaimer isn't enough to protect an ignorant follower or that the job shown is particularly dangerous to the inexperienced. In my opinion, no matter how good or smart we are there is a limit to what we should undertake to show others especially when we have little to no actual experience ourselves.

I truly appreciate your comments and those of the others. Unfortunately, many threads around here would have turned ugly by now.

Ron

 

[ArcticOverland]

Thanks for the welcome Ron!

I just watched the video a second time and I guess that on a more 'critical' viewing he's a bit light on the disclaimers and maybe could have summarised that there was a measure of luck involved and that it should never be counted on as part of a felling plan. I'm reluctant to put it down to brazen bravado or anything like that and maybe think he just missed it in the edit and was still jacked on adrenalin and a sense of accomplishment when all the footage was filmed.

There's no way I'd take inspiration from his videos to do things the way he does all the time, especially when it comes to something like roping that tree or sometimes shortcuts on safety measures that are taken. He got a good thump in the chest and that was enough to show me clearly it wasn't done right. I've enough experience of SAR rigging and have spent my time reluctantly hanging under S61's on a wire to know unnecessary risks were being taken there and his accomplices weren't the confident backup I'd want them to be. Total agreement here on all of those criticisms and concerns.

Anyways, thanks again!

 

[DMD]

Rigging the top out seemed to be unnecessary considering he chunked the trunk down.
All in all this was a very simple tree to remove. A good climber could have had the whole tree on the ground in less than 90 minutes.

TreeStuff.com is a great company but I know if I was the owner of Tree Stuff watching that video I would have cringed and regretted giving the man $2000 in free gear. Sure they got their name out there to a lot of folks outside of arboriculture but at what cost.

 

[tidy]

The unspoken message of the video says "amateurs can safely take down trees with the right equipment"...

 

[Wannabe123]

The unspoken message of the video says "amateurs can safely take down trees with the right equipment"...

Even without it if they watch enough youtube videos.

 

[BC WetCoast]

If you watch enough You Tubes, you will see experts (and not so experts) doing dangerous stuff all the time. Sometimes it's because an expert is so comfortable with his skills, he he doesn't need things like machine guards (watch Jimmy Diresta use a bandsaw). And the Safety Police are constantly hammering away at them.

My thought is, if a person who watches a you tube and doesn't have the common sense to determine when they shouldn't do something because they don't have the necessary skills, then let accept that Darwin was right and natural selection should take it's course.