Damn Reg, maybe a little over reaction to just a couple of sentences, no? Anyway I apologize for assuming you assumed you invented the multi crane pick hook up and chastising you about it. As for bringing your name up on a thread about craning techniques on a craning thread....well.....duh. Hey, if you don't want anyone to say your name or talk about you (esp anything negative since you think you are perfect) then maybe a forum is not the place for you since you are mainly on here for advertising your products I assume and trying out your video productions.
Not suggesting you "have anything to hide" because you are trying to "cram into the vids what YOU THINK are the very most important aspects of crane picks" but rather pointing out that maybe you are wrong and you are absolutely mis representing a typical job which in reality does not look anything like how you portray it to the novice or learner but more often rather like the vid I showed with slow calculated movement such as picks in the back yard over a house or the climber setting chokes by actually CLIMBING to spot from spot a to spot b. You are the king of the vids and I am here to say....the vids you show are fiction without some slow parts which is the reality without all the other parts that are laying on the floor of your editing room. You may obviously continue to object to my opinion of your vids but I will continue to object to the portrayall of crane picks although as I said, I like your vids along with the masses.
Picks moving UNDER an and over delicate targets. You never done a slow pick? You are a liar if you say you haven't. We will never see it on one of your fictional vids tho will we? Never had a learning op? He won't make the film clips will he?
Everybody that has not taken the ISA exam assumes that you just read the guide and go to the test station and collect your certification. It is a pretty comprehensive test but the genius in it is the CEU's. I passed the test 20 years ago and have had to collect 210 credit hours over those 3 year increments to STAY certed. How many credit hours have you had to sit for to retain your obscure certification from over there. No one is going to know anything about this cert. here or give a schit so maybe it would be advantageous to your "career" to take the test sometime. No? Unless it is your intention to just end tree's lives for the rest of your years.
This brings me to a question....Why have you moved your subcontracting business to 4 countries in your 20 years of tree service life? Certainly none of my business but I am just curious. Obviously nothing you were required to do in any way and it is extremely stressful from my experience with it.
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Seems like you enjoyed learning. Have you stopped now? The ISA is beginning to have tangental certs. I am studying right now for a Hazard Tree Assessor Certification test they started recently I am going to take soon. With that and any certs comes new requirements for continuing Education Units (CEU's). With that comes huge opportunity for additional income from assessing high risk trees and making contacts that puts your service on jobs as a result of those contacts.
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I really do not see how anyone can make a living anymore by just culling trees. There are so many guys out there doing it and the equipment has evolved in my 40 plus year career and your 20 year career so much that it is not very difficult or dangerous anymore in most situations so that supply and demand will dictate it will become less and less profitable. I have wondered over the maybe 5 years (not losing any sleep over it) of knowing you on forums (wouldn't recognize you if we passed on the sidewalk) how someone as clearly intelligent as yourself can ignore and dismiss the challenging and heartfelt occupation of tree CARE when it is sitting right on the end of your nose. Anway, this post answers my question but I am surprised that you would seemingly give up on it (give up on anything for that matter) and not "think about it for ages" when it is a huge source of income for you and your family. Cause, to be honest, those Stein products, while they are high quality I am sure, seem to all be redundant to most extents and new products are just flying out there as I type this from dozens and dozens of companies. Most are re inventing the wheel anymore.
Your first paragraph had promise Dave, but then ya ruined it by suggesting I think I am perfect. What a silly thing to say mate.
I get young climbers come up to me at the show as say that the videos they’ve seen of mine and many others on the net, have really inspired them to chase the job....well between them and you criticising, its not even a close run thing Dave....I won’t be changing the script any time soon.
What’s more, I am not a teacher Dave, and don’t want the responsibility of how I do in fact get from a to b, nor the calculated risks or thought processes involved. Most people in the know, don’t need to see nor question that stuff because they’re regularly doing it themselves anyway, and are just happy to sit back and relate to 10 easy minutes of someone else doing the work for a change....except for you of course. But in regards to the up-and-comers, well that’s their journey and you and I both know there’s no short-cuts in becoming accomplished. So I keep them slick and fast....so in a sense I am hiding stuff, but for the right reasons believe it or not. If its not broken Dave, dont fix it.
Re: your vid....my criticism was that I think most people would have got it after that first log....and in absence of any cutting, climbing from a-b or slinging, repeating the exact scene several times seemed pretty strange to me. Especially after all the criticisms you’ve just aimed in my direction.
The RFS cert that I took 10 years back was the best option for me at the time. The ISA cert is not a nationally recognised qualification so didn’t count for $hit....so it wasn’t even an option. I have no regrets at all in that respect.
22 years actually Dave, I started at 17.
Why do I move around? Variety, different challenges, keeps me on my toes, keeps me decisive. With so much varied exposure I feel like I have a huge advantage over most climbers. To maintain a career as a contract climber Dave there can be no loss of discipline or hunger. As well as, I like to live a full life for as long as I am able....if i get caught out along the way then I have no one else to blame at least.
I didn’t give up on learning....I just jumped ships so to speak, I couldn’t continue with both. The Stein opportunity has been a God-send for us, like a second wage. Possibly the difference between putting my little daughter into some form of day-care or as is staying with Juliet through hear first few years. Helped me put a few Ghosts to bed as well as open up plenty more opportunities which I won’t harp on about.
I’ve had countless opportunities to start up my own treecare-buisness....but the lifestyle it brings has never appealed to me. As is I’m pretty content and have plenty of time for my family. Things might change who knows, I keep an open mind.
I agree that there are lots of guys culling tree’s and lots of equipment to possibly make the job safer and easier. But that argument falls down where there are individuals in control who are not and never will be on the same level. From sales through planning, decision making and actual implementation, not everyone will succeed and further stick around. Your 40 years and still going is surely testament to that. When all else is quantifiable Dave we are still individuals, what we make of our opportunities will always be unique to us.
iscattaway and Flemington (still got family there), Tamke, and my favorite was Shearer Penn outta Trenton working mostly in Princeton.
