Below is a comment by Wouter from the Netherlands - the owner of the 'Duck Saver' featured in the Matt Says No blog.
It appears Wouter is a previouswinner of the Dutch Tree Climbing Competition and competed against Andy Harrison (of Harrison Rocketfame) back in 2002 at the ITCC in Seattle, Washington.Bernd Strasser competed in the same 2002 event.Menno Kluiters (ex-pat Dutch tree climber from Christchurch but soon-to-be Dunedin) thought Wouter may have also been 2nd in the 2004 European ITCC (Treetoolswill try to confirm this).
You can see from Wouter's pedigree that he is no mug when it comes to tree climbing! His last sentence in the comment below probably sums up the wholedebate: complete understanding of the equipment and climbers being responsible for themselves. This statement applies to all climbing gear (rated or not).
Hello Matt,
First off all those are my pictures of my duck saver !!
I'm very aware of the fact that the (Kong) Duck was not designed for this use, but after a couple of test set ups I have found it to be the most reliabledevice for my super lightweight and easy to remove friction saver.
The Duck can(not) and will not cut through the sling, because I've changed the original retrieval rope and fitted a strong dyneema cord through the openingand this will stop the cam from closing completely. The Duck will slip while drop-loading in it but there's an oval screw shackle on the bottom of thesling that works as a back up for the duck slipping completely off the sling.
I'm not pleased that you have had your comments about my system on the internet without even asking me about it. I'm 2 times climbing champion and I'mnot fooling around.
If tree climbers ask me about my device I always warn them and tell them the whole story about my own made device. You just reacted on a picture withoutseeing the bigger picture and without inquiries about the story behind (it).
Hope you appreciate my opinion about my own device - and yes I agree that other climbers must not use it without understanding it completely and beingresponsible for themselves.
greats
wouter from the netherlands.
NB For the purpose of this blog Treetools have made slight sub-edits to the original comment (see Comments on previous blog to read the original). Every effort has been made to ensure context or meaning remains constant between the two verisions.
