Treeskills founder, Roger Gale dropped in to Treetools over the weekend to say hello. Before too long we got to talking about the Arborcamp Workshop held recently at Mt Stuart Reserve south west of Dunedin.
The workshop was conducted by Drew Bristow and Johno Smith representing DB Tree and covered off SRT using the new DB Tree Rope Walker and the Unicender (Johno is considered the New Zealand resident expert on the Unicender).
One feature of climbing workshops is the time allowed during the session for the comparison of various climbing systems and the alternative methods employedto climb a tree. For example, at the Arborcamp Workshop Matteo Giannini, a climbing arborist from Christchurch had a custom-made SRT set-up similar tothe DB Tree Rope Walker.At first glance Matteo's set-up looked exactly the same as the DB Tree option. Only on close inspection could the differences be seen - in Matteo's casethe style of hand ascender was the big difference. And, it is the Kong Futura handacsender which significantly improves the performance of the DB Tree SRT system.
In relaying this story to Roger he pointed out (rather wisely) the real value in workshops - that is, the exchange and cross-pollination of ideas. Thereality is, innovation and development in tree climbing methods and equipment will accelerate as more of these workshops are instituted.
Mt Stuart Arborcamp Workshop conducted by Drew Bristow and Johno Smith - thanks to Mark Roberts for the photograph.
