Three members from IBEW 1245 — Mike Garner, Jose Pedro Paredes, and I, Rosario Garcia — showed that line clearance tree trimmers from Local 1245 know how to do their job at this year’s International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) western chapter tree climbing competition in Santa Barbara. I’m so very thankful and grateful to the IBEW 1245 Executive Board, the Keep the Clearance peer safety committee and the union as a whole for sponsoring our participation. I would also like to thank the Local 1245 staff that attended the competition, Abel Sanchez and John Kent. It was a pleasure to have you there with us.
As volunteers, we arrived two days before the competition began to help to set up several events, including the belayed speed climb, aerial rescue, throw line toss, secured foot lock, and my personal favorite, the work climb.
- Work climb: Climbers are placed 55 ft up at the top of the tree with a bucket lift, and have to move down through several stations. At the first station, climbers have to ring the bell with a handsaw. At the next station, they touch a bell with a hand saw and throw sticks at a target on ground. Then they move to a pole pruner station, followed by a limb walk where they cannot move the limb too far down or a buzzer will sound, and then the final descent to the base of the tree where they rappel down onto a target, all in under five minutes.
- Throw ball toss: Targets are set up in different crotches of tree. Competitors must toss a throw ball and braid rope all the way through to the ground in under six minutes, and they earn more points for more difficult targets.
- Aerial rescue: A life-sized weighted dummy is placed in a tree, and the climber must assess the situation and bring the dummy back to ground safely within five minutes.
- Secured footlock: The climber starts on ground and climbs 50′ straight up a rope as quickly as possible using a secured double footlock.
- Secured speed climb: Similar to the footlock, except the climber climbs the tree to the height of 50′ as fast as possible.
These events took lots of time and energy to set up. We went up more than 60 feet to set up friction devices and ropes atop trees, along with cow bells at each tree station for the competitors to ring to signify the station is complete. From the tree tops, we got to appreciate a great view of the ocean, which was just across the street from where the event took place in Chase Palm Park.
Two full days of hard work took place to get this great event underway. Thursday and Friday were the set-up days, and Saturday was the first day of competition. 30 climbers from all over the western chapter of the ISA came to compete for the title. The top five competitors from Saturday competed in Sunday’s master challenge, vying to be crowned winner of the Western chapter and advance on to the international competition, which is being held in Houston, Texas this year.
Our experience gave us the knowledge of how an event like this is run, and we hope to host a similar event for the members of our great union, IBEW 1245.
Rosario Garcia is a line clearance tree trimmer at Trees Inc and 7-year member of IBEW 1245.