Journal of the Dark Horse

"If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve."

Mon, 20 May 2013 20:36:34 +1000

“If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve.”

- Lao Tsu

I think this when I am practicing climbing by myself at night.

I’m so unimpressed by almost everyone.

Mon, 20 May 2013 20:19:33 +1000

I’m so unimpressed by almost everyone.

hexacolors: yeah because me hating men for abusing my sisters and screaming at me from their cars...

Mon, 20 May 2013 19:46:42 +1000

hexacolors:

yeah because me hating men for abusing my sisters and screaming at me from their cars is the same as them saying they hate women and girls and abusing them and screaming at them from their cars

oh yep, hate half the people in world hey? Let me know how that works out for you.

‘Climbing and Dreaming’ Not my vid.

Mon, 20 May 2013 19:16:54 +1000

‘Climbing and Dreaming’

Not my vid.

This is what it looks like when one of the best climbers in the...

Sun, 19 May 2013 19:35:55 +1000

This is what it looks like when one of the best climbers in the world practices for the work climb event in a tree climbing championship…

Rescue training

Sun, 19 May 2013 19:29:43 +1000

Today I ended up accidentally at the end of the subcommittee meeting for the Queensland Arboriculture Association Aborcamp.

Was pretty interesting. If this kind of shit keeps happening to me, by the end of the year I will know every arborist in the state lmao.

I did aerial rescue training with Ross today. He’s such a fucking wizard.

It ended up taking me 9 minutes to do the fucking rescue, which is shitful because there is a 5 minute time limit i think. I can shave off a few minutes by doing the first part of the speech and the assessment faster. Oh yeah, I need to write a speech for it. Bit hectic.

So much fun though. Competition is in a month.

Again. Faster.

Sat, 18 May 2013 19:02:51 +1000

practicing a work climb reminds me of many other sports.

I’m at the tops of the tree, try to sprint and swing to all the stations and exit the tree quickly. try to do it smooth.

Smooth is fast.

at the end I check my stopwatch and say

“Good. Again. Faster”

COMPETING

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:59:00 +1000

Just wrote a training plan for the climbing comp which is one month from today!

Training

Tue, 14 May 2013 20:14:50 +1000

Feels good to be back on my grind.

Training for climbing comps only, no GPP or weight lifting.

There are 5 events in a tree climbing comp and the points scoring system is complex, hundreds of points all up.

The normal time to start competing is after about 2 years of working as a climber. It’s been about 6 months for me. I want to compete next month.

I bought a headtorch to put on my helmet today, so I can climb in the dark. I just had a great 3 hours session.

I’m meeting some other climbers this weekend to try to sort out a plan for the most difficult event; aerial rescue.

I’m keen to try training techniques that other people might not be using, like practicing the speed climb in a weighted vest and adding weight to my footlock (rope climb) practice. I’m sure the top climber have thought of this stuff but most guys probably aren’t even training everyday so I doubt they would go to the effort. After a tough day of climbing all day at work the last thing people want is more climbing haha.

I don’t mind though, I’ll do 2-4 hours a day 5-6 days a week until I’m awesome at it.

my life rules gonna start lifting again, so i’ll have something i can post on here that...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 19:49:56 +1000

my life rules

gonna start lifting again, so i’ll have something i can post on here that tumblr people can relate to

dunno if i’ll post here though, eh.

ive never felt an absence from a friend moving away until now. how the fuck will i ever replace a...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 02:07:10 +1000

ive never felt an absence from a friend moving away until now.

how the fuck will i ever replace a frighteningly smart blonde fake titted burlesque dancer who bartends in strip clubs?

I have plenty of smart friends, blonde friends, friends with bolt ons, friends who do burlesque, friends who work in strip clubs (on both sides of the bar/pole) and even a couple of friends who can break a dancefloor with me.

but aint nobody who can multi-task that ridiculous octfector and maintain a platonic relationship with me.

fuck you for ruining everyone forever

i love you bro

Aerial Rescue

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:55:27 +1000

Today at work Ross, Nick and I were deadwooding a 30m (100ft) iron bark (Eucalyptus cebra).

Nick and I were on the ground and Ross was about 40% of the way up the tree, and we were talking about maybe doing some aerial rescue practice, maybe after lunch.

All of a sudden Nick yells “GO! Timer has started!” and I look up and Ross is hanging in his harness like a rag doll moaning theatrically.

I had to kit up and get into the tree, sort out systems (complicated, think ropes, pulleys, friction cord, carabiners etc everywhere all tangled up haha) all while maintaining an almost constant commentary: “Ok let’s get emergency services on the phone, someone arranged to flag them down from the street, please advise ambulance service that Ross has been climbing the tree for approximately 3 hours, 28 year old male with a chainsaw cut to his arm, he’s bleeding heavily and there is a high chance that he will have orthostatic shock. I’m performing an aerial rescue and I’ll need the ambulance officers to remain clear of the site until I advice them that it’s safe to some in” etc.

Talking and footlocking (climbing two strands of 13mm rope) at the same time is pretty difficult.

When I actually got up into the tree and started sorting out systems it all started to go to shit as Ross and Nick were both interjecting ideas about what is safe, what is competition legal, what’s a better way to do this or that etc…

But afterwards Nick said I had got into the tree (above Ross, where I can swing across to a position above him to install a redirect) in less than two and a half minutes, which I’m told is quite good.

Going to be practicing it as much as I can over the next 6 months anyway, it’s one of the events in the competition.

5 year plan

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 17:34:22 +1000

Today my mentor/workmate/buddy told me some stories of his time in Germany picking pine cones.

Apparently a good climber can work the season, living in a car, in the German Summer… climbing trees and picking cones, bagging them into big sacks and dropping them to the ground to collect after descent.

The season lasts 2 months, and you can make 50 000 euros.

Changed my 5 year plan!

"I do not trust people who don’t love themselves and yet tell me, ‘I love you.’ There is an African..."

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 21:14:55 +1000

“I do not trust people who don’t love themselves and yet tell me, ‘I love you.’ There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.”

- Maya Angelou (via stickyisaslut)

Photo

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 20:59:06 +1000

I once cut out a section of wood like this at work, with the...

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 20:39:28 +1000

I once cut out a section of wood like this at work, with the intention of polishing it and giving it to someone. I needed a belt sander though and I didn’t have one so I hung onto it for several months and then some things changed and I think it’s not in my mum’s garden in raw form which is cool.

kanyewesticle: My little brother gets it I’m 26 years...

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 20:23:20 +1000

kanyewesticle:

My little brother gets it

I’m 26 years old and I still learn about and have to work on improving things just like this.

Photo

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 20:19:14 +1000

One thing which feels really therapeutic is to write things and then delete them.

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 21:18:33 +1000

One thing which feels really therapeutic is to write things and then delete them.

Does anyone else have this problem?

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 13:06:11 +1000

Someone just inboxed me with a clip which seemed to be like Justin Beiber meets T Mills.

What is this?