Continuing its long-term support of arboriculture and competitive climbing, Husqvarna supports the Australian team to train and attend competitions both locally and overseas. Husqvarna is also the major sponsor of the Asia Pacific Tree Climbing Championship (APTCC) where, this year, Team Australia took the opportunity to host a throwline-techniques and competition-planning workshop. Jamie Boston, professional arborist and Husqvarna H-team ambassador, headed up a team of Aussies who shared their knowledge.
Held before walk through and gear check, the throwline-techniques and competition-planning workshop was well received by competitors and volunteers, with nearly 50 people in attendance.
Team Australia, consisting of myself (Jamie Boston), Barton Allen Hall, Jack Lewis, James Gigliotti, Jess Hamer, Nick Batson, Adam Joel, Alana Murray, Isobel Watson and Brian ‘Beaver’ Kinred, shared their individual techniques and planning thoughts when throwing a throwline, both at work and in competition. The enthusiastic crowd got some hands-on practice with individual guidance from the team.
Team Australia is made up of competitive tree climbers, including the current high-ranking climbers who compete on the world stage, up-andcoming enthusiastic climbers and past-competition climbers. This range of experience gave a unique perspective which would be difficult to find in any workshop anywhere in the world.
The warm up
“The APTCC is the first opportunity for us to represent our country in force each year before tackling the world stage,” said Boston. “The APTCC includes over 10 countries’ top five male and female climbers competing for a worldchampionship ticket, with both the Queensland Arboriculture Association and Arboriculture Australia having the opportunity to send 10 climbers each. This gives Australia a huge strength-innumbers advantage. An Australian won the male class at the previous running, which allows Australia to have three male climbers at the International Tree Climbing Championships (ITCC) with a fourth male climber because Barton Allen Hall has won twice on the trot at ITCC.”
Success
“In general,” Boston continued, “the Asian arboriculture community is developing its skills and techniques, and with Team Australia’s success on the world stage, we took the opportunity to share some of the knowledge we’ve gained. History was made at the 2024 APTCC with an Asian male climber making Masters for the first time ever.
Congratulations Jason Ma!
The free workshop was organised by the ISA and hosted on the site of the 2024 APTCC.”
Learn more of the Asia Pacific Tree Climbing Championship at itcc-isa.com.
