Blog

Technical Rescue: The Importance of 15:1

(This article was originally run in Firehouse October 1, 2019) Russell McCullar clarifies whether 15:1 is still relevant and says that fire departments should select gear and load limits that meet their needs. All Photos by Russell McCullar Not long ago, I was explaining to one of my students that our training agency was undergoing …

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Capturing Your Passions Even When Your Aren’t Looking For Them: Inspiration, Motivation or Interest?

“SET YOUR OWN STANDARDS, AND I PERSONALLY THINK YOU SHOULD SET THEM VERY HIGH.” Let’s start with a compression-tension example for life… pulling and pushing forces. Inspiration is something that you feel on the inside, while motivation is something from the outside that compels you to take action. Inspiration is a driving force, while motivation …

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Planning Your Future With Excellence In Rigging

“IF THERE’S A LOT OF GOOD PLANNING AHEAD OF TIME, YOU’RE REALLY ABLE TO EMBRACE THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE, AS OPPOSED TO HAVING A LOT OF QUESTIONS AND NOT KNOWING WHAT YOU’RE DOING.” Jimmy Chin I would like to  impart several lessons about managing a practice rigging exercise (session) that are applicable to all riggers.  By …

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Anchoring: Focus Floating Guying Concepts

Obviously anchoring as a concept is a huge topic.  The variations in any given anchoring course can range wildly depending on the vision, scope, knowledge and imagination a give team or person has.  Here is what a typical anchoring course would look like.  I have rounded them out to 10 topics. Anchor Points Selection and …

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Want To Be A Dirtbag?

I’ve had a lot of bad ideas so I get pretty excited when I have a good one.  The Crackerjack Group recently held a “flyer” of a class we dubbed The Dirtbag Clinic..  and it worked. The idea came about because we had some friends in town for the Mountain Rescue Association Conference and they …

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Tools vs Knowledge And Which Is More Important?

So before I jump into this, let’s get the definition correct here.  Knowing there are deflected meanings to words these days, I am not referring to people or a person as a “tool” ( The Urban Dictionary has it this way… A guy with a hugely over-inflated ego, who in an attempt to get un-due …

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3 Steps To Building Your Rigging Quiver Part 1

Question: Two or More Vectors Added Together = Applied Force = Resultant I think we all want the best.  We want a stellar life.  But when you get past things like  Marriage?  Kids?  Friends? You might think of cars, houses and jobs… then what?  If we are honest with ourselves, we are struggling with at …

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Getting To Know Project Director and Partner Craig McClure of The Crackerjack Group

I’ve known Craig for many years now and felt super comfortable in having him lead our workshops over the last six months.  During this time, we pooled some ideas together and wondered what a mega-course might look like.  Knowing the work and resources it took to finish and produce our amazingly successful 5 Day Advance …

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