the golden boy

davi ariza began working on the ground with us the day after arriving here in the states sometime in january of 08'. as a beginner on the crew, all he did was drag brush and cleanup. but he was always watching. his father was a climber for me at the time. i had no idea how intently he had been watching until the first time i saw him up in a tree. we had to get deadwood out from a huge monstrosity of an oak tree and when i got back to the job davi was all the way out at the tip of a huge 35' foot long lower limb sawing off dead wood. wow....his movements seemed awfully familiar. then it dawned on me. in the summer past we had scott forest and james kilpatrick working with us. davi had obviously been watching these guys and had internalized the imagery. coupled with the fact that davi has a natural predisposition for tree climbing his evolution as a tree climber has been just amazing.