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A time for laughter.. a time for celebration. 18-Aug-2008 At 8:29:00 PM Turtle Wall

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On 16/07/2008 penguinator wrote:
>Well the good news has arrived... The lazy military adventure trainers
>have finally agreed to certify me to use the COMPLETELY un-used large indoor
>rockclimbing wall situated about a 5 minute walk away from my accommodation
>on the base. It literally sits there...and they refuse to let people use
>it based on the fact that they cant always supervise un-certified people,
>but up until now were too lazy to certify them.
>
>A lot of climbing is about to be done!
>
>Please share in my joy. I have not climbed anything since January.

I share in your joy PENGUINATOR for your new ability to use the very under utilised wall at CERBERUS.

I dont share in your obvious disregard for safety protocols and procedures put in place to protect not only yourself as a very able climber but also those that claim to be very able climbers. (there are far more of the latter than there is of yourself)

Exactly like climbing gyms the Government also has insurance requirments to meet and are covered by an insurance body known as COMCOVER. COMCOVER pay all the bills when things go wrong and also go head hunting to find out who let things go wrong.

If "the lazy military adventure trainers" let any self proclaimed expert climb on the wall at any time with no supervision and no certification, accidents, not unlike the climbing gym ones constantly promulgated on this forum would be a regular occurence.

These accidents are obviously no good for the persons involved nor any good for the tax paying public who will in turn then be paying compensation in the form of wages and rehabilitation for many more years to come to the accidentee. Of course those accidents would have most probably happened to members who told the "lazy military adventure trainers" that they climbed punks blindfolded wearing dunlop volleys and got certified by word of mouth.

I can understand your frustrations in what seem like a very menial and simple task to action, however there are far greater ramifications than can be seen from the surface as a very eager person to put into use an unused piece of equipment.

I ask you to imagine for a second that you have served some time in the Navy, gone to sea and maybe even decided to start a family. Sea time is tough with a family so you move to a shore base to spend time with that family, although you love your EXTRA work you also have a family you want to see grow up. Maybe now you can appreciate that those "lazy military adventure trainers" also have a life outside of work and only take on the role of adventure trainer in addition to there normal job as a love but also because the people who are supposed to fulfill that role (PTI's) have no interest in nor any intent in keeping the facilities that you have been so longing to use open.

You might also want to note that those "lazy military adventure trainers" spent the best part of 12 months fighting to keep the climbing wall open and trying to make climbing a bigger thing in the Navy. This 12 months wasnt exciting involving climbing everyday but more writing paper after paper on procedures and minimum safety standards that were to be followed to allow COMCOVER to give Navy the green light to continue using these under utilised facilities. Some of the stipulations where a certification process for climbers and belayers as well as basic safety standards that any reasonable person would follow.

Love your enthusiasm but dont love your ignorance in thinking those "lazy military adventure trainers" dont read this forum and dont put a great deal of effort into ensuring you and other eager people can use the facilities at all, let alone having to wait for a month or two to be certified in work time that you get paid for.

I bet one or two Chockstoners would like to get paid to go climbing on a facility they dont have to pay to use and is only a 2 minute walk from there home?

Hey at the end of the day you can think what you want "the lazy military adventure training instructors" and about the Navy and its regulations but at the end of the day be wise enough to realise it only takes one accident or even a near miss for the government beuracrats to implement a knee jerk reaction.

Maybe the dive school at PENGUIN will qualify anyone as a Clearance Diver if they tell them they can disarm an underwater mine?