With staff located across the country, and in fact, around the world, it's rare that Ronin has enough downtime to get together, review changes to the industry, play with new gear, exchange ideas, and most importantly of all - GET ON ROPE!
But luckily, we found some white space in the second week of last month, and got 14 of our top end instructors from across Canada together at Ronin HQ in Coquitlam, BC, for a week of shenanigans.
I say 'shenanigans'......we started off going over confined space regulations.......Now, I'll admit. This is the boring side of the job. It's not all high speed, high angle, rope rescue coolness. That's what happens when things go wrong.... But an ounce of prevention is worth a couple gallons of cure, or whatever the saying is, and so if you can help your clients NOT get in a position that they need rescue, well - A) you're proving you're worth what you're charging; and B) it's far cheaper than lawsuits/OSHA investigations/bad press... or worse! So we went over permits, hazard assessments, rescue planning, gas monitors etc.
That's Day 1.
Day 2 began with some small diameter systems review, anchor options intro (New beam clamps from Eyolf , the QRAB and RAFA from Highnovate , the CTOMS Trace Kit , and our own Ronin Bash kit, an 8mm system designed by cave rescue professionals for multi-pitch rigging in confined spaces. We've used this quite a bit up and down the coast of BC as the small size is all that is allowed on float planes!
Day 3 -
Day 3 began with a review of the new SPRAT updates (all of our instructors are at least a SPRAT Level 1), then straight into the training area to practice our rope access techniques.
Day 4 -
Day 4 began with Ed, our VP Operations for Ronin USA, going over our 'Rescue the Rescuer' program (RTR), from genesis, through the first iterations of courses in the USA in 2021, to how the program is running nowadays. That afternoon was spent running a few mini-RTR scenarios - namely a failed skate block, and failed reeve line on a highline. A small slice of what students are exposed to on the full RTR!
The final day was spent going over AHD's with our resident AHD expert, Kevin, who blinded em with science and review all the on-label, and off-label, ways we can employ Arizona Vortex's and Terradaptors. Tie backs were the flavour of the day!!
All in all, a great chance to get Ronin staff from across the country into one location, play on some rope, bounce some ideas off each other, and make sure we are at the top of our craft. Which we will never be, but that's the point. Continue striving for greatness!
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