This year’s WAA Tree Climbing Competition was one for the books. We had 45 climbers register for the 2024 event, with seven women climbers and seven first time competitors. This was our biggest event to date, attracting talented climbers from in and out of state to compete. Not only did the new location with a longer commute not deter people from attending, the numbers this year were up all around. We had climbers join us from Minnesota, Alabama, Florida, and Illinois to mix it up with our Wisconsin climbers for a more exciting event. Of course, the event would not even be possible without the dedicated support from our volunteers that showed up with such great energy. We had world class help from Ohio, Alabama, Illinois, Kentucky, and Minnesota to strengthen our ranks for this year’s event. The volunteers always give their all to make our TCC the success that it is.
We are following the WAA plan to keep our events moving around the state to better highlight our organization to more of the public. We were fortunate to have a new host site in River Falls, WI. A special “Thanks,” to the diligence and the hard work of our committee, especially our TCC committee member Trevor Novacek, being knowledgeable of our event needs, he coordinated the efforts to meet with community leaders and organized the pruning needs prior to the event. There were so many community leaders that stopped by to say how they admired how the event was organized. We even had the local EMS service on site the whole weekend, fully engaged in experiencing our event.
We awarded the Spirit of the Competition to our Volunteer winner Sydney Hudzinski Huber, and our Spirit of the Competition competitor winner was Jasper Bartholomew. They both were glowing examples of what sportsmanship is and the passion for our industry displayed was admirable. “Thank you,” also goes to Kevin Hamm for his company’s donation of the Norm Hall sling for the recipient. We also recognized the best team spirit and awarded them as team champions. The Norm Hall distinguished service award was given to Mike Wendt, honored for his decades of service to the WAA TCC. He was announced the recipient at the event and will receive his award at the annual conference. The top five finishers in each preliminary event were posted along with the Master Challenge placements. The top placements in the masters challenge will be awarded their plaques at the annual conference in Green Bay, WI.
We want to congratulate our 2024 WAA TCC champions Sam Finco and Johanna O’Boyle, they will represent our chapter at the ISA ITCC in New Zealand next year.
Our event raffle giveaway to volunteers and climbers was an exciting time, where everyone in attendance received a prize. It was a great turnout of spectators and so many people stayed to hang out together. There were some fun times to be had by many who had time to get together after the event, sharing stories, laughing, and recalling memories from the day.
We definitely would not have made this all possible without the dedicated support of our long-time sponsors! Altec, Arbsession, Hoppe Tree care, Sava tree, Cut N Go, American Tree experts, Steven Bassett, Gollnick & sons, Heartwood Tree, Wachtel tree science, Dorshak, Crawford, M & M Tree Service, @Height, GJKohler Trees & more. Thank you all for the continued support! As always, we will have our annual WAA TCC meeting at the annual conference in Green Bay, WI. We will share updated and current information about next year’s TCC event. We look forward to the 2025 TCC event, and plan to announce the host site for next year at the conference. Stay tuned and climb safe!
