About Me.
Part 1:
I thought I would write about how my life has evolved to writing my journal, on how I succeeded at the age of 67 to climb trees freestyle safely. This means climbing unaided by safety equipment and which is keeping me the fittest I have ever been. I wanted to find a way of living life to the fullest and not allowing my past to catch up with me and become my tragedy.
In my opinion the art of tree climbing can benefit everyone but especially those who have endured serious life challenges. Trees are so healthy for mankind. We mustn’t destroy what is most abundant in nature.
My adventures in climbing trees is more than just being able to climb up to the tree top and back down safely. It’s about putting me in touch with nature in a manner I’ve never experienced before.
Why did I start to climb trees freestyle?
I would like to cast you back into the life of my younger self at a time when my awareness of life’s challenges was limited. Unfortunately I went on to experience family traumas that could have left me mentally scarred and wondering how I might pick up the pieces and carry on.
One day I decided to climb twenty feet up a tree to get a better look at a cricket match. I didn’t think much about the branch I was standing on. Unfortunately it snapped under my weight and I fell 20 feet landing on my back. Fortunately all I suffered were a few bruises.
I left school without any qualifications. I was unaware I would soon be following in my mother’s footsteps and enjoy a successful career in the Antiques Trade.
During a business trip in my thirties I spent ten days immersing myself into extreme sports in Queenstown New Zealand. There I enjoyed skiing off-piste, tandem parachuting, bungee jumping, white water rafting etc. In all I tried out a dozen different death-defying sports getting professional guidance from most of them but even then there was still a risk.
Little did I know aged 49 I would be diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome. It was after my wife watched a documentary about a newly discovered condition that could affect older Adults; Aspergers. Yet unbeknown to me my wife had her own demon with her own tumultuous relationship with depression. Two years later she took her life by jumping from the roof of a block of flats.
This is an example of life seriously getting in the way. Somehow you survive what has happened. No doubt others have had their own tragedies to cope with. The question I’m asking is have you managed to get yourself back onto your feet with all of your emotional scars? It is the world of tree climbing that has saved me.
By no means has my journey into tree climbing been an easy one. Six months after I began my adventures into tree climbing during the summer of 2019 my eldest son pleaded with me by saying, “Dad we don’t need you to fall just like Mum did”. Like it or not I had no choice but take the words he said very seriously. I needed to to learn to climb trees by minimising the risk to myself.
To explain how I became as fit as I am now I want to cast you back to the beginning of 2016. I hadn’t been doing too well in my personal life. It had been recommended I take a break and spend time on my own.
I decided to live in a remote part of the British Isles but within a couple of hours away from my family and my 87 year old mother who I would always cherish. In some respects she has been my rock to lean on as some mothers are with their children no matter how old they are.
Portland where I lived, is connected by a three mile causeway to the Dorset Coast. I was to spend the next eighteen months completely alone trying to find a way to fix myself.
Being on my own gave me a chance to find out who I really was. I became more mentally resilience to the traumas of my past. I was living in wild countryside surrounded by steep cliffs where I could embrace dangerous but also breathtaking scenery. I was actually in my element living there so there were no worries about feeling alone.
Throughout my life especially in my antiques business I visited many exotic places with amazing scenery. I travelled alone. I had spent the equivalent of two years of my life travelling around the US for my business. In that time I thought I would settle in Phoenix Arizona, a place where I once spent five summers in my early twenties.
While not digressing too much away from my story I also found love with the small town of Idyllwild California where I hiked to the summit of Mount Jacinto twice. The mountainous countryside surrounding Idyllwild is to die for. I was fascinated by the local trees. Whenever I travelled throughout the US I had several passions; driving through the dessert of Arizona, down route 1 from LA to San Francisco, the Californian Redwoods and Sequoias in Sequoia Park and Yosemite. Little did I know how much influence trees would have over the direction my life was taking me in.
In January 2016, when I had been living in Portland for six months, I heard about Project Climbing Centre in Poole. Twice a week I would make the 106 mile round trip from where I lived to visit the centre. I had discovered a new passion; indoor bouldering. This was to be the beginning of my fitness transformation. At that time I weighed 16 stone 5lb. Fast forward to April 2021 and I weigh 13 stone 10lb.
After two months of climbing at the centre a couple of teenagers told me they belonged to a gymnastics club. They suggested having watched the way I climbed that I should give their club a go. I joined it and was now making a round trip drive of 115 miles three to four times a week. Whether I liked it or not I would be spending 45 minutes in a class. I was pretty much a loner but at class I would learn stretching and basic gymnastics with a few minutes at the end for time on my own. Here I would find love for gym rings and without realising it I enrolled myself into hand balancing and calisthenics.
I relocated to Poole and for the next eighteen months I was living within a five minutes walk of the Project Climbing Centre. But by May 2018 I started a new life back in London a stone’s throw away from where I grew up in Finchley, North London. Little did I know at the age of 65 I would meet my future wife in London. Our first rendezvous was in Trent Park.
Coincidentally when I was first married with a young family I was living near to Trent Park Enfield London. Little did I know this woman I had fallen for had a home overlooking Trent Park which has at least 500 climbable trees.
Fate had brought me back to a park where I would learn everything I wanted to know about trees and thus began my present life journey. Not too far away was Lee Valley Athletics Centre; home to Olympics hopefuls. I was now hooked on to sprinting along their indoor running track, walking their outdoor Monkey Bars and climbing onto their Gym Rings.
Part II: Then we had lockdown; Gyms were closed and Tree Top Man is born.
Expect to see a short movie to be filmed this coming autumn where I explain how I get into tree climbing and the techniques I adopted to reduce risk. My movie persona is Tree Top Man.
Tree Top Man who during the pandemic enhanced the concept that fitness training in nature has comparative health advantages over working out at home or gym.
Children are generally fit from the ages of two climbing on a tree is naturally part of a child’s inquisitive nature. They have a natural dexterity and flexibility through constantly moving and they enjoy their adventures until their teenage years. As young adults some will dive in to the fitness world lifting weights, gymnastics, HIIT and the many other forms of activity. Others will become sedentary.
Unlike humans many animals climb trees throughout their lives; monkeys; bears; big cats and other animals you wouldn’t associate with climbing trees. Wouldn’t it be great if more people were inspired by animals to do a little climbing of their own.
My adventure in the world of tree climbing has evolved. Admittedly to learn I climbed high up a tree that was risky to climb. But I did it in stages. It would take several climbs before I familiarised myself with all of the risks and climbed as high as the trunk allowed me to do safely. From hereon climbing trees was no longer a novelty. I wanted to teach myself to safely climb to the treetops. Eighteen months into my tree climbing adventures I achieved that objective on a 60 foot tree in Kenwood Park by Hampstead Heath.
What you see on social media however is only part of my story.
What you won’t see are the exercises that I have formulated that have given me a cast iron grip and keep me safe. Exercises that require mental innovation and ingenuity. While many can be achieved in nature, much of these exercises have been done in my home and without exercise equipment. All will be divulged when my book “Climbing to the tree tops” comes out next year.