What Happened To Mike Majors?

[chris_girard]

Do any of you guys remember the CA big woods climber and rigger Mike Majors? He did a big Redwood removal years ago with Don Blair, Ken Johnson and some others utilizing 2 Hobbs lowering devices and it was featured in TCI Mag?

I'm trying to track Mike down and ask him a few questions, but can't find him.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Never heard of the brother, but that's cool. I 'spect he's never heard of me, either.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Mike, I thought I remembered, but then the Mike I was thinking of was Mike Maas. Went through a rough time, I Hope he's doing well.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Mike was cool... sad about his daughter.

 

[Bodean]

I think Don Blair owns Serra Moreno in San Mateo....you could ask him.

 

[Merle Nelson]

Don shut down the San Mateo store (sent out a notification etc.). He is available at his home base for certain things. I would think that Arb History and talking about the greats would be one of them.

PM me if you want the last #or email I had for him. Goggle probably works too.

 

[Bodean]

Wow. Seems I only called a few years ago. Thanks for update Merle.

 

[chris_girard]

Fast forward to 1:50 of this video and see Mike Majors ziplining some really big pieces.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4l253AYD9ds" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Jomo]

Pretty dang ballsy speed linin no doubt!

He's got that steely look in iz eyes too...

Jomo

 

[cory]

That was cool! 108k views??!? That's a lot of views for a tree vid.

You should get Blair to join the TH!

 

[pantheraba]

Wow!! Big stuff there. He understands trees better than I do...I would be worried about those big pieces snapping the support tree.

 

[Jomo]

Yup, it's been a while since the oak man n euc man shook hands at the bar.

 

[MasterBlaster]

TCOB!!!

 

[chris_girard]

That was cool! 108k views??!? That's a lot of views for a tree vid.

You should get Blair to join the TH!

Won't happen, Don's a friend of mine and I've asked him about joining the site, but he stays away from public forums. For sure, he checks in and reads stuff. That's why about 6 months ago I posted about his new company and the closing of Sierra Moreno.

BTW, I asked Don awhile back if he still had Mike's contact info, but he too had lost track of him over the years.

 

[chris_girard]

Don shut down the San Mateo store (sent out a notification etc.). He is available at his home base for certain things. I would think that Arb History and talking about the greats would be one of them.

PM me if you want the last #or email I had for him. Goggle probably works too.

Thanks Merle. I have Don's cell no.

 

[chris_girard]

Pretty dang ballsy speed linin no doubt!

He's got that steely look in iz eyes too...

Jomo

That's what I thought too at first, but Mike is one of those quiet unsung big wood timber cutters and riggers, who REALLY knows his stuff and is confident in the pieces that he takes.

I too noticed Mike's eyes at the end of the video, holding his cup of coffee. That's the calmness from doing many years of jobs like that. It was easy for him.

Nice pic of you and Don by the way!

 

[Jed]

Oh, man that was cool. Thanks Chris. Can't imagine "fast forwarding" any of that vid. It's got a weird nostalgia for me.

 

[Mick!]

Very good stuff.

 

[pete mctree]

Some awesome big tree work there.

 

[chris_girard]

Here is where I first read about Mike years ago. On the cover of TCI mag from Nov 2001 is a picture of Ken Johnson and Don Blair working the ground on a big Redwood that Mike is piecing out...in log lengths. Flip to page 13 (15 of 126) of the pdf file to read the whole story and see the pics.

http://tcia.org/sites/tcia.org/files/tci-magazine/11-2001-TCI-Mag.pdf

 

[chris_girard]

BTW, Don's article (in the same issue) of rigging out a huge storm damaged Hickory on a building is also well worth reading.

Here's a link to Don's new company.

https://sierramoreno.com/

 

[cory]

Was Mike a sub for Blair?

I remember those articles, they were quite interesting, but a lil hard to follow for me. For example Don B wrote in the redwood story that, "Pull was generated using a running vector force rope." Wish I knew what he meant, sounds like fun.

Too bad Blair doesn't want to join in here. We've been contrasting FB and TH in another thread, is Blair a FB guy rather than a forum guy? Since he puts vids on the net, he must be somehow into "sharing"

 

[chris_girard]

Well it's kind of confusing.

In the TCI article, it's Don Blair subcontracting for Mike Majors.

In the video that I linked here, it's Mike Majors subcontracting for an arborist named Blair Glenn. Here's his website

http://www.saratogatreeservice.com/

Two different Blairs, same Mike

 

[cory]

In the video that I linked here, it's Mike Majors subcontracting for an arborist named Blair Glenn.

Yup, that's what i meant.

Interesting website overall, and interesting he dosesnt directly advertise tree removal/pruning etc.

 

[chris_girard]

I agree Cory.