Construction equipment operators vie in crane rodeo

At the Crane Rodeo, the action moved at a snail’s pace.

Stever Frein, an instructor for West Coast Training in Woodland, was first to hop in the telescoping boom crane during the competition on a foggy Saturday morning.

Whether he would win one of two available trips to the 2014 National Crane Operator Rodeo Championships in Las Vegas depended on how smoothly and swiftly he could maneuver the towering machine during such descriptive events as “Place Ball in Drum” and “Stand and Move Pipe.”

Think how tricky it is to grasp a stuffed animal with one of those grocery store claw machines. Now imagine that on a monumental scale.

It’s the first time the Crane Institute Certification company and Maximum Capacity Media have held one of their qualifiers in this area. Industrial Training International hosted the event at their Woodland facility, where simulated construction accident scenes — complete with “bodies” — serve as grisly reminders of the true nature of the event, to highlight the intensive training needed to work such complicated, and potentially deadly, machines.

But Frein wasn’t thrilled when he stepped down from the machine.

“I think I looked pretty bad, I’ll tell you the truth,” he said as Janet wrapped her arms around him. “But it was fun,” he added, punctuated by a hearty “Ha!”

“We would be proud of him no matter what,” said Frein’s son Nate, a graduate student studying biology at Washington State University Vancouver. Nate’s 3-year-old Iasem was nearby, following his grandfather’s lead by picking up rocks and placing them in orange plastic safety cones. “Can cranes reach higher than people?” he asked.

There was camaraderie among crane operators, even though they were trying to top one another.

Portland-based manufacturer Sulzer Pumps sent two contenders: Material Handling Supervisor Jeff Ellis and his subordinate Kevin Parrish. They came as a lark, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be some chest puffing come Monday from Parrish, who bested his boss in both time and precision. “I let him win,” Ellis joked.

“On a job site, bragging rights are worth a lot,” said Sulzer Pump’s Kurtis Hammersteadt.

At first Frein was modest about his performance, but as the events went on, it seemed his 850 score wouldn’t be beat.

That was until Andrew Seid, who flew in from Idaho for the competition, blew everyone away with 395 points. A lower tally meant there were fewer mistakes, and Seid’s incredibly low score proved insurmountable.

Frein, who uses a crane for “15 minutes a month” at most, ended up ranking second under Seid, enough for an invite to Vegas in March. There were a few hiccups during Frein’s performance, but the steady hand and instincts he developed in decades on the job served him well.

“Local geezer makes good,” fellow West Coast Training instructor Ray Breazeale recommended for this story’s headline.