To Be Perfectly Clear...

The rules for bunker gear have been unchanged since the Challenge started twenty years ago. For ease of interpretation, we simply adopted NFPA 1971. Companies who make a business in the protective apparel market provide representatives to the 1971 Technical Committee. This committee writes the testing standards that everyone has agreed to follow.

We have observed a major paradigm shift from rubber to leather boots over these past two decades. Very few Competitors wear rubber boots. Starting with Ranger footwear in 1992, we’ve had several companies sponsor the footwear category. For the past four years, Globe Footwear has provided over 70 pairs of boots as “loaners.”

Knowing that the ergonomics of footwear are very important in sport, it’s not surprising that a disproportionate amount of attention has been directed to form, fit and function. Removing the steel shank while reducing the weight, is illegal. So is wearing a non-NFPA compliant boot.

If you don’t have a legal boot, you’re welcome to borrow a pair of Globes. We will be inspecting for compliance including a valid NFPA 1971 label. Also note, resoled boots must likewise be compliant with NFPA guidelines.

Chiefy, LLC: Dive Adventures

If you’ve been in the Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge for about six plus years, you’ll remember Deerfield Beach, the Blowout and a few World Challenge events just a few hundred feet from the Atlantic Ocean. The man, the myth, the legend behind this brainchild was none other than Jim Mathie, division chief for the Deerfield Fire Department. Not having seen Jim in a few years, I called him up and he and I, and our respective wives had a nice cruise Friday on his 29’ SeaVee, powered by twin Mercury 250HP-outboards. Jim is enjoying retirement to the max and has discovered the world of branding. If you saw the movie Jaws, then you know that Roy Scheider got the nickname “Chiefy” and was the slayer of Jaws, the maniacal shark that was terrorizing New England.

In Jim Mathie’s case, he’s the guy terrorizing the spiny lobsters off the coast of Boca Raton. Jim’s writing a book on how to catch lobsters and has brought out a logo’d line of Chiefy Dive Adventures apparel. I can’t think of a more idyllic lifestyle; putting in 30 years in a job you love and spending the rest of your life doing your favorite avocation: diving.

One of the sad parts of a length of service retirement program is that people sometimes believe that they’re going to do all these marvelous things, but really don’t plan to make it happen. Taking a dirt nap a year or so after you’ve retired isn’t what most people have in mind. But without taking care of your health and fitness, you’re leaving way too much to chance.

Putting effort into your personal fitness pays dividends now in the form of a safer and more effective firefighter, and this effort is “deposits“ that you put into the bank of longevity. Time has a way of flying; and the more years you accrue, it seems the faster the markers fly by. I’m probably preaching to the choir as participants of the Challenge “get it.”

I hope all of you max out your retirement, and continue to enjoy all the active lifestyle things that you always wanted to do- and have the body with which to do it. If you end up looking for lobsters, check out Jim’s website: www.Chiefy.net- you might just find yourself among that rare 6% of divers who actually catch bugs.

Flirting with the Rules

From its inception, the Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge has used the NFPA standards (1971) as the criteria for enforcing uniformity in what constitutes legal bunker gear. We’ve had “players” over the years who have sought an advantage by bending, if not breaking the rules. Last year, we got serious about enforcing the footwear rule. There was some unexpected push back. Understand that in our infancy, leather boots were a rare sight. Now, there’s not a serious competitor who’s playing in anything other than leather. The ergonomic advantages are significant. Knowing what we do about weight, i.e., a pound on the foot is worth 5 on the back, everyone wants to go light. If the boot does not have a label stating that it is compliant, i.e., vapor barrier, toe cap and protective shank, then why push it?

Globe has done an incredible job on creating a great product and that’s evidenced in the numbers of Challenge competitors who have switched. It’s difficult to ensure that every single competitor is playing by the rules. It takes a dedicated official to screen for adherence. Firefighters, being honorable people rarely cheat. But, unfortunately, a few do, making us now screen everyone to the best of our ability. At this stage of the game, “I didn’t know” doesn’t cut it. If ever there was a population that does know NFPA 1971, its the competitors of the Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge.

It’s my best hope for season 20 that everyone steps up and plays fair. Look for the label. This coming March, John Granby and I will do the front-end screening on the 1500 firefighters who will be participating in the Scott Seattle Stair Climb. Same rules apply. We’re hoping that playing fair is a universal attribute of firefighters everywhere.

Those Thrilling Days of Yesteryear

I’m departing from my usual weekly posting about Challenge-related stuff to talk about lifestyles of the rich and famous, and the not so famous. This past week, we were hit with a snow storm that created as much chaos, if not more than the aftermath of the 9.11 attack on the Pentagon. That event resulted in my brother taking about 8 hours to get across the 14th Street Bridge. (He hasn’t reported his experiences of Wednesday yet, but I know I’m in for a treat.)

This past week’s event was equally devastating because the temperature was hovering just below freezing, instantly making highways icy, coupled with the mad rush of hundreds of thousands of federal civil servants dashing for the exits. I, on the other hand, have beaten the masses- as I’m working from the home office. But, I did have a short errand to run- just a mile away and so, what the heck. It didn’t take long, but confirmed the advice of the sagacious: if you don’t have to go anywhere, don’t.

Around 9PM, I heard what sounded like the clap of a 155mm round. And, instantly, darkness. Actually, not darkness inside because the TV is on a UPS. But, I knew in an instant that a transformer had shut off. However, I knew that this was not a mere interruption, but more likely the real deal: major outage. PEPCo, the supplier to DC and most of Montgomery County has been excoriated in the Washington Post for their poor performance in restoring power. They went from one of the best in the nation to a place near the bottom. This started about the time that they stopped their preventive tree-trimming program, and I live in a forest.

Temperatures have been well below normal for the past 8 weeks and I was reasonably prepared for the siege. A black walnut tree that was near death had been taken down, aged and split and stacked in preparation. Twenty gallons of water was staged in the closet, and about 10 gallons of gasoline stored with the reliable Honda generator in the garden shed.

The first thing you do in this situation is call PEPCo and get into the cue. But, with 200,000 households, that’s pretty much a futile exercise. Most of these people were well ahead of me. The lesson learned from the three days without power is that we have it so easy today. Central heating, indoor plumbing, etc. Think about what our ancestors did to survive. Food, fuel and water dominated their consciousness. I’m sure someone has done the research on the time spent on sustenance activities. I could see where it could occupy over half of your waking hours.

The absence of electricity changes everything. The Internet does not work. And since all my TV content comes through the router, you’re out of luck there. This is a total electric house, so even the family room fireplace has a heat-a-lator which runs on 110v. So that fireplace is pretty useless. The downstairs one, however is an insert and will crank out a lot of BTUs, but has to be fed about every 35 minutes!

The other essential household product is the Honda snowblower. Forget the shoveling exercises; this is the “must have” man toy! It makes short work of the seemingly acres of driveway and sidewalks- and adds a great feeling of superiority when you drive by 40 of the neighbor’s houses, with their kids hand shoveling the tons of snow. Throwing snow 50 feet is way cool. But after last year’s 5 plus feet, it has lost some of its allure.

We’re on a well; you can use the toilets, but you must flush them with the backup, 5-gallon water bottles. The Honda generator serves the important role of keeping the refrigerator running. It can handle a few other tasks, based upon an assemblage of extension cords strewn through out the house. This is hardly primitive living; after all, with the insulation rating, the house retains heat for a very long time. But yesterday when I heard the HVAC unit kick on, it was like a miracle, as though you fast-forwarded through 150 years in an instant.

In the 1800’s, if you were very wealthy, you had servants who stoked the fires, drew the water, and did all the menial tasks. Today, we have electricity that does all this and so much more. Being reduced for a few days to survival mode is a great learning experience, making me more appreciative for the modern miracles that are a part of my everyday life. We’re doing things today that I could never have imagined while in college, or even a few years ago. In the height of the storm, with the power out, I was still checking my email- on my iPad!

I had a professor who had to be 80+. He used to talk constantly about the “good old days.” I think this guy had attended Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. His take on things: “You want the good old days? You can have them. I like my shirts that come back from the laundry all wrapped up.” That was 40 years ago. Now, you just take them out of the dryer, ready to go!

Taken in context, these small crises make us reflect on how much we have and how good we’ve got it!

Check Out What $45M Gets You

Friday, January 22 I had the privilege of getting the “Cook’s Tour” of the Indian River State College public safety campus. I have to admit that I was completely unprepared for what met my eye. Just a few miles off the intersection of Florida Turnpike and I-95, the back roads that meandered past some stands of pines and a few structures seemed to be taking me to yet another remote training academy.

When I made the left turn onto Kirby Loop Road, the “Taj Mahal” of Public Safety training academies beckoned. Not to spoil the suspense, but you’ll want to bring your Ez-Up, lawn chairs and coolers for our three-day culmination of Season 20. This is the first drill tower that I’ve seen with stainless steel railings, windows and doors. “Built to Last” is a moniker that quickly comes to mind.

I signed the contract, so, we’re a “Go” for this event, October 28, 29 and 30.

The Blog vs. the Forum & More Team Discussion

To the fullest extent possible, we want to provide all of our Challenge athletes the opportunity to be connected- to know what’s going on, and where we’re going. The Blog does have a feature that allows readers to post their comments. In response to my last editorial, I received three such notes. The forum is more free-ranging and affords a very relaxed environment to share opinions. We try to monitor the content, and provide responses when possible. I’m always available by email or telephone. I have never knowingly ignored either.

To further clarify my last posted remarks: We have elected to follow the Olympic model in our attempt to make the Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge a truly international event. The analogy to the Olympics is universally understood and pre-dates our 20-year protocol with a century of experience.

As the number of foreign teams rise, so will the attendant interest from the general media increase. This creates much more sponsorship opportunities, since a team trumps the focus on a single individual.

I can not say with certainty when we will reach critical mass and allow only one US Team to participate in a truly World Championship, but I do believe that the day is coming. In all likelihood, the event will be held in Berlin, where each of the EU members will be sending a team.

The interests expressed in increasing the numbers of open class, non-team affiliated competitors would be one of the logical extensions of an expanded US National Championship. Of course, at that time, we’ll be in the same boat as the USOC in trying to sort out who’s on the representative team; will it be comprised of the best, or the team that won? Stay tuned.

It's a TEAM Sport

Our World Wide Vision for the Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge

Paul O. Davis, Ph.D.

Creator, Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge

©2011, On•Target Communications

For those of you who took the time to send us your comments about how we structured the playoffs, I want to take this opportunity to provide you with our perspective on where we want to go with the Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge.

From its inception twenty years ago, the competition has been built around the Team category. As you know, you can have up to five members on your team. For teams who earn either a bye or a slot in the final day, all of their members, regardless of an individual’s time, advance into the finals. Sometimes, the unexpected happens and a person who had not thought to be “in the zone” ends up adding to the total.

Several years into the competition, we recognized that there were individual athletes who had a shot at winning the King of the Jungle title, but were not on a team. The Individual category was then created to address this inequity. Since the majority of the fastest players were already on teams, the number of “open class” individuals was not very large. By allowing the 3 fastest individuals a slot, we were pretty sure that the fastest competitor would be allowed a shot at the title, even if they weren’t on a team. This last year, we had considerably more than 3 people competing as an individual. In fact, we had 64 competitors not on teams running on the final day.

As the interest in the Challenge began to expand globally, we began to look at the competition as a true, World event. To encourage foreign growth, we tendered offers to foreign national teams to attend our event. They were awarded byes to ensure that we would take on a truly international flavor. After all, if we’re going to call this the World Challenge, then we need to have teams from outside of North America in the event.

The interest expressed by foreign national teams now numbers to be more than a dozen. Ultimately, the World Challenge will be comprised of only one team from each participating country, much like the Olympics. You’ll have to win that spot and represent your country. Each nation’s team will be their country’s champion, regardless of their time. Some like the Jamaican bob sled team won’t be very good. But they will have earned the right to represent their country.

In all likelihood, the World Championship will move around the globe. What we presently call World Challenge will become the US Nationals. And just like MLB, the NFL, etc., if you’re a member of a team, even if you’re the water boy, you get a ring if your team wins.

There is no intention to denigrate the stellar performances of anyone in the Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge who has a time less than 2 minutes, 100 seconds, or less. It’s just that the structure of the Team competition is foremost in our promotional efforts.