Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
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MIDAIR — There's more than one way to cut down a tree, and this might be the scariest one.
According to the video description, a particular palm tree was becoming dangerous to the neighborhood in which it lived in San Bernardino, California.
Now, sometimes when a troublesome and tall tree is threatening a neighborhood, you can't cut it from the bottom. You have to cut it in pieces starting at the top down.
That method is all well and good, say, with a large maple or an overgrown pine tree. But palm trees are different in a way that makes them seem as though they were invented by cartoonists just for a visual gag.
For example, in this video, a man shimmies up to the tippy top of the incredibly tall palm tree. Now palm trees have very flexible trunks, so climbing to the tippy top doesn't necessarily mean you climb higher, it can mean you climb sideways as the tree bends under your weight.
Eventually, this man bends the tree with his weight, so when he cuts off the top of the tree — bo-oi-oi-oi-ng — the trunk springs up with the loss of the weight of the treetop, just like a cartoonist would need it to for a visual gag.
But in the terms of human safety, this particular tree endeavor looks to be a terrifying experience as the man swings back and forth, gripping his tree trunk tight. Even though it's clear he wouldn't do this without safety gear, that's no comfort when you're watching the video. Especially when you realize his cutting device is probably a live chainsaw.
To start watching at the part where he cuts the top off the tree, start the video at 44 seconds.
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