For the line trade, it’s all about keeping the lights and power on for customers. For one special week each year, however, lineworkers and their loved ones travel to Kansas City for the Lineman’s Rodeo. The event celebrated its 40th year in 2024 with line apprentices and journeymen lineworkers from all over North America and supporters from around the world.
To get the Lineman’s Rodeo Week off to a safe start, the International Lineman’s Rodeo Association (ILRA) partnered with its sponsors — Honeywell Salisbury, NECA, Tempest Energy and IBEW Local 47 and 66 — to present a one-and-a-half-day Safety and Training Conference at the Overland Park Convention Center.
“Hopefully these two days will help you guys and gals to be safer on the job,” Chad Schimpf said, a journeyman lineworker for Ameren Illinois who led this year’s safety conference after sharing his personal injury story two years ago. “That’s what the safety conference is all about.”
About 300 people registered for the conference, which was a good turnout for the 40th anniversary of the Lineman’s Rodeo, says Rustin Owen, a member of the ILRA safety and training committee and safety observer at the International Lineman’s Rodeo. Along with line apprentices, journeyman lineworkers and supervisors, students from Metropolitan Community College-Kansas City actively participated in the safety discussions. Owen says it’s very important for students to attend and learn more their future careers in the line trade. It also reinforces the importance of safety, not just in the classroom, but also when they move out into the field and start their apprenticeship programs.
Beyond the line students, several journeyman lineworkers from the 249th Engineer Battalion also attended the conference. Owen, who helped to start the U.S. Army Prime Power training school for lineworkers at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, says he appreciated having them in attendance.
“I worked very hard to build that school for the Army linemen and seeing the teams grow to this amount has been great,” he said. “It's almost like having a legacy that you get to see grow every year. It's very important to me and I love to see them in the safety conference to press that on.”
Protecting Workers
This year, the conference focused on everything from proper hydration and heat exhaustion to situational awareness and personal protective equipment. Because lineworkers often work outside in extreme temperatures, they can often get prolonged exposure to heat. The attendees learned how to protect themselves against the dangers of dehydration by listening to the keynote presentation by Dylon Koch from the Working Athlete. Koch told the lineworkers that to keep their bodies in proper working order, they must focus on proper hydration.
“The most important piece of equipment you own is your body,” Koch stressed during his presentation. “We can have the best fall protection, hard hats and PPE, but if your body shuts down, none of the other stuff matters at the end of the day.”
To further safeguard lineworkers from heat-related injuries, illnesses and fatalities, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proposed a standard, which is now open for public comments. Throughout many of the presentations, the speakers discussed possible future changes to safety practices due to this standard, Owen says.
“This year we're focusing on some of the new regulations with OSHA and heat stress and things of that nature,” Owen said. “We've had people come in and talk about hydration, how important it is and the fabrics that are going in with it.”
For example, Brad Sipe from Lakeland Industries described moisture-wicking FR fabrics and their role with heat and cold stress. He also emphasized the importance of proper layering of FR clothing for maximum comfort and protection.
The conference not only educated the attendees about PPE, but also situational awareness. For example, Ryan Kearney from Critical Incident Preparedness Systems LLC and Chris Gandia from Strategic Training & Response Systems LLC taught the lineworkers how to recognize rage and aggression from angry customers or bystanders. To drive this point home, they also engaged in a demonstration on stage on what to do if a possible assailant has a weapon such as a knife or a gun.
The discussion about public safety continued with a presentation by Endeavour Energy’s Riley Bryn, who traveled from Sydney, Australia to Kansas City to share his story.
“I’ve been in the industry for 22 years, and this has always been something on my bucket list to come and see the Rodeo and how you guys do it over here,” Bryn said. “I’m keen to explore different contacts and collaborate with different utilities. We have a growing population in Australia and a lot of infrastructure development, and I’m sure we can learn a lot from each other.”
During his presentation, he talked about damage prevention and public safety and how different workers interact with power lines.
“There is a lot of situational awareness that needs to be thought about, planned for and prepared for on work sites,” Bryn said.
On the first day of the conference, the attendees also learned about crew leadership from Eric Kapitulik from the Program Leadership. Before his presentation, he shared his thoughts about what makes a good leader.
“Just because you are a lineman doesn’t mean you are a great supervisor of linemen,” he said. “We have to develop our people. Most organizations do a great job of developing technical skills, but we need to develop leadership skills too.”
During the second day of the conference, lineworkers once again had the opportunity to hear a personal injury story, this time from Josh Simpson from Ameren Illinois. Mike Starner from the National Electrical Contractors Association also explored the progression of safety from the past to the present to the future, and Deb Short from Ameren Illinois rounded out the 2024 conference with her session, “The Keys to Longevity.”
Exploring the Expo
Following the morning safety conference, hundreds of conference attendees rode the escalator up to the second floor, where they lined up for the 2024 International Lineman’s Expo. They formed three lines to enter the doors of the Exhibit Hall, where they could participate in raffle drawings, test out tools and technologies and pick up giveaways to bring home.
Scott Woodruff, apprentice lineworker for Eversource Energy, says his company brought out two journeyman teams and three apprentices from Connecticut. After competing in the regional Connecticut Rodeo for two years, he says 2024 was the first time he competed at the International Lineman’s Rodeo.
“I thought I had the best job in the world until I became a power company lineman, and then I realize I now have the best job,” Woodruff said, who worked for a utility company for 22 years before switching over to a power company. “At times, you get to travel out of your area to do mutual aid for other people, but mostly, it’s that I enjoy the work and the people I work with.”
The Lineman’s Expo, which featured a record-setting 202 exhibitors, including 50 who are new to Rodeo Week, connects the manufacturers with the field users. This experience empowers the lineworkers to voice their opinions about what they like or want to change about certain products.
“It’s good to speak with the companies who make the tools that you actually use out there and to see what’s coming out next," Woodruff said. "We don’t know how good we’ve got it or don’t have it until the next thing comes out.”
Lineworkers could not only explore the show floor during the Expo in the exhibit hall, but they could also talk with exhibitors on the Rodeo grounds. One of those outside exhibitors, Simple Strap, enjoyed being part of the Rodeo Week.
“It’s one of those things that once you learn what the linemen do, keeping the energy on, they are invaluable to America,” Ben Komer said, co-founder and co-inventor of Simple Strap.
Trading Shirts and Stories
After three days of education and exploring the trade show floor, the attendees geared up for the one of the biggest nights of the year for the line trade, other than the awards banquet — Trade Night. They stuffed duffel bags with shirts and slung them over their shoulders as they walked in to set up their merchandise on the long tables, which stretched from one side of the first floor to the other.
This year, many of the shirts featured patriotic and lineworker-themed designs, and each one had a unique color scheme and story behind it. For example, Tom Jeffers, a journeyman lineworker for SWLCAT, says they work in the Arizona desert with a lot of rattlesnakes, and they hot stick most of their primary.
“I got the concept of a guy up on a nice Arizona morning, rattlesnake on the pole and a stick on the center phase,” he said. “It’s an inspiration from the AC/DC song, “Inject the Venom.”
Mass Electric, which sponsored the registration at the International Lineman’s Rodeo Week, made a limited edition run of 200 of its black long-sleeved shirts, which featured a glowing blue design. Meanwhile, Chris Kelley, a journeyman lineworker for San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) and Local 469, was trading his company’s shirts featuring a silhouette of a lineworker against a California sunset with palm trees.
After swapping shirts, caps, stickers, glasses and more, the lineworkers headed up the escalators to enjoy Kansas City BBQ and relax with their teams and loved ones before competing in the 40th year of the Lineman’s Rodeo. For four decades, the event has allowed lineworkers to safely showcase their skills, connect with their brothers and sisters in the line trade and have their families cheer them on at the sidelines.
Editor’s Note: To view photo galleries and videos from the event, visit www.tdworld.com/electric-utility-operations. Also stay tuned to the Line Life Podcast at linelife.podbean.com to hear interviews from the 2024 International Lineman’s Rodeo Week.
