Rigging Training

A friend of mine emailed asking about rigging certification. While I was answering I thought to myself "this is a useful chunk of information, I should write it up for Td&t or something." It turns out to be basically a big long commercial for several companies, so maybe it doesn't make a good article. But it is still a hunk of useful info all in one place so of course I thought I would put it here...

> Hey I also had a work question, noticed on your profile your on the ESTA
> Essential Skills board. I've been trying to dig up some information on
> Rigging, certifications, skills etc etc.

So the short answer is that there is nothing. There is a longer answer though.

Starting something like next November there should be a rigging certification. I'm working on it and that's the schedule. Its targeted at the top 1/3 of riggers, and the first cert will be for arena riggers. Hot behind that there should be one for theatrical riggers and then one for some kind of entertainment electricians (I'm not in that group so I don't know exactly what they are doing). This is all happening through the ETCP and information can be found here:

http://www.etcp.esta.org/

Behind that, ESTA is working on a less rigorous certificate program for essential skills - things for basically the last guy on the call. I'm not sure when this groups work will come to fruition. Its at least two years out. Info for that is here:

http://www.esta.org/teched/essentialskills.html

Then of course, you have the standbys, things like Jay and Harry's seminars. They do a certificate of attendance, but there is no test. There are other people that will do this sort of thing too, Doom and Sapsis and Delbert Hall. Kevin and I would probably do one for you if the money was right. They all have standing courses or will craft a course specifically for your venue. Some info:

http://www.riggingseminars.com/
http://www.sapsis-rigging.com/seminars.html
http://www.flyingfx.com/seminars.htm
http://www.riskit.com/RISK/Seminars/RiggingWorkshop.cfm?PageID=RiggingWorkshop

There is some place in Oregon that purports to actually do a tested certification, but its more geared to construction than entertainment. I think this is them:

http://www.wrrc.com/ourCourses.htm

So it turns out that after all of that I left out some stuff. Tomcat Truss does several courses commonly referred to as "motor school" although they have started to call it "Tomcat University" because they cover more than just motors. Info for that is here:

http://www.tomcatglobal.com/home.htm

Its a flash site, you have to look under [latest news] and then under [workshops]. Also, CM does training as well. There's a page for it on their site, but right now there's nothing on it so I guess you would have to call. Eventually information would be found here:

http://www.cmrigging.com/training.asp

So there's the more than exhaustive answer to rigging training & certification - unless you want to move to Australia. There they have a license. If I've missed anything I would sure like to know, drop me a comment.