Electrical Lineworker Rodeos Enhance the Work of SFSC Alumnus Hayden Tyler

AVON PARK, Fla. – Oct. 24, 2023 – In April 2023, Hayden Tyler was a second-place winner when over 70 lineworker apprentices and 12 journeyman teams competed during the Duke Energy Florida Lineman’s Rodeo in Winter Garden, Fla. With that win, Tyler advanced to the International Lineman’s Rodeo held in Kansas City, Mo., Oct. 11-14. Although he didn’t come away with a win during the International, Tyler said that participating in the rodeos enhances his work as an electrical lineworker.

Tyler is a 2021 graduate of South Florida State College’s (SFSC) Electrical Lineworker program and a lineworker apprentice for Duke Energy out of its facilities on Kenilworth Boulevard in Sebring.

“I work with a lineworker journeyman on a truck every day,” Tyler said. “Right now, we’re building power lines for new houses. ‘New customer work’ is what we call it. So, for people who are building new houses, we’re supplying them with power. But we’re also maintaining what’s already in place — our system and our grid. Of course, during storms and outages, we’re getting the power back on.”

A lineworker apprentice has fewer than four years of utility experience, while a journeyman has more than four years of utility experience.

Becoming a lineworker wasn’t part of Tyler’s career plans when he was a student at Avon Park High School. “When I was in high school, I worked with my dad at Mark Palmer Electric & Air Conditioning, so I did electrical and air conditioning work,” he said. “I was thinking about getting a business degree and opening my own electrical and air conditioning business. However, after taking college courses, I realized that college isn’t really my thing. And I wanted to work outside.”

Tyler’s family owns property behind SFSC’s Hardee Campus in Bowling Green, so he’d see the students climbing the telephone poles and his interest was piqued.  “I thought that was really cool, so I looked into it,” he said. “The other big thing was the kind of money you can make as a lineworker. So, I enrolled in the program right after high school.”

After graduating from SFSC, Tyler was hired by Duke Energy along with graduates of lineworker programs from other institutions. He was pleasantly surprised to find that he’d graduated from a program that was well considered by his colleagues at the company.

Tyler was given the opportunity to participate in Duke Energy’s Lineman’s Rodeo in Winter Garden and competed in all events available to apprentices. Competitors were divided into groups of apprentices and journeymen. Apprentices competed individually and journeymen competed as three-person teams. Each group was required to complete a set of competitive job-related events, such as a Pole Climb, carrying an uncooked egg to the top of an electrical pole; a rescue climb to free a dummy trapped in the wires; and two mystery events. Competitors are only given details about the mystery events the night before the Rodeo. According to Tyler, competitors were also required to take a written test the day before the Rodeo.

“In the Hurtman Rescue, a dummy hangs on the pole, you have to climb up and cut him down, and bring him down safely to the ground,” Tyler said. “It’s all timed.”

“For what people call the Pole Climb, Speed Climb, or Egg Climb, you have a little bag with an egg in it, you put it in your mouth, you have to climb to the top of the pole, there’s a bag up there, throw that bag down, hang your bag and take the egg out of the bag, put your egg in your mouth, and climb down as fast as you can without breaking the egg,” he said. “Of course, the judges inspect the egg to make sure you didn’t crack it.”

Tyler won one of his mystery events with the fastest time and with no point deductions. It was the Spool Change Out, in which an insulator near the top of a pole must be changed out through a series of complex activities.

Tyler placed first in the Spool Change Out mystery event and earned second place for the Apprentice Overall awards for his scores from all events.

Tyler headed to the International Lineman’s Rodeo in Kansas City, along with Duke’s three-journeyman team of Mike Silver, Tanner Bell, and Kirby Whitehouse. For apprentices, the International Rodeo featured the Hurtman Rescue, a Pole Climb, two mystery events, and a written test.

“The International is a lot different, because you’re competing with people and companies from across the country and all over the world,” he said. “Teams from Canada, Brazil, all over, come to Kansas City. It was exciting. But I was nervous because you know the caliber of people you’re competing against and I’m representing my company – Duke Energy.”

Tyler explained that at the International Rodeo, teams of apprentices and journeymen are further divided into investor utilities, such as Duke Energy; electric cooperatives, such as PRECO and Glades Electric Cooperative; and municipalities, such as the City of Fort Meade or City of Wauchula. “They still compete in all events, but they might also win in the category, “Best Investor Utility” or “Best Municipality.”

Tyler believes that the rodeos enhance his performance as a lineworker. “Especially when it comes to outages,” he said. “We’re trying to get the power back on as fast as we can and in a safe manner. Those little tricks will help us decrease outage minutes, which is basically how we’re rated as a power company. Just those little tips can make us faster and more efficient out in the field.”

According to Tyler, participating in the rodeos “is a way to showcase to everyone else in our company what we’ve learned. Also, I’m a first-generation lineworker, so my family didn’t understand what goes into the job. Being able to bring my family to Winter Garden and to Kansas City to watch me and other competitors at the rodeos let them see what we do on a day-to-day basis. It’s kind of nice and opens people’s eyes.”

Although Tyler loves his job and says that it’s rewarding work, he acknowledges that it isn’t for everyone. “Because I work for a utility company, I’m prone to call outs,” he said. “If a storm rolls in and somebody’s power goes out in the middle of the night, my phone is ringing and I have to go to work. We live in Florida, so we have the heat. It’s also physically demanding work — digging holes by hand. It’s hard work, but at the end of the night when you’ve had an outage, you throw that final switch, we see the lights come on, that makes it all worth it. And the pay is quite good.”