Woodwalkers

It's registration day at the Southeast Lineman Training Center. We find that lineman have a rich history and culture in a highly marginalized industry. The students are about to find out just what it takes to become a part of this elite community.

Welcome to the first day of class. Here's a bag of tools. Here are some boots. Meet your new instructor. Now get climbing! Here we meet students Frank Diaz and Chase Leonard.

A week into their training and students Fabian Pantoja and Robert Self are finding out it is going to take more than hard work to become a linemen. They'll need speed, precision, and technique to make it.

Every semester students must pass through an intensive 4-hour training session, which they lovingly refer to as the gauntlet. Not all of our students are up for the challenge.

As one student steps down, another steps up as a leader. Student Michael Robertson is impressing his instructors and peers alike. Meanwhile Frank Diaz contends with homesickness, and Fabian Pantoja battles an injury.

Fabian's cousin, Ivan Pantoja, has been suddenly and swiftly dismissed from the Southeast Lineman Training Center. Fabian must continue on alone, while Frank Diaz gets a long overdue visit with his beloved wife, Camela.

Fabian and cousin Ivan have a chance to reunite and come to terms with Ivan's expulsion. We learn more about Michael's rough-and-tumble past, while Robert Self gets some hard news about the amount of penalty points he has acquired.

Life on campus is not all work and no play. Some of our instructors and students head to a hunting camp in east Georgia for some well deserved R and R. Back on campus Michael loses a hammer and pays a hefty price.

Our students have now had several weeks of training, and are building confidence by the day. Tonight, however, they must repair power lines mangled by the skilled hands of their very own instructors, simulating a true emergency power restoration.

During the last few days at the school many of the students will spend their time in the study halls preparing for the final exam, while a few others have chosen a path that will push their mental and physical abilities to the breaking point-Seal Fit 20X.

Bodies broken, burdens exposed, the true self emerges, and our students go forth. Each started Seal Fit one person and emerged another: better, stronger, focused.

After a critical final exam, it's the morning of graduation and SLCT's main campus has a celebratory feel. Michael, Fabian, Robert, and Frank have all passed their tests, and their families are here to celebrate-linemen style.