As you well know Mr Bourne, I'm currently a Unicender man, previously a rw/lj man, previously an srt access man. Srt access wise I've probably been at it for 3 years now, full time SRTWP since October 11, SRTWP rec climbing since August 11.
I love the Lj/rw combo but the fact the uni does it so beautifully in one single item is fanstastic for me. I do have hitch withdrawl every now and then and give it a while on the rw/hc for about a fortnight until I get annoyed that a hitch won't self tend or gums up in the rain:biggrin:
For me, SRTWP makes massive sense as I generally tend work work on trees of the larger end of the scale (not to say I don't do small ones too) I can access quicker, with less physical extertion. With a little forethought and careful throwlining, I can get my TIP, then direct my rope to my first work station, meaning I can start work quicker.
Previous to working SRTWP, I was climibing on a LJ/Pulleysaver, and whilst ergonomic and user friendly, my body did take some abuse. I often ached at night, whereas now, I feel fresh of an evening. SRT means using your legs more, the things that have evolved to carry your weight, so it makes sense to utilise this rather than dragging yourself about with (relatively) puny arm muscles.
With regard to climbing style, it's changed due to the possibility of redirects, today for example, I climbed a willow with the main top cracked out and hanging, and no central tips, I managed to tie in right out one side, redirect a little closer to the middle, then redirect over the top of the hanging top,to the point I could climb up and carefully bring the whole lot down in little bits. Ddrt I would've done it somehow, but Srt it was a breeze, with multiple suspension points in a structurally knackered tree.
SRTWP in my opinion requires a retraining of the brain to route your trees differently, whilst being very careful of redirecting, understanding timber charateristics and most importantly understanding and having a working knowledge of forces in redirects.
A little handy reading;
http://vtio.org.au/Content/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Working-the-Angles-i.pdf
http://vtio.org.au/Content/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Introduction-to-Redirects.pdf