Best? as in most skilled? .... hmmm def not the case... most skilled at locating great material.... doubt it .....
most prolific and most frequently harvesting anything that even remotely looks like it could one day be put it a pot..... yup...
best at Pillaging the collecting areas that people have been collecting from for years.... yup ...
he's only been collecting material less than a decade ... I can name at least a handful of people who have been individually collecting from the Rock Mountains longer than him... some have been collecting trees probably longer than he has been alive.... these same people are the ones who invented the techniques used today by yamadori collectors around the world ....
I also believe this same video was posted in another thread here....
You need to come down here and see what he has, what he collects and that he does it alone. Then you will retract everything that you just posted, I promise you. I will also bet that he collects in 1 year what all the people you can think of collect in 5 years combined!!! The only thing you typed that held some merit is that he is the best at collecting where others have. So, that doesn't look good for all the other collectors, 1) they don't have the eye, 2) they don't have the skills to get it out 3) they have no clue what they are looking at. I go with a combo of all 3. I personally have seen Randy with over 300 lbs of trees on his back go for 5+ miles through the trees to get to the truck. And he does this several times a day when he collects. What he does is not duplicated, period, not by Larry, not by Dan, not by anyone in America.
Ryan claims him to be the best there is period. Why do you think that? Probably becuase Ryan has worked on the best collected material in the world, has seen every garden in Japan, Europe and America. Add to that when Randy travels to Europe and Japan on bonsai business he is treated like a rockstar and the red carpet is rolled out, why? Because THe main bonsai players in Europe, Japan and America have recognized him as the best.
Just because someone has done something longer than another person by no means makes them better at it. Not even close. That goes for all walks of life, not just collecting trees. I have seen many collectors yards, seen what they have sold in the past and while they all collect some nices tree, the consistent quality, sheer #'s and health isn't there.
If you ever make it down I assure you and the others that you won't see anything like this anywhere else in America atleast. Between Ryan and Randy new things are happening and the bar has been raised very very high.