Sounds like he's seen it all. I once stumbled onto him doing a workshop, and he privately expressed his exasperation with some of his students who showed up with absurdly expensive equipment, yet zero hands-on experience yet - gear right out of the box, literally. And I remember an incident where I had to nearly leap to rescue a new 8x10 camera and hyper-expensive lens from crashing on the ground due to a totally untenable tripod setup by a beginner. So that it a good topic to start with.

Reminds me of a long day on the trail, or actually off trail, and finally reaching the trail and a small lake where a horse packer had led a group of beginning fly fishermen for the day. I laid back on a log, just like the packer himself, for couple hours of utter amusement. They caught everything but a fish - logs, each other, hats, their own butts. Once in awhile the line actually landed in the lake. Learn the basics first.