With summer upon us, it's officially time to break out the tennis racquets, golf clubs and Frisbees for the masses. After a long, cold winter, people are just itching to get out and take up the athletic activity of their choice. But to do so means getting your gear in shape. That means greasing the chain on your bicycle and pumping up the beach ball. You have to clean off your cleats and dust off the croquet mallets. And if you're David Bostad from Taurmarunui, New Zealand, you have to tune up your chain saw.
Bostad is just one of the competitors whose idea of sport is to saw, climb and chop anything that's made of cellulose. Along with a small but dedicated band of enthusiasts, their focus isn't the field of dreams, but rather clearing it. These boys and girls of summer don't want to use a wood bat to hit a ball... they'd rather cut it in half. It's almost July, so welcome to the world of timbersports.
An outgrowth of the competitions that kept loggers from being bored during a long tour deep in the Canadian woods, these contests are not for the faint of heart. They require strength, skill, and a certain amount of disregard for personal safety. After all, it's not everyone who would dash to the top of a 65 foot pole with a razor sharp saw tethered to their body... just a true competitor.
But that's just one of the contests you can catch if you tune into the Great Outdoor Games or the Timbersports Challenge. Like any Olympic-esque competition, from the X-Games to the Goodwill Games, this suite of head-to-head battles is no one trick pony. If you can cut it, climb it or roll it, there's a face-off designed to see who is the best.
For example, there's the Timber Speed Climb. Using specialized spurs and a rope sling, competitors power themselves up a 65-foot spar pole. Once at the top, they must touch a line a line strung between the two poles with their rope or body. But at that point, they're just halfway home: the contest doesn't end until they complete a round trip. In their descent, climbers are required to "spur" the pole in each of the designated sections, so freefalling is not an option... though competitors come very close. Time is not called until the climber hits the ground with all limbs intact.
And then there's the Timber Springboard. Typically one of the most grueling timber events, the springboard requires a number of specialized skills. Competitors must first chop notches in the side of an upright pole. Then they must set their "foot boards" into those notches. Once the board is set, they climb up onto the board and repeat the process one more time. Now eight feet in the air and standing on a wooden plank sticking out of the side of a pole, the competitors must chop a piece of wood that is attached to the top of their springboard pole. Time is called when they have completely severed the block of wood at the top.
And of course, no outdoor woodlands contest would be complete without the classic Log-Rolling and Boom Run. In the first, rollers square off... two at a time... in an effort to roll their counterpart off the log and into the water. Starting with wider logs and becoming progressively narrower, rollers roll the log with both forward and backward revolutions, changing pace and direction to disrupt the balance of their competition. In each pairing, the first to win two falls moves on to the next round.
The Boom Run features a series of logs connected end to end by a short chain. The logs are floating, and are generally soaking wet on top and bottom. The goal is to sprint from one dock to the other and back across this moving platform in the shortest amount of time. Note that there are only two things a boom runner can hit if they have a misstep... the water or a log. There were more than a few black and blue marks obtained last year on both the male and female side of the draw.
Finally, to crown the best all-around lumberjack and lumberjill, the Timber Endurance contest is the decathlon of the wooded set. Competitors have to master and perform three basic skills. The underhand chop requires severing a block of wood set in a horizontal cradle with an ax. The standing block asks for the same skill, but with the target placed upright. Finally, in the single buck, competitors use a saw to make a single cut through a pine log. For added drama... and sore muscles... the events are placed back to back, and the winners typically accomplish all three in about a minute.
But the marquee event has got to be the hot saw competition. Extremely loud and lasting no more than 10 seconds, it features competitors using modified engines on their chainsaws in an attempt to make the fastest three cuts in a large log. These dragsters of the cutting world can weigh up to 80 pounds apiece and rev at extremely high RPMs. They look a little like someone bolted a jet engine to a moving battle-ax and added a handle. If you've got the power to hoist the saw and pull the starter cord in under 1 second, you need to control it well enough to cut three complete discs from a 20 inch piece of wood... all from a standing start without slicing off your leg.
So you can get out the bocce set and set up the badminton net if you're of a mind. But just remember that to some, summer isn't summer until you've put a steak on the grill, made a pitcher of sangria, and sliced and diced an oak.
-END-
Marc Wollin of Bedford excels in the yet-to-be-recognized outdoor sport of gutter cleaning. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review and The Scarsdale Inquirer.
Bostad is just one of the competitors whose idea of sport is to saw, climb and chop anything that's made of cellulose. Along with a small but dedicated band of enthusiasts, their focus isn't the field of dreams, but rather clearing it. These boys and girls of summer don't want to use a wood bat to hit a ball... they'd rather cut it in half. It's almost July, so welcome to the world of timbersports.
An outgrowth of the competitions that kept loggers from being bored during a long tour deep in the Canadian woods, these contests are not for the faint of heart. They require strength, skill, and a certain amount of disregard for personal safety. After all, it's not everyone who would dash to the top of a 65 foot pole with a razor sharp saw tethered to their body... just a true competitor.
But that's just one of the contests you can catch if you tune into the Great Outdoor Games or the Timbersports Challenge. Like any Olympic-esque competition, from the X-Games to the Goodwill Games, this suite of head-to-head battles is no one trick pony. If you can cut it, climb it or roll it, there's a face-off designed to see who is the best.
For example, there's the Timber Speed Climb. Using specialized spurs and a rope sling, competitors power themselves up a 65-foot spar pole. Once at the top, they must touch a line a line strung between the two poles with their rope or body. But at that point, they're just halfway home: the contest doesn't end until they complete a round trip. In their descent, climbers are required to "spur" the pole in each of the designated sections, so freefalling is not an option... though competitors come very close. Time is not called until the climber hits the ground with all limbs intact.
And then there's the Timber Springboard. Typically one of the most grueling timber events, the springboard requires a number of specialized skills. Competitors must first chop notches in the side of an upright pole. Then they must set their "foot boards" into those notches. Once the board is set, they climb up onto the board and repeat the process one more time. Now eight feet in the air and standing on a wooden plank sticking out of the side of a pole, the competitors must chop a piece of wood that is attached to the top of their springboard pole. Time is called when they have completely severed the block of wood at the top.
And of course, no outdoor woodlands contest would be complete without the classic Log-Rolling and Boom Run. In the first, rollers square off... two at a time... in an effort to roll their counterpart off the log and into the water. Starting with wider logs and becoming progressively narrower, rollers roll the log with both forward and backward revolutions, changing pace and direction to disrupt the balance of their competition. In each pairing, the first to win two falls moves on to the next round.
The Boom Run features a series of logs connected end to end by a short chain. The logs are floating, and are generally soaking wet on top and bottom. The goal is to sprint from one dock to the other and back across this moving platform in the shortest amount of time. Note that there are only two things a boom runner can hit if they have a misstep... the water or a log. There were more than a few black and blue marks obtained last year on both the male and female side of the draw.
Finally, to crown the best all-around lumberjack and lumberjill, the Timber Endurance contest is the decathlon of the wooded set. Competitors have to master and perform three basic skills. The underhand chop requires severing a block of wood set in a horizontal cradle with an ax. The standing block asks for the same skill, but with the target placed upright. Finally, in the single buck, competitors use a saw to make a single cut through a pine log. For added drama... and sore muscles... the events are placed back to back, and the winners typically accomplish all three in about a minute.
But the marquee event has got to be the hot saw competition. Extremely loud and lasting no more than 10 seconds, it features competitors using modified engines on their chainsaws in an attempt to make the fastest three cuts in a large log. These dragsters of the cutting world can weigh up to 80 pounds apiece and rev at extremely high RPMs. They look a little like someone bolted a jet engine to a moving battle-ax and added a handle. If you've got the power to hoist the saw and pull the starter cord in under 1 second, you need to control it well enough to cut three complete discs from a 20 inch piece of wood... all from a standing start without slicing off your leg.
So you can get out the bocce set and set up the badminton net if you're of a mind. But just remember that to some, summer isn't summer until you've put a steak on the grill, made a pitcher of sangria, and sliced and diced an oak.
-END-
Marc Wollin of Bedford excels in the yet-to-be-recognized outdoor sport of gutter cleaning. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review and The Scarsdale Inquirer.
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