‘I’m a lumberjack and I’m OK!’: The Lumberjack World Championships
The Lumberjack World Championships in Hayward, Wisconsin, just like the World Gold Panning Championship, have turned an activity that used to be vital to people’s survival into another excuse for a day of sporting fun. Every year people flock from all over the globe to this, the world’s biggest lumberjack sports gathering, to watch some excellent (and sometimes very brawny) competitors thrill the crowd in a variety of different timber-related sports.
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Fans of Monty Python might be chuckling to themselves at the moment, imagining Michael Palin’s transvestite lumberjack singing his slightly odd ditty about life as a woodsman, but the men and women who compete in these events are a world away from the ‘chequered-shirt and hat-with-earflaps’ stereotype of what a lumberjack should look like.
Instead, they wield their saws and axes and chainsaws in loose-fitting vests, perfect for the powerful strokes needed to chop clean through a log with a 12-inch diameter in just 15 seconds. The same powerful strokes and razor-sharp axe-blades require contestants to wear what are effectively chain-mail socks – some contestants have war-stories or boast scars given to them by their unforgiving tree-felling gear, but that doesn’t stop them coming back for more the next time around!
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There is $50,000 of prize money to compete for over the 21 different events but those interviewed said that they do it more for camaraderie, for the thrill of the competition, and to celebrate the pioneering spirit of those who came before them. However, it is probably safe to say that those old pioneers in their log cabins didn’t have as much fun as the competitors do today. As well as sports involving chopping and sawing, both singly and doubly, there are events such as ‘log-rolling’, where contestants must use their agility and balance to stay on slippery floating logs, ‘boom running,’ a race along a whole row of the same rolling logs, and last but not least the 90-ft pole climb where contestants shin up a pole to dizzying heights at incredible speeds. Maybe ‘fun’ isn’t the right word after all.
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Another indication of the truly modern nature of this once primitive occupation is that there are now just as many ‘lumberjills’ as ‘lumberjacks’. Husband and wife pairs can be seen, wielding a two-handled saw in a devastating yet romantic display of teamwork. There is also a prize given to the ‘All Round Lady Jill’, won five times by the Wisconsinite Nancy Zalewski. Wisconsin is most definitely a place that knows how to celebrate its historical legacy in style.
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About the Author
Adrian Simpson Adrian Simpson is a writer and TV presenter with a profound love of the outdoors. His family, snow, sea, brewing, vinyl, guitars and VW buses mean the world to him.
