With incredible speed and surgical precision, the best lumberjack athletes in the world show what they are capable of at the Stihl Timbersports World Trophy in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. They wield tough chainsaws, razor-sharp axes and big, heavy cross-cut saws with the power of giants and the finesse of a surgeon. Among them Jack Jordan (27), the winner from New Zealand, and the American Jason Lentz (37), descending from a legendary lumberjack family.
By Walter Tempelman
The oldest extreme sport in the world. That’s how the timber sport presents itself. Australia and New Zealand began lumbering competitions in rural areas in the late 1800s. The sport spread to North America. Jason Lentz from West Virginia is the fourth generation of competitive lumberjacks. His father Mel is regarded as the best lumberjack of all time. “He is called King of the Lumberjacks,” says Jason. “He is one of the most decorative competitors ever, an 18th times world champion.” His granddad and his great granddad were also among the best of their time.
It’s in the blood of the Lentze’s. But it took while before Jason followed the bloodline and the footsteps of his family. “I hated it growing up”, he says. Mostly because his father was on the road lumberjacking. “My dad dedicated his life being the best in the world and that’s what it takes.” Lentz had his mind on becoming successful in another sport: basketball. He reached quite far: playing top college basketball, played overseas in Europe in the Swedish competition, but he never made it to the pro’s.
The basketball ‘career’ fell through, college was over, I had nothing to do. So yeah, what did I do? I picked up the axe…” The stars already knew that Lentz was going to be the next in line of his family tree who would get that lumberjack-feeling and focus. At the age of twenty that moment had come, the signs were all there. “I got a late start, mentally speaking. I started chopping wood when I was about five years old though. With my dad off course, when he was around.”
Standing Block Chop
At the World Trophy in Rotterdam athletes have to saw off a slice, called a cookie, from a horizontal block of wood with a chainsaw and a huge cross-cut saw. An axe must be used to cut a horizontal and vertical block (with the athlete standing on the block and chopping the wood between his legs) in half. The disciplines have impressive names: Stock Saw, Underhand Chop, Single Buck and Standing Block Chop. Whoever is fastest moves on to the next round.
The wood flies in and around the shed (de Onderzeebootloods at Heijplaat, in the harbor of Rotterdam) all around you. On the outdoor stage, where the competitions take place, the splinters dance through the air as the chainsaw vibrates and slides noisily through the wood. The sharp axes pound large pieces out of the block with brute force. And between the ‘heats’, a team of dozens of people, in a kind of Formula 1 pit stop, ensures that the ‘offal waste’ is removed (the sawdust and the leftover pieces are recycled) and that the fresh feed is prepared.
Manual laborer
Lentz became third in Rotterdam, last year he took silver and in 2021 he became World Champion. Lentz is focusing on his sport, but he is not a full time professional lumberjack. “I don’t make enough money to make a living out of it. So, I have to have a day job. I’m a manual laborer. Sometimes I work 14 hours a day. It’s pretty tough to be rested up, eat right and have time to train for these events. I’m trying to be the best athlete I can be.”
New Zealander Jordan is the one who lifts up the impressive trophy at the end of the day, beating Michal Dubicki from Poland in the final. Jordan won with an incredible world record, finishing all four disciplines in 53.65 (!) seconds. “I didn’t think I was good enough for the fastest time ever today. I had to work really hard in the other rounds and then be so fast in the decisive final, also a bit of luck I think.”
Lentz would liked to see himself reaching another final, but didn’t succeed in that mission, ending up in the semi-finals against Jordan. The West Virginian knows his family is proud him being the next world class lumberjack in line. “My dad would have won this one, though…”