ESPN Great Outdoor Games

All eyes on Wynyard-Bolstad competition
By Steve Bowman, GO Games Staff
May 31, 2002

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- The showdown begs a cliché, something along the lines of a Clash of Titans Two giant men in their sport and bigger than giants in stature. Beginning Saturday they clash in the first edition of this year's Stihl TimberSports series being held at the Ducks Unlimited Great Outdoors Festival.

The two Titans are Jason Wynyard, standing in at 6-foot-4 and weighing in around 275 pounds, and Dave Bolstad, 6-4 and "just a biscuit under 300 pounds." Those two, along with 26 other lumberjacks, will complete the field in a competition that has more riding on it than proving who is best at knocking a piece of wood to splinters.

Bolstad
Dave Bolstad made a mockery of the competition in the 2001 TimberSports event.

For starters, this is one of the first qualifying events that will eventually determine who goes to the 2003 Great Outdoor Games. If those stakes aren't high enough, it's also the first of four qualifying days in the TimberSports series that will allow 12 of the 26 men to advance to the TimberSports Championship.

In addition the TimberSports Series offers more than $250,000 in prize money. Those things will be on the minds of every competitor.

But for the two Titans, Wynyard and Bolstad, this contest has a more profound meaning. Bolstad, from Taumarunui, New Zealand, is the reigning TimberSports champion. He won the title in 2001, virtually walking away with the competition by winning four of the six events.

It was a convincing victory in the eyes of everyone but Wynyard. In the four years preceding that contest, Wynyard, of Auckland, New Zealand, was the undisputed champion, having won four straight TimberSports championships.

"This year (Wynyard) is here to win it again,'' said John Hughes, ESPN timber analyst. "He's got a headhunter attitude. I think he may feel like he let it get away from him last year.''

Regardless the stage has been set for the two lumberjacks to go head to head for the first time since Bolstad won in such convincing fashion.

"It was one of those days where Dave (Bolstad) was doing everything perfect,'' Hughes said. "And he just walked away with it.''

Hughes, who has covered TimberSports events for 10 years and watched the two lumberjacks go to the top of their sport, expects this contest to offer the first sign of how the rest of the season will go.

"This will be the war of kings,'' Hughes said.

The war will involve six events in which each of the 28 competitors will compete, garnering points for their finish. At the end of TimberSports Series, the 12 lumberjacks with the most points qualify for the Stihl Series Championship. All of the contests are judged on speed. And because the TimberSports Series requires each of the competitors to compete in each of the events, the overall champion becomes the undisputed lumberjack champion of the world.

The six events require lumberjacks to exhibit a variety of skills that make up the overall woodsman. They are:

The Springboard, which is an event based on the days when lumberjacks were unable to cut large trees because their crosscut saws were often too small. To overcome this, loggers would use springboards to ascend the tree 10 to 15 feet up where they could make a cut through it. To get to the top, loggers cut a slot into the tree, shoved a board into it, climbed up on it, repeated the process and then chopped through the tree.

The Underhand Chop, which recalls a time when woodsmen had to use their axes to "buck" or cut through a fallen tree. In this event, competitors stand atop a block of wood, chop the front side before turning around and finishing the cut on the backside.

The Standing Chop event, which simulates the felling of a tree with an axe.

The Single Buck, one of the oldest events in logging sports. It requires the competitor to cut through an 18- or 20-inch log with a cross cut saw.

The Stock Saw, which is a contest that measures the competitors' skill with identically tuned consumer-grade chainsaws.

The Hot Saw, which is similar to the stock saw with the exception that these individually tuned saws utilize snowmobile engines fueled by high-test fuel.

"There's not another event like it in the world,'' Hughes said. For the next two days it will be a world full of screaming saws, swinging axes, and flying wood chips surrounding two giants fighting to regain a championship crown.

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