METRONEWS
© New Zealand Broadcasting School 2024

by New Zealand Broadcasting School students

Ben’s People: 'The Wimbledon of Woodchopping'

Sport

Ben Ulisse
shredding the pine
Each team sliced through their log of wood like a butter knife through a fruitcake.  Ben Ulisse

As the sawdust settled on the Stihl proving grounds, one contestant stood above the rest: Raewyn Windley.

The buzzing of saws, clatter of axes and crowd excitement caught my ear’s attention at this year’s Agricultural Show. Curious, I headed for the source of all this noise to find a row of lumberjacks and lumberjills competing in a Woodchopping Competition.  

An annual event which sees folks from all over compete to see who can chop and cut the fastest, professional and amateur woodchoppers took an axe to their assigned upright log and made piles of kindling in a manner of seconds. Watching these human woodchippers, one tenacious bloke on the far left reminded me of Jack Nicholson breaking through that door in The Shining.  

After the axemen left and the firewood was cleared away, more logs were brought out. This time they were placed horizontally, and ginormous saws soon followed. Each saw was as long as a piano keyboard and had to be handled by two strong adults, which in that event featured one male and one female at each respective end of the blade.

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Rae and her partner stand proud as the first to finish the Jack & Jill event. Ben Ulisse

In mere seconds, the crowd witnessed tandem sawing the likes of which I’d only ever seen on grainy archive footage of lumberjacks felling massive trees from days gone by. In less time than it took me to write this sentence, each two-person team sliced through their log of wood like a butter knife through fruitcake. I knew I had to get an interview. ‘You’ll want to talk to Raewyn,’ an older woman told me. ‘She just placed first.’  

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Raewyn receives a ribbon after coming 1st in the Jack & Jill. Ben Ulisse

Making it on to the leaderboard in of itself is a considerable feat for any competitor, let alone being at the top of the podium for an event. Interest in the yearly gauntlet comes from places near and far, and the Woodchopping Competition offers large cash prizes to those who can combine strenuosity, skill and raw power into what is sometimes considered a dangerous sport.

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Nerves made of the same steel as an axe blade are needed in some events. Ben Ulisse

A minute or so later, I was upstairs in an office talking with the champion woodchopper. But I had to keep it brief, she was due to compete again soon. First off, I asked her when it all began.  

‘I’ve been doing this for over 20 years, I started about the age of 12,’ Raewyn explained, ‘and I've been chopping competitively with an axe for the last 7 years.’

face to face
My first interview with an athlete, but not the first news interview for Rae. Freddie Wilkie

Raewyn is the first athlete I’ve ever sat down and spoken with, so it was a new experience for me. However, I don’t think I’m the first journalist she’s encountered over the course of her career. I asked if she’d ever competed overseas. ‘Sure have,’ she said. ‘I’ve won numerous titles at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, which is known as kind of the Wimbledon of Woodchopping. It draws in the best of the best from all over.’  

The successes don’t end there, though. ‘In 2019 I travelled to Tasmania and competed in two world titles, one of which was the Jack and Jill where I was crosscut sawing with a male partner Robert Dowling. We won that.’ The male and female sawing event Rae described was the same as what she had just won in Christchurch minutes before our interview.  

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Preparing the enormous crosscut saw for battle. Ben Ulisse

‘I also contested the women’s underhand, where I placed fourth.’ This event involves competitors standing on the log they intend to cut and swinging an axe down at the centre, between their feet. I later watched a video of people doing the Underhand Chop on YouTube, and my toes curled at the thought of missing with the axe. But then, anything requiring hand-eye co-ordination tends to make me wince.  

Even with all these accolades, Raewyn was the model of a modest kiwi sportsperson. Her description of all these prestigious international events was done in a casual manner, with a focus on integrity and respect for other contestants. ‘We're like a family, the woodchopping community. We encourage one another and support any up-and-comers into the sport.’

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Rae warms up before the Jill & Jill. Ben Ulisse

Family and woodcutting had another connection for Rae. ‘My dad was my biggest influence. He was a woodchopper, and as a child we travelled around and competed. If we didn’t go then he didn’t go.’  

She looked away for a moment, smiled, and turned her face back to mine. ‘My son is competing out there too. Lachie Windley, he’s 15. He’s here in the junior championship, so he’s what we’d call an up-and-comer.’  

It’s clearly more than just a sport to this family. To Raewyn, chopping and sawing through wood is life.

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Raewyn pauses for a quick chat with me between crosscutting events. Ben Ulisse

Now, I couldn’t imagine trying to cut into those logs myself without a chainsaw, but no two species of tree are the same. Rae agreed. ‘I quite like chopping poplar, it’s a bit softer than the pine that we’re using for most of our shows.’ (Pine is grown all over and favoured by the timber industry for how fast it grows). ‘We use the pinus radiata mainly because that’s what the gear is set up for.’  

This specialist gear can be very expensive, and one giant crosscut saw just like the kind used in the Jack and Jill can cost anywhere from 3,500 to 4,000 dollars. ‘So you want to be cutting good wood.’  

To give some idea of the scale of a two-person crosscut saw, its teeth alone are roughly 6 centimetres long from the blade.

sizing up the wood
Sizing up the wood. Ben Ulisse

With another first-place win under her belt, Raewyn was about to go compete in another crosscut event in a couple minutes. ‘Next it’ll be the Jill and Jill, the name says it all really.’ She laughed.  

Finally, I asked if she had any words of encouragement to anybody wanting to get involved in competitive woodchopping and sawing, particularly any young women who may want to take up the axe.  

‘Just get in touch with someone at your local A&P shows, they’re more than happy to help you get into the sport. Or, go and have a chat with any woodchoppers in your area, they’ll be more than willing to help you. It’s a close-knit community.’

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Mighty crosscut saws make short work of massive pine logs. Ben Ulisse

We shook hands and went our separate ways, and once I was back on the other side of the crowd barrier, I watched Raewyn begin ripping into the next log for the Jill and Jill. I’m glad I got to meet a modern New Zealand sporting legend and wish her all the best for her future travels through timber.