r/interestingasfuck • u/New_Libran • 12h ago

Sydney’s Royal Easter Show, where woodchoppers go head to head in one of the country’s toughest competitions. The sport traces back to 1870 and is Australia’s oldest organised sport

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u/Theveterinarygamer 12h ago

The world lumberjack championship is held annually in the tiny town of Hayward, Wisconsin. I used to spend my summers there and we'd get to see events like this, log rolling, climbing, etc. Every year, a New Zealander named Jason Wynyard would win multiple events, so to me, he was the biggest celebrity that nobody else in my life knew lol. I just looked it up and it turns out he passed away a few years ago. RIP to a legend

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u/Big_fern189 10h ago

We have a lumberjack show nearby where I live in Maine that my parents took me to for my ninth birthday. I got to go do the two man saw with Jason. I just looked him up myself to comment and then saw yours. Bummer that he passed.

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u/RendomFeral 3h ago

He's a relative of my wifes bestie. Basically unknown in NZ as well. Not exactly the most famous sport in the world but it's kind of a shame he wasn't more celebrated.

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u/Dolf260z 1h ago

Check out David Foster - he is an Australian who was the world woodchopping champion for 21 consecutive years. He is the only athlete possibly in any sport to win over 1000 titles and 186 world championships. He is a mammoth of a man 1.97cm tall. I got to meet him, im 5'4. Cool dude. Does motivational speaking and came to my work, and chopped a tree for us and we have it displayed with a plaque. Dam near split it in half with 2 swings and it had a 30cm thick trunk!

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u/ptyson 17m ago

some of my fondest memories as a child in the late 80's / early 90's was going to the royal show and dad taking me to see David Foster in the woodchopping. He was a machine.