If you haven’t come across it before, STIHL Timbersports is the sporting series that pits leading professional woodchoppers against one another, on the stage and on the clock. These are no floundering lumberjacks – they’re elite athletes, trained in muscle, endurance and the techniques required to execute the explosive disciplines of “the original extreme sport”.

The disciplines are six-fold. They include:

• The Underhand Chop: using an axe to chop through a horizontal block of wood, while standing on top of it
• The Standing Block Chop: using an axe to chop through a vertical block of wood raised at chest height
• The Stock Saw: using a chainsaw to cut two circles (or “cookies”) from a block of wood
• The Single Buck: using a two-metre cross-cut saw to cut a singular cookie from a block of wood
• The Springboard: using an axe to cut pockets into a block of wood, in which to insert two platforms, climb up and chop off a block at the top of the log
• The Hot Saw: using an extremely powerful custom-built chainsaw to cut three circles from a block of wood

Stirling ended up losing out to Brad De Losa in the aforementioned final of the Champions Trophy by less than half a second (with an impressive time of 1:02:71). But silver isn’t bad considering that when we met him for an interview a few hours before the starting gun… he was on crutches.

“I’ve got a pretty severely sprained ankle,” he admitted. “It happened last week. I went into the hospital and showed one of the best doctors there videos of all the Timbersports events and basically asked ‘if I do any of these will my foot fall off?’ He said that it should stay attached if I tape it on though, so that’s good!

“I’ve been on crutches the whole week and literally the only time I get off the crutches will be to walk onto the stage.”

He even managed to avoid doing that for a while.

While the rest of the Champions Trophy competitors strolled on to the stage in front of a montage of themselves in action, Stirling waited until they were all already up there before driving up the entrance ramp to join them in a STIHL pick-up truck. It was a nice touch for the audience and a stealthy way to minimise Stirling’s walking time from the production crew.

“It was an axe. About six years ago I was doing the Springboard event and I stuck the axe in the tree. The axe fell out and sliced my face. There was lots of blood. It hit an artery and I needed about 88 stitches. But they stitched it back up and I competed three days later. I now hold the world record in that event. That was my little way of getting back at it. Don’t let it beat you!”

Stirling is third generation in Timbersports. His father and grandfather were both involved he says, “so I’ve had an axe in my hand since I was only three or four. It’d be same as a kid in Europe growing up with a pair of soccer cleats. It’s just another toy for me!”

“When I train I do push ups until I can’t do any more then I stand back up, grab the axe and chop the standing block, because that’s what it’s going to be like…”

He also broke every record there is to break in the world of pole climbing – “as well as most of my bones” – and was World Champion for five years before dedicating himself to STIHL Timbersports.

Now Stirling is part of the elite sculpting the future of the sport, and he whole-heartedly embraces the increasing athleticism demanded by the likes of the Champions Trophy, the most recent addition to the calendar.

“An event like this means you have to have that power and athleticism and also be able to do all four events back to back. These are the eight top guys in the world and they still sometimes struggle to do it in under two minutes.

“I now need to be able to swing an axe aggressively for a minute to a minute twenty. So that’s what you train for. When I train for the Standing Block in a Champions Trophy I do as many push ups as I can possibly do – until I can’t do any more – then I stand back up and grab the axe and chop the standing block, because that’s what it’s going to be like on stage. You’re not going to have the blood in your head to process a chop like you would in normal competition.

“This is going to expand in coming years. It’ll draw out a new breed of athlete to the sport, because it takes more than an athlete – it takes an athlete who is willing to train.”

This level of professionalism can be seen throughout the sport. The behind-the-scenes organisation is incredible.

Judges use a hawk-eye system to enforce strict discipline and safety rules. Competitors wear chainmail for extra protection. Four-time American Champion Matt Cogar tells me “your foot might break if you hit it but at least your foot will still be there”.

Saw technician Jörg Bläsi “tests chainsaw performance in the same way other sports test for drugs” before each event using diagnostic software.

The wood is responsibly sourced and put to good use post-tournament. Only particular parts of the log are used and each piece used is near enough identical. Wood expert Bart Jansen tells me “some parts of these trees are like diamonds. They would break a saw dead.”

For Stirling, this proficiency and organisational detail is the foundation on which the progression of the sport has been built, and he doesn’t see that progression slowing down anytime soon.

“Timbersports is getting bigger,” he says. “It’s on primetime TV now [on ESPN], and people love to watch it. You won’t see anyone changing the channel.

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