Thomas Symons is flying to Vienna in May on his first trip to Europe.
The Port McNeill man is not going to the Austrian city for the music of Mozart and Strauss, or the palaces, museums or sacher torte, however.
The 23-year-old, who helps build logging roads for a living, will be in a more familiar space, where the roar of chainsaws and the smell of fresh sawdust fills the air. In fact, his luggage will include at least two axes.
Symons is heading to the Stihl World Timbersports championships — sponsored by the Germany-based company that manufactures chainsaws and other power tools — after being named in February as the Canadian representative in the Rookie World Championship, set for May 27. Rookies are 25 years and younger.
He’s thrilled to represent Canada, something he says every little kid dreams of doing, whether it’s in hockey, curling or even timbersports — or logger sports, as they’re more commonly known in Canada. “I don’t even know if it has actually sunk in yet.”
The rookie competition is followed by the World Championship, where Marcel Dupuis of Memramcook, NB, will represent Canada.
Symons was selected based on past performances and consultation with coaches, said Cassy Melnike, spokeswoman for Stihl Timbersports Canada, noting Canada put last year’s competitions on hold because of the pandemic.
Athletes will battle in five disciplines over a two-hour period, she says. The first-place winner takes home 4,000 euros — close to $5,500 Cdn.
Logger sports are an intrinsic part of many B.C. communities. While some annual competitions have faded away, others continue in towns with a history of forestry, including Port McNeill, Campbell River, Powell River, Duncan, Port Alberni and Squamish.
Despite some tough years in past decades, forestry remains a major economic driver and employer on northern Vancouver Island and in the province as a whole.
Port McNeill Mayor Gaby Wickstrom says logger sports events are “extremely important.” “It captures our heritage,” she says. “In the summertime when they have the logger sports, it is wonderful to be able to go and to see the competition and cheer on hometown favourites.”
Symons’ mother, Ann Marie Baron, says local groups from other sports or activities will pitch in to help stage a special logger sports event.
Symons, at six feet tall and 200 pounds, is a familiar face at many of those events when he travels to various communities to compete.
Growing up in Port McNeill, home to about 2,300 people, he was active in sports such as hockey and curling, he says. But it’s in logger sports where he really hit his stride.
“Winning a hockey game was awesome and I’ll never forget a lot of the experiences I had. But it is something else when you physically hit a block and it just breaks out and you break that block on your last hit,” he says.
Symons became hooked on logger sports in Grade 8 after trying it out at Roger Briscoe’s home in Port McNeill. Briscoe’s daughters Dawn and Allison also compete, and Symons joined the family training regime.
“I had my first day of it and I never really stopped,” he says.
Briscoe, who coached the group, is an accomplished logger-sports athlete who has travelled to New Zealand and Switzerland to compete. He also judges locally.
“The biggest thing for Thomas is he was interested and passionate about it,” says Briscoe. “And he would accept coaching and listen to what has to be done to improve.”
Right from the start, “he’s loved it,” Briscoe says.
He says Symons’s strength is an asset in the underhand chop discipline, which simulates cutting up a felled tree. Competitors stand on a horizontally positioned block of wood and cut through a 32-centimetre trunk with an axe. “He was a strong kid to start with and he kind of took to that.”
He also does well in the stock saw race, where finesse and body movements are key. In that event, a chainsaw is used to cut two “cookies” or discs of wood at a specified thickness from a horizontal tree truck.
Baron figures Symons enjoys the challenge. “He just likes to figure things out.”
Symons doesn’t have a favourite discipline but loves that the sport means he is “always learning, trying to develop more. Push yourself farther, right?”
He tries to bring a positive attitude to every contest, making the most of each experience, saying: “I’m not racing the guy next to me. I’m racing myself.”
When Symons gets a good block of wood, he’ll think about how fast he can go and how smoothly he can cut through it.
Even if he doesn’t win, he’ll look for something that went well. Maybe it was a particularly difficult block to chop and he will examine how he tackled it. “There’s always something to be happy about, right?”
No block — or tree — is the same. But he definitely has his preferences when it comes to blocks. “Dry and hard is not fun. That’s where you build your calluses,” he says cheerfully.
Logger sports are more technical than some may realize. “It’s not just like cutting a piece of firewood. There’s a lot of thought behind what you’re doing,” Symons says.
Along with requiring strength and speed, “there’s a fair bit of science behind it.”
Briscoe says physics, kinesiology, body mechanics and movements all play a role. “You want to swing the axe to generate the most speed, the most power and the most efficiently so you will get your next hit quickly.”
Competitors have to consider how to hold the equipment, how they move their bodies and the timing of their movements.
Good equipment is key.
Equipment going to Vienna with Symons includes an axe that was a graduation present from his mother and stepfather, and another $900 axe that was specially ordered from New Zealand with a particular grind to enhance cutting.
Symons doesn’t wear steel-toed boots. Instead, he wears soft, flexible shoes with chain-mail protection over his feet and running up his shins.
Flexible shoes provide a better feel for the block if he’s standing on it, he says.
“You have more versatility in where you can put your feet … I know guys that do wear steel toes. Just for me, it’s clunky.”
Leading up to the competition, Symons is on a rigorous training schedule. He builds logging roads 10 hours a day and after dinner, he’s out the door to train.
He’ll spend three hours a night training with coach Nick Russell, whose accomplishments include winning fourth place representing Canada in the 2017 World Championships in Lillehammer, Norway.
If he’s not training with Russell, Symons is doing two-hour workouts at the gym.
But he’s not complaining.
Baron thinks he has such a good work ethic because he grew up in a small town where children go with their parents to volunteer in the community and take on whatever needs doing. “We can’t wait for somebody to tell you what needs to be done.”
Wickstrom has known Symons for many years and says she can’t remember ever seeing him in a bad mood or angry. “He is just genuinely a really wonderful, polite, young man.”
Briscoe concurs, calling him a “very upbeat personable guy.”
“It’s a feather in his cap for doing something that your average person cannot do.”
Baron said her son, who used to coach younger kids in hockey, benefits from all the supportive athletes and judges involved in logger sports.
Once an event is over, “they go back and they look at how well you chopped. What could you have done better? What could you have done different? Hey, have you ever thought about this?”
She imagines Symons 20 years from now stepping into the more experienced athletes’ shoes and “teaching that next set of people how to do it.”
As for Symons, if there’s enough time, he looks forward to taking in the sights in Vienna and trying a local beer.
“I will be just walking around looking. Being from a small north Island fishing-mining-logging-community town, I just kind of want to see something different.”
Symons is ready for any result in the competition. “Honestly, even if I come 12th, I am still 12th in the world under 25.”
ROOKIE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP COMPETITION EVENTS
1. Standing block chop: Simulates falling a tree with an axe. A vertical block of wood with a diameter of 30 centimetres must be chopped through both sides as quickly as possible. Fast finishes rely on optimum placement of the axe and a powerful swing.
2. Stock saw: A MS 650 Stihl chainsaw is used to cut two “cookies” or discs of wood at a specified thickness from a horizontal tree truck, with a diameter of 40 centimetres, in one cut toward the ground and one cut upwards.
3. Underhand chop: This event simulates cutting up a felled tree. Competitors stand on a horizontally positioned block of wood and must cut through a 32-centimetre trunk with an axe.
4. Single buck: The competitor makes one cut through 48.26 centimetres of white pine using a single-man cross-cut saw. Time ends when the block is cut through. Relies on technique, brute strength and stamina.
5. One board springboard: The goal is to cut a notch in a vertical trunk and fit the board into that notch. Competitors then stand on the board and cut through the top of the trunk. This test demands precise technique, strength, balance and skill.
Log rolling is sometimes seen at logger sports in Canada, but is not part of this competition. It has never been part of the Stihl Timbersports. All countries follow the same discipline format of only chopping and sawing events, a company official said.
