CONTACT
To find out more about STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® in Great Britain please email timbersports@stihl.co.uk
STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® is the original extreme sport and these adrenaline-fuelled competitions might just be the most exciting sport you’ve never heard of!
STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® launched in 1985 in the USA but it has its origins in 19th century Australia, when lumberjacks would compete against each other and the clock outside of work to be the fastest man with an axe or saw.
These days, it has developed into a global competition series where the best competitors use axes and saws to smash their way through wooden blocks in seconds!
CONTACT
To find out more about STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® in Great Britain please email timbersports@stihl.co.uk
What is STIHL TIMBERSPORTS®?
There are six events (or disciplines) in STIHL TIMBERSPORTS®:
The tools used when competing in STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® include custom saws and racing axes which are only used for competitions. The only exception is Stock Saw, which uses a standard, unmodified STIHL MS 661 chainsaw.
It goes without saying that strength is important for this sport, but speed, technique and accuracy are vital too.
You can find out all of the results from previous STIHL TIMBERSPORTS competitions, as well as the schedule for upcoming events in the TIMBERSPORTS database.
In Great Britain, there is a national competition held annually, including a Pro Championship, a Rookie Championship and a Women's Championship. The women compete in four TIMBERSPORTS® disciplines; the Stock Saw, the Underhand Chop, the Standing Block Chop and the Single Buck. The rookies, who are under 25 years old, compete in five; the Stock Saw, Underhand Chop, Single Buck, single-board Springboard and the Standing Block Chop. Pro athletes must be able to compete in all six TIMBERSPORTS® disciplines.
In all the disciplines, athletes earn points based on their times, with the fastest time achieving the maximum number of points. The overall champion is the one who has accumulated the most points at the end. The fastest athletes also have a chance to compete in international competitions on a global stage too.
So if you want to find out more about TIMBERSPORTS® in Great Britain, please email timbersports@stihl.co.uk.
And follow us on TikTok @stihltimbersportsgb to keep up with all the latest GB TIMBERSPORTS® action
And if you want to see the original extreme sport action live, the next opportunity to see British athletes take the stage will be at the TIMBERSPORTS® European Trophy in the Netherlands on 17 August. Then Team GB will be returning to the World Championship in Milan on 24 October 2025. Find out more and buy tickets from the official STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® website.
In the meantime, you can catch up on all the excitement from the 2025 British Championship on our YouTube channel. Find the full livestreams and highlights videos from the Pro, Women and Rookie competitions in the TIMBERSPORTS® playlist.
Want to find out more about the sport? Watch our TIMBERSPORTS® video.
The international cream of the crop are pitted against each other in a range of formats including the World Trophy, the Individual and Team World Championship, and the Rookie World Championship. National competitions also take place in many countries, including here in Great Britain.
At STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® events, athletes compete in up to six disciplines depending on the competition format. Three disciplines are performed using an axe, three with a saw.
TIMBERSPORTS® places huge demands on athletes. All competitors have attended a series of training camps and demonstrated that they can perform the required disciplines safely. But it’s not just for lumberjacks! All sorts of people take part in TIMBERSPORTS®, so whilst there are some foresters involved in the sport, there are also builders, farmers, engineers, a graphic designer, a salesman and even a lawyer, in the US TIMBERSPORTS® Series!
STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® has a standard set of rules worldwide which applies to all official competitions in the Series. Judges ensure that the competition rules and safety requirements are followed and correctly interpreted.
The competition wood, which is poplar and white pine, is sustainably grown and harvested on certified plantations in Belgium and the Netherlands. They are then peeled so that they are the standard size for competitions and labelled. The labelling is important to keep the competition as fair as possible – each competitor is up against someone who is chopping through a log from the same tree as his. After each competition, the remains of the logs are recycled for biomass.
