WaucondaFest 2008 - Day 3

The last 3 days were predicted to be stormy, but all 3 were great summer days. After our usual bike ride, we headed over to WaucondaFest for lunch and then caught the first performance by the All American Lumberjacks Show. They compete in 10 events with this "on the road" tour group, and five were demonstrated for us at this performance (the other 5 would be at the next performance.) The two competitors were both young guys, both college grads (Univ. of Minnesota and Winona State), and both World Champs -- one five timer and one a seven-time champ -- so these were high profile competitors. One competition was chainsaw cutting while on a spring board up on a pole. Normally they'd be way up a tall pole, but not today...



Another race used high-performance chainsaws and they made 2 cuts through 10 inch hardwood -- one downward and one upward -- in 4 seconds! Jamie is finishing his down cut and about to cut back upwards...



Another competition was axe throwing, but my favorite was the log boom run. Five lathe-rounded cedar logs were tied together and floating in a 10,000 gallon tank, and each guy had to dash 50 feet across and the 50 feet back against the clock. As the logs bounced and rotated and became wet, it became tougher to complete...



... and each fell several times into the 50 degree water, which of course wet their $300 shoes which have 30 spikes each. Here Jamie falls, but Jamie's 3rd run was round-trip in 7 seconds (he is the world record holder at 6 seconds.)



Afterwards, Ellen got one of the cut-offs and Jamie signed it...



See the posts below for more WaucondaFest pictures.