Far off the grid amidst the farmlands and forestry of the central North Island, an almost rhythmic beat cuts through the chilly air and peaceful quiet as a world champion prepares to once again defend his crown.
King Country farmer Jack Jordan's final preparations are full swing as he goes through final practice rounds before a bid at a third consecutive Timbersports World Trophy later this month in Italy.
"You've got to push yourself in your backyard and it's pretty easy to give up when no one’s watching,” Jordan tells 1News.
“You've got to be pretty disciplined with it."
And that discipline is sprayed all across his front yard – the spot of his makeshift “gym” which is now more splinters and chunks of wood than it is grass.
Despite the clear evidence of hours of training, Jordan isn’t certain how he’s tracking for this year’s event in Milan.
“It's sort of hard to know with this one. it's such a hard event,” he explains.
“Each year, I sort of haven't felt like I haven't gone that great beforehand just because it's so hard."
The difficulty he speaks of is in relation to the unique format of the World Trophy which is contested by 16 of the world’s best each year.
Unlike other Timbersports events, the World Trophy consists of four disciplines – stock saw, underhand chop, single buck and standing block chop – back-to-back in a single round.
It’s a spectacle for fans, but a gruelling challenge for the athletes involved, who face off one-on-one in a single-elimination format until only two remain to contest the title in the final.
And if that wasn’t enough, the “break” between each duel is approximately seven minutes and those still standing must prepare their next logs for the next round.
“Last year, in between the rounds I was dry reaching,” Jordan recalls with a grin.
“I was just worried about putting one together the next round and hoping to get through to the final.
"You just want to win it so much, you put it in the back of your mind. you're not gonna die through it and it's a little bit of pain for a big reward if you get it right so you're just going out there and putting everything into it and hoping that you come out on top of it."
And he’s come out on top twice now, including last year when he set a world record time of 53.65s while beating Poland’s Michal Dubicki.
But if he needs the extra cardio, the family farm 45 minutes out of Taumurunui he works on comes in handy too. The sheep and cattle farm approximately 4000 acres, and in his down time he does a bit of pig and deer hunting too.
"It's certainly a special place. I love it down here in the bigger country – a lot of sheep, a lot of cows, it keeps you busy."
Country life has been a big influence for Jordan too, having grown up in Taranaki before returning to the farm five years ago. It’s one of the factors in how he got into the sport in the first place.
“I got into it through me older brother Shane, I guess. He did the AMP shows as a kid and me naturally sort of watched him on the weekends and that sort of got me interested.”
And while he never thought Timbersports would take him around the world when he was younger, at just 27 now, there’s no thoughts on slowing down any time soon.
"It’s early days to be talking about hanging up the axe, I think! I just want to win. I want to win and enjoy doing it - that's probably the two biggest things."
A mindset that's sure to give him the cutting edge for years to come.
SHARE ME