TSN to air lumberjack competition - Jul. 22, 2010
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Courier file photo
Rod Cumberland, who grew up in Mayfield, has been involved in lumberjack competitions locally and nationally since the 1980s. He is shown here in this file photo competing at the International Lumberjack Competition during the 2008 International Homecoming Festival. He will not compete in this year’s event because he will be the co-host and analyst for a film company taping the event to air on TSN in the fall.
By KATHY BOCKUS
kathy@stcroixcourier.ca
ST. STEPHEN – Let the wood chips fly!
A film crew for TSN will be in town to capture all the action during this year’s International Lumberjack Competition.
“This is a huge opportunity for St. Stephen,” said Mayfield native Rod Cumberland, an avid lumberjack games competitor and judge on the intercollegiate circuit. “We’ve been looking forward to doing this for a while. It’s a great thing for the town.”
Cumberland, who now lives in Keswick Ridge, has spearheaded a committee formed from the local Business Improvement Area (BIA), Development St. Stephen and the Charlotte Coastal Region Tourism Association. The BIA has sponsored the competition for the last four years during the International Homecoming Festival.
This year’s competition, for lumberjacks as well as lumberjills, will be held on the downtown waterfront on New Brunswick Day, Aug. 2, beginning at 11 a.m.
The St. Stephen competition is one of only four lumberjack events which will be aired on TSN during its upcoming fall and winter season. Cumberland, who will be a co-host and analyst for the local show, said other competitions will be filmed in British Columbia, Tennessee and New Hampshire.
“This is going to be really good exposure for the whole region,” said Ian Stewart, general manager of Development St. Stephen.
“It’s outstanding. We’re really lucking in,” said Mayor Jed Purcell.
“If it wasn’t for Roddy, we wouldn’t have been able to pull this together, He knows all the people, whether it be the competitors or the people that put these things on,” said BIA president Kevin Stuart, who agreed it was quite an accomplishment for the town to garner the attention of TSN.
It was Cumberland’s long-standing friendship with television producer Bill Deba that provided the opportunity to showcase the town and Charlotte County.
Deba is the producer and host of the “Lumberjacks Challenge” television series which airs across Canada and the United States on TSN and OLN.
He and Cumberland met at Sir Sandford Fleming College in Lindsay, Ont. in the 1980s. Deba went on to organize professional lumberjack competitions in Ontario and in 2000, he and Cumberland created The Great Canadian Lumberjack Challenge, holding the first competition in Cornerbrook, Nfld.
“There was a lot of debate whether the best lumberjacks were from the west or the east,” said Cumberland.
The teams from Western Canada didn’t win.
“Eastern Canadians put a pounding on them,” Cumberland recalled with a chuckle.
Deba still runs lumberjack competitions and entertainment shows on weekends in various communities. His televised lumberjack series is now sponsored by the Echo chainsaws company and “he’s always looking for a top-notch competition to film a show.”
Enter St. Stephen.
“They wanted us last year, but it was too short a turn-around time,” said Cumberland.
Cumberland, who has won the local lumberjack competition in years past, said he won’t compete this year because of his co-hosting duties.
But his son, Benjamin, 16, who won last year’s novice division, will compete this year in the men’s open class. Benjamin will team up with veteran lumberjack Donald Lambert of Quebec in the cross cut saw category.
The competition is fully booked in the men’s and women’s division with only a few spots left in the novice category and will feature competitors like J.P. Mercier of Quebec, former Canadian lumberjack champion, as well as Paul Woodland of Benton, N.B. and Moyal Conrad of Greenfield, N.S., both of whom have won the local event.
The women’s category will feature Kathy Johnston of Nova Scotia, whom Cumberland has described as “the one to beat” and Janet Walker of Sussex, another strong contender, who has been competing at events in Australia under the guidance of Mercier.
To register in the novice category contact Alison Estey with the BIA at 466-7407.
Cumberland is encouraging everyone to get out and watch the competitions.
“It’s going to be a great way to spend the day.”
See Tuesday’s Courier for more on the lumberjack competitions.
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