[Erin LaVoie] They put me on top of a block, put an ax in my hands and said, try this.

I said, okay.

Five hours later, I- clean the blood off and um, I was hooked after that.

[Open music] Lumberjack competitions kind of started a long time ago, as people used to do real logging in the woods and sure enough, everything turns into a competition.

It started as, hey, let's throw an ax at a log, and whoever misses has to go clean the outhouses, something like that.

and now it's at a professional level where we just chop logs as fast as we can, saw logs as fast as we can, climb poles, throw axes, run on logs in the water, and it's all just for trophies and money.

[music] I'm Erin LaVoie.

I'm a Lumberjill athlete.

When I first started, and for probably the first ten years of me competing, you step up to your block and you're like, okay, I got to work on this.

I got to do this.

It comes to three, two, one go and blank.

[music] Now, since Ive done it so much, I think there's a lot less stress and pressure going into it.

And I can actually attack it more deliberately [Announcer: Three, two, one.

Go.

I know exactly what's happening.

I hear the announcers.

[Announcers: Pick a favorite and cheer them on.]

I can hear the other girls swings when they hit.

I hear everything around me and I just, I know exactly what I'm doing at this point.

[Announcer: Whos it gonna be?]

It's kind of neat.

It's a big, big switch.

And it's cool when you can see that and harness it.

[All right, Erin!

Wohoo!]

So, the underhand chop is a log that sits horizontally to the ground.

Um, we stand on top of that block and we chop halfway through one side, spin around as fast as we can, and finish on the back side.

I have a couple world records in that event, so I've definitely put the most time into that one.

But now we have the standing block chop too, where the block is more vertical.

Uh, since that's so new, that one's a lot of fun as well.

And I do have a world record in that too.

[music] This sport is so special in a way that we help each other a lot.

And I think we all understand how hard it is to do this sport.

It's expensive, it's extremely hard.

But also I don't want to win to somebody who is not at the top of their game.

So that win is way better.

If I can help you improve and then I still beat you.

So, I think we all look at it that way and its just a lot more special.

[Music fades] [Music] This is a training deck that my building owner, he let me build this outside so that I could train in between coaching classes.

I started CrossFit probably 13 years ago.

A friend introduced me to it, and I blacked out within probably four minutes because the workout was it was a lot and my body wasn't ready for it.

So, I loved it.

I started doing it in the garage and then friends came over.

They saw what I was doing.

So we opened a CrossFit gym and now I've been running it for almost 12 years.

[Music] Every movement you do in here is not on a machine, it's you moving your own body weight or weight outside of your body weight, that gives you balance.

So, when I'm balanced on a block, or I'm moving my body with a tool, I need to know exactly how to move around that tool and how to move that tool and feel balanced second thing is strength.

Strength and endurance is huge.

But also the mental aspect is huge for me.

When I step up to a block of wood I just think there's this 30 seconds of balls out CrossFit competition It'll be over.

It's always going to be over.

So just go hard now, win and then recover later.

And I think mentally it it makes me get excited for that instead of scared for that.

I step up and I look at it like, this is going to be really fun.

I want to make it hurt.

I want it to hurt because that's what I'm used to.

And I just go, [Ah, congrats, girl!]

[Music fades] [Soft music] It has been a long run.

I'm not going to lie that I have thought about retiring a couple times here and there.

And then, of course, I come out to my training deck and it takes probably two hits with an ax, and I just- it's home.

It's home, and that's where I need to be.

And that's what I love.

So if you asked me back then what I saw in my future, I have no idea that it was champion of the world, [laughs] or world records or even anything.

All of the places I've gone with this traveling and all of the people I know, I had no idea, but I wouldn't change it for anything.

[Music fades] [Show music]