‘Timber’ Tina Scheer’s log rolling tips
There’s always a price to pay when a mistake is made in competitive log rolling. One wrong step and a dunking is assured.
Logging sports veteran ‘Timber’ Tina Scheer is better than most in the highly skilled sport where two contestants battle to stay on one rolling log. She will be showing the American sport when it takes centre stage at the Royal Easter Show in Auckland.
Speaking from Spokane Washington shortly before she caught a flight to New Zealand, Scheer said it was an incredible sport that most people did not get to see.
‘‘It takes an incredible amount of skill and practise to become a show roller good enough to perform in front of people.’’
The roller puts one arm out front and one out the back and bends their knees slightly, taking quick steps while maintaining their balance.
‘‘We call it pitter patter. You are constantly removing your weight from the log because if you put both feet on the log and don’t move, your weight is going to go one way or the other, but if you lift them up all the time, you are removing your weight from the log.’’
The constant backwards and forwards movement made it incredibly physically taxing, she said.
‘‘It doesn’t take long to get tired out there and from the waist down is where you have to move, but the control is from the waist up.’’
Scheer and her team of two men and women are Timber Tina’s World Champion Lumberjacks and Jill Show. They will perform three half-hour logging shows at the Royal Easter Show, which is host to the Auckland A&P show, which is celebrating 175 years this year.
The logging shows involve two people competing in underhand chopping, axe throwing, an obstacle pole relay, chainsawing, jack and jill crosscut sawing, chainsaw carving and log rolling.
‘‘We call it the Olympics of the forest, because for us, that’s what it is.’’
This will be the second year in a row she has performed at the show, although she has visited New Zealand in the past to catch up with wood choppers including multiple New Zealand world champion Jason Wynyard.
‘‘I used to announce the Stihl Timbersports Series, which Jason won many, many times. He’s an incredible master axeman.’’
The series and the Lumberjack World Championships held in her home town of Hayward, Wisconsin, are the biggest of their kind in the United States and attract huge crowds.
For Scheer, the most enjoyable part of it is the people she works with.
‘‘We get to travel around together, we get to perform and share our sport with people and entertain them and make them laugh, and everyone leaves really happy.’’
While the show had a script, they were happy to veer off anytime and interact with the crowd.
‘‘It’s cool when you have people who have never seen what you are doing learn about our sport because we are entertainment, but I call it edu-tainment.’’