By Jackson Russell
Broadford woodchopper Brayden Meyer was right near the top of the pile at the Stihl Timbersports Champions Trophy in Geelong over Easter.
Meyer finished third in the 16-competitor tournament behind 2018 world champion Laurence O’Toole and Kody Steers.
Meyer is a five-time world champion, winning the 2016 World Champions Trophy in Austria and being part of a dominant Australian Chopperoos team that’s won the last four world championships.
Stihl Timbersports isn’t the woodchopping you see at the Royal Melbourne Show. While it has some similar events like the springboard, underhand and standing block, others use high-powered Stihl power tools.
The stock saw event uses a retail chainsaw to cut two disks out of a 40 centimetres log while the hot saw event use custom chainsaws powered by racing-spec motorbike or jet ski motors.
A fourth-generation chopper, Meyer said he started woodchopping at nine years old and had been to the world championships every year since he turned 18.
“My old man still chops, his brothers and all the kids chop. My uncle on the other side is a pretty successful axeman as well,” he said.
“I started at the age of nine and have been going ever since, non-stop, travelling the world and doing what I want to do.”
Meyer will compete in world championship qualifying on the Gold Coast in September with a chance to go to the world championships in the Czech Republic in November.
Meyer said he was confident he would be able to make it through to the individual world championships and the Chopperoos would be able to back up their team world championship.
“We’re pretty confident that we’ll be able to win it again. There hasn’t really been at team close to us for a long time but obviously New Zealand, Canada and America are pretty strong teams so if we can keep them at bay we should be alright,” he said.