57th Annual Lumberjack World Championships

Athletes from across the world come to Hayward to show they're a cut above the rest.

The 57th Annual World Lumberjack Championships brings in nearly 12,000 visitors to Hayward.

From logging to chopping, skilled timber sports athletes feed off the roar of the crowd.

“The cheering, the screaming, the yelling, it’s really what we live on,” said World Champion Speed Climber Dustin Beckwith.

Fifty-seven years ago, the World Championships came to town and never left.

“It’s a real athletic event and there’s a lot of excitement,” said Ken Maki, who has come to the championships since 1974.

The championships are held in the lumberjack bowl, the same place where loggers in the 1800s competed in some of the same games.

“It’s all inclusive and not something you see everyday,” said Ron Hobart, former announcer of the championships.

The games include lumberjacks and jills as they compete in log rolling, chopping, and climbing a sixty or ninety foot pole.

“If you’ve never been to Hayward, put it on your bucket list, you gotta see it,” said Beckwith.

Expect to hear the lumberjack call all weekend.

“When you hear it as a lumberjack you know you’re going in the right direction and doing something right when you go YO HO that means good job,” said Hobart.

This year’s World Championships have athletes from all around the world like Australia and New Zealand.

The championships wrap up on Saturday, July 30th.

http://www.lumberjackworldchampionships.com/