National Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

[teakwood]

Well "national" because it's the only one in the counrty. Saturday it was the 6th Timbersports Championship in La Fortuna near the beautiful arenal volcano.
This Timbersport Event can't be compared to those you guys are used too in the north but still i won the dang thing!!!
I'm so happy. I went well prepared with lots of different saws and b/c setups and did some trial runs at home for some days. The first time i was invited.
It was a very nice day and a well planed event.  Sadly Stihl does not promote safety equipment enough in Costa Rica, i was the only one with the gear on. Enjoy

First competition: nicest stool in 3min





Speedrace


precision falling


Cutting a 3x3 post by bare eye

then there was thinnest cookies, vertical cookies and cut a log to lenght by eye







Thanks to Willard (Holmentree) which gave me some great tips for the competition.  (it's been awhile since he last posted on the forum, hope he is ok!)

[mike_belben]

Wheres all the huskies?!    ;D



I see the girls brought their safety gear.  Nice job!

[Southside]

Congratulations!!  Maybe you can get a title that says "National Timbersports Champion 2018" like the Foresters have - you earned it!!  What did you get for a prize?

[sprucebunny]

Congratulations  8)  Looks like you won a .....saw !! Guess one can never have too many.

[teakwood]

What did you get for a prize?

I wanted the girls but instead they gave me the saw  :D  ;D  
it was a MS210, i talked to the owner and we agreed that he sells the saw and i get 400$ of shop credit. I am thinking selling my 066 and go for the new 661 for next years championship

[thecfarm]

You did good.
The only one I see is at Fryeburg,ME. They do the felling one with an ax. Some of those guys can hit their mark. Most of the "trees"have a lean to it and as just about as straight as the one pictured too.

[Ed_K]

 Kool 8) glad you won the saw. I'll take the girls if they can run a saw ;D.

[teakwood]

I thought that i would win at falling because i did that a lot in my teakharvest but actually i failed badly, i was furious. The direction i had spot on but i layed the target 1m too far away.

These two guys did excellent 
Timbersports Costa Rica 2018 - YouTube


Vertical thinnest cookies, went second with 20mm. Both cookies together at their widest point
Timbersports Costa Rica 2018 - YouTube

I did won the nicest stool contest
Timbersports Costa Rica 2018 - YouTube

[bushmechanic]

Congrats there teakwood, you certainly led a jet setting life there 8)

[teakwood]

racecut, in the second cut i did change the bar angle because the sawdust was bathing my component and maybe i lost half a second, i still was the fastest cutter of the 8. sadly no clip shows both of us side by side.
There is lots of room for improvement in this competition. both cutters can't be alined, that has to change next year
Timbersports Costa Rica 2018 - YouTube


3x3
Timbersports Costa Rica 2018 - YouTube

[HolmenTree]

Awesome teakwood good job! I'm really proud of you.
Looks like you had that 660 ripping hard in the speed race and your stance shows you had good control. That was a good size log looks like about 16 inch diameter.
Nice to see Stihl and dealership involved with sponsorship. 
The 2 Stihl girl mascots were dressed nicely too. :D

[teakwood]

Thanks Willard. 

the speedrace i did with a muffler moded 660, removed airfilter, adjusted carb, 18" ES bar and a well filed Semichisel chain, the rakers where about 0.65mm deep.
The log was around 14" and was pretty soft. normally i'm used to work with a lot harder wood.
All the other guys had stock saws, mostly 660, 460, and 382. 28-32" bars (some of them light bars). One guy came with a 088 and a 40" duromatic bar, he had no chance.  The loggers and dealers in Costa Rica don't know what moded saws are. I would love to have a ported saw, just for show effects.
One young guy had just a 361 and he ask me if he can use my 660 in the speed race. as i was competing before him i told him of course but he had to use his own b/c.  He did a fast first cut but did bad on the second upper cut and lost the race.

[Raider Bill]

I've been to La Fortuna 3 times to see the volcano. All 3 times it was socked in by clouds.

[samandothers]

Thanks for sharing the story and videos!  Congratulations National Champ! 8)

[teakwood]

I've been to La Fortuna 3 times to see the volcano. All 3 times it was socked in by clouds.

That's normal!  I have been there about 10 times and have seen the volcano cloudless once. you often see the volcano half, but without the smallest cloud it's just 10days a year. Arenal was the biggest tourist attraction in CR but the volcano extincted around 2014.
EXCELENTES IMAGENES del VOLCAN ARENAL - Fortuna Costa Rica - YouTube

[caveman]

Congratulations on the win - National Champion. Pura vida.  Costa Rica is a beautiful country. 

The one thing that perplexes me is the lack of safety gear for the chainsaw competitors.  When we were there four summers ago, I noticed all of the folks running string trimmers along the roadways were decked out in what I considered to be an excessive amount of safety gear for running a string trimmer, especially in a climate that warm.  Based on that observation, I would have assumed that chainsaw operators would be armored to the teeth.

[teakwood]

Your correct, they use the eye protection because it's absolutely necessary and most of them use some sort of apron so they don't get too dirty. There are also some plant fluids which itch extremely.  I don't see much who uses ear protection and on every trimmer in CR the safety guard for the string is removed!
This safety gear you get for free by every trimmer purchase. On a chainsaw we get gloves, earmuffs and googles, but nobody seems to use them .

Very few stores sell chaps (100$), maybe its just too much money in there eyes.  
Heck, for the pfanner pants i use (300$) they can buy almost half a chainsaw. So why spend such amount of money for pants if they already worked 10 years without a mayor incident. ???
 

[Skeans1]

Congratulations on your win, here's an idea for a build for your next race saw http://www.madsens1.com/pa_hayden.htm

[thecfarm]

Chaps,I went 20 years without a major accident. I wear them now. Just never know when you will need them. I did not put them on once and hit my leg with the saw. Nothing bad,but it could of been.

[olcowhand]

Congratulations, Teakwood.
And we know you're a proud Stihl user; no body had to force you to use them!
Great job!

[teakwood]

Congratulations on your win, here's an idea for a build for your next race saw http://www.madsens1.com/pa_hayden.htm

Thanks for the link, very informative!