When it comes to multitasking, Jack Jordan is better than most at getting the job done.
And when it comes to not blowing your own trumpet, he's pretty handy at that too.
The 26-year-old sheep and beef farmer from Taumarunui took on 16 of the world's top-rankedwood choppers in Vienna over the weekend for the Stihl Timbersports World Trophy.
The gruelling competition saw Jordan come out on top, defeating world champion Jason Lentz in the final in front of a crowd of 3500 screaming Austrians.
"Basically just had to do the full race - stock saw, underhand, cross-cut saw and single buck. Started with 16 men, we did a time trial to rank us and seed us to see what pool you're in to get through to the final.
"From there it was just elimination through to the final. All up, in the space of about three hours [we] had to cut five races. The last four races would have been in the space of probably an hour and a half I think."
Despite the rigorous competition schedule, the 1.93m farmer told First Up his body was feeling okay.
"To be fair I'd never actually done that event before. I did train pretty hard before I came over but all I trained on was doing ... three runs at the end of the day, I'd never done five before.
"During it my body was real sore. It was pretty hard. It looks hard, it's a whole lot harder during it.
"But I guess not too bad now. I did have quite a big night after it and was pretty tired the next day. But as far as my body goes it feels pretty good now."
So how does he manage to train while working on his family's 1600ha farm?
"It started to get a bit tricky towards the end there when you get bigger days at work. You get home and you run out of daylight so you're sort of training in your headlights ... which makes it a bit hard.
"When she starts getting closer to winter and the days get shorter, yeah, you run out of time pretty quick and you've got to prioritise that over work sometimes."
Jack Jordan in action in Vienna. Photo / Supplied
Injuries derail rugby efforts
Prior to wood chopping, Jordan had a promising career lined up with the Taranaki NPC rugby team, something he's characteristically modest about.
"I spent a couple of half seasons with Taranaki Bulls and mucked around with them but I did get a couple of reasonably bad injuries ... which sorta puts a dampener on things.
"Still play rugby now just with one of the club teams in town, the Taumarunui Eels, just social sorta rugby. It's quite enjoyable actually."
And what about wood chopping injuries?
"Nah, been pretty lucky with that. I've had some, I guess, close calls but never properly hit myself. The odd time you might nick yourself with the axe because they're so sharp but not while I was swinging."
The 18,021km journey from Taumarunui to Austria was a bit tough on the big lumberjack.
"Coming over here was probably the hardest trip out of all of them travel-wise. Maybe it's because I haven't done it for a while because of the ol' virus.
"Couple of flights was 10 and 12 hours, s***, they were pretty tough."
So what does the future hold for the 2022 Timbersports world trophy champion?
"I'm 26 now, I guess some people would say that's your prime for wood chopping. As far as the future goes, yeah I'll just train hard and see what events I can get to and go from there I suppose.
"Going to have a pretty good crack at it over the next 12 months and see where I can get to."
