A dynasty was broken, a pig was consumed and a great deal of wood was chopped this past weekend at the 1 Combat Engineer Regiment's annual Logger Sports Day at the Edmonton Garrison.
The event on Sunday drew hundreds of military members and their families to the base to witness duelling chainsaws and axes and enjoy a roasted pig lunch, as well as children's activities like bouncy castles.
The Logger Sports Day has been going on at the Edmonton Garrison for 10 years, with the competition being suspended twice while the unit was deployed to Afghanistan.
Lt.-Col. Mark Flint, the regiment's commander, said the event brings soldiers, their families and wounded soldiers all together for a good time.
"It is really a family focus built around the framework of a soldier competition," he said. "It is all about creating the next traditions and building on the legacy of family involvement in the regiment."
Sgt. Terry Vandenberghe with 11 Field Squadron, who organized the event, said it is a great event for the regiment.
"Anything we can do that promotes the morale of soldiers helps to create a better working environment."
Bragging rights
For the past several years the competition has been named after Cpl. Robert Lomond who was killed in 2007 in a car accident just outside the base. It consists of nine events, mostly drawn from traditional logger sports such as chopping competitions, log dragging and axe throwing.
In the final event, an obstacle course, the team works together to complete several events including moving a one-ton block by rolling it on logs.
The 10 teams represent the various sub-units within the regiment and this year the explosive ordinance unit came away with the top prize, ending a long dynasty for one of the other teams.
Master Cpl. Erik Poelzer, a member of the maintenance troop who had won the event for six years running, said the bragging rights are extremely important but Lomond was one of theirs and winning every year is in part their tribute to him.
"It is a big deal for us to come out and represent him every year and blast away at it," he said. "We started in June and we got some wood together and we practised every day."
Master Cpl. Jarrit Turnell another troop member, emphasized how much the team didn't want to lose.
"Right now we are six-year reigning champs and the fact that after 2006 the competition was named after Rob, he was one of us."
Every time of the maintenance troop stepped up to an event there was a chorus of boos from the crowd. Vandenberghe said bringing an end to their reign was on everyone's mind.
"There is always bragging rights and the maintenance troop have been bragging for some time now and it is everybody's sole goal in life right now to dethrone them."
Wayne Poulsen, who competes regularly in logger sport events across the country and works with the troops to get ready, said he loves coming to the annual games.
"I have always supported the military and I never have an issue coming here. It is a lot of fun," he said. "They are a good bunch of guys and they love doing it."
Poulsen said the events in logger sports have all been drawn from logging camps.
"The guys used to just do it over beers back at the camp, except they would throw real axes," he said. "It has only been in the last 10 years where they have groomed it into a sport where it is not just a bunch of fat lumberjack guys out doing stuff."
Vandenberghe said the logger sports have some real practically for engineers.
"It is highly utilized, it is utilized overseas when we are building bunkers, it is utilized when we are fighting fires, anywhere we deploy we always have chainsaws, we always have axes — that's basic stores for engineers."
Flint said the skills the regiment uses in its day-to-day work are different, but drawn from a similar place.
"They are perhaps not highly technical skills, but they are certainly combat engineer type skills."
