The 18th Chetwynd International Chainsaw Carving Championship was held on June 6-9, where carvers from all over the world traveled for the opportunity to compete in this unique competition. The family-friendly weekend event was free for the public to attend, which hosted various craft and food vendors as well as sponsor booths from all over the Peace region.
12 carvers (4 International, 4 US, and 4 Canadian) are selected and invited to the District of Chetwynd each year by a board of directors to compete in this championship. A 40–50 inch diameter by eight-foot-tall western red cedar is provided for the carvers, who are given 35 hours to complete their sculpture. The 2024 carvers included Josh Dagg, Ryan Villiers, Jake Rhodes, Sam Bowsher, Chris Wood, Wade Lapp, Joe Srholez, Kamron Garbe, Justin Driver, Brandon Kroon, Mike Jones, and Mike Ayers.
“We do a log draw at the beginning to keep it random and to keep it fair,” said Chris Larsen, President of the Chetwynd International Chainsaw Carving Society. “We have a big welcome dinner where all our sponsors get to meet all our carvers, and at the end of the evening, we have a random log draw where someone is sent down to the field and randomly numbers all the logs. The carvers pull a number out of a bucket basically, and then after that, we all go down and see who got what.”
The carvers are given 10 hours a day, Thursday through Saturday, with only 5 hours to finish on Sunday morning, which is followed by the quick carve competition, auction, and award ceremony. “This year we had two record-breaking quick carve totals for individual carving sales out of the crowd. Our previous record was roughly $4300, and this year we had a $5000 and $5500 sale for individual carvings,” said Larsen.
“We have improved and ratified our judging this year by taking out some redundancies and were able to really focus, to let the carvers carve their best and leave it to the numbers to find a winner,” said Larsen. “When you have twelve of the world’s best carvers, it’s very hard to decide who comes out on top. It can’t be a personal preference thing; it must be by the numbers.”
The championship's first place was awarded to Mike Jones from England, second place was the Canadian Jake Rhodes, and third place was Sam Bowsher from Scotland. The Carvers' Choice was awarded to Jake Rhodes while the People's Choice was awarded to Mike Ayers from the USA. Once the District of Chetwynd has been handed the carvings after the competition, they then take them back to the shop and coat them with a new coat of sealer before placing them on Carver’s Row for one year. After a year on Carver’s Row, they are distributed around the community.
“We can’t do this without our sponsors, the whole thing is really the community coming together. For a town of 3000 people, to put on the world’s best carving competition, it really is a group effort all the way across.”
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