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One of the NT’s great annual events is the Fred’s Pass Show. As a major supporter and sponsor of this event Komatsu Forklift Australia went all out to make this year’s event the best ever. Our sponsorship of the ever popular wood chopping helped this year to be bigger and better than ever featuring an appearance of the world’s best in this sport, David Foster from Tasmania.
When People think of Axemen they often picture burly Canadian lumberjacks, as depicted by Hollywood, who all seem to resemble Popeye’s bearded adversary Brutus, in their flannelette shirts and suspenders.
But Tasmania’s David Foster is by far the greatest axeman the world has ever seen. Having competed against the finest woodchoppers from Australia, USA, Canada, New Zealand, Spain and Wales.
Born March 20, 1957, in Hobart, Tasmania. David is a huge man by anybody’s measure, standing 6’4” and weighing in at 28 stone.
And shaking the hands of the BIG man is a unique experience. Rather than gripping hands as most people do, shaking hands with David Foster is more like trying the greeting procedure with a person wearing a boxer’s large focus mitt: You end up just rubbing palms. With a career tally of 182 world titles, 175 national titles, and over 1400 championships, David became the first person in history to win 1000 championships in any given sport. To date he has earned over 3000 first places in competitive woodchopping, and has won the crosscut saw world title for 21 consecutive years.
David has represented Australia since 1980 and was captain of Australia for 21 years consecutively. He has won the Australian Axeman of the Year a record breaking nine times in a row. In 1990 David was awarded Axeman of the Decade – the accolades just keep coming.
Appearing at the 2011 Fred’s Pass Rural Show with Axemen Henry Maine and Kevin Williams visitors had the pleasure of seeing these 3 men perform and demonstrate their abilities up close and personal.
The Axmen demonstrated the underhand race, standing block race, a hard hitting competition, a cross cut sawing exhibition. Kevin Williams will also dazzled with his skills, expertise and proficiency with a tree felling exhibition.
To celebrate Fred’s Pass Show Komatsu Forklift held a special evening at our Darwin branch for our valued customers giving them the opportunity for them to meet David Foster. Our guests included representatives from AJ Couriers, Bunning’s Warehouse, Ritek Building Supplies Pty Ltd, Cerbis Ceramics, One Steel Steel & Tube and Tyres 4 U.
All had a great night with a NT style barbeque and a few cold beers along with the chance to shake hands with David Foster, the world champion wood cutter from Tasmania who holds 184 world titles and over 1000 championships to his name.
The night was a great success as David humoured us with some of his life’s great stories and amazed us with a list of his achievements. David also presented us all with a motivational speech about life’s struggles and what you can do if you decide to be happy and content within your own skin. He helped us realise that some opportunities can be turned into great feats if you are true to yourself. Komatsu Forklift Australia Darwin branch manager Stewart O’Donnell said “I had the pleasure of spending some considerable time with David over the weekend as the sponsor of their wood chop demonstration and even got a free lesson on wood cutting from the man himself. It goes without saying we also enjoyed a beer or two together. David has long been an idol of mine so it was an absolute pleasure to meet the man and be able to introduce David to some of Komatsu’s valued customers.”
Over the weekend at the Fred’s Pass Show David and his team did six shows/demonstrations each day, and at each event started by thanking Komatsu Forklift for their sponsorship so they were able to attend the show this year.
