Aizkolaritza

Spanish uses a loanword from Basque, aizcolari and in French the sport is called coupeurs de bûches.

The competitions are usually a race for the finish by however many individual competitors there are but occasionally they are done txandetan, in relays, where two aizkolaris form a team and relieve the other once a trunk has been chopped through.

The prestatzaile (enseñador in Spanish) checks the two halves are fully separated (they sometimes appear to have but are still connected), dictates the rhythm and indicates where best to hit next.

In a famous competition held in 1983 in Tolosa, two aizkolaris called Jose Mari Mendizabal and Mikel Mindegi had a wager to chop six 110 ontza trunks and 52 kanaerdikoa (a total of 100 kanaerdi) each in less than 5 hours.

But the most famous aizkolari was probably a man nicknamed Santa Ageda who competed in an epic event in the bullring of Azpeitia in 1903.

The "golden cup of San Sebastián", held annually with 5 finalists competing in the final event.

To date, the best time is held by Donato Larretxea who completed the task in a record 25 minutes 17 seconds.

He then stands on the plank to reach higher up, working his way around the trunk in a spiral until he can chop the top section.

Traditionally a male dominated sport, women have begun to take part in aizkolari competitions in recent years as they have in other traditional Basque sports, for example Itziar Goenaga, Kristina Saralegi and Lucia Unceta Wood-chopping as a profession has a long tradition in the Basque Country and has been recorded since medieval times when the profession was important to the local shipbuilding and charcoal burning industry which later also fed the metal-working industry.

In time, those country towns and valleys that were famed for their top wood-cutters turned out to be those that have safeguarded the wealth of their forests.