the skills that come with lumberjack sports are traditionally left to big, burly men wielding axes and monstrous saws but this is changing with women donning their 'lumberjill' boots and proving their place in the male dominated sports erin lavoie from washington has two world records and a multitude of wins under her belt but she insists her win  at sydney's royal easter show is one of the biggest scroll down for video  erin lavoie from washington has won the ladies single handed sawing championship at royal easter show  the 32 year old competes in single handed sawing that sees competitors cut through 300 millimetre logs  erin already has two world records under her belt and owns a crossfit gym in washington  on sunday she won the ladies single handed sawing championship that sees competitors slice through 300 milimetre logs with huge cross cut saws 'the easter show is one of the biggest competitions so it was a huge deal for me,' erin told daily mail australia the 32 year old also competed in the wood chop category which is usually her forte, but she says that she did not have a prime block of wood and this makes it much more difficult to carve up the log erin also competes in the wood chopping category  'my fastest chop is 24 seconds and i have two world records in the underhand chop which are around 30 seconds,' she said whilst the quality of the piece of wood quality is the luck of the draw, the technique and equipment are not with top of the line axes costing up to $600 'the axes and saws are not cheap, but they have to be top notch if you want to win,' erin said 'the maintenance of them is expensive too and you need to know where to go' women's prevalence in the sport is still scarce and many females must compete against males in order to be involved at all 'i still compete against men in many competitions,' erin said 'it's obviously really tough as they can deliver so much power, but this means it's so much more rewarding when you win' women's involvement largely started with the jack and jill sawing division that sees a man and a woman working as a team to slice through the log 'mostly women get into it because their husbands need a partner for jack and jill so they train up their wives,' erin said 'but i do it because i love it and it's my thing' erin grew up with brothers and loved to do male things so when she noticed the lumberjack team training down the hall at her school, she signed up after a short amount of time she was travelling and competing in various chopping and sawing competitions   and winning erin also competes against men and admits she loves the feeling of pride when she beats them  her fastest woodchop is 24 seconds and she holds two world records in the underhand chop of 30 seconds  although she owns a crossfit gym in washington, her training regime mostly consists of chopping and sawing logs in her backyard 'i have a friend who is a logger, so that's super handy!' she said the royal easter show also contains a junior development program for aspiring lumberjacks to get involved according to the abc, 16 year old lucy backhouse and her 13 year old sister kate are the only two females competing in this program the sisters from new south wales have gained quite a following and always get a large applause no matter how they place 'it doesn't matter who comes first, we always get the biggest cheer because no girls do this sport,' lucy said it their mother, wendy, three years battling with the human rights commission for the sisters to be allowed to compete 'a lot of people don't consider it a sport but i like it because it is so different, it's a challenge and it takes stamina and technique,' lucy said
erin lavoie washington the ladies single handed sawing championship sydney royal easter show lumberjacks a junior development program new south wales
erin lavoie from washington has taken out the ladies single handed sawing championship at sydney's royal easter show . she also holds two world records for the underhand wood chop division . while lumberjacks are commonly men, women participants are on the rise . a junior development program has also been added to this years' show . it includes only two females who are sisters from new south wales 