Pete was born into a wood chopping family on May 27, 1957 in Lilydale Australia. He spent the majority of his childhood with his father Vale, mother Merle, and his four other siblings travelling around Australia to logger sports events where his dad was an avid competitor. After years of watching his father compete, Pete was eager to wield an axe himself, but his dad wouldn’t let him have a go until, “he was ready”, so it wasn’t until the age of 18 that Pete began his logger sports career.
By 1981 Peter felt it was time to spread his wings and made the long trip over to Canada for his first overseas competitions. He only whet his appetite with that first successful trip and from that point on was hooked! He came back every couple of years after that and in 1986 he met the true love of his life Shelley. Peter and Shelley wed in 1988 and made Canada their permanent home.
Pete was an avid competitor and member of CANLOG and SILSA since moving to Canada. He has held many Canadian titles over the years and still holds the record for the World Champion 13” Underhand Alder of which he cut in 15.64 seconds. Pete enjoyed his treks around North America competing at various shows including the US STIHL Series and then later in the STIHL® TIMBERSPORTS® Canadian Series events.
Always an advocate for teaching and bringing “new blood” to the sport, Pete wanted new comers to learn “the skill” and was willing to share his own knowledge and equipment to any who needed or wanted it.
Pete proudly welcomed a baby boy into his life on February 26, 1990 and passed the logger sports tradition onto Brock at an early age. Brock has and will continue to look up to his father as his number one mentor.
Pete always said he was in the sport “for the love of it……you have to love it to reach that drive to win it!”
His general comradery along with his cheeky sense of humor, and his larger-than-life stories was valued by fellow athletes. You always felt welcome in his presence as he was genuinely interested in any and everything anyone had to say. He was an icon and father figure to many in the sport. Pete always felt that true sportsmanship was an integral part of what made someone a great competitor and was proud to take home several trophies in recognition of this.
Sadly the logger sports community lost Peter on December 12, 2012 to a heart attack. While we are all still grieving this huge loss, The Canadian STIHL® TIMBERSPORTS® Family is grateful that this “larger-than-life” man came to us to share his story.