“Big, strong and good looking”
Ask David what attributes you need to be a champion axeman and he’ll tell you jokingly, “You need to be big, strong and good-looking.”
At nearly 197 cm tall and weighing about 150 kg, David Foster is a giant of a man. With more than 1000 championships (a record in any sport) and 186 world titles to his name, he is a giant in the sport of woodchopping.
David combines massive muscular strength with physical agility, pin-point accuracy and the will to win. An analysis of his technique concluded that he “produces a greater power output (2.5 tonnes of force at impact) than the world’s greatest hammer throwers with the balance and poise of Nureyev, the agility of a gymnast and at three times the delivery speed (131.76 kmh at impact) of Muhammad Ali.”
Under the watchful eye of his father, George, and the dedicated training of his father-in-law, Henry Munday, David refined those natural advantages into a world champion whose titles covered a period of 36 years from 1979 to 2015. He represented Australia from 1980 and captained the Australian team for 21 years consecutively. He won the Australian Axeman of the Year a record-breaking nine times in a row. David has broken records in every woodchopping and sawing event except tree felling…as he says “Why on earth would anyone want to do that!”
David’s success and his promotional activities raised the sport’s profile nationally and internationally.