Barrister slices through the competition in newfound love for woodchopping

Nose to the grindstone: Defence lawyer and competitive woodchopper Emma Riddell finds hard work and a sharp axe are the keys to success . Photo / Tessa Jaine TopSouthMedia

There’s a good chance Emma Riddell is the only lawyer in the country who drives around in designer fashion, carrying a box of axes in the boot of her car.

The specialist criminal defence lawyer even has the perfect argument prepared, should she ever be stopped by the police – the sharp, glinting axes are not weapons but essential tools for her newfound love of competitive woodchopping.

Some nights after work and each weekend the Nelson barrister heads out to a nearby farm to train in perfecting the art of swinging an axe or slicing a timber block with a huge saw.

The interest is perhaps not so unusual when considering she has roots deep in a Southland farm, and the competitive sport she’s always played.

Riddell recently returned home to Nelson bearing trophies from finishing second overall in the Stihl Timbersports at the Rural Games in Palmerston North.

Emma Riddell competing in the Single Buck event at the Stihl Timbersports Women's 2023 National Championship, held at the Rural Games in Palmerston North. Photo / Supplied

She was also recently triumphant in one of woodchopping’s biggest competitions of the year – the South Island championships in Waimate, in which Riddell won both the women’s individual events.

Axe throwing is also where the former netball goal shoot excels.

“It’s usually a fun event at the end of the main competition but I tend to take it quite seriously.”

The focus needed for the sport is the same needed in court; Riddell knows that even after almost 14 years in the job; which started as a junior at Invercargill’s Crown Law office, a dull axe requires more strength than a sharp blade for winning any argument.

“I try to be assertive in court in terms of my position.

“It’s about being confident in knowing what you’re doing, and about 10 years in, you get to know what you’re doing.”

Nelson barrister Emma Riddell in the courtroom in Nelson. Photo / Tessa Jaine TopSouthMedia

She agrees there are parallels between the law and woodchopping, which is a heritage sport in New Zealand dating back to the 1870s.

“I think it’s just if you work hard you’re going to get results, and it’s the same with law.

“If you’re doing a trial you have to know the case better than anyone in the courtroom and like woodchopping, the more you put into it the better the result.”

Riddell also applies that to her love of clothes and fashion, and a style she describes as “very black”, as evidenced by the chique black dress worn by New Zealand designer Jimmy D for this interview.

“It’s very Dunedin isn’t it? I don’t think I’ve ever gotten past that.

“I just got a new wardrobe put in my house which I desperately needed because there was no storage, and when I stood back and looked I realised more than a good quarter of the wardrobe was black.”

Tucked away in a closet is the protective chain mesh worn on her legs and feet during woodchopping.

Riddell grew up on an 800-acre sheep farm in Hokonui, cradled in the rolling green Southland hills north of Invercargill and west of Gore.

Riddell’s father is still on the farm, but her mother died last year.

“I miss the farm, and I spent a lot of time going back there last year to see my mother.

“It was a difficult year, a crap year actually. It’s been awful.”

Riddell credits her parents, both farmers and academics – especially her mother who was a strong advocate for the environment, with her interest in law, even though economics took precedence when she began studying at Otago University.

Riddell graduated in 2009 with a law degree and an honours degree in economics and was admitted to the bar the following year.

She went out on her own as a self-employed barrister in 2016 after moving from Invercargill to the Crown Law Office in Nelson in 2012.

“It’s good to be self-employed – it was always a goal.”

Until recently Riddell knew little about woodchopping, except after watching it at various A&P Shows and rural sports days. She became hooked after winning her first competition in 2020.

She is coached by the head of the sport’s governing body, New Zealand Axemen’s Association president, Dave McEwen.

She says success requires a combination of fitness, technique and strength which are “really hard to master” but she loves the challenge.

Success also relies on finding enough wood for the multiple training blocks needed, which she says coach McEwen has a knack for finding.

Riddell says chopping and sawing wood also requires knowledge of how to read wood.

“It’s very technical and that’s something my coach is big on, in terms of how you set up the block, it’s what you learn from the start.

And every tree tells a story.

“You can tell from a block how old the tree was, and where it grew, maybe with heaps of wind battering it.

Riddell says there’s a core of Kiwi women competing in the sport, mostly professionals who’ve found chopping and sawing a great antidote to the stresses of work.

She has always turned to sports and fitness as a way of coping with the stress of work.

“Any sex trial is particularly difficult. The subject matter is difficult, and it’s difficult cross-examining the complainants – that’s never a fun job but you’re there to do the best for your client.”

Riddell has further ambitions for woodchopping, which she says is a relatively hard sport to break into, and it’s expensive - a good axe is about $900 and a saw is close to $4000.

Emma Riddell chopping into the standing block heat at Otautau in December 2022, part of the Southland Otago Axemen's Centre Christmas Woodchopping Circuit. Photo / Helen Hall Harley Photography

Riddell says these are specialised tools made for sport and says the racing axes made in Masterton are known to be the best in the world.

She’d like to see woodchopping become an Olympic sport. It’s big in Europe and in the US, from where some of the sport’s best women athletes come from, and the Australians are also highly competitive.

A more immediate goal is competing as part of the New Zealand women’s team in Australia.

“I just love the sport, the people – they’re an awesome group and they’re completely different from the law which is good.”