Turns out that the Pacific Northwest doesn't have a monopoly on risky timber business. There are many ways to die on the mountain. Anybody who watched the first two seasons of History's
knows that. What they might not know is how many ways there are to die in the water and air.
This season, the reality series about rival logging operations not only follows the Oregon- and Washington-based
,
and
crews, but it has added logging companies based out of Louisiana, Montana and Florida.
Down in the bayou, Shelby "The Swampman" Stanga feels his way through gator- and snake-infested waters -- plus about four feet of mud -- looking for logs that got lost on the way to the mill. He fires a massive handgun to make sure his accomplices are steady of nerve. When Stanga sees air bubbles rising to the surface of the river, he leaps into its murky shallows to find out if they're emanating from a log or a waiting gator.
His reward is a $3,000 cypress log, but that's only a drop in the bucket compared to the $80,000 or $90,000 he needs to replace the aging barge-mounted crane that is the backbone of his operation.
Back in Port Angeles, Wash., last season's up-and-comers at Rygaard Logging are trying to prove that their success wasn't a fluke.
Ax Men
When:
Season 3 premieres 9 p.m. Sunday
Channel:
Web site:
"Last season, we were David. We beat Goliath," says Gabe Rygaard, who with his father, Craig, will be forced to wrangle with two greenhorns, or rookie loggers, on their way to cashing in on a crop of "green gold."
Those rookies, Dave Shroeder and Travis Davis, get a lot of attention in the first episode of the season. Shroeder is a single dad who leaves his 4-year-old son with his grandmother while he hits the trees in an effort to make a better life for them. He's fast and hardworking, and it appears that he might make a go of it despite Craig Rygaard's dislike of greenhorns. Davis is a hunter and "bad boy" who gets off to a wobbly start when he earns a profanity-laced tongue lashing for standing close to a log drop site and almost getting crushed.
"You run for your life every once in a while," Jay Browning says knowingly from Astoria. He and son Jesse are trying out a new formula for JM Browning, hoping to make up the ground lost to Rygaard last season. Jay will be overseeing the daily operation while Jesse takes over the business end.
More interesting to viewers is the gaptoothed jawing and wild acrobatics of D.J. Jeremiah, the Browning camp's seasoned rigger. During the off-season, he lost three teeth in a net accident aboard an Alaska fishing boat.
He flees an attack by bees in the premiere, resulting in a minor injury. "I just rolled my ankle over," he says. "Got to walk it off."
Meanwhile, the Pihl Logging crew is trying to recover from an eight-month absence brought about by tough luck. This season of "Ax Men," it will be make or break for the company.
To aid in their quest for their livelihoods, they've brought in Melvin Lardy, a 350-pound man with a work ethic that's sized to scale. As the first episode closes, he's whipping his team into a nervous frenzy. While trying to clear a log of a stump on its way up the sky line, he applies too much pressure, jerking the wood through the cabin of the yarder. Whether he made it is unclear, and the voiceover urges folks to tune in next time to see what happened.
In addition, the helicopter loggers of R&R Conner Aviation and the underwater loggers of S&S Aqua Logging also will make their presences felt as the season progresses.
As reality TV, "Ax Men" is genuinely entertaining, using actual drama to keep viewers coming back. However, when that voiceover spouts lines such as, "Bone-crushing steel roars to life," or the editing gets heavy-handed in playing up the danger, it's hard to stifle a chuckle. When the drama is this real, who needs overdone narration? These "Ax Men" continue to provide plenty of traction of their own.
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