He is.
The talented 24-year-old should be excited about his rapid and near record time in the underhand chop.
And he is.
But if you ask him he will tell you beating former mentor and man-mountain Adam Lowe for the first time was just as big a thrill.
"[Last weekend] was awesome, but one of the guys I chopped against is a multiple world champion — I think 14-time world champion," Pako said.
"Adam used to train me a lot when I was younger, so he has sort of been a mentor for me during the last 11 or 12 years.
"I had two goals this year. One was to win a world championship and one was to beat Adam Lowe in a standing block.
"I managed to win a world title this year and I’ve finally beaten Adam Lowe in a championship."
It took eight years to best his rival. Lowe, who is probably north of 150kg and knows how to use that weight to punch through logs, had surgery on his shoulder about 18 months ago.
"It didn’t matter whether he was cutting at his best or not, I couldn’t give him any breathing room. I just had to give it everything I had."
The South Island championships were staged in Reefton last weekend and Pako successfully defended his titles in the 350mm underhand and the 325mm standing.
"To my luck I managed to retain both titles," he said.
Luck had nothing to do with it, of course.
Pako is a truck driver and he works long hours between Monday and Friday. The weekend is reserved for wood chopping practise, and lots of it.
"Since I’ve won the world championship in January I’ve been working really hard. Pretty much every weekend has been sacrificed to wood chopping."
Pako came within half a second of breaking a long-standing New Zealand record for the underhand which Brian Hatley set back in the 1980s.
"I think he was kind of happy because I broke one of his records over Christmas and he said next time he sees me he is going to cut me off at the knees."
The record Pako was referring to is the 300mm corsican pine underhand.
"His recorded was 19.34sec and I cut it in 17 flat. I was quite surprised because I felt like I was cutting quite slow too."
Earlier this year, Pako won his first world championship title in the David Bolstad memorial 375mm underhand in Rotorua.
Last month he won the under-25 grade at the national series wood chopping championships at the Rural Games in Palmerston North.
That earned him qualification for May’s World Championships in Europe. But that event has been, well, axed, because of Covid-19.
