Selfie Does Axe Throwing
What does this pic have to do with this post? Literally nothing
As you may or may not know, I had a bit of a gap between my old job and my new job and took that as an opportunity to both refresh my professional skills but also to do some things I kept meaning to get around to. First on that list was trying out Axe Throwing. When this is mentioned to anyone over the age of 30 the response is generally, "What? Why?" And honestly, the same could be said for essentially anything I do in my off-time.* But for someone whose whole thesis is wrapped around a life of everyday adventure, part of that necessarily includes trying new stuff - no?
At any rate, I called** up the only other adult I knew that had availability in the middle of a Tuesday, Sr. Retiree, and headed over to Class Axe*** and spoiler alert: Axe throwing is really fun and I'm like...pretty bad at it. The 90-minute activity includes a tutorial, practice time and four games with some practice time in between. Class Axe is also BYOB and can accommodate groups up to 12 people per section. The first question I've been asked about it is how safe it is. I kind of think it's on par with bowling - if you're not paying attention to yourself, your ax and other participants, you could definitely hurt yourself but besides that - pretty low key. In addition, we had our instructor there legitimately the whole time we were throwing axes which was also great because you can REALLY overthink throwing an ax.
As to how difficult it is - it's kind of like darts or essentially any sport you would play in a pub. It's super easy to not be great but it's also not difficult to hit SOMETHING. The instructor taught us how to throw a large and small ax, both one-handed and two-handed and give you plenty of time to practice every variation to find what works best for you. Additionally, they don't start the games until you've hit something at least kind of consistently.
As to the games, we played four of which I was still able to win two even though I was significantly less consistent than Sr. Retiree. The first three games are set up as a competition with each round winner being presented a trophy (!). The ax target is set up kind of like a hybrid between darts and skee-ball. The outer ring is worth 1 point moving in towards the six-point bulls-eye. In addition, there are two small circles in the outer ring worth 10-points (much like the 100 point hole in skee-ball^). The first game is like HORSE except: 1) you don't move around because...safety; and 2) you spell out TIMBER because obviously. The person with the lowest score gets a letter. First person to spell Timber loses. The second game is tic-tac-toe where the scoreboard is based on hitting a certain number. For example, hitting a 2 will get you an X or an O in the center of the board. The third game is "simply" the first person who hits 30 points win. "Simply" is in quotation marks because it's straightforward but you do have to get exactly 30 points and also, if your aim so bad that your ax bounces off the target^^, it takes awhile. Finally, before you finish up your session you get to play Around the World - a game where you have to hit every target ring going across the board.
All in all, this was a super fun time. One, our instructor was great and vurrrry patient and helpful. Two, this seems like it would be really fun with a group hanging out during BYOB or like a birthday party. In the middle of a Tuesday it was definitely pretty warm in there but it certainly wasn't unpleasant and throwing axes is just kind of cool. Class Axe also does corporate events^^^, larger parties. We went with a super reasonably Groupon but they also gave us coupon codes to share (shoot me a dm or email if you're interested!)
So what do you think? You up for trying the latest trend in adult activities post-Escape Room mania?