She’s a lumberjack and she’s OK…

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/10/2017 (3206 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Welcome to Jen Tries, a semi-regular feature in which Free Press columnist Jen Zoratti will try something new and report back. In this instalment, Jen Tries… throwing an axe.

First of all, allow me to confess that throwing an axe has never been high on my list of things to try.

But axe throwing, as a leisure activity, is growing in popularity — so much so that there’s been a recent proliferation of urban axe-throwing clubs for those who want to embrace their inner lumberjack. Bad Axe Throwing is one such club. The first location opened in Burlington, Ont. in 2014; now, Bad Axe Throwing is the largest urban axe-throwing club in the world, with 16 locations across the U.S. and Canada. The Winnipeg location opened last spring, so I thought I’d pay the folks there a visit and get a lesson from an professional axe master.

My coach is a tall guy with a formidable beard who goes by Big Dan. I feel that I am appropriately nervous around sharp objects that will be turned into projectiles, but I do what I do when I’m nervous: I talk non-stop. Big Dan is very patient.

The facility, which is located on Border Street, is appropriately spartan, save for the ink-stained fences surrounding the throwing lanes that everyone signs like a guest book. I learn two things from the graffiti: 1) Bad Axe Throwing has hosted many, many bachelorette parties, and 2) axe throwers really seem to enjoy the music of the American heavy-metal band Slayer.

Axe throwing looks simple — throw an axe, hit the target — and there’s something elegant about it, too. When Big Dan throws an axe, it’s a swift, clean, satisfying action; the axe makes one full revolution through the air before making contact at the target at the end of the lane. But, like most things that look effortless, there’s actually a lot to think about. In a two-handed throw, you bring the axe behind your head and then forward in front of your face with force — but it’s not a push or a flick action. You have to keep your wrists straight. You have to release at just the right moment — not too low, but not too high, either. You have to make sure you’re not stepping too far forward. You can’t hesitate. Axe throwing is all about momentum.

“Yelling helps,” Big Dan adds.

I take my first throw, which is really more of an ungraceful fling, sending the axe clattering to the cement floor.

“I’ve seen some dainty throws, but that was a dainty throw,” he says, and hands me another axe right away. That’s the thing about Big Dan: he never gives up on you.

“My main goal is getting you to land that axe in a target,” he says. “You will stick an axe, and that’s something I promise everyone.” He’ll definitely tell you what you’re doing wrong, but he’ll also compliment a great throw.

And sure enough, I start to stick the axe. It feels great, and I immediately want to throw more.

That, apparently, is a typical response. “A lot of people don’t know what to expect and a lot of people are very hesitant when they come in,” Big Dan says. “It’s like, ‘What are we doing? This is super unsafe, I don’t want to do this.’ And then they land one, and it’s like, ‘Give me another axe.’”

Big Dan, whose real name is Dan Blair, has coached everyone from five-year-old kids to 82-year-old women. Whether participants are young or old, new or experienced, there’s a strong emphasis on safety; we are, after all, chucking axes around.

Axe throwing is a leisure activity, so it tends to draw parties — birthdays and bachelor/ettes, mostly, though there’s been a few ‘I Quit’ and divorce parties. I ask Big Dan how many people feel the need to wear plaid flannel shirts to throw axes. He laughs. “Apparently lots,” he says. “Like, 70 per cent.” (He’s a black T-shirt kind of guy himself.)

But it’s also quickly growing as an organized, competitve sport. Bad Axe Throwing is a member of the World Axe Throwing League (WATL), a professional association that, as Big Dan puts it, is trying to become “the axe equivalent of the NFL or NHL.” In December, the inaugural World Axe Throwing League Championships will be held in Chicago. Local leagues start this week, and those who advance to the finals will have a chance at winning $3,500 and the title of world champion. More than 1,000 people from Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Brazil are expected to participate.

The rise of axe throwing can be owed to a few things, Big Dan says. “One of the things that might be contributing to it, aside from just the absolute fun and cool factor to it, is people are watching Game of Thrones, they’re watching Vikings and things like that.”

But he has another, simpler, theory.

“You get to do what you were always told not to do, which is throw sharp objects.”

jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @JenZoratti