WASHINGTON — Ontario, Canada-based Bad Axe Throwing is bringing its urban, indoor ax throwing club to D.C.
Bad Axe Throwing calls itself the world’s biggest ax throwing club and its mission is to bring the thrill of a traditional Canadian backyard pastime to urban communities. It says ax throwing is “bowling 2.0.”
“It’s similar to the sport of darts, but with hatchets and it’s sort of set up in a similar sense of bowling where when you book a party or a group, you’re assigned a lane,” Melanie St. Amour, with Bad Axe Throwing told WTOP.
The company began its expansion across Canada, where ax throwing is a fairly popular pastime in some regions, so they were surprised by the reaction when they opened their first U.S. location in Chicago.
“People were just thrilled at ax throwing. It’s a very Canadian thing. When we went to Chicago, people were like ‘What? You throw axes? This is a thing that people do?'” St. Amour said.
Bad Axe Throwing holds an open house for its new D.C. location at 2419 Evarts Street, NE in the Brookland neighborhood Nov. 17-19.
Bad Axe Throwing charges a walk-in rate of $20 per person per hour. There are also group rates.
It says there are no skills required to learn urban ax throwing. Professionally-trained ax throwing coaches teach you how to throw axes at a target in what it says is a safe, fun and entertaining atmosphere.
The D.C. location will also be hosting leagues.
For those who are curious but not quite sure, Bad Axe Throwing has a section on its website describing ax throwing techniques, tutorial videos and safety tips, like “Don’t throw an ax if someone is in front of you or near the target.”
Bad Axe Throwing opened its first location in 2014 in Burlington, Ontario. The new D.C. location will be its 16th location in the U.S. and Canada.
Bad Axe Throwing is a founding member of The World Axe Throwing League.
