Traditional sport axe throwing enjoying Canadian renaissance
HALIFAX — A growing number of people have started living up to the Canadian stereotype of a plaid-wearing lumberjack.
Axe throwing is gaining in popularity, with clubs, leagues and lounges opening everywhere from Alberta to Nova Scotia.
Darren Hudson, co-owner of a new axe-throwing lounge opening soon in Halifax, said the traditional lumberjack sport is captivating Canadians because it’s simple and has an immediate payoff.
“It’s a very rewarding, enjoyable sport in which people have the opportunity to cast away their cares,” said the 38-year-old man, a world champion lumberjack who has been throwing axes for more than three decades. “Axe throwing for a first-timer is a moment they won’t forget for the rest of their lives.”
The Ontario-based Bad Axe Throwing recently announced it is opening three new locations in Halifax, Winnipeg and Montreal, and Jack Axes Inc. is preparing to launch soon in St. John’s, N.L.
“It’s a real Canadian thing. We don’t actually go out into the woods and throw axes around but it is this identity we have, the lumberjack identity. So we’re just bringing it indoors,” said Jesse Gutzman of Bad Axe Throwing.
Hudson said lumberjack sports in Nova Scotia date back to the late 1800s, when woodsmen would pit their skills against one another, usually at the end of a river drive when logs were being brought to the sawmill.
“(Axes) have been around for 10,000 years. If technology was to fail and we could only have one thing, this would be the thing that would sustain humanity. It keeps you warm by chopping wood for fire, it can help make shelter, and it can even procure game.”