New venue offers a game of throws
“WHAT did you do in your lunch break.” Reply: “I threw axes.”
It’s not your everyday conversation, but then, Lumberjack Axe Throwing is not your every day activity.
Located beneath Sin City nightclub in Dillwyn Street, the independent business has been set up by Matthew Griffin, a 24-year-old carpenter from Llantrisant, following the success of his first axe-throwing business in Cardiff.
The Swansea city centre site, which was once occupied by Peter Alan estate agency, has been transformed into a rustic, specialist venue with 12 wooden target boards for axe-throwing, organised into six double-lanes, and a “rage room” which will open later in the year.
The business is aimed at people aged 13+ and is perhaps most suited to groups of friends, colleagues, or couples looking for a quirky date night; but it has recently hosted several hen dos and stag groups, all of which were asked to go axe-throwing before they started drinking and headed out for a night on the tiles!
Explaining how the business idea came about, Matthew said previously: “Back in 2017 I visited London with my brother and we came across an axe-throwing venue and really enjoyed it.
“I was a carpenter and I started thinking about using my tools and experience to set up my own site in Wales.
“Two years later, in November, 2019, I launched Lumberjack Axe Throwing in Cardiff. Lumberjack has taken off well and it’s been really successful, despite the pandemic, and we now get booked up three weekends in advance.”
With the success of the Cardiff branch, Matthew decided to open another, bigger, axe-throwing venue in Swansea.
“The Swansea site is double the size of the Cardiff site. We have 12 targets here in lanes of two.
“It’s a really accessible sport, we’re really inclusive, we’ve had people from age 13 to 80 in our Cardiff site [so we’d expect a similar thing in Swansea],” he said.
“We focus on safety, all our staff are trained and they explain how you throw the axe and what the rules are.
“There’s no bar here and people can’t throw if they’ve been drinking – we ask stag and hen dos to come here before they go out drinking. We’ve never had an issue in either our Cardiff or Swansea sites.”
Axe-throwing is becoming increasingly popular across the UK and Matthew wants Lumberjack to be seen as an enjoyable “experience,” and somewhere friends or families with older children can go for a quirky activity together.
“Lots of people play darts or snooker, this is that kind of thing – it’s an experience,” he said.
“I’m proud to say we’re an independent business and I’d like to thank my team for their support and my partner, as well as Swansea customers and local businesses for being so welcoming.”
In the near future, Matthew plans to introduce competitive leagues at the Swansea venue and hopes to attract people from across the UK to compete against each other on the targets. But Lumberjack will always be open to members of the public who just want to have a go and try and score better than their friends and loved ones!
Axe-throwing is just as the name suggests: it’s an activity based around the throwing of axes! It began as a leisure activity in Canada some years ago, but is now becoming a popular hobby in the UK.
Typically, throwers stand 12-foot away from a target, which looks like a large wooden dartboard, and throw one axe at a time towards it, aiming for the bulls-eye or either of the two ‘green dots’ at the top of the dartboard.
Axe-throwers are guided by trained coaches, who explain the different techniques you can employ to throw the axes, as well as explaining all the safety rules.
It’s a fun competition: the closer you are to the bullseye, the more points you score - unless you’re lucky enough to hit the ‘green dots’ and score even higher than a bullseye!
Lumberjack Axe-Throwing can be found in Dillwyn Street in Swansea city centre.
It’s open weekdays from 4pm to 7.30pm and weekends from noon to 9.30pm, or at some other times if requested. An axe-throwing session, which lasts 90 minutes, is £14 per child and £20 per adult.
There’s also a special student rate on a Thursday – 90 minutes of axethrowing for £17 each. Group rates can also be discussed. You can book ahead of your visit online.