A Spot of Axe Throwing in the Morning / 伦敦扔斧头专门店

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Yesterday, @ezzy and I had awoken early, soon to be in search of something "adventurous and daring" to partake in. Strange as that sounds, it's just the way we were feeling that morning, lol. A break from the norm, I guess. I remembered seeing something concerning "axe throwing" somewhere in London. After a brief scour of the Internet, we found the venue and decided to check it out. Well, it turned out a cool little activity to finish off the weekend with and make you feel like you'd accomplished something different, haha!

The place is called Whistle Punks Urban Axe Throwing, which is located opposite to Vauxhall Station, reached via the Victoria line. To be honest, it wasn’t the easiest to find as from outside, it resembled a normal looking warehouse. Though we were lucky enough to actually find someone in the area to direct us straight there.

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Having sorted the logistics out, we ended up having an amazing time there! The place still looked pretty much like a warehouse but with a re-decorated art decor interior and industrial style furnishing.

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Of course, there is a big emphasis on safety and you have an instructor present with you for the entire session to make sure no one gets injured. Our instructor was Roxy and she was absolutely brilliant, being super friendly and helpful.

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Overall, it wasn’t too busy for a Sunday morning. We were a group of 6 people in total sharing one lane, so 2 people would throw at the same time. We were paired up with other couples and all competed against each other to see you'd be crowned victor. It was so much fun!

There was a decent amount of time allocated to practicing before we began the main tournament. We were shown a selection of methodologies with which to hurl the axes at the cork board, under the guidance of the instructor. These included one arm vs 2 arm throwing techniques. I have to say, throwing axes is not as easy as I first expected it to be. It is not solely about power but more your fluidity and movement. Well, the first few throws I didn’t even get my axe to stick onto the board as it just drops down to the floor with a thud! Luckily, you do get better at it the more you try.

Soon after, it came down to the whole point of us being here. The competition itself! And it worked like this: there were 4 rounds of 5 throws against someone else and the people with the highest total wins make the semi-finals. A further 5 throws in the semi’s and it's a "throw-off" between the last two remaining contestants. The final done and dusted and a winner is declared! Easy enough, right?

From the outset, the competitiveness flowed out of us all, making the game every bit as intense as it was to watch! So @ezzy and I ended up in the semi finals together however neither of us was prepare to let the other win, lol. In the end though, @ezzy did snatch up the win to claim victory! Oh well, there's always next time I suppose. :)

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Additional facilities include a small bar area where you can get some drinks and snacks, although no alcohol is allowed until the axes are removed, for obvious reasons, lol! The background music was great too, adding to the amped-up atmosphere, including the likes of Motorhead and some particularly fast drum n bass!.

There was also a fun surprise treat for everyone at the end, where we all got to throw 2 axes at once, aiming to hit both bullseye on each adjacent board! Well, we all failed terribly at that but who cares as it was just so much fun!

The highlights of the day was that not only @ezzy winning within our group, but that his score even made it to the “Wall of Fame”, lol! I must admit, I was a little envious but at the same time very proud of this cool achievement!

All in all, it was an excellent experience down at Whistle Punks Axe Throwing. I enjoyed myself to the fullest all morning, getting to hone my axe-wielding skills a little more! Being such a unique and entertaining activity, I would definitely recommend this experience for everyone to try out! I very much look forward to going back and improving my game some more so will be returning there soon!

Give it a go and unleash the "tomahawk" within!

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周日早上我和@ezzy很早就醒了，心血来潮我们突然想找些冒险刺激的东西玩，呵呵。我记得见过伦敦某处有扔斧头的广告，所以我上网稍微搜了一下就找到了。据说这是时下最流行的解压方式哦！伦敦人普遍工作压力太大了，既然飞镖不过瘾，那就来点“狠”的，扔斧头呗，哈哈！

这个伦敦扔斧头专门店叫做 Whistle Punks Urban Axe Throwing 。它离 Vitoria 线上的Vauxhall 地铁站走过来只有几分钟的距离。老实说，这家店并不好找，因为它座落在看似废弃的一片仓库区，我们也是问了当地人才找到。这里周一到五是晚上开放，而周末才是全天开放。

这家店里的装修保持了原有仓库的工业风格，这种貌似粗糙的装修当今还挺流行的，蛮有特色。

这个场所其实就是让你向着木制标靶任丢斧头，还是蛮暴力的哦！所以全场的安全措施做得非常足。而现场也有教练教大家如何有技巧地丢斧头，以免伤及无辜，呵呵。我们组的教练名叫Roxy。她不但专业，也十分耐心友善。

周日早上并不是很多人，我们组就只有六个人，每次两个人同时扔斧头，按积分来分胜负，挺好玩的！

在开始比赛之前，我们有充足的时间来练习。在教练的指导下，我们分别学习了单手和双手扔斧头的技巧。我不得不承认，扔斧头还真不是我预料中的容易，除了掌握好力度，很关键的还是投掷的技巧。刚开始的几次练习，我的斧头都是砰地一声就落到地板上！不过，练多几次也就渐渐掌握到技巧了，呵呵。

不一会儿，我们就进入了正式的比赛了。每人进行四轮比赛，每轮可以扔五次。总分最高的前四名进入半决赛，然后再分别进行两轮比赛决胜负。挺简单的，对吧？

比赛一旦正式开始，大家竞争得十分蛮激烈，呵呵！最后我和@ezzy 同时进入半决赛，我们彼此当然毫不相让！不过，最终@ezzy 还是大获全胜，取得了全组第一名！

场内还有一个小酒吧区，提供饮料和小吃。不过这里有规定，没扔完斧头之前是不能购买酒精饮品， 呵呵。这里的音乐也配合得不错，有那么点儿让人心跳加速的气氛。

最后，教练还让我们试玩对准两个标靶靶心，同时扔出两个斧头！虽然我们没有一个人扔得象样的，不过大家都玩得很开心！

这天最大的亮点对于我们来说是@ezzy不仅在我们小组内获胜，他的分数甚至进入了“名人榜”哦，哈哈！我必须承认，虽然有点儿羡慕，但同时也为他的小成就感到很自豪！

总而言之，我在这家 Whistle Punks 扔斧头店的体验蛮不错。练了一个上午我的斧头技能大有长进，我感到相当满足，呵呵。我也十分期待再回来与@ezzy一决胜负，哈哈！

大家也来试试扔斧头解压吧，真的很爽哦！

My video is at DLive