A few months ago me and Bath Viking aka Dan were sat looking at Facebook when a video from a page like Insider or something came up about “urban axe throwing” and we tagged each other and said why not?! With Dan off to uni, date nights will be reduced so we thought an extravagant one would be best for now.
We have to admit that most of the time we are one of those couples that say yeah why not and never get round to doing the task or adventure, however, this seemed so us that we actually looked into it. This video floating around Facebook mentioned a place in London called Whistle Punks and so I looked at their website to see where they were located and how much this date would cost us and what we would need. I didn’t see any criteria on the site and thought I would drop an email just to double check, you don’t want to pay, get there and find you are turned away for wrong shoes or something so I asked what would be best. In a few hours, I had a response that I was happy to go ahead and make a booking because of.
“We suggest loose, comfortable clothing and flat closed toed shoes.The only thing we do require is that your shoes are closed toe, if people show up with opened toe shoes then they have to wear our spare boots and that is something no one wants.”
So we followed the guidance and put on our Dr Martens boots, comfy jeans and comfy
t-shirts with shirts as jackets. When Instagramming the ootd I wrote the caption “
wearing our matching @punkpawsbrandtshirts. Dan’s shirt is @seaminglynormal and we are both wearing @drmartensofficial boots (💅🏻1914 /👑 icon 7B10 SSF 7-Eye with brown metal tip laces)” Whistle Punks didn’t open till 5:30 pm and there were two booking slots available to chose from, 5:45 pm or 7:30 pm but we chose the earlier option due to getting dinner and going home, the rest of the day before going to Whistle Punks was spent at Westfields Stratford City shopping centre where me and Dan did shopping and got lunch. Post about my shopping haul will be up in the next few days.
Because of Friday being the only day we could manage to go, we found it was peak time and so we paid £29 a person opposed to £22 which you pay on quieter days during the week but we can’t fault the price because the staff made the instructions fun as well as giving tips for improving the whole time and keeping the environment competitive and lively. Unless you pay for 12 people to hire a private lane, you play strangers that just so happen to have booked the same day but the staff made it enjoyable to play and interact with each other and you naturally cheer when players hit the bullseye or reacting when someone missed and so that no one was excluded and we all got on well. I found that to be a really nice touch and it made the challenge fun when the novelty of throwing a few axes with your other half and out scoring them could have got boring after a few rounds but this way didn’t. Not only that but running a few different games so doing the main challenge and then doing a winner stays on game mixed things up and kept it fresh.
I was really impressed that we were taught and allowed to throw the axes in a few different ways, we started with a one handed throw and were taught how to adjust our weight and throw it safely and given a few practices each to get the hang of it. We then did the same with a two handed shot and after a few practice hits, we started a competition.
In the competition, we all played 3 rounds to score points and the winners were put into a semi final and final with the others cheering them on. It was at this point where we said it would be better to go as a group of at least 12 people you knew in order to keep the interest because as lovely the people we played with were, they were strangers who were making comments but the staff really kept the energy up which was great! Once the competition was over we were taught two new throws before doing a winner stays all mini game. The new throws were an under arm which was insanely hard and Dan was the only person who got an axe in the target as well as a two axe throw.
We both really enjoyed the activity of axe throwing and are planning to go again as we got a discount code for next time. As I said before, we are looking to do it with a group of people we know and do it as a group activity because we think that will make the experience that much better, knowing the people you are playing and really having a good time with friends.
Dan is now also rocking one of their t-shirts.
Overall this turned out to be a pretty expensive date but it was well worth it, £29 each for a ticket to throwing and £22 each for the train ticket to get there and then we had lunch, dinner and coffee prices because of the times that we were out. Obviously, as two students we can’t do dates like these often which is why making the effort and doing it with the lunch and dinner was justified to us, it was a great day out and well worth the prices.
Really can’t wait to go again!
seaminglynormal 