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A sporting activity that typically only comes to town about once each year as part of the annual Feast of the Flowering Moon is taking up a permanent residency in Chillicothe.
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Axe Throwing is soon to become a fixture within Chillicothe’s Triple Crown Sports.
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This new business venture is the brain-child of David Dratwa, a local axe throwing enthusiast.
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We stopped into Triple Crown on Wednesday to speak with David on this latest entertainment attraction for the area, but unfortunately he was unavailable. His son, Bowen Dratwa, however was on hand, and he was able to provide us with all the information you need to know.
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Bowen is a manager at Triple Crown Sports, and is working with his father to get the business up and running. He said Southern Ohio Axe Throwing is a separate entity from Triple Crown, but is housed within the establishment.
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“We are renting the space from the owner, Kevin Ross,” said Dratwa. “We rent the downstairs bar and the upstairs, so it is separate. We thought it’d be a good idea to bring it down to southern Ohio; it’s a lot of fun. We’ve done it a lot in Columbus and we thought it’d be a good thing to have down here.”
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Bowen says all their staff is well-trained in axe throwing. When you pay them a visit, they’ll share that training with patrons to make sure know how to throw safely.
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“We’ve watched a lot of videos, we’ve been trained, we’ve gone and thrown axes at various places,” said Dratwa. “So we know what we’re doing, and we have a lot of fun with it too.”
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He says there’ll be some paperwork to sign, but after that, you’ll move right in to handling the axes.
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“We start you off signing some waivers, obviously,” said Dratwa. “But then you will have a session with an expert and we teach you how to throw. There’s multiple ways to throw, we’ll show you all of those. And then we play some fun games. We play a version of ‘horse’ with the axes, we can also play tic-tac-toe. And then at the end, we have our ‘lumber lord’ game to figure out who’s the lumber lord… who’s the best axe thrower out of everybody. It’s a lot of fun, a lot of competition, and it’s pretty enjoyable.”
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Bowen says his father David got the idea to bring axe throwing to Chillicothe after participating in a variety of axe throwing events around the state over the past couple of years. He said they really enjoyed it, and thought it’d be nice to share the experience with the local community.
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“He went axe throwing a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it,” said Dratwa. “He’d been thinking about it for a while, so then he asked Kevin [Ross] about it because he thought this would be the perfect place to put it, and then it just kind of took off from there.”
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The business has conducted a soft-open over the past month and has received positive responses from participants, but now it’s preparing for its grand opening on Tuesday, July 30th. A special ribbon cutting will take place at 4:30 p.m.
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“We will have the ribbon cutting and there’ll be pizza and pop and drinks,” said Dratwa. “I believe, though he hasn’t finalized it yet, but I think it’ll be $10.00 for a special fee to throw. It [the price] hasn’t been set in stone quite yet, but it will be on the facebook page, and on the website, www.southernohioaxe.com.”
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Bowen says there are two ways patrons can experience an axe throwing session. You can walk-in and book online. He says you can take part in both short and long sessions.
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“There are two types of ways to do it,” said Dratwa. “If you’re looking for the full experience we do suggest that you book online. That’s an hour-and-a-half session, and we believe that gives you the full experience. You get a lot longer time, and if you have more people it’s easier to do it that way. But we do offer 30-minute and hour-long sessions. If you want to do that, it’s just basics. We come in and show you how to throw and then you do want you want to do. You can throw. We’ll be here to watch you. And if you want to play a game, we’ll be happy to do that for you. But, if you want the full experience, we do recommend booking. That way you get full hour-and-a-half and the full length of the experience you can receive.”
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For now, Southern Ohio Axe Throwing offers two axe throwing stalls, but Bowen says they are mulling over plans for potential future expansion.
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If you have any questions, you can contact Southern Ohio Axe Throwing at 740-298-4950.