Throwing skill


sharp at Cornfest


By Greg Price Taber Times


Cornfest 2019 has some new


wrinkles to it,and one of the new events is the phenomena of axe throwing that has proven a popular social activity across North America in recent years. Lumberjax Axe Throwing out of Regina and Winnipeg will be making their way to Cornfest on Friday,Aug. 23 (12-8 p.m.) and Saturday,Aug. 24 (11 a.m.-7 p.m.) on Confederation Park grounds. “What we have seen is every- one is looking for something new to try.The nice thing about axe throwing is it doesn’t take your Atypical athlete to do well at axe throwing,”said Danny Ritz, regional manager of Lumberjax Throwing.“You can get somebody that has never literally done a sport in their life and they can pick up the tech-


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Young and old will find axe throwing at Cornfest fun and accessible


nique and be someone who is throwing really well and be able to compete with someone who has competed at a higher level athletically in their life.” Like bowling, axe throwing lends itself to the social aspect of friends, family and fellow competitors being able to closely monitor one’s results. “It’s not something you have


to physically exert yourself all the time at. It’s very simplistic for people to get together and enjoy. It’s the most fun thing you can do and suck at,” said Ritz with a chuckle. Axe throwing is a sport in which the competitor throws an axe at a target, attempting to hit the bulls eye or as near as possible like archery.Axe throwing is an event held in most lumberjack competitions. A skilled axe thrower will rotate the throwing axe exactly once throughout the flight so that


the sharpened edge of the head will penetrate the target. The distance people will be throwing axes at Cornfest will be around 16 feet to hit the tar- get. “The best thing you can do is


listen to what we have to say and not overthink things and over complicating it. Like a golf swing, there are a lot of minor movements that will change where you will be put into a harder situation for a successful throw,”said Ritz.“If you just take your mind out of it and have some fun, it will come naturally. We will be there and be able to change some minor things.But once people start to overthink things and try and do too much, they almost spiral into a negative fashion. It is a thing you can pick up right out of the gate, give it a couple of throws and have a fun time doing it.” Besides Cornfest, Lumberjax


Axe Throwing has done events as small as birthday parties all the way up to trade shows that are entertaining hundreds of thousands of people over a weekend. The axe throwing is open to adults and kids alike, as long as the child is accompanied by an adult who is willing to sign a waiver for liability. “We have kids as young as 3 1/2 throwing, and it’s not fake axes. It’s your homegrown style of axe you would pick up at Canadian Tire,” said Ritz, adding Lumberjax Axe Throwing has had an impecca- ble safety record to date, just coming up to its third year of operation.“The biggest ques- tion we get is ‘how many injuries have we had?’We are at over 11 million axes thrown and we have not had one injury in nearly three years of operation.”


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