You may soon be able to throw an axe indoors in Squamish.
An application for a temporary use permit to set up an axe-throwing club in the Squamish Business Park has been submitted to the District of Squamish.
The unnamed applicant is requesting a permit for up to three years to open the Sea to Sky Axe Club, which would offer recreational axe throwing to the public at 39002 Discovery Way in 16-foot-long indoor axe-throwing courts.
The property is zoned light industrial, which does not currently permit this type of use.
A public hearing on the application had yet to be scheduled as of press deadline.
A Whistler recreational axe-throwing business, Forged Axe Throwing, recently opened in Function Junction. The business has four throwing lanes where up to 30 customers can throw an axe at a wooden target.
The company will also have mobile axe-throwing pop-ups at Squamish Days Loggers Sports Festival in August and the upcoming Squamish Beer Festival this weekend.
Though not behind this Squamish application, Forged’s co-owner, James Anderson, told The Chief that axe-throwing has taken off as a leisure sport in the Sea to Sky Corridor.
“The sport and popularity of it has been awesome,” he said. The business also launched an axe-throwing league of 18 people that crowned its first champion last week. For season two of the league Anderson hopes to have 30 people signed up. “There’s a renaissance of this kind of thing,” he said. “It is a very authentically Canadian experience.”
Customers range from foreign tourists looking to do something that is unique to the area, to local groups out for a good time, to people who have never touched an axe who want to give it a try, Anderson said.
It is a great stress reliever, he added with a laugh.
To view the proposed permit for the Squamish axe throwing club go to squamish.ca/showcase. Comments will be received until Tuesday, July 11.
Email [email protected] to comment directly.