EP 11 - Tossin Axes

Discover the vibrant and exciting atmosphere of Tossin Axes, a unique entertainment venue that combines axe throwing with arcade games. Reed Schwartz talks with owner Daniel Cadwell about how this hub fosters community enjoyment and provides thrilling experiences for all.

• Introduction of Tossin Axes and its ownership transition 
• Insights into axe throwing training and encouragement for first-timers 
• Overview of the diverse entertainment offerings from pinball machines to retro games 
• Membership details and community value 

If you enjoyed today’s discussion or have your own axe throwing tales, share them with us! 

Reid Schwartz is not just a real estate broker; he’s a dedicated leader and active participant in the Whidbey Island community. A Navy veteran and 30-year island resident, Reid brings a unique perspective and deep-rooted passion to his work. As a proud Rotarian and a founding board member of North Whidbey Hearts and Hammers, he’s committed to making a difference in the lives of those around him. He also serves as the organization’s Public Relations Director, always on the lookout for volunteers eager to give back.

Whether it’s helping clients buy or sell their homes, connecting locals with community resources, or creating opportunities for neighbors to support one another, Reid is driven by a desire to make Whidbey Island a better place. He’s always looking for creative ways to help—whether it’s growing local businesses or offering a hand to those in need. For Reid, it’s about more than just real estate; it’s about building a stronger, more connected community through kindness, collaboration, and service.

Reid can be reached:
Phone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Website: reidschwartz.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
I'm Reed Schwartz with eXp Realty and I'm here
with Daniel Cadwell, the ownerof Tossin Axes.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
How you doing today, daniel, I'm doing great Reed,
did you suddenly?

Speaker 1 (00:18):
get this idea that Oak Harbor didn't have enough
sharp objects flying around andyou decided to open this place
up it wasn't me who actuallycame up with it, it was James
Croft Started working here.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
He kind of felt that it was worth me taking over, and
so I kind of just kept that andexpanded upon it.
We're just having a lot morefun, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
So you have ax tossing, yeah, and there's an
arcade here, and then you guysgot a bunch of pinball machines
upstairs, so tell me about thepinball machines.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
So the pinball machines are really great.
A lot of them are from the1980s up to early 2010s, and
then we've recently startedgetting a lot more newer ones,
so ones that were like made inthe last year, like John Wick.
That's a limited edition.
Our pinball lineup is actuallygoing to be changing drastically
over the next couple months.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Okay.
So if somebody's into playingpinball, they got the
opportunity to come play somegames and then it'll grow and
there'll be new stuff.
Yeah, okay.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Always changing.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
That's wonderful, keeps things interesting.
So axe throwing you know, whenI first came to axe throwing I
thought you know that's going tobe kind of hard getting that
axe stick in the target.
But you gave us some reallygreat training.
And what's been your experiencewith people's you know, when
people come in first time takinga shot at throwing axes.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Well, a lot of people , people or a good amount of
people are just sitting therelike, oh, okay, I, I think I
could figure this out.
But then there's another goodportion of people.
They're like I don't know if Ican do this.
I've never done anything likethis before, you know.
It's like, hey, don't worry, wewill happily spend the time and
we will teach you how to dothis.
So what I do is I go through asafety brief and then we go

(02:06):
through a training session andpractice and we actually give
extra coaching.
Then we let you play around forabout 30 or so minutes and then
, when you've got the hang of it, we step back in.
It's like, all right, we'regoing to learn some new stuff.
We're going to teach you how tothrow two axes at once.
We're going to teach you how tothrow knives, all this kind of.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah, I would say well, we had our bunch of people
here.
You know our party.
We had a bunch of people thathad never thrown axes and you
and your helpers, your otheremployees, were fantastic at
taking their time showing themhow to do it.
And people were successful.
You know, you hit the target.
That's great Hitting the target.
However, getting the axe tostick in it is a little

(02:50):
different than actually gettingwhere you want it to go the
stick in it is a littledifferent than actually getting
where you want it to go.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
To an extent, it's one of those things where, once
you start throwing the same way,you can see the axe always
landing in the same general spot, and then you can start
adjusting like, oh, I need torelease up a little bit higher
gear and then it's going to landin where I want.
So it's all about actuallyfinding out how your body
interacts with Axro.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
And then you know, it's not just, you're not just
throwing Axro at a bullseye.
You've got this computer systemthat has how many different
games.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
I want to say it's like 12 or 13 games.
We've got a great variety ofyou know fun, simple games that
are, you know know, fun for thewhole family.
You know even simple thingslike ticket or tic-tac-toe, but
in this case you can actuallylike remove people's marks, and
so it's like it adds anotherdepth to that game, which is
it's always been simple.

(03:44):
But now you're like, wait asecond, I could take away your
mark and just stop you.
It's like, yeah, now there's achance.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
I would say you even have battleship as a business.
I mean, you've got the arcade,you've got axe throwing and then
downstairs you've got abilliards table and some some
tell me about the retro gamesyou have down there I say retro
games but in in most cases, likedreamcast, is the older, oldest

(04:11):
machine I have down therecurrently.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Uh, I got n64 and a xbox original and then a
original playstation 2.
We got a good selection of oldstuff just for people to just
come back and get a little bitof nostalgia and play some of.
Uh you haven't found a pongmachine you put down there I
mean I could get, could get anAtari 2600 and get Pong to set

(04:35):
up.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
I actually had a machine when they first came out
with it.
It was a Pong machine, that'sall it was.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Oh yeah, we were kind of making the downstairs area
more of our vintage-style stuff.
So, we're going to becompletely redecorating that
area over the next year stuff.
So we're going to be completelyredecorating that area over the
next year, you know, making itmore kind of 1920s speakeasy,
themed with a sci-fi twist, solike blade run.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Um, you know, as people come in here, you can
come in and pay for axe throwing, rent lanes.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
So if you rent a lane you get to how many people can
play in the lane we can have upto six people in the lane and
then if you happen to get enoughpeople to do like five to six
people, then what we're going todo is we're actually going to
upgrade you to the landrestoration so you save money.
We actually want customers tohave some value and you know fun

(05:27):
.
So I know that if I can saveyou a couple extra dollars, you
can go spend that elsewhere oreven come back and be like, hey,
it's cheap to have fun here.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Well, speaking of saving money, you also have
memberships.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
So tell me a little bit about the memberships, all
membership levels that I offer.
They give you access to themonthly members-only party,
which is the last Tuesday of themonth from 6 to 9 pm, and it's
open act showing open billiards,and you get $10 in tokens as
well as a drink ticket that youcan use for non-alcoholic or

(05:59):
alcoholic stuff.
So just in that you're gettinga lot of value.
The lowest membership tier Ihave is $25 a month and that's
more so geared towards billiardsand arcade stuff.
And then the other one is thetax drawing and that gives you
five free one-hour sessions.
One is the Axe Roy and thatgives you five free one hour

(06:21):
sessions, in addition to all theperks that the uh the $25 one
is.
And how much is the Axe Roy?
Axe Roy one is $80 a month.
So I want to say for two people, it's $58 to throw regularly.
So you're essentially gettingtwo free sessions, uh, offuary
one, in addition to themembers-only party.

(06:43):
It's like a $240 sales.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Because you know in this time of year there's not a
lot of things to do in OakHarbor, that it's rainy out
there.
I mean, you can go for ahigh-conception pass, but you're
going to get wet.
You've got a lot of stuff goingon in here where you can be
indoors out of the weather.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
I would say that the biggest thing that we have to
offer is that you can do a wholebunch of stuff that you can
come in here and do.
Like I had a group of peoplecome in and they were like, hey,
we're going to just do an houron the pool table.
And then, you know, they didtheir hour and they were like,
oh yeah, we're thinking about itnow.
Hey, have you thought aboutdoing an axe throw?
Hey, do that too.

(07:19):
It's like, yeah, so they endedup coming up doing axe throwing.
I, even I.
I know that even someone wentand grabbed some arcade tokens
too.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
So, like I think they were here for like three hours
yeah, when we had our party here, I mean we had people axe
throwing and down.
She cooled and we brought alittle food in and, uh, you know
, bought some drinks from youand people plan a couple of
friends of mine playing thismachine for about an hour and a
half well, and that's the coolthing that we also offer is that

(07:47):
, you know, don't feel like youcan't.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
Um, you know, bring in outside food.
We actually encourage thatbecause we we can't offer a hot
menu right now.
Oh, we got some, uh, you know,very reasonably priced snacks
and candy bars and stuff.
But if you're like, hey, I'mgonna go have a party for a
couple hours, let's go get somepizza and have some time.
So I mean, yeah, there's awhole bunch of stuff for

(08:11):
everybody and, um, it's, it'sperfectly okay to bring outside
too.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
We'll grab a pizza and come on over and play some
games.
So now we've saved this to last, is that, if you save this
video, share this video?
Comment on this video?
In one week, we are going togive away or Daniel's going to
give away a gift card for?

Speaker 2 (08:35):
a lane reservation so you can get five to six or up
to six people and you can comehere and throw for an hour for
free.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
There you go.
So like the video, comment onthe video, share the video, and
we look forward to seeing you inToss it Axis soon.
Thanks, dan, of course.
Thank you.