Mobile ax-throwing company brings the cage to your Long Island driveway

Inna Koppel struggled with figuring out how to gather her friends and family together safely to celebrate her 49th birthday late last month, so she decided to turn her driveway into an 18-foot-tall, 8-foot-wide ax-throwing cage. 

"So many people went without celebrating birthdays in this pandemic, but this was a way for the day to have a special touch," says Koppel. She hired Long Beach-based Alpha Axe Throwing to set up the mobile cage, enclosed by fencing, for a two-hour celebration on Aug. 23 at her home in North Woodmere. Koppel, along with about a dozen guests, spent the afternoon channeling their competitive sides for a men versus women matchup throwing real axes at stationary bull's-eye targets. 

"The girls beat the boys, and that's what made it a blast. The boys would go hard they'd miss the target," she says. "There was a lot of cheering going on — it got quite competitive at some points — but I probably won because I was the birthday girl."

Koppel's at-home party activity is one that's growing in popularity, according to Alpha Axe co-founders Vincent Hopkins, 30, and Dave Woods, 41, both of Long Beach. Hopkins and Woods, both active members of the FDNY, launched the business with their wives, Sheri Hopkins and Emma Woods, as co-owners last November. The initial concept was to create a traveling ax-throwing experience that could pop up at local festivals, but when COVID wiped their 2020 events list clean, they temporarily shifted focus to private parties. A typical party starts at $400 for two hours, although rates vary based on requests.

"People really need this right now," says Sheri, adding that Alpha Axe closed for a few months at the height of the pandemic. "They're looking for something to do. We had people right after we opened back up ask us to come just to do it with their families. "

Alpha Axe backs the trailer right into the host's driveway for a requested period of time. "We have music going and lights," says Dave. "It's a feel-good experience," echos Vincent.

The insured and permitted ax-throwing cage was built by the group on Sheri's family farm in South New Berlin, New York. It has two targets on one end, and a wooden stump on the other. It can accommodate up to two throwers at a time. Due to social distancing, the crew offers the option for family members to throw together and disinfects the axes after each group's toss.

Alpha Axe's cage can be rented for parties or events in both Nassau and Suffolk, and it comes with the assistance of Vincent and Dave. The two "Axe Masters" have a combined 25 years of FDNY experience between them. Vincent, a firefighter at Ladder 176, and Dave, a lieutenant at Engine 231, have worked in neighboring firehouses in Brownsville for the past five years. 

"We get to play with axes at work, so it does have a link to it," says Vincent. The pair leads a 10- to 15-minute training session with throwers before they're cleared to toss the ax. 

Deanne Casale, 51, of West Babylon, tried ax-throwing for the first time Sept. 5 at a Labor Day weekend party where the Alpha Axe cage was the main attraction. "Apparently, Vincent is well versed in the handling of axes, so that helped. It made me feel quite safe. He instructed everyone on how to throw and it made it quite simple," Casale says. "I was excited I could release some steam," she adds with a laugh. 

Dave says people are often timid when they first approach the trailer, "but once they actually throw the ax and then they throw it again and again, it's always a great reaction." 

His wife, Emma, agrees: "It's cool when we see the ladies who think they couldn't do it and then they kill it. You never can assume that because you're muscular or athletic that you're going to be successful or you're not."

Aside from private parties, Alpha Axe is the host of a competitive fall league at Long Ireland Brewing Company in Riverhead, which began Sept. 1 with four teams enrolled. The trailer is also parked outside the brewery select weekends for visitors to try. 

Says Sheri, "I always tell people ax throwing is kind of the next best thing, past darts and cornhole. It's the next level."