Orangeburg native and resident Allen Watford has been throwing axes competitively for the past three years.
He is a member of the World Axe Throwing League and has climbed to the top, winning three times.
About half a year ago, Watford began throwing knives and joined the World Knife Throwing League (WKTL) in competitive play.
Still new to knife throwing, Watford recently received a surprise lottery invite to the 2022 WKTL U.S. Open Tournament scheduled for July 15 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Watford is one of 48 lottery invitees to the 64-person national tournament.
"This is big," said Watford, while standing at Orangeburg's newest ax-throwing venue — Black Water Axes and Ales — where he has helped fine tune his art of both ax and knife throwing. Watford will be representing Black Water Axes and Ales at the tournament. He will be sponsored by Fairey Chevrolet.
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The venue is located at the Orangeburg Mall at 1128 Orangeburg Mall Circle.
Watford said he and a fellow ax-throwing friend were invited to the grand championship tournament of knife throwing to serve as judges.
"We are World Axe League judges," Watford said. "We wanted to go to the U.S. Open to be a part of it to witness it and judge. We volunteered to judge. This is just a bonus."
Watford said he is excited about the opportunity to compete. The grand prize winner will receive $2,000.
Knife throwers will come from across the globe.
The tournament is to be broadcast on ESPN and is touted by organizers as the first-ever dedicated broadcast for a knife-throwing tournament. The air date of the tournament is not currently known, Watford said.
Watford said while he has had less experience with knife throwing, it is not too much different than ax throwing.
The biggest difference is that in knife throwing, there are multiple throws, meaning there could be other knives on the target at the same time.
"You stand a chance of hitting another one and knocking it out of the board," Watford explained. "You want a tight grouping, but you don't want to knock the other one out."
With axe throwing, there is typically only one axe on the target at a time.
Watford gives much credit to Black Water Axes and Ales for his success.
The venue -- the first and only one of its kind in Orangeburg -- hosts leagues over an eight-week period Tuesday and Thursday nights. There are four such competitions a year.
For seven weeks, throwers vie for seeding placement with the eighth week being a part of the final tournament.
"It is every man for himself," Watford said, with the high score winning. "You accumulate circuit points by winning leagues and participate in leagues to go further."
Black Water Axes and Ales — which opened up earlier this year — has drawn quite the following locally and throughout the state.
Individuals come from as far as Charleston and Hanahan to experience what Watford describes as the "nicest ax-throwing place in the state — by far."
"Charleston they don't even have a league yet," Watford said. "We have a league here in Orangeburg."
Watford said he was traveling to Columbia to throw axes but was tired of the drive. He wished Orangeburg would have its own ax-throwing venue.
He was soon hooked up with Cordova residents Ty and Rosemary Merritt.
Ty and a friend of his — the late Parrish Phillips — had been participating in ax-throwing events for years before the sport grew in popularity.
The two were at the Lake Murray Axe Throwing in Irmo when they met the owner of the venue.
"I decided I wanted to open one," Ty said, noting he was then directed to Watford by an Orangeburg banker. "It has taken off from there. It has been one of the biggest reasons this place is doing as well as it is."
"We talked to people we knew here that were going to Columbia and Charleston to throw axes and to get craft beer," Rosemary said. "They can't really enjoy themselves because they have to drive an hour or more. We figured let's bring something like that here and we can keep the business in Orangeburg and make it a family environment where kids of all ages can come and throw and have fun."
"Now we throw here every week," he said. "We have leagues and we are building and getting bigger."
The venue has an ax-throwing league that has a hatchet division, a duals division and a big ax division, which is held on Tuesday night.
Starting on July 13, the business will introduce other competitions, including knives.
Though the venue hosts various leagues, Black Water is also open to the general public.
It is touted as ideal for groups, party gatherings and team building.
Lane rentals are $15 hourly per person during the week, and Friday through Sunday are $20 per hour per person. Wednesdays are youth days and are half price and $10 an hour to throw. Church youth groups and college groups have used the venue.
Lanes can be reserved online at the business's website.
Ax throwing is just a part of the venue: domestic and craft beers and wines are the other.
Black Water has a couple of domestic beers and others are craft beers to include ciders, lagers, wheats, pilsners, reds, browns and nitro.
"The beers rotate out," Ty said, explaining that the type of beer will remain the same, though flavors will differ. The venue works with seven distributors with beers from local distributors throughout the country and internationally.
The Merritts have partnered with Ty's brother Ryan and sister-in-law Destinee, who are experts in craft beers.
The venue has beer flights, where individuals can sample a variety of beers. White and red wines are also available, as are mimosas.
Black Water also has different variety of beers that can be taken to go. Military and first-responder discounts are provided.
While not serving food, the venue has pretzels and menus from Tulio's restaurant on Russell Street. The restaurant delivers to the venue without a delivery fee. It also has a relationship with food trucks that are in place for big events. Individuals can also bring their own food.
The venue hosts live music nights mostly every other weekend as well as specialty nights on Wednesday for youth. A schedule of entertainment can be found on its Facebook page: Black Water Axes and Ales.
For Ty and Rosemary, Black Water is their first business venture.
"Learning," Ty said. "It has been a constant learning process. I don't think we ever stop learning."
The business is open Tuesday through Thursday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday from 4 p.m. and 12 a.m.; Saturday from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. and Sundays from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. It is closed Mondays.
For more information, visit www.blackwateraxesandales.com; call 803-937-6147 or email blackwateraxesandales@gmail.com

