Academie Duello

Great activity for anyone looking for a team bonding exercise. They have great staff with excellent and friendly instructor (thanks Delaney!)

We had an outing with colleagues and everyone really enjoyed axe throwing, was really fun. The Academie Duello's team is a very approachable, getting in touch and replying very fast and helped promptly with all organization of the event. Thanks!

Amazing archery experience! Never shot an arrow before? No problem. Terrible accuracy? Not to worry! Our instructor Travis was amazing, engaging and excellent at teaching!

We had an aim-mazing time.

Had an INCREDIBLE experience thanks to our coach extraordinaire, Travis! Channeling our inner Katniss Everdeen and Hawkeye was truly empowering! Great way to spend an afternoon with friends, highly recommend!

A great place, incredible team of people, and something I'd definitely recommend for anyone looking to try out something fun and active with a very welcome historical perspective throughout. My partner and I tried Axe-throwing for one-hour with Travis as our instructor. It was fun, dynamic, the space was great, and our instructor was very engaging throughout, a great teacher, very attentive, and really enthusiastic about what he does and kept our energy up throughout. If you are paired with Travis, you're in for a great time!

The Axe Throwing with Travis, our instructor, was a lot of fun. He made us feel confident to try new strategies and succeed after a few trows. The games at the end turned into a fun competition between me and my partner. We made great memories at Academie Duello. Thank you!

Trevor was a great instructor and kept the 1-hour Duelist session entertaining, lighthearted, and informational. Would recommend to anyone looking for something fun.

We had a great time ace throwing for a friend’s birthday.fox was great at guiding us through safety and technique!

Have been here twice for archery and axe throwing. Great, fun and exciting experience especially with the help of our enthusiastic instructor Travis. Will definitely come back for more activities to try.

My friend and I had a very enjoyable axe throwing session this week. The Duello facility is well appointed and carries a nice vibe conducive to a fun learning environment. Travis, our instructor, was very friendly, engaging, and kept us safe. Travis’ rich knowledge of Medieval and Early Modern Europe martial arts helped whet our appetite for exploring other Duello offerings at a future visit.

Tried Archery for the first time today. It was a really fun experience! Our instructor, Travis, kept us really comfortable and confident learning a new skill too.

We stopped by tonight on our way to a dinner reservation, just to check it out and we are thoroughly impressed. Travis is an absolute wealth of knowledge, and he answered every question my partner threw at him. He was very kind, and he let us try the axe throwing. All around amazing experience, so thank you for making our anniversary even more special! We will be back Academie Duello, count on it!

Incredibly friendly atmosphere.
3 of us went for the archery introduction and had a great time with Travis as our instructor. He was very friendly and knowledgeable, and enthusiastic when answering all our questions. Non of us felt rushed, even when our session ended he answered some more questions and showed us some extra stuff while we waited for the other group to finish paying.
Overall it was a great experience

We did axe throwing as a staff social and it was so much fun! Fox was a great teacher and made it even more entertaining! I highly recommend it!

We went here for my friend's Bachelorette party and it was a hit! We did axe throwing and our instructor Travis was great. He was very knowledgeable and gave us tips and tricks on how to throw while joking with us the whole time. He definitely made the activity so much more fun with his humor. We plan to return again!

Travis was a fantastic axe throwing instructor! He taught us well and gave tips, but best of all, he could have fun with us and poke fun. Great personality to have a fun time. The place itself was awesome too, and we got to learn a few different ways to throw the axes to keep it interesting as we went. Would recommend for sure.

This Victoria Day, I visited Academie Duello - Centre for Swordplay in downtown Vancouver for a test cutting session with 2 of my new swords: the Albion Ringeck and Angus Trim type XVIa. 4 (I'm a sword reviewer on YouTube). It turned out to be a fantastic experience. During the two hours, I enjoyed all the banter about historical European martial arts, swords and other weapons, and the community in general. Sword scholar Benjamin was very amicable and courteous to set up the venue and the tatami mats for me, help me with the techniques during cutting, and let me handle his own variation of Angus Trim sword (type XVIa. 7 presumably), so I could compare and contrast it with the Atrim sword I own. I was able to cut 3 new tatami mats, and 3 old Japanese mats.

I used to live not far from where Academie Duello is located, in the English Bay neighborhood, and I regret not being able to visit sooner. They offer a wide variety of activities related to HEMA, including axe-throwing, archery, mount combat, wrestling, armored fighting, physical conditioning, and of course all disciplines of historical fencing training including rapier, sidesword, sword & buckler, and longsword. This is the most convenient location in downtown Vancouver, being close to practically everything. Even after I moved house to West Vancouver, it's still only a 15-minute drive. If you are interested in history, sword or martial arts in general, definitely support Academie Duello by paying them a visit and signing up for some activities or courses, especially in these difficult times, helping cultivate a community not yet considered mainstream is a must!

Had a great experience being taught about murdering with daggers and axes by Travis - really enjoyed all the informations d training being delivered in such a fun and friendly way.

The UBC EOAS grad students & friends had a blast with the tournament adventure led by Travis. We learned to swing the sword and then got to be sweaty messes cheering and jeering and fighting. It was awesome. Thanks Travis! <3
100% recommend for good fun times with swordplay.

I took a free swordplay class which I thought was fun and ended up signing up for an Archery Fundamentals course for September 3rd.

On September 2nd, I asked if I could reschedule my Archery Fundamentals start date as I had some family commitments on September 3rd. I had left both a voicemails and emails to confirm if this was possible. Since then and up to now, I have been sending emails and voicemails as no one has returned my calls/emails. I even went to their studio at 4pm on September 20th and was told by the person at the desk that they were only an instructor and couldn't confirm and said that maybe my voicemails and emails got buried and told me to continue emailing/calling.

As such, I called again today and emailed again today and still no response. I have been following up for 3 weeks now. There seems to be no customer service at all at this studio. They say during the free class that if you sign up, you can always move the class to a later date. I've tried to get a hold of them through, phone calls, emails, and in person.

UPDATE (09/23/2022) : The owner, Devon, reached out to me both in this review and via email to rectify the situation. He graciously offered me a refund and the course for free to make up for the previous negative experience trying to get ahold of staff in order to transfer my course start date. However, I opted not to take the free course and requested for just the refund. He was very understanding about this and was quick to process the refund. I've updated my review from 1 star to 4 stars. I've only given 4 stars as I do hope their customer service (ie.general email and phone number listed on their website) were more responsive if people needed to get a hold of them through those contact methods.

Mediocre archery and axe throwing experience, has a lot of potential. Staff is wonderful.

Booking for a corporate group of 16 was rough. Played phone tag a bunch before finally getting to someone for a whole week.

Archery felt like it could be instructed better. I’m surprised they don’t give you an arm guard. We split into two groups of 8. For a large space we only got a single, small target. Other places will set up stalls so the entire group can shoot at the same time. Each person shot only 5 times in 45 minutes.

Axe throwing was better and allowed more usage.

Duello is a welcoming, fun, passionate place. I've been a swordplay student on-and-off over the last couple years and I really enjoy coming here to immerse myself in a niche martial arts experience you can't find most places. I also really appreciate that Duello is flexible in terms of their approach to learning plans, as I am often unable to attend every week and sometimes need to take longer breaks, but I can always come back and resume where I left off. The instructors are the right mix of passionate, patient, and personable. No matter how awkward and quirky you are, or your background or skill level, they treat you with respect and share their passion for historical martial arts. I highly recommend coming here.

I received a swordfight adventure tournament as a gift from someone and it was such a blast! Great thing to do with friends to have fun and bond and exercise but also beat each other up (in a safe and controlled way). Travis was great, knows and cares what he was teaching us and even answered a lot of random nerdy questions. Super fun.

Only difficulty was with actually booking my time, because of the gift certificate I wasn’t able to do it through the website and I had a hard time getting a response in order to book my slot.

So great! So welcoming. Highest quality historic European martial arts education around, and a super fun place for adventures too!

Can't count the amount of times I've been to Duello, but all of them have been great, I would greatly recommend this to virtually anyone who has a remote interest in European martial arts

I was in an axe throwing booking with a group, and have to say Mike was incredible. Knowledgeable, approachable and quality jokes. Would highly recommend

Amazing experience. Ben was my instructor for the Duellist masterclass and I could praise him enough. Educational, fun and more of a work out that I was expecting, but a wonderful introduction to swordplay and I will certainly heading back there for more classes. A true gem in Vancouver.

Had a great time! Mike gave a great tour and was so knowledgeable and fun. Would definitely recommend, and I hope to come back again sometime!