Loading their weapons, cocking and chambering rounds and calibrating their blasters, weekend warriors get ready for an epic Nerf gun battle in Metchosin.
“This is the Prometheus,” explains Cane Schlichting, who came all the way from Port Alberni for the Leap Day event. “It’s a juggernaut blaster currently and it basically shoots eight rival rounds per second at about 100 feet per second.”
Players need all the fire power they can get for Dart Hosin’ in Metchosin – an event put on by the Victoria Foam Blaster Association.
Dozens of kids — and kids at heart — are taking part in the blaster battle, working together to defeat the enemy team.
“There’s four quadrants of action and it leads to different alley ways,” Mark Innis says. “It leads to the game being more about teamwork, movement, positioning and less about raw fire power.”
Wearing battle fatigues, Vietnam-era boots and a special tactical vest for mag pouches, Schlichting likes to dress the part for these battles.
“It’s part of the fun for me but I play a heavy support role so I like to carry lots of magazines on me,” he explains.
Kicking open doors and shooting to kill, action pursuit games like this are growing in popularity.
“It’s a lot of what paint ball or airsoft would offer without a lot of the difficulty in staging where to play, gearing, cost,” Innis explains. “It appears silly from an outside view but once you’ve loaded those darts and get into the action it’s tremendously fun!”
So much fun, there’s even a crazy Nerf league with weekly beginner and advanced games in Quadra Village.
“I like to go to the later sessions where the blasters are all tuned up and they’re super charged and it’s really high powered and running around is a lot of fun,” says Nick Portman, who’s been taking part for three years and admits to stealing his child’s blasters.
Tess van Straaten
