Daily reports of the global economic downturn, lay offs, closures, and predictions of doom and gloom running rampant in the media have left many expecting 2009 to be a lean year for paintball field owners. In reality nothing could be further from the truth. Black Friday, which many consider the unofficial start of the eastern Canadian paintball season, shattered all records with 478 players attending from across the region.
Mersey Road Paintball in East River, Nova Scotia, Canada once again hosted the Black Friday scenario event on April 10th. 2009 marks the 8th year for Black Friday at Mersey, an event where after a long winter of only being able to play the occasional game of indoor reball, woodsballers, speedballers, milsim teams, xball teams and rec players gathered for a day of camaraderie, sportsmanship and fun before players gravitate back to their preferred style of play.
"My prayers to the paintball gods were answered." Commented Jim Langlois co owner of Mersey Road Paintball "Eight straight days of rain prior to event day plus all the talk of recession made me wonder what kind of turn out there would be this year." Langlois continued "When car loads of players started pouring in at 7:00am I had a feeling it would be a big day."
By 11:00am the staging area swarmed with players eager to start the season, and have some fun. When the opening horn blew, players rushed forward to shoot paint and bang the rust off the skills that laid dormant all winter. Ferocious firefights and spectacular individual efforts were commonplace all around the field, with players giving it their all throughout the day.
Tippinators players Chris Landry was impressed with the attitude and high spirits of the players who attended. "You could tell how hard everyone was fighting, on both sides, because you never saw a person walking off alone, they were with 10 other people who had been eliminated." Landry continued 'Everyone was having a great time. They rushed to repaint, get air and head back into the fight." "Everything just flowed well all day," remarked Landry "Reffing, administration, food, raffles. Nobody expected this kind of turnout but the staff and players pulled together and made it an event to remember."
Black Friday 2009 showed paintballers (woodsballers and speedballers alike) either don't listen to, or don’t care what the experts say. Recession? What recession? Any day when almost 500 players come together to play paintball is a great day. If Black Friday is any indication, 2009 will be a very good year.
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