Over the past few months the Catshack has had opportunity to speak at length with Mr. Paul Gagne of Splashdown Paintball in Sarnia, ON. It was through these same conversations that I became more and more intrigued with the various doings of this man as it pertains to paintball.
Paul is a multi-faceted individual working alongside such charities as “Harmony for Youth”, an organization dedicated to helping troubled youth through the arts. Over and above this it can easily be stated that Paul and Splashdown Paintball have become a real staple for paintball activities as it relates to the community of Sarnia over the past 10 years of its existence there. During our conversations, Paul mentions having recently had some 300 children from an area public school through his paintball snap shooting cage as an introduction to the game. Targeting the next generations is at least in my opinion paramount to the longevity of the game and we sincerely wish any and all field owners might follow suit. From our observations Paul and his family are very much those kind of people who lend to a sense of community and give back to it at every opportunity in a very admirable way.
By Paul’s invitation, we 
joined him and his staff at the Hiawatha Labor Day Bash taking place September 3 – 5, now set to be an annual event. For the weekend long bash Paul and his crew set up an information booth to include allowing attendees to fire off a Metadyne Launcher. As something of a contest, should participants fire the Nerf rocket and land it into a barrel some 100 feet distant, they could win a cash prize of $500. Pineview Construction donated $300 of those funds while Splashdown provided the balance. With some fairly high winds needless to say none claimed the prize but a few came oh so very close. As well the paintball snap shooting cage was present in the campgrounds which children swarmed over as another interesting paintball activity to participate in through the weekend.
The weekend long event saw several activities including horse racing at the nearby track, a full motocross expo, the availability of paintball a mere two minutes away as well as all manner of food and beverage tents and other vendors selling typical concert products.
Prior to “The Trews” appearance on stage, K106.3 radio 
introduced 5 contestants for their Kaptain K contest. A contest where contestants dress like a super hero and represent the station. One contestant “Jim Rose” also a member of the Sarnia Fire Department approached the Catshack and asked if we might ask our readership to throw some votes his way… Jim represents and we here at the Catshack are proud to throw a few votes his way as a member of the Fire Service. The winner will see some pretty awesome and much deserved prizes also. To vote for Jim please be sure to visit http://www.k106fm.com/contests/
Paul arranged for the Catshack several bonuses as “media” to include all access media passes for myself and camera man Justin “Vapor” Hewitt (celebrating his 26th birthday) to appear front and center stage for “The Trews” live performance, it could easily be said we had something much better than front row seats. From the first massive boom of the speakers delivering the rocking sounds of The Trews immediately followed by the sound waves vibrating through us on a molecular level was unlike any performance I have ever seen (and I have been to numerous concerts!) The band out of Nova Scotia, Canada provided the over 2000+ fans a fantastic performance for well over an hour, as a matter of fact the band we’re so good they were forced to return to the stage for another full encore set. Other bands performing throughout the weekend included Hinder, Default, Doc Walker and 54-40 and numerous opening bands.
If this weren’t enough, over 
and above all this, Splashdown pulled strings with the Sarnia Fire Department’s Fire Captain to elevate us up some 107 feet into the air over the concert itself to do some video and photography not to mention the sheer enjoyment of a fantastic aerial view from the fire truck man lift.
All in all Splashdown provided another of those most memorable moments during our 2010 season and we look super forward to when next we are able to make our way to Splashdown Paintball in Sarnia ON.
Be sure to check out the Hiawatha Labor Day Bash next year as it happens http://hiawathabash.com/ . Special thanks to the concert organizers and staff for the gracious hospitality.
For more on Splashdown or if you are looking for gear from the pro shop please be sure to visit
http://www.splashdownpaintball.com/
For more of the photos from the event please visit our Catshack Facebook page and for perhaps one of our most epic video productions ever, please see below
