On a breezy, hot Saturday afternoon kicking off the month of June, 11 local companies and organizations gathered for the unprecedented ‘Largest Archery Tag Tournament’ on the west coast to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Columbia Gorge. It all happened here in Hood River at the Waterfront Park and Blue Collar was there to revel in all the glory.
Now, we don’t know if that ambitious statement is actually true since archery tag, a cross between dodgeball, archery, and capture-the-flag is a relatively new and unknown sport, and it was all for charity anyway, but we’re going to roll with Global Session’s claims and wave that flag high.
In the first ever event, Global Sessions pulled together nearly a dozen Hood River teams from companies like Blue Collar, Double Mountain Brewing, Slingshot, Full Sail Brewing, Doug’s, and Sheppard’s. Even Global Session and Big Brothers Big Sisters had their own teams and did suspiciously well…
Our practice was the evening before and none of our mechanics had ever played (and a good number had never heard of it) so we learned the rules, donned the masks, and set to the course. After a few rounds of mock games against random individuals from Full Sail and others, we began to strategize and see where our strengths and weaknesses laid. We felt pretty good about our prospects.
Some seriously good archers showed up the next morning. Some had fancy neoprene bracers and wore all black. Put on the game face much? Others distracted us with bull’s-eyes drawn on their shirts, some with neon shorts, while others had scary Insitu logos. They make the drones right? The competition was fierce. Marshmallow-tipped arrows were flying, black and white targets were popping, people in tutus were running behind inflatable buoys, and a general melee of Hood River culture was happening. Awesomeness was making history in ten-minute spurts. Watch the video below for a recap.
Both Double Mountain and Full Sail generously donated kegs of free beer, and Andrew’s brought the pizza for the starving masses. It was a heyday of fun and sun and some temporary chaos to support a good cause. We even had loyal fans cheering for us on the sidelines (you know who you are) and between games we broke out the Oly, donned in our fabulous navy koozies. Wait, don’t you have a BC koozie yet?
It was possibly the most epic thing spectators in Hood River had seen since…well, since they walked 250 feet from the Event Site where hundreds of kiters, windsurfers, stand-up paddlers, kayakers, children on boogie boards, and the array of half naked swimmers amassed on the Columbia River that toasty day. Okay, so Hood River never seems to have a shortage of amazing things to do and see but this was wild, and it definitely hadn’t happened on this scale in Hood River yet.
The best part is we’re just getting started! This will soon become the LARGEST biannual archery tag event on the West Coast! The next archery tag event will be in September, this time benefiting Decoding Dyslexia. Gather your soldiers, start strategizing, and we’ll see you at the Waterfront for hunting season!