Yorkton’s Double Tap Airsoft Group now has a place to play. The club has set up their own field north of the city, and is on the hunt for new members to join up and participate in the sport.
Ariel Alfelor, club member, describes airsoft as being similar to paintball, but more realistic. Instead of paint, they shoot small, bio-degradable pellets, and guns are realistic. The game is a military simulation, and there are a variety of games, whether it’s just a regular death match, or matches with goals like protecting people or packages. The pellets go faster than paintball pellets, and hurt more.
“If you get hit, it will bleed, but only take three days to heal!”
The realism is what draws fans to the sport, and their goal is to simulate military action, Alfelor explains.
“We play like real soldiers, with full gear... [Paintball] is a toy game, this one more realistic, that’s why we like it so much.”
The group began with a core of seven Filipino friends who began playing together. The biggest problem for the group was just finding space. While there are paintball fields in the area, they did not want to accommodate them as it’s a different game, so they would have to go to Saskatoon to play.
“We had to raise some funds to get there, gasoline and the payment for usage of the camps there, we might as well put up our own.”
The space they use is on Grain Miller’s Road north of the city, which they found through the City of Yorkton. The site took three months to put together, including finding the site and getting the permits together. The core group put their own money down to rent trucks to get obstacles out to the site, and they recycled scrap materials from their workplaces to get terrain together.
Alfelor says that even after the site has only been open for two weeks, airsoft players in Yorkton are finding out, as they are hungry for a space of their own. Just being near the road generated interest, as during our conversation a truck stopped to ask about the group and how to join.
“The general public doesn’t even know we exist right now... This is the second Saturday that we opened... Some guys contacted us through Facebook and wanted to join. We’ve got a lot of airsoft players in Yorkton, they normally travel to Moose Jaw, Saskatoon or Regina to play, and they don’t even know that we’re here. Good thing these guys contacted us, and now they’re playing right now.”
The group is open to adults who want to try it out and see what airsoft is like. Alfelor notes that any minors will need to get parental permission before they go out on the field – and knowing teenagers, they double check, and phone their parents before they let them participate.
“We don’t really allow youngsters to play unless they’re experienced.”
The group meets Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The site has just opened, and has a website at www.dtag.ca.
