Sydney's First Annual Epic Water Pistol Fight

Kill shot - right in the ear

My friend Ben found out about a water pistol fight in a Sydney park. People were supposed to show up in green, white, blue or red shirts packing the gun of their choice. 15,000+ people RSVPed to the Facebook event including a handful of my friends. We all decided to not join one of the teams and wear whatever. I went with a black rashie (plus snorkel, just in case), Nathan went shirtless, and Ben went as a gay urban cowboy.

We based ourselves out of Steph’s apartment since she lived across the street from the park. The weather was perfect – a bit hot and very sunny. When I showed up at noon, everyone else was in full preparation mode. They were filling half a dozen canvas shopping bags with water balloons (called water bombs here in Australia – I kind of like that term).

We lugged everything over to the park where I would estimate a few hundred people were gathered. We seemed to be one of very few groups that didn’t adhere to the dress code and had the foresight to stock up on bombs. Note for those doing this in the future - guard your water bombs carefully or else others will steal them.  A few of the organizers got the teams together to play games of capture the flag, protect the base, I don’t really know because I wasn’t paying attention. We were walking around smashing people with balloons from close range and giving kill-shots with our guns (eyes or ears). Yes, I targeted a few people under the age of 12. No, I am not ashamed.

The people involved in the fight were mostly from the early 20’s, I-like-Twilight-and-Harry-Potter Society, others from the I-Loved-The-Matrix-and-I-Still-Wear-a-Trench-Coat Club. There were a few parents with kids and others our age. We felt a bit out of place, but part of that was on purpose. I had a naked baby doll companion and switched my backpack to the front to serve as a carrier. There’s a quick story about how I acquired the baby…

Dan and I went to a house party in Bondi a few weeks ago. The host pushed everyone out relatively early so we made our way down to the beach for a few drinks. After some wandering, we made our way to some loud music coming from the Bondi Pavilion. We ended up crashing a 90’s theme party and we stuck out like sore thumbs. We got to talking to Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, eventually taking her baby because she was smashed and kept dropping it (she was playing the part very well). After a few minutes, Courtney went to sit down while I was still holding the baby. The party wasn’t that great, so I told Dan we should leave. “What about the baby?” he asked. “Don’t worry about it, let’s get out of here.”

We ended the night at the kebab stand at 2 am with a plastic baby doll. We got quite a few weird looks, but I knew it would come in handy someday. That day, as it turned out, was the Water Pistol Fight.  I named her Carlita (after Carlos from The Hangover). But anyway, back to the story.

Using Carlita as a human shield

I had the baby strapped to my chest and I was walking around with Brokeback Ben, so we were quite the targets for all of the other participants. That made it all the better, because people would seek us out to soak us. We were also causing quite a bit of havoc by disrupting their structured games. There was also a guy in an authentic storm trooper outfit that got a lot of attention. The key to the whole day was the fire hydrant that was partially opened to give us an unlimited supply of water, with enough pressure to serve multiple people quickly.

There are a few YouTube videos of the day that I’ll try to find and post. I’d love to bring something like this to Piedmont Park in Atlanta. If we can get access to a water hose or other source of water for refills (and there isn’t a water shortage), I’ll be all about it.