It turns out there was a new place that had opened near Bondi called Laser Quest. No-one had tried it yet and they really weren’t sure what it was but it seemed a sporty thing to do. It involved teams and had an element of competition so they jumped at the chance to throw a bash there. I’d been to Laser Quest back home several times as a kid, spent many summer holidays helping out the guys at my local franchise back in the UK. Laser Quest is basically paintball for wimps as I called it. It was shooting lasers at backpacks on your teammates to defeat them. Depending on the franchise there were other targets and missions that you could add to your agenda. It was non-combat and supposedly injury-free, but me being me, had managed a sprained ankle and quite a few bruises in my time there.
After assuring me that Taco would be fine with me coming along and finalising the details they said they’d pick me up at 3pm the following day. The plan was that there was to be a 2 team tournament with a BBQ and beers afterwards. The other lifeguards that were on duty could join us later after they clocked off.
The next morning I decided to put on a pair of black jeans, lightweight skinny jeans not the normal thick heavy full denim ones I used to wear back in the UK. Bondi was far too warm for them. I picked out my trainers and a pale purple t-shirt (my favourite colour) and pulled my hair up into a high ponytail. I was in this to win. The only thing I was missing was the camouflage paint on my cheeks.
I jumped in Maxi’s car, Jesse was in the passenger’s seat and Taco was in the back with me.
“Thanks so much for letting me tag along” I said
“Ah its fine, the more the merrier. Anyway at least Charlie won’t be the only girl now” he said
Taco pulled out a list of the teams; him and Maxi were the captains.
Taco Maxi
Gonz Jesse
Yatesy Whippet
Max A Itchy
Harrison Chappo
Corey O Reidy
Tom Charlie
Beardy Bacon
Dunno Jake
Mouse Alex
I recognised almost all the names on the list except for Charlie and Harrison. Harrison was apparently a new lifeguard who had recently joined the guys from New Zealand. Charlie was only the 2nd female lifeguard to work at Bondi. I was in awe of her already.
Now maybe I was a little bit more competitive than I realised or maybe it was just them rubbing off on me but I didn’t admit that I’d been before. So I listened intently to the safety briefing and nodded along like the others. Bonus, it was almost the same equipment that I was used to. There was a body pack which held a shield-type thing on your chest and another on your back. You had a gun and the idea was to shoot your opponents pack on the front or back. When you were shot you had to leave the arena. Whoever was left standing was the winner. The rules were just that you weren’t allowed to deliberately cover your packs up. There was a safety warden who had a whistle and whenever you heard that you had to stop immediately and return to the safety point on each level. There were 3 levels.
