At last year’ s NXL World Cup, there was a buzz around the event about Aruba. Cup is an extremely hectic event for me and my media staff, so when rumors were being passed around the potential return of the Open, I remember thinking it would be awesome to get involved. At that moment, I couldn ' t afford much time to consider the possibilities, but upon completing one of the longer days of photography and filming, to my surprise, every vehicle( mine included) had a flyer that read“ Aruba Open is back!”. The seed was planted.
As 2025 rolled in, it wasn’ t long before I was contacted by Indy Chan with the opportunity to come out in September to cover the event. Indy was the righthand-man of the former promoter, Jossy Mansur, who orchestrated the early tournaments on the island. Now with the reigns being passed, Chan and his partner, Rayon Henriquez, were tasked with resurrecting the legendary tournament.
It ' s no small feat to hold such an event in this day and age. To be recognized as an official sporting competition by the local government, they first had to create the Aruba Paintball Federation. This designation allowed the association to begin working with entities like the tourism authority, the Aruba lotto, and the country’ s water purification program.( Side note: Aruba has some of the cleanest water on Earth.) This is made access possible by funding from a portion of every $ 20 travel visa purchased by air-travel visitors to the island, and it ' s absolutely worth it. www. paintball. media
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