By Jake Grant
St. Marys welcomed a notable visitor and his team on Friday, June 21 at the Quarry where excitement and entertainment were brewing.
Highly acclaimed YouTube star Aaron Esser and his crew made the trip from Watford, Ont., early Friday morning to shoot a water-gun video.
Esser, who boasts an impressive 8.5 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, has been creating water-gun videos for the past six years, specifically featuring Nerf Super Soakers.
Esser’s journey as a content creator began in his teenage years.
“I just started making YouTube videos randomly when I was a teenager, and one of them happened to include a Nerf gun in it. A few months later, it had 10,000 views, which was viral at the time,” he reminisced. “I kept seeing other videos on YouTube with nerf guns that were getting millions of views, so I knew there was potential for me to build an audience.”
His dedication paid off as one after another, his videos gradually gained traction. As his channel was starting to take off, he realized he could pursue YouTube full time.
“People were starting to become Youtubers as a job and that’s when I got more and more into it and started making more videos.”
Esser innovatively mixed video games with Nerf guns, drawing inspiration from first-person shooter games like Call of Duty. His breakthrough came with a first-person Nerf shooter video that garnered 1,000 views a day, marking it as his best video at the time.
Graduating from Lambton College in digital photography and working to achieve a degree in electrical engineering, Esser continued producing content on the side.
“During school, I made my biggest series, Nerf Gun Game, which was getting 100,000 views a day within two weekends,” Esser stated.
Within three months, YouTube became his full-time job and he dropped out of school.
“Now we’ve made over 50 first-person videos,” Esser noted. One of his most popular water-gun videos, filmed five years ago, has amassed half a billion views.
Esser’s quest for unique filming locations led him to the St. Marys Quarry.
“We’re always looking for really cool locations to film. We love inflatable water parks and people love us filming on them – it gives them a good promotion, they’re a great backdrop for our videos and they are a blast!”
After a quick Google search, the team found Super Splash and reached out. The park was thrilled to accommodate them.
The shoot at the Quarry featured a variety of first-person perspectives and numerous Nerf guns, creating an immersive video-game-like experience.
“It’s a mixture of making it look like a video game, showcasing a cool location and showcasing all types of different Nerf guns. Trying to get a fan or kid watching to say to themselves, ‘I wish I could be there; I wish I had that Nerf gun; I do have that Nerf gun.’ Trying to get them to have those emotions is the goal so they can really enjoy the video.”
Esser emphasized the importance of consistency and creativity in building a successful social media platform.
“Just be consistent. Just start uploading and do not stop. The moment I started being consistent was when videos started to take off. You do have to be unique and creative as well, but if you only do that once a year, nobody is going to find it.”
Super Splash owner Patrick Jackson was excited about the collaboration and the park’s new attractions this year, including a second ice tower, a giant spinner and the rocker.
“The new ice tower is a little easier to climb on with better handles. If you’re looking for a challenge, try the old one. The rocker obstacle will be here opening day and the capacity for out on the Super Splash is increasing to 150 people,” said Jackson.
The video shot at the St. Marys Quarry is set to be released before the end of the summer, adding another exciting installment to Esser’s popular series.
“I’m exhausted; but it was totally worth it and a tonne of fun,” Esser said.
You can find him on YouTube @AaronEsser