Paintball Journal

Half-asleep last night, I came up with one of the most inventive variations of paintball that I have ever heard of - potato sack paintball.

You’ve heard, I’m sure, of potato sack races, where each contestant willingly steps into a burlap sack in order to compete against other like minded individuals in a race to the finish. Imagine, if you will, such a scene, except with the contestants facing off in a paintball match. The sacks would of course have to be secured in some manner to allow freedom of the hands, but otherwise, the scene would appear much like a normal potato sack race, with much red-facedness, swearing, and falling down. Fun, no?

And there you have it.

I worked all of yesterday (Saturday) on the raw footage taken from our first tournament at Friendly Fire Paintball. It was taken by a local player that volunteered to film nearly all six hours of the tournament, and he was kind enough to edit out all of our team’s footage. I took it from there, imported it right into Adobe Premiere, and started working.

First, I ran through the entire eleven minutes of footage, which really isn’t that long, but when you’re picking out only a few seconds of film it quickly becomes a long and tedious process. After I clipped out all the decent stuff, and deleted the rest of the down time, then I was able to start to rearrange them. I put the breakouts in the beginning, and the rest sort of fell into place behind that. Then I just did a quick search for some music, and “Blow Me Away� by Breaking Benjamin suited the footage quite nicely. Then I added some titles and some light/contrast effects in the beginning just as an experiment.

The end product turned out quite nicely in my opinion (it’s the first video I’ve ever edited). I’ll admit, we look pretty noobish, but it was our first tourney - give us a break! I’m the one in red JT Team pants with a grey JT jersey. Dana is wearing the blue JT Jersey and a very distinctive Santa hat. Our third man, JP, is the one in a dark blue hoodie shooting an AR-1 with a Halo.

I think that’s all you need to know, so have at it.

You can also find it here.

I didn’t get to play paintball again for the third weekend in a row. We’ve been trying to get some potential team members together, and next Saturday is the only day that works. Good news is that’s less than a week away.

Yes! It’s up! The video is finally up! If you’re just down right bored you can download it here. It’s big (68mb) so you better have something else to do while you wait. And because we have three inches of snow on the ground, I think I’ll get right to Adobe Premiere to see what I can cook up. Oh, and don’t make too much fun of us just yet, we’re only noobs.

It’s been a while since I’ve featured an amateur paintball film producer, and I can think of NONE better than Stealth Media Productions. Featuring FREE HD paintball films, the SMP site is just packed full of goodies.

From the man himself at SM Productions:

Stealth Media is a one-man operation driven to give everyone paintball videos of the best quality on the internet, although Stealth Media has only been around for less than nine months, it has grown into a well-known paintball video producing company with a growing fanbase which started right here in Southern California with a small group of teammates of Nick Champion. The goal is to eventually one day bring to the paintball world videos on dvd, so the more you watch the videos and support, the faster I can reach that goal.

I encourage everyone to download some videos from the site and say your thanks to SM Productions in any way you can. This is my way of saying thanks for some of the best paintball films I’ve seen.

Here is a very low-resolution teaser. The true versions that you can download will blow your mind in their clarity.

I’ve been surfing YouTube again and came across some more awesome home made paintball videos. Again, it takes hours upon hours to simply edit this stuff, and can take many more after that to get it to play out the way you want it to. It takes serious time and dedication, and I wouldn’t even give it a second thought if it weren’t for a documentary class I’m taking at school.

Well those are just a few, all done by the same person, obviously. I think the first one is my favorite though, but dang, the third one is surprisingly good for the tempo of it. The title even suggests a slower pace; “Slow Day�.

I seriously hope that when we get our video, and we start to edit it, that it turns out half as decent as these. We’re somewhat familiar with the technology, so I think we can make some pretty interesting stuff. But until then we’re stuck watching everybody else’s videos.

In a rather cool style, 2Die4 FightClub, a Euro paintball team, has put up footage of reball practice, as well as the ALB Cup, as taken with a barrel cam. The audio is bad, but the footage is sick. Much better than a goggle cam, there isn’t as much wobbliness to the camera. Anyway, here are two videos from reball practices and one from the Cup.

Here’s some quick and dirty team news, perhaps somewhat random.

Team Ultimate has signed a new sponsorship deal with Smart Parts and will be shooting Epiphany Ions. Who knows the reasoning behind this, you’d think they would just get a Shocker deal. Some people argue it’s because too many teams already have the Shockers, and others say that it’s a marketing deal trying to get other people to buy into the gun. It might be a little of both, but I wouldn’t complain. I hear they’re fast enough, so it’ll be interesting. Ultimate also picked up sponsorships from Nitro Duck, PMI, JT, and View Loader.

New England Hurricanes have picked up three new players for the 07 season: Greg “Buddy” Hinthorne from Infamous, Brian Gigliotti from Miami Raiders and Chris “Poo” Costigan from Jax Raiders. They will also be shooting 07 Egos with Halos while wearing custom Eclipse jerseys.

It’s going to be an interesting year for Hurricanes and hopefully a breakout for them. They’ve been so close the past few years, and one of these days they’re going to drill the competition. They deserve a good year in my opinion.

And Glenn Takemoto has signed with Infamous, which should make them an upcoming powerhouse now that XSV crashed and burned. Not real crazy about Infamous, but I like them better than XSV.

Paintball is a physical sport, especially if you are playing at a tournament level. During the off-season, I play on a small, indoor field, so it’s not a huge workout. To keep myself in shape (besides running track from March - May) I’ve devised a workout that will work for anyone.

1/2 The total push-ups you can do.
50-100 Crunches.
25-35 Fast snaps, using your legs in some semblance of a squat. Simulates remaining in a ready position for an amount of time as well as coming over the top and snapping to the side of the bunker while in that squatting position. It’s hard.

Anyway, repeat this routine 5 times, at the end I usually finish it off with some ab workout like leg-lifts or something. As you get stronger, increase the reps within the sections of the routine, and eventually add more reps to the entire routine. This will at least make sure you’re used to regular activity come paintball season.

Well, I had planned on getting some pictures of the tourney up, but nearly three weeks have gone by and I still haven’t seen a single one. It’s weird because anything that happens is instantly on Myspace a few hours later, and I know most of the people there have Myspace accounts, and yet not one photo has made it on the internet. One of the locals that filmed the entire day also told us he’d send us the raw footage of our team so we can mess with it in Adobe Premiere. Yeah, that hasn’t happened either, and we’ve been trying to get that for several days now.

On something of a better note, I have finished my second sketch for a local art show. The problem is, the drawing is still at school where it’s going to be framed and matted and all that jazz, so I may not be able to get a picture for a while. But I think it turned out nice. It’s a drawing of a paintballer in Profiler mask simply looking left across the page. Nothing fancy, just a close up. I’d say it’s my second best drawing (only because I don’t take the time to draw like that too often).

Here’s the first one.

But anyways, I hope I can get back to the field in two weeks. It’s been awhile.

Bahaha, this news report from the early 90’s is absolutely great.

Middle Eastern Darth Vader? Today she would’ve been fired, hahaha. My favorite is the ‘feminine flair’. Wonder what she’d think of the pink guns, pants, and masks of today.

Wish they’d have some stories similar to this today. Nice to have some positive exposure for paintball.

Oh, and gallons of paint. Going through all of 500 rounds per day. Wowie, what a bunch of trigger happy fanatics. Interesting how the prices remain the same.

I’m just glad that kids under 18 are allowed to play now.

Real Action Paintball, popular for their realistic mil-sim styled paintball products, has now developed a fully functional 40mm paint-grenade launcher. It’s based off of the popular AK-47 paintball marker design, and is very accurate in looks compared to the real thing. They claim it can fit any AK-47 style marker as well as fires Thunder Grenade rounds, and has working, adjustable sites and safety.

This is clearly a fine achievement, and I think most people will be impressed by it. This is just one awesome reason why I wished I had the money to go out and buy everything paintball related. I don’t even play woodsball anymore and I’d still like to get one!

Here’s the official release from their site:

Real Action Paintball is proud to announce the new 40mm Grenade Launcher. This amazing new tool is designed for the AK47-style markers, or as a standalone unit. This is the first 40mm Grenade Launcher-style unit designed for AK47-style paintball markers!

The 40mm Grenade Launcher comes in two versions: one for standard .68 paintball markers, and the other, .43 caliber paintball markers. The .68 caliber version can be mounted on all .68 caliber AK47 look-a-like paintball markers!

The 40mm Grenade Launcher is made of aircraft aluminum with a functional trigger and safety switch. It also has an adjustable sight - it’s externally the spittin’ image of the real thing! They are solidly built and made to last, and RAP4 fans take heart: it’s compatible with all Thunder Grenade cartridges!

The 40mm Grenade Launcher is designed to take paintball to the next level of realism! For games with tanks or “rocket launcher rules,” get their special-color paint and prove you took out that tank with a “grenade!” Take ‘em out with the 40mm Grenade Launcher!

This is especially for the opposing force - when you want to play OpFor in realistic scenarios - so you can have a little more fun playing the bad guy. The 40mm Grenade Launcher is the first grenade launcher that is compatible with the AK47 style paintball makers, to help the bag guys enjoy the game and to give the opposing team a real challenge.

NPS* has filed a suit against Procaps Distributors. Apparently, on two separate accounts, NPS claims that Procaps infringed on their copyrights with the Pulse and broke a non-disclosure agreement that they had signed.

Essentially, the copyright / patent infringement appears to be on the RF Chip and trigger activation sensor, being as how it is based around a magnetic system. However, also included in the suit documents is some pretty vague language about the general operating system. The Pulse internals are fairly similar to a Halo’s.

The non-disclosure agreement that NPS claims Procaps broke is a big deal too. This agreement means that NPS* showed Procaps some blueprints for technology that they were developing and Procaps took the technology, added to it, and produced it, without crediting NPS or paying NPS.

This is a claim of intellectual property theft.

The courts will decide in about 2 weeks who wins. Until then, Pulse sale, distribution, and promotion in the US is to cease. If NPS is correct in that Procaps did indeed break these laws, then they’ll probably go for a settlement, and prices on Pulses will jump to $200++. Under a more strict ruling, Procaps may even be prohibited from selling the Pulse at all. All you Pulse owners don’t worry though, because you’ll still be covered for tech support, etc, as long as DXS remains afloat. If Procaps successfully defends itself, then all is well with DXS and its Pulse loaders, and the world will keep on turning, except with a few richer lawyers.

*NPS is now merged with PMI under the name KEE Action Sports, however, for this post, I’m saying NPS because it is a more recognizable name.

NEW YORK – February 2, 2007 – The following Temporary Restraining Orders were issued today by the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey in the case AJ INTERMEDIATE HOLDINGS LLC; and, AJ ACQUISITION I LLC d/b/a NATIONAL PAINTBALL SUPPLY, v. PROCAPS L.P.; PROCAPS DIRECT, INC.; STRATEGIC SPORTS, INC. d/b/a PEV’S PAINTBALL; COUSINS PAINTBALL MT. KISCO, LLC; IMPERIAL CAPITAL CORPORATION; MICHAEL SPURLOCK; WU CHUN MIN; and, MARCASITE INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD, CIVIL DOCKET FOR CASE #: 1:07-cv-00192-JHR-AMD, in connection with the manufacturing, sale, distribution, or advertising of the PULSE paintball loader.

Official files can be found HERE and HERE.

Brass Eagle is soon to release a new marker called the T-Storm tactical marker. I figure I could give them another chance at redeeming themselves from all the other worthless trash they’ve created before, so I clicked on the link. Nope. Not even close. Honestly, why do they even try anymore? They fail at paintball! They don’t even make semi-decent equipment, and yet they continue to crank out more and more junk.

The hopper, what’s up with that? It looks like it somehow defies the laws of physics because it sits a mile above the gun. Actually, looks more like a sledge hammer. Either way, it’s absolutely ridiculous. And the silver barrel? Not hardly something I’d want on my gun if I was going to be “stealthy� and all ninja leet.

I don’t care how poor you are, you do not have to buy Brass Eagle guns to play woodsball or what have you. Buy used, save just a little more money, just do not waste it on BE! You’re going to enjoy the game so much more when your gear works properly, believe me.

Here’s a link to the video ad on Google. It’s hard not to laugh.

Don’t suck. Oh, wait, more accurately, try to be professional, descriptive, opinionated, and well-written. Here are some tips for writing a good (paintball) blog.

1) Check your grammar. Nothing screams 13-year-old-n00b like bad grammar.

2) Come up with original stuff, not just news copied and pasted from another paintball site.

3) Play as much as possible. By participating in that which you are blogging, you create more opportunities for ideas to swim about your head.

4) Explore different angles of your subject. There are about a thousand different fields of paintball to discuss, so don’t just focus on one (unless you can be excessively in depth).

5) Promote your blog by telling other paintballers and bloggers about it, but don’t spam. Spammers go to hell.

6) Contact me. I want to know about more paintball blogs that are well-written and that I can network this blog with.

7) Don’t be afraid to voice a little opinion. This is what truly brings a blog to life, the voice its writer infuses within it.

I just want to see more respectable paintball blogs. So all you aspiring bloggers out there, go ahead and give it a try, just don’t make it a waste of your time!