I decided to move this to a tumblr

if you still want to follow my ramblings I will be at www.lifebehindlensespb.tumblr.com

I should be at yankee paintball in Ct getting ready for the Gravity league

like the title says.... I should be.
Instead I am sitting on my couch, I had the week from HELL and because of it I have to miss what is sure to be a great time.
I lost the engine in my truck early in the week So I am driving a rental and NOT looking forward to seeing the bill on the truck.

Logans knee never really healed from a poorly executed dive at the last NEPL so he bowed out.
Hope he feels better soon!

And then we have Chris... Let me say that I love the man like a brother, The first time I decided to form my own team, Chris was there. We have been friends for well over half our lives and have been through some serious shit together. After the last gravity league event he came to me and said he wanted come out of paintball retirement and to jump on our team again, I was psyched! I got back a rock solid player who also happens to be one of my best friends!

We had several conversations over the passed month about it and he was ALL IN. I built another marker for him to use because he didn't have a pump left, I bought another air tank because his was out of date and we didn't have time for it to come back from hydro, I bought him a new mask and I built another lock lid Winchester all because he wanted to play and him and his wife don't have a ton of money coming in at the moment... and Thursday night I get told that he didn't know it was this weekend and that he wasn't going.

So I am out a bunch of money, I miss my event and I am pissed.

maybe next time

and to the gravity league players, give em hell!

play hard
play safe
play fair
and always fear the old guys with the pumps

hello life behind lenses, long time no talk!

So... about yesterday.

Yesterday I did something I had sworn off a long time ago, I played a NEPL event.

A bit of history on me and the league:

In the early 2000s I was involved heavily in the league and came to realize there were many flaws in it.

They were trying to process way too many teams for a one day event.

the event promoters were never on time. everything ran behind. they would call games before the paint truck was open. ect ect ect

Many times the scheduling would get so far off between fields that the refs would forfeit you from one game because you were still on another field playing another game.

A lot of the refs were apathetic at best and biased and underhanded at worst.

And then there were the players.... not all of them, but way too many of them forgot what sportsmanship was, cheating was rampant and a lot of players were willing to fight you or the refs even when they knew full well they were in the wrong. Things were UGLY

I can remember one ten man event in particular that summed up the entire NEPL experience for me.

We had shown up early to find a decent place to pit.(at that time you pitted from your cars in the parking lot so showing up late meant you had a HIKE between each and every game)

roughly about an hour after our first game was scheduled the event promoters showed up and started to get ready for the day. When we finally did get going and were called on deck for a game we went to the location at the field we were told to go to at the captains meeting only to be asked by the ref "what the fuck are you doing here?" so we moved to where the ref told us to be except for one person on the opposing team who stood there watching the game going on... the ref started screaming at him, really dressing him down yelling things like "what the fuck are you deaf?".... unfortunately for that ref, the player WAS IN FACT DEAF! so that went over like a lead balloon.

A few games later we were up against a local team (we came from the other end of the state so we were always an outsider) before the game they were laughing and joking with the refs, we got on the field, got ready for the burn and one of the refs yells "fuck em up * insert dirty ass cheating team name here*" the game starts we get a 2 for 1 off the bat for supposedly leaving the box early... it didn't happen but OK... I made my first move and bumped to the snake clean. no one saw me I made it to the 50 and I heard one of my guys yelling B ZERO B ZERO B ZERO!!! meaning there is an opposing player in the center 50 bunker. so I came up gunning and took him with three shots. he looked at his gun and elbow where the shots hit and turned on me I shot that same player THREE TIMES in the same game.. the last time was several hits directly to the mask the ref finally waddled over to give him a paint check called it bunker rub wiped him off and let him play on. shortly after I was shot out.

we "lost" and after the game was over the player in the center bunker came over to me to let me know right in front of the refs how many hits he had to ditch because of me. the ref did nothing... the head ref did nothing and the only answer I got was "hate the game not the player"

So I walked away. and stayed away for over a decade, until yesterday.

I have to say Boston paintball and the NEPL have come long way in the right direction.

the events are now two days like they should have been. Things ran on time. I had only one questionable reffing call all day and the people in our division are some of the nicest guys in the sport.

I am looking forward to future Gravity and the NEPL pump division events!

Gravity #2

At each gravity event I get a chance to get together with players who remember that paintball is a game of honor.Three of us, three of them, 80 rounds of paint between us all and we go out and smash heads to find out who the best team is.Sunday Aug 31 2009 was no exceptionEight teams showed up and played hard with honor to make a great showing for the second event of NewEnglands own Gravity League Limited paint series.this time around we played at PNL paintball in Bridgewater Ma. the field used was a mixture of airball and oldschool wirespool bunkers.The format was center flag round robbin, Paint as always is limited to 40 rounds per player per game (players are alowed to devide paint among each other on field if desired)Markers are limited to Mechanical pump markers
For teams we saw:the poo fighterssteel reservethe team from MA (I'm not forgetting their name that's what they called themselves)Hit-N-Runthe New England Pump ChumpsPaintball MarshallsNew Hampshire Blizzardand my guys playing again as Mass Destruction
coming out of the prelimsthe scoring was as follows
1 New Hampshire Blizzard (678)

2 New England Pump chumps (531)

3 Mass Destuction (372)

4 Hit-N-Run (345)

5 The Team From Ma. (338)

6 Steel Reserve (324)

7 Poo Fighters (145)

8 Paintball Marshalls (121)
the finals took 4 teams
1 New Hampshire Blizzard

2 Pump Chumps

3 Hit-N-Run

4 Mass Destruction
thanks to PNL paintball for having us, the Refs for your work,Boston Paintball,and Massey Machine for the prizes.and the Gravity Leauge for taking things into your own hands and making this happen for New England Paintball players
and to the players, it is up to us to keep this rolling! If you are like me and want to see more great competitve pump paintball around here show your support. Get other teams and players involoved.
PLAY STRONG, PLAY HARD, PLAY FAIR, AND BEWARE THE OLD GUYS WITH PUMPS!!

Gravity event #2

Here we go again

The second leg of the New England Gravity Leauge has just been announced

P&L paintball in Bridgewater, Ma. Aug 30 and I can't wait, we had a blast at the last one and this one already has more teams signed up! I am trying to field two teams this time around.

Mass Destructions OGs

and the Regulators

this all depends on my ability to get some of the Original Mass Destruction players to sack up and play together again. I will keep you posted.

Mass Destructions Western Mass Regulators #1 in the gravity League !!!

this was a great day all around! perfect weather good sportsmanship

great refing and pump on airball so who could ask for anything more?

first place helps too

Thanks to Everybody For a great day of honorable competitive pump play.

I am going to throw out a Challenge to any New England area player willing to step up to the plate.

put down the electro, take off the ten pod pack and leave the force feed hopper at home,

come and join us for the next Gravity League event and remeber what was fun about paintball

GRAVITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

well well well , it is 12:06 am I will be in the truck in 5 hours heading to New Hampshire for the frist gravity league event. bag is clean and packed, the sniper is shooting TITS it is suppsed to be mid 60s and the rain is suppoesd to hold of until later in the day and I need this I need the competition, I need the sportsmenship. time to get as much sleep as I can, maybe this week I will do another LBL vintage tech video

wish me luck

Pump League in New England

Gravity League - NH - July 11th, 2009 - Pump Tournament 3 Man

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AG Paintball is going to be the first location of the newly formed Gravity League Pump Tournament.
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3 Man Limited Paint Pump Tournament
Date: July 11th, 2009
Location: AG Paintball ( agpaintball.com ), Weare, NH
Style of Play: 3 Man Pump Tournament, Limited Paint.
Cost: $90 per team ($30 per player), includes admission and all day air.
Paint: Field Paint Only - Empire RAMP Paintballs - $20 per bag - $65 per Case
Limited Paint: Unless things change (it's been known to happen), we're playing 40 rounds per player only. Walk onto the field with 4 tubes of paint each. 
Rules: To be posted shortly in PDF format, but in short. Pumps only. No air assist or electronics in the gun in any form... Electronic hoppers are allowed.

Trophies and Prizes to be awarded to the top 3 teams. 

This is going to be a fun, let's get out there and play style tournament. Leave your attitudes at the gate, as they will not be tolerated. I will be there, and I will be playing!!!

one more day to go

well, this week I got the gear bag put back  in order, most of my tools have been located. the Sto is shooting nice (by the way she is the sexiest cocker ever made) I have manged to locate a few more potential players thanks to Mcarter brown. Ricko will be joining us up in New York as a camera man so I should have some pics and video up on sunday.

Paintball Paintball Paintball

so after a while away from the field, and this blog for that matter I have come to the conclusion that I will be sticking around this god foresaken sport, atleast for another season. we will be heading to  up state New York for a two on two oldschool pump event the weekend after next... not exactly what I was hoping for for my first event for my 20th year on the field( it should have been Nppl HB but this should be fun anyway ) 

I have a lot to do to get ready to go

my gearbag is in shambles

my tools are tossed to the wind 

I have to set up the AKA two liter I bought for the STO sniper and never bothered putting on. 

my cat seems to have a taste for JT soft ears so I have 4 out of five proflexes with cat damage (damn you General Tso's Kitten)

I was doing great with the gym until work came on hot and heavy and now I am back into my usual off season slump. so I need to get my fat ass back on the treadmill quick. 

before we roll into this year we need to find some replacement  players and pump play in Western Massachusetts is on the slim side so that should be fun... if you have any leads feel free to let me know.

I hope I get to the field and it feels like old times I don't want this to me more work then fun anymore. 

I don't want to be a baysitter

I just want to  play.... to go out give it my all and win lose or drawI want the other teams to respect me. and if they do win I want it to be such a fight they hurt bad enough the next day that they think twice about going to work.  in these twenty year I have alway tried to be the good guy  and as long as I am in this, thats what I will be. 

 

life behind lenses vintage tech #1

If you were involved in tournament paintball in the late 1990s early 2000s you were part of something very special that may never happen again. The industry for the most part was small and working together to better the sport. the atmosphere around NPPL events was electric, especially the World Cup. it was a party with your best friends and when you were there you knew in your heart that you were part of some thing great.
DYE, National Paintball supply,and smartparts had there huge ass semi trucks that fold out into booths. there was a mixture of fields from woods to hyper (witch used to belong to dye precision, they were the last to convert to air ball bunkers), to air ball. Kingman brought a DJ shocktech had a great setup with a bad ass sound system, and then there was WDP and the infamous Angel heaven. walking around you would bump into major people in the industry and they were cool to talk to.Playing these events was amazing, even if you were a division B player you could and probably would draw a pro team to play against. Aftershock (with Danny Love) and Avalanche (pre Jeremy Salms), and image were the teams to beat back then, things were awesome.
paintball traveled with the warped tour, VANS made shoes specific to our sport..... and some where along the lines things started to slip.

fast foreward just a couple years and you have a league split down the middle. the NPPL bankrupt, An industry that said "forget building a bigger pie I want my slice now" and players that have changed the sport they loved to have a better shot at getting their face on TV, we no longer are seeing as many new players coming up because we are scaring them off before they get a foot in the door. local fields and stores are closing because they can't keep themselves alive in the current market.

the most profound conversation I have had with Tom Kaye was at IAO 2003, he was talking about always looking forward to the event because a lot of the big names would get together at Ms. Dobbins (from ICD ) place and brainstorm about how to make the sport better for the players and the industry, But he said they could no longer do that because of all the lawsuits being thrown around, later that year Tom retired from paintball ..... we need more Tom kayes

NPPL Bankruptcy

"Pacific Paintball and its subsidiaries will be filing proceedings under the United States Bankruptcy Code to effect a liquidation of their respective assets and business operations. The affairs and assets of Pacific Paintball LLC, NPPL LLC, XPSL LLC, PB2X LLC, Xtreme Paintball Fields LLC and Camp Pendleton Paintball LLC will be administered by a court appointed trustee in bankruptcy. The bankruptcy court will provide you with written instructions regarding how and where to file any claims in this matter.

Despite doing all we could do, we were unable to make the business a viable concern. Further, in this severe economic climate, we were unable to secure new funding. It is a truly regrettable outcome, though one which is unfortunately occurring more and more frequently in this environment. We thank all those who have supported us"

Earlier this week this press release was sent out signaling the end of an era in paintball. there have been a lot of mixed emotions from the playing community.
most of the NPPL teams I have talked to are in a daze and doing there best to figure out what they are going to be doing this season.
some of the people on the paintball forums are saying that this is a good thing because it should unify tournament paintball, having only one major league in the US, but I am not that optimistic. I do not think that the PSP will be able to keep it together with the HUGE influx of players that may be coming there way and the first few deciding events may become a logistical nightmare.
if all of the teams playing in the NPPL hopped over to PSP events, it would just about double the size of the league.
the PSP already runs for 4 days with the players that they have, so the events would most likely be a week long. and for the most part the players are not in a position the be able to take 5-6 weeks off of work or school per year.

plus there are people like me who do not have faith in the way the PSP is setting its rules.

I do not think that ramping has a place in tournament paintball.
the ASTM standards set forth by the paintball manufacturers are put in place for a reason, to keep the companies safe from lawsuits as long as they build markers withing the ASTM guidelines
and in those guidelines it states 1 trigger pull, one ball, pump or semi auto action only.
on top of that I spent a LONG time learning my gear and how to make it shoot
it is a skill that is lost to ramping, now every twelve year kid can pull the trigger three times and hold down a lane.

the PSP fans will say that the ramping rule was put in place to curb cheating, and in a sense it does, if you change the rules to allow cheating, I guess it is no longer cheating, but all that would have had to be done is to talk to the board manufacturers and make them add a mini usb connector to the boards so they could be flashed when the player steps on the field insuring that they are locked in semi and capped at X bps (the board manufacturers re designed them to be PSP compliant so they could have just as easily made them semi only compliant)
and if they refused put them on a list of non complient boards an not allow them at the events. hit them in the wallet they will fall in line

Yes you still have the issue of trigger bounce , but you have that issue with the first three shots in PSP mode .Distribute HARD penalties and fines for players caught willfully cheating. Do you really think that it would be worth say a two event suspension for that player with no substitution (so the team has team play a man down) or a $500.00 from every rostered member of a team or an automatic forfit from the event to have a cheating marker on the field? make it not worth their effort and they will fall in line.

next on my list of gripes is sideline coaching, again I spent a lot of time on field awareness and it is lost to 12 year old who can have people on the sidelines tell him whats happening, where the opponents are, how many are left, how much time is left and when to move.
it is just a stupid rule written for lazy people who are unwilling to do the work to become better in their sport.

that said, the PSP has a lot of god going for it too
the xball format aside from the rules listed above is VERY cool. and I wouldn't mind at all playing it.... just with stock class pump guns and no coaches :)
think about that... the highest level of player playing with the lowest technology
games not being decided by the largest wall of paint, or a monkey on the sideline running his mouth, but by the best team.... if it was a perfect world

tournament paintball

why do I play tournys? well alot of reasons...

first and foremost for fun and friends

but other than that

A paintball tournament is where I feel most alive

this is something I was writing about the other night
a lot of it might not make sense to anybody who wasn't there but I'll put it up here anyway

life to me:

life to me is a long ride to get to the game, it is 3:00 am fire alarms in the skydome hotel the night before finals,

it is a doughnut orgy in Fla.

it is pit beef sandwiches in Maryland.

it is being so tired and filthy at the end of a day playing that you can get away with just about anything at the hotel after words because you must appear completely insane to the staff.

it is 600 fields in 600 cities and 600 different hotel rooms in cities that you have never been to before. and just before everybody falls asleep it's "TELL ME A STORY" as you are beaten by your 10 team mates that have shoe horned themselves into a room the size of a closet.

it is 3....2....1..... TEN SECONDS!!! and for some reason that ten seconds last a lifetime.

it is dive bars up and down the east coast

It is flying back home after a tourny and hoping you get home in time to catch the dropkick murphys show

it is making the finals at Skyball by one point

life to me is calling your girlfriend from 2,000 miles away and trying to convince her that you really do love her even though work only permits you to see her on the weekends and alot of those have to be used for practice, scrimages, tourneys, team meetings, and machine work for other players.

it is seeing your team name or picture in the magazines for the first time and after that waiting none to patiently for them to come to your door just to see if you are in it again

it is the feeling you get right before the game starts when everybody has a hand in and you look at your team mates and know that there is nowhere else you would rather be

writen by me in 2003

I will start at the begining

02.89 Easthampton Ma.

I had been invited by a friend of the family to go play paintball and always being up for an adventure I jumped at the chance.
the day was set and I was told that I needed to supply my own camo but other then that, they had enough gear.
so I went to the local army navy store and purchased a set of Tiger stripe BDUs, brought them home and came to the realization that it was Feb. in New England, and we all know what that means... yup snow, and lots of it. So how will a camo pattern designed for jungles help in this situation? not very well actually.

so I made a trip to the linen closet and found a white sheet that mom probably wouldn't miss too much.
some grey, brown, and green model spray paint and I had made a fairly convincing winter camo poncho. I was ready to go! And I had built my first paintball related item

The day came and I made the trip to Westfield where the game was to be played. the field owner
(only known to us as "the fat man")
asked for the field fee and paint money from every one in attendance and then loaded us and our gear into a few ten passenger vans and drove us to the field, on the way he made the announcement that if the police were to come we needed to book it because he had no right to use the land we were on! I was young and Really wanted to try this game, so that was not enough to discourage me.

we got into our gear, and I was handed a Nelspot 007 pistol.

MY NELSPOT AND A SCRAP OF MY ORIGINAL TIGER STRIPES


We were given a saftey meeting and went over the field rules. and then a ref walked us to our side of the field. it was probably a 5-6 acre piece of land with only natural cover, we had a game of 30 people split into two teams and we needed to get to the enemy base to grab their flag and return it to out flag station. we had 30 mins. to do this. My friend (Chris) said that when the horn sounded to follow him because he had found a great place last time he played here.
about that time I heard 3......2......1....... GO GO GO from the center of the field.
and we all went for it. I followed Chris as we quickly moved down the field until we hit a gully about 8 ft deep that ran off to the right of the enemy flag station. we got into it and ran down about half way , he poped his head up to guage our location and WHACK ....he put his marker over his head and called OUT he turned to leave and he had red fill dripping down his neck. at the time the gear was very primative and did little but protect your eyes, so throat and ear shots could happen easily. I started to wonder what I had gotten myself into but I wasn't going to stick around to get shot out. I moved about 25- 30 yards further down the trench and found a spot with heavy shrubs at the top I crawled up the side of the embankment and saw the guy who had shot Chris out... I had gotten pretty far behind him! and had an open shot at his back.

I crawled through the brush as quietly as I could and go an unobstructed shot... I raised the nelspot, aimed...... pulled the trigger...... POP a cloud of C02 came from the barrel and the ball was away it seemed like a lifetime watching that little red ball corkscrew through the air going dangerously off course and then like magic it straightend itself catching him right below the left shoulder blade he put his marker up and yelled HIT .... I was hooked, but I was also blissfully unaware of the two enemies that were directly behind me... so I got my first Elimination and shot out of my first game within seconds of each other.
twenty years later I can still remember it like yesterday.