tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58447941907936549372012-01-28T08:57:29.792-08:00Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.comBlogger1221100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-74478094877716321242012-01-28T08:55:00.000-08:002012-01-28T08:57:29.801-08:00

Just about all businesses and industry try to expand their market. The best way to expand a market is to match products and/or services more closely to what the potential consumers want. Paintball is no different, whether it's recreational or competitive paintball (I separate the two, because for me, there is a big difference between the two. They are both paintball, but other than that, they

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-47997357557739171082012-01-10T07:32:00.001-08:002012-01-10T10:59:30.262-08:00

There is a thread titled "Most Overpriced Place You've Played" in the Recreational players Talk section over on PBN. It was started close to 3 1/2 years ago. It resurfaces regularly, so one could make the assumption that it is a relevant topic for many people. Mostly it consists of players submitting where they play paintball and how much it costs. Almost all the complaining is in regards to

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-19830998177694576782011-12-24T11:07:00.000-08:002011-12-24T11:08:39.102-08:00

I've never played renegade paintball. In close to25 years of playing paintball, every single time I have played paintball, it has been at a commercial field. This not something I am ashamed of, or proud of, it's just what happens to be true and I wanted to state this right off the top.I have no problem with renegade paintball, if played by consenting players in a safe manner. As a field owner,

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-79414626902825716832011-12-13T10:07:00.000-08:002011-12-13T10:08:20.417-08:00

I was reading through a recently revised thread on http://www.p8ntballer-forums.com discussing the problems the UK competitive paintball scene is having. Apparently they are having an even tougher time than North America and most of Europe in getting competitive paintball rolling at a respectable pace.The two biggest problems seem to be the lack of competitive (speedball) fields and a lack of

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-24126749745890392932011-12-02T07:16:00.001-08:002011-12-04T23:32:34.477-08:00

Canada eh? When I first saw the Event dates for the upcoming 2012 NPPL season on a local paintball forum here on Vancouver Island, I had to do a double take. I quickly went through my mind just to make sure I hadn't just woken up from a coma on April 1. I concluded that the poster was just trying to be funny. I went to the NPPL website for confirmation, but I'm not particularly familiar with

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-65308489694803920812011-11-30T08:19:00.000-08:002011-12-03T09:01:48.176-08:00

Pump paintball play is growing. Statistics in paintball have always been a little lacking, but from what I see and read, there is no denying that more players are playing with pumps. In recent years, several manufacturers have designed and produced new pump markers. Others have revisited old designs and rereleased these. They (the manufacturers) are only doing this because there is a market

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-9234062206942764142011-11-16T20:31:00.000-08:002011-12-03T09:02:24.287-08:00

A while back, there was a thread on PBN talking about marketing in paintball. In that thread, someone mentioned a couple of books they had read during their marketing education in College and mentioned that these books were worthwhile reading. Since, as a business owner, I could always use more customers - having too many customers is always a better problem than having too few customers-I

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-68935854117123508902011-11-01T10:53:00.001-07:002011-11-01T11:16:43.963-07:00

Warning: this is not paintball related.We got a puppy last might. When I say we, I mean my immediate family which consists of myself, my wife, my adopted niece (15) and my adopted nephew (14). It's been something that's been in the works for a long time (several years). I was the sole naysayer when the discussion of dog ownership came up. It's not that I don't like dogs. I grew up with a

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-33760899148882927172011-10-13T08:28:00.001-07:002011-10-13T08:36:17.637-07:00

At the upcoming Field Owners' Conference in Orlando running in conjunction with the PSP World Cup, there will, it seems, be just as much discussion about airsoft and lasertag as alternatives to paintball for field owners. As a matter of fact, I saw a little while ago that there was reference to the conference as a tag sport field owners' event rather than a paintball field owners' event. If you

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-57271551497502026812011-09-22T21:31:00.000-07:002011-09-22T21:33:28.436-07:00

Carter over at M. Carter Brown posted up a copy of May 1986 Frontline Magazine he scanned recently. Things have changed. Many for the better but looking and reading the articles, I bet the guys were having a heck of a lot of fun. I didn't start playing until a few years after this, but the pictures looked familiar enough. Some of the most interesting pages were the advertisings for me. Even

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-7348365096927262152011-09-08T23:16:00.000-07:002011-09-08T23:21:12.130-07:00

Rereading my previous post, I realized it was damn hard to follow and comprehend (I blame it on Captain Morgan; he can be a bad influence). Therefore I'm going to write it down as a very simple mathematical equation that anyone that passed grade 6 math should be able to understand. Please, if there is actually a real economics equation for this, I apologize for my simplicity. This is the way

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-78978500946253646572011-08-23T08:14:00.000-07:002011-08-25T22:43:09.524-07:00

Having just read the book How to Market Your Paintball Field and then having read some posts on VFTD about marketing National Paintball leagues, or lack thereof, it made me wonder who and to what end, competitive paintball is marketing to. Obviously the competitive paintball side of our industry wants to become more popular. I'm sure competitive paintball would like to have more participants

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-37689174738396944072011-08-21T22:08:00.000-07:002011-09-08T23:24:08.923-07:00

I haven't done a book review since High School and that was decades ago, so bare with me and don't even bother trying to review my review.I was made aware of this book by our Tippmann Rep in one of his emails sent to us. The book is written by a couple of Tippmann marketing employees; Patrick Ehren and Ron Goldblatt. Mr. Ehren and Goldblatt spent considerable time interviewing Gio D'Egidio and

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-67781961801563380322011-08-09T23:09:00.000-07:002011-08-09T23:11:02.465-07:00

I was rereading the Middle Grounders post (whose comment section was graciously ignored by all visitors) I wrote a while back and the associated World Dominance - Airsoft vs. Paintball post. Mostly because it seems to be a topic of interest for some. Steve over at 68 Caliber and Baca at view From the Deadbox, both recently touched on the subject again because airsoft was a topic of discussion

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-47658077259635692542011-08-01T21:58:00.000-07:002011-08-01T22:12:58.467-07:00

It's the day after West Coat Pump Weekend. Time for rest and a recap. There were 77 players over the course of the two day event with 66 players (22 teams) participating in the 3-man fun pump speedball tournament portion on Saturday and about the same number taking part in the recreational pump games on Sunday. Some players couldn't make it this year, but more new faces took their place. We

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-27191269510642260442011-06-29T08:15:00.000-07:002011-06-29T09:22:21.821-07:00

Yesterday in the airsoft vs. paintball article, I wrote briefly that most people hover right around the middle of the political spectrum (that's not how I worded it but that's what it amounted to). We don't debate whether the line should be drawn on the right side or the left side of the spectrum, but rather whether it should be drawn just right or just left of centre. Things would be a lot

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-13291490139066658882011-06-28T07:49:00.001-07:002011-06-28T07:56:39.903-07:00

The attempt for California lawmakers to pass a bill that would force all toy guns to be brightly coloured has apparently heated up the airsoft vs. paintball debate. To summarize, it seems some paintball industry types hired lobbyists to convince the lawmakers to exclude paintball markers from the bill. In exchange, the paintball industry would support the bill (or at least the people that hired

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-28515852912296152832011-06-27T07:01:00.000-07:002011-06-27T07:06:31.307-07:00

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the first paintball game ever played, in Henniker, New Hampshire on June 27, 1981.Things have changed quite a bit in 30 years. Some for the good. Some maybe not so good.Thank you for those first players and their grand idea to play a survival game that has evolved into an activity shared by millions around the globe over the years. Now lets see what the next

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-43436687459936674682011-06-25T00:20:00.001-07:002011-06-25T00:22:01.536-07:00

Since I write a lot about running a paintball field, I thought I would share a great article written by Steve Davidson over at 68Caliber.com. You can find it here:http://68caliber.com/2011/06/24/some-thoughts-on-field-operations/

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-74986669483943788732011-06-18T21:30:00.001-07:002011-06-18T21:32:22.406-07:00

A little while ago I wrote about a local paintball retail business that did not last too long due to some fundamental mismanagement (basically selling below the price they needed to cover overhead). If you missed it you can read it here: http://reiner-schafer.blogspot.com/2011/06/paintball-as-business.htmlAny business needs to make have enough margin (the difference between the cost of goods

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-66583294107393377862011-06-14T07:58:00.000-07:002011-06-14T07:59:57.663-07:00

A little over a week ago I played paintball locally, but not at our facility. We have a group of players on the island here that play several times per year at various locations. The players come from all across the island. One of the great things about living in these times is the ease in which to communicate and organize such events with people from various geographic locations.Many of the

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-69889617265332043022011-06-05T22:00:00.000-07:002011-06-05T22:01:07.192-07:00

Close to ten years ago, shortly after we opened our field, we had some local kids (3 brothers), some still in High School open a retail paintball store. We didn't have a local paintball store and these kids (young men) figured they would open a store that would serve the local paintball community as well as doing some on-line sales for the rest of Canada. They got some financing, I assume from

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-51561502615564289142011-05-29T22:17:00.000-07:002011-05-29T22:18:17.312-07:00

I bought a new marker recently and it was waiting for me at the field this morning. It was actually used, but new to me. It was also the same type of marker that I normally play with, so it didn't even seem that new to me.I have several personal markers (I don't actually know how many, but let me just say that I have more than I need, by quite a number). All of them are pumps, except one, a

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-22081598599712829102011-05-22T21:12:00.000-07:002011-05-22T21:13:35.537-07:00

Relatively simple sports that are inexpensive to take part in, seem to be the most universally popular sports. It makes sense. The game of soccer for instance is probably the most popular sport in the world. It can be played virtually anywhere there is some bare land (grass covered preferred, but not necessary), and people have a single ball to kick around. Sure in more organized soccer

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-61753726821298167582011-04-17T21:39:00.001-07:002011-04-17T21:39:31.420-07:00

We run a recreational paintball field and many of the players we cater to are first timers and those that play very rarely. We try to make sure they have a good time and "protect" them as much as we can. But there is a certain amount of common sense needed by players and even first timers should possess that.For instance, if you run full bore into an area that you know is held by the opposing

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-1529903612296470362011-04-14T17:49:00.000-07:002011-04-14T17:52:37.946-07:00

Is there anything that doesn't automatically get way cooler (yeah that's right, I said cooler!) when you drop the "e" on a word that starts with "ex" as in Xtreme?

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-89955087765919565552011-04-12T12:17:00.000-07:002011-04-12T12:29:53.634-07:00

I made a post a few days ago about whether or not paintball would ever be mainstream. The idea of the post came after Kris (aka Mr. Canada, the founder of Canadian Scenario Paintball) had an editorial posted over at 68Caliber. You can find it here: http://68caliber.com/?p=15913#comments.Anyway, Kris and I had a conversation going, along with a few other valued comment inputs (hey, all comments

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-91420833218847300892011-04-07T08:00:00.000-07:002011-04-08T06:58:55.674-07:00

Ever since I have been involved in paintball in a more serious way, I have heard and read about how we as an industry need to get paintball to be accepted as mainstream. I've also heard many different opinions on what we need to do to make paintball mainstream. But what is mainstream?Mainstream, in a broad sense, means to be widely recognized and accepted. Does paintball fit that definition.

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-30217975086922328122011-03-31T08:07:00.000-07:002011-03-31T08:08:07.695-07:00

Two of the most common complaints about paintball fields that I see by players on paintball forums are first, it's too expensive and second, fields don't have enough decent amenities. Of course it's really no different than what customers want from any business; more for less.The market dictates the prices that can be charged by a paintball field. That in turn determines who and how many are

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-7494837885094757242011-03-12T22:04:00.001-08:002011-03-12T22:06:43.886-08:00

It has long been believed that the most cost effective advertising for a paintball field is word of mouth. The cost is zero. The benefits can be great...or not so great.How does word of mouth advertising work? The name basically explains it. Basically your past customers are spreading the word about your business for you. It's very effective for many types of business but really effective

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-3209373176465527772011-02-27T21:51:00.000-08:002011-02-27T21:53:35.466-08:00

I don’t like to have to think too much most of the time. That’s probably why I like my paintball simple. I play with a pump. A Phantom most of the time. It’s about as simple as a paintball marker can be. I have in the past and do still own semis and I have even owned electros. Well just one electro back in the day when I toyed with competitive paintball. But it was too complicated for me.

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-78148476804453540802011-01-14T22:18:00.000-08:002011-01-14T22:21:24.842-08:00

As a paintball field owner, I have met and known lots of people who got into to tournament play. Almost all of them enjoyed it, at first anyway. Very, very few of them have ever stuck with it for any length of time. Almost all of them tell me the reason they quit playing competitive paintball is because they couldn't afford to shoot as much paint as they felt they needed to on an ongoing basis.

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-12103244901126854512011-01-09T21:59:00.001-08:002011-01-11T07:03:02.163-08:00

I want to revisit or expand on a subject touched upon a few weeks ago in my A Step Between post (can be found here: http://reiner-schafer.blogspot.com/2010/11/step-between.html).It’s been fairly widely accepted in our industry during the last few years that we must protect those trying paintball for the first time and provide a less extreme environment for them in hopes that they won’t get

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-81263986649646077052011-01-03T10:30:00.001-08:002011-01-04T09:03:01.750-08:00

The most common reason I hear that people play less paintball than they want to, or they have quit playing entirely, or their friends don’t play is that paintball is too expensive. There are other reasons, but expense is by far the most common that I hear. The reason for that of course is that paintball, for the most part, is an arms race and those not wanting to arm themselves and load up as

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-457208009233726882010-12-29T21:07:00.000-08:002010-12-29T21:11:53.889-08:00

Recent changes in some rules in the PSP have got the paintball world in an uproar it seems, at least for those who care about the PSP and a few who probably care very little about the PSP and just want to see the league suffer. Some hate the changes; others love them and then are those that go with the flow. Lane Wright (CEO of the PSP) sent an email to members explaining why these changes were

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-83419286436677145732010-12-23T22:13:00.000-08:002010-12-23T22:16:59.694-08:00

Milsimm paintball players may play in the woods most of the time, but woodsball paintball players are not necessarily milsim players. Please do not lump them all together. That is all. Thank you.

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-21240590223724099702010-11-25T22:45:00.000-08:002010-11-26T06:47:57.131-08:00

A recent thread on one of the forums I frequent got me thinking. As paintball prices have dropped over the years, the experience offered at fields has obviously changed. Paintball at $10/100 balls is not the same as $10/500 balls. I don’t think too many people with any sort of gray matter between their ears is going to disagree with that. So let’s discuss what is available for people in most

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-75230265341995200212010-10-12T23:41:00.001-07:002010-10-12T23:41:53.100-07:00

Our newest field at TNT Paintball is in the woods. It’s one of our larger fields and it’s definitely the most dense, as far as foliage goes. There are lots of trees and lots of undergrowth; the type that you can crawl through and might not be seen and is hard to shoot through to eliminate a player even if you do know he/she is there. It has man-made bunkers, but they aren’t densely placed. To

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-49333430916068653632010-09-10T22:26:00.000-07:002010-09-10T22:27:16.534-07:00

I visit several forums on a regular basis (probably too regularly to be considered healthy). Anyway, a couple of posts on different forums asking why things seem so slow reminded me of feelings I’ve had for a while that paintball forums in general are a lot quieter these days (at least the ones I frequent). I’ve had these feeling for a quite a while now, probably a year or longer, but have kept

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-80207329788665037692010-09-08T23:37:00.000-07:002010-09-10T21:40:55.082-07:00

I was reading one of those Smart parts was the Devil threads today where once again someone posted that Smart parts was to blame for much of the problems the industry faces because they put fast electronic markers in the hands of everyone with just a few hundred dollars in their pocket. The reasoning was that once “kids” could get markers ramping at tourney level rates relatively cheap, the

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-82845549459217891672010-08-31T22:47:00.001-07:002010-09-01T07:50:38.426-07:00

In my job as a facilitator of paintball games, I’m often amazed by the lack of commitment and respect for others No, not lack of respect for others on the field, although that can be a problem as well, but I’m talking about the disrespect in lack of commitment.Rarely do we get a group at our field where the total number of pre-registered guests show up at the field. This is even true for

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-8568872646743907332010-08-16T23:14:00.001-07:002010-08-16T23:17:27.417-07:00

For the longest time (actually for just about all of paintball’s history), paintball industry, competitive paintball, and even regular recreational players worked on increasing a player’s advantage by increasing dependable rate of fire. Competitive paintball evolved alongside this parallel evolution of equipment. The third parallel was the evolution of paintball production. Players shot more

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-76360855622635716122010-08-06T23:51:00.001-07:002010-08-06T23:51:26.315-07:00

Maybe it’s because I’m older than the average paintball player, but I really don’t like high rates of fire. It was confirmed again this weekend during West Coast Pump Weekend. I played most of the day on Sunday during the “recreation” portion of the two day event.There were a couple of times where I was “lit up”. It was by pump players using auto triggers. For those of you that don’t know

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-60529901164027715422010-08-02T23:09:00.000-07:002010-08-02T23:10:26.649-07:00

It’s over, for another year at least. The time leading up to West Coast Pump Weekend is always the most stressful time of the year for me, although it does seem to be getting a little easier every year (mostly because I just don’t care quite as much anymore about making everyone happy).This year, the 4th, was the most successful event so far, not only as attendance goes, but also from the

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-86104528487306514842010-07-10T00:51:00.000-07:002010-07-13T06:25:30.056-07:00

A little self promotion is on the agenda.WCPW ’10 is coming up quickly. If you are into a fun weekend of all pump paintball, WCPW is an event you don’t want to miss out on. Ask anyone who has been at prior WCPW’s. Great fun, great people, great venue.Saturday July 31 is our fun 3-man Pump Speedball event and Sunday August 1 is all pump recreational play on TNT paintball’s 5 great recreational

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-9393741161635702492010-06-28T23:21:00.001-07:002010-06-28T23:21:42.778-07:00

It was another good day at TNT Paintball yesterday. Why a good day? People had fun. With about 100 people in attendance, playing in three separate games, there were no major conflicts, disagreements, or arguments. In all honesty, I consider most days at the field good days for those reasons.We had our fair share of tweens and teens, mostly boys, a few women thrown into the mix and probably

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-67135976717027155972010-06-27T21:03:00.000-07:002010-06-27T21:04:16.215-07:00

PbNation.com is the world’s largest paintball community, no doubt. I have an account there and hang out in the Field/Store Owners section and in all honesty rarely check out much else. I took a few moments to glance at the main page today and a couple of thnngs caught my attention.In the General Paintball section, the busiest section, by quite a large margin is the “Paintball Talk” forum, with

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-35138926635557121122010-06-08T08:34:00.001-07:002010-06-14T07:07:26.863-07:00

As a recreational paintball field owner, this is one of the most common questions I get asked by new, never before played, potential customers (the other one by the way is, “Does it hurt”?).I always tell them that the cost to play will be somewhat dependant on how many paintballs they shoot and then go on to tell them how many paintballs our average player shoots and how much the total cost ends

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-42900518627445835482010-06-03T06:50:00.000-07:002010-06-03T06:51:48.266-07:00

Well we didn’t have a huge number of votes in our poll, which is to be expected. I’m still amazed we get more than a half dozen people stumbling on this blog every week as it is. To get as many votes as we did, knowing that the majority of people don’t bother voting is quite amazing to me. Thank you for dropping by and double a thank you for those who took the time to vote.Now for the voting;

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-85103939302022101872010-05-27T06:41:00.000-07:002010-05-27T06:57:22.063-07:00

Look at this. Reiner's trying a poll. First time on the blog, so encourage my expansion of my own comfort zone by voting, and hopefully commenting.Here's the deal. In a hypothetical situation, if recreational paintball fields could somehow provide unlimited amounts of paintballs to their customers, how would this affect participation. Now I say hypothetical, because paintballs cost money,

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-2583633149805548312010-05-23T23:25:00.000-07:002010-05-23T23:26:12.059-07:00

I know very little about base jumping. What I do know is that it’s got to give you an awesome adrenaline rush. Yet very few people take part in base jumping. Much fewer than play paintball for instance. Why is that?I’m sure most people will know what base jumping is, but if not, Google is you friend.I constantly see posts on forums where players are saying that if people can’t take getting

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-91820635724089887512010-05-14T23:35:00.001-07:002010-05-14T23:37:09.426-07:00

People are all different. Early on as children we start to develop levels of social comfort zones. Some of us are outgoing while others are not. Some kids need or want very little assurances from parents while others can barely leave their parents’ sights. As we grow up and learn that the world is not necessarily as scary as we thought it was as young children, we expand our comfort zones.

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-72955063620304315982010-05-08T19:43:00.001-07:002010-05-08T19:43:50.542-07:00

Earlier this season I mentioned that some members of our staff had formed a speedball team. By the time I had caught wind of it, more than a half dozen of our staff had been recruited. I have to admit that I panicked a bit. The busy season was starting and a good portion of our staff were committing to be at practice every Saturday (our busier of the two weekend days) plus they would be gone

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-21687421424662229672010-04-07T08:23:00.000-07:002010-04-07T08:24:57.468-07:00

I’d like to touch on tournament representation (and lack thereof) in some locals. Since I am most familiar with my local scene, I’ll start there, and probably won’t venture much further than there.We are located on an island, for those of you who don’t know. Vancouver Island specifically. Approximately half the population is located at the southern tip of the island (Victoria, BC), and the

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-14658609103881545092010-04-06T10:10:00.000-07:002010-04-06T10:11:02.925-07:00

68 Caliber is putting industry people in the hot seat and letting you and me field the questions.The way I understand it, folks from the paintball industry, that most of us will at least have heard of, will be available for a week at a time to answer questions that we throw at them. Fist up is Gino Postorivo of Valken Paintball. Personally, I’m a little hesitant to ask anything too

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-14297995034716074702010-04-05T00:35:00.000-07:002010-04-05T07:35:22.244-07:00

Wow, it’s official. Our little blog has followers in the double digits. Thank you to Canarias Paintball for breaking the barrier. Actually, I think we only have nine because Steve Davidson is such a big fan, he signed up twice. Go Steve! But officially, it’s ten, because Steve Davidson is a pretty common name, so it might actually be two different Steve Davidsons. That’s what I’m going with

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-46427952063440126172010-03-25T08:28:00.000-07:002010-03-25T08:29:13.446-07:00

I heard about widgets for quite a while before biting the bullet and buying a widget. I heard about all the great things one can do with a widget and how much fun you can have with a widget. I didn’t know if widgets were hyped up beyond their actual usefulness or if they really were as good as they were raved about, but I knew that eventually I would try a widget out. The big price tag has

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-53473913833135070222010-02-27T20:04:00.000-08:002010-02-27T20:05:18.299-08:00

The looming question from an outsider…can a Professional Paintball League survive with no one paying the bills? With no viewers, save a few clamoring wannabe elite players, and dwindling sponsor money, how long can we have “professional players, teams, and leagues?Professional players, by definition, need to be paid. The amount they get paid may be debatable and maybe it’s just enough to break

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-81921827329208904322010-02-25T07:47:00.000-08:002010-02-25T07:48:00.072-08:00

My least favorite part of operating a paintball field is staffing. Don’t get me wrong. I like my staff and many of them have started off or become friends over the years. But staffing a paintball field, at least the way we run ours is a little tricky.First, we rarely know exactly how many staff we will need on a particular day. It’s always a best guess and we try to side on the side of

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-7309947129071804192010-01-25T23:57:00.001-08:002010-01-26T07:55:40.049-08:00

You’re probably reading the title and thinking Reiner is going to tell us he’s finally burned out. He’s going to call it quits and leave us alone. Well…no such luck. No, this is about player burnout. But it’s not about your hardcore tourney player spending two or three days a week at the field and unable to sustain the pace, although I’m sure that’s an issue within the tournament player

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-76277841030913458002010-01-17T23:01:00.000-08:002010-01-18T07:30:39.130-08:00

We see many different types of players at TNT Paintball. The one thing they all have in common is that they come to play paintball and come to have fun. The majority of our customers rent our equipment to play, but more and more of our customers have their own equipment. I think this is a natural progression of any sport or activity that becomes more popular over time. Golf courses for

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-56234758127749596432010-01-05T13:27:00.000-08:002010-01-05T13:29:26.788-08:00

Paintball, once the fastest growing extreme sport in North America, seems to be heading the other direction, and gaining momentum.Word on the streets is that Smart Parts laid off its last employees. Once a powerhouse in the paintball industry, now is history. JT recently closed its paint manufacturing plant in Neosho, Missouri. Walmart is rumored to be eliminating paintball from it’s shelves (

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-82853952005700631392009-12-30T14:54:00.000-08:002010-01-05T17:29:17.194-08:00

OK, I’m writing this as it may be relatively easy for most people to visualize.Jane Doe decides to play paintball for the very first time (I use Jane rather than John, because for my example, it will probably be even more easy to visualize, but John may have the same experience). Jane goes to Bill Bob’s Paintball Emporium. She’s never played so she asks Billy Bob how much it’s going to cost and

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-8611680213791465262009-12-28T08:55:00.001-08:002009-12-28T08:55:53.650-08:00

It’s easier to run a paintball company during times when the paintball industry has good positive growth than during times when the paintball industry has negative growth.If you are the head of a large corporation that manufactures and markets paintballs and paintball products, you might be considered to be a great businessman if you are doing this during times when virtually everything in

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-67930950074560578072009-12-19T18:08:00.001-08:002009-12-19T18:10:30.569-08:00

Baca Loco on VFTD (http://viewfromthedeadbox.blogspot.com/) in his latest post says that “paintball sales in all the box stores has declined in recent years and is losing shelf space everywhere”. Apparently WalMart is phasing paintball out of their line-up altogether. I don’t know if that is true, but Loco’s sources are usually pretty good.I would assume that this is due to first time players

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-18879679597955997762009-12-17T07:49:00.001-08:002009-12-21T07:53:31.753-08:00

A paintball field is a really simple business. At least that seems to be the general perception among many people, including paintball players. That’s why most fields in the past, have been opened up by paintball players with a passion for the game, rather than business people looking for a profitable venture. Before we opened our field, my business partner and myself played paintball every

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-70070724386995582122009-12-12T18:01:00.001-08:002009-12-26T09:04:14.170-08:00

I read a post today of a young man today who is giving up paintball. At least that’s what he says he is doing. His reason is that chasing the dream of being great player leaves people poor and wasting their life. He had only being playing for two years.It got me thinking about why people play paintball. I’ve heard his story before, quite often actually. But for the most part, the people I

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-47653301388697158012009-12-12T00:17:00.000-08:002009-12-12T00:18:30.252-08:00

Stark white walls stare back at me. Minutes tick by. The keyboard waits patiently for me.Paintball is a big part of my life. It’s how I’ve made my living for the better part of 9 years now. Writing is a small part of my life that is relatively new to me. I’m not very good at it and most often refer to it as rambling, rather than writing. I don’t even really know why I write. I’ve never

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-39657580558555545392009-12-05T14:25:00.000-08:002009-12-05T14:44:48.839-08:00

After recently giving a brand new Tippmann SL68 away at 68 Caliber.com, to the winner of a draw anyone could enter, they've now trumped that by doing a giveaway for a brand new Phantom. It's grey/black and very beautiful and has both matching stock class and direct feed bodies. Clear parts as well. All you gotta do is register in the forum and write a short 100 to 500 words on "Why I Play Pump

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-68558885320523898072009-11-20T19:33:00.000-08:002009-11-20T19:34:07.802-08:00

I don’t think I’m dyslexic at all, but I commonly mistake for sale ads that mention gearbag sales for garbage sales. Once I figure it out and click on the ad, most of the time, the items are garbage as far as I’m concerned, but that’s beside the point.The other thing I’m constantly getting fooled with is “pimp marker”. Being a pump enthusiast, I don’t know how many times I’ve been let down to

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-62875337575420809152009-11-19T09:04:00.000-08:002009-11-19T09:21:32.888-08:00

68 Caliber.com (http://68caliber.com/) has been slowly releasing information on a new paintball league that Steve Davidson along with a few other "oldtimers" have been wroking on for a little while. The name National Pump League was released today. Details are still sketchy (gotta build the suspense somehow) as to exact format and who is involved, but so far it looks like it will be 10-man pump

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-31988031648857927412009-11-11T08:06:00.000-08:002009-11-11T09:03:52.878-08:00

This entry is going to stray a bit from my usual highly interesting stuff regarding recreational paintball fields to something that I’m not really involved in, but still have an opinion about. Since I’m the one in control of the “Publish Post” button, I can do that.Professional athletes playing in professional leagues, by definition (or at least the way I define it) get paid. Usually the pay is

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-14364446210494511622009-10-29T07:12:00.001-07:002009-10-29T07:12:26.176-07:00

So Italia and the boys haven’t been able to get .50 caliber paintballs quite up to what they had promised yet. Apparently it’s not that easy to increase the mass so flight characteristics are virtually the same as .68 caliber balls. But at shorter ranges, up to 75 feet it’s close. After that, you will have to tilt your barrel up at a higher angle (compared to shooting .68) to get the ball

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-25904895069191683482009-10-23T18:15:00.000-07:002009-10-25T21:27:28.219-07:00

I believe I’ve mentioned on this blog before that it took three invitations over three years for myself to accepted an invitation to play paintball. A friend organized outings for the company he worked for and asked friends along to boost numbers. The thought of having people hit me with an object that might hurt didn’t appeal to me. I guess I was scared. No other way to put it.I’m not sure

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-32465132828475873252009-10-17T20:22:00.001-07:002009-10-17T20:22:23.190-07:00

I stole the title from our environmentalist friends, but we can use the thought to talk about the paintball industry just as well. This will also be a continuation of the Who has the Power article.I think we can all agree that the paintball industry as a whole is in a bit of trouble. Retail and wholesale sales are down, the number of players showing up at fields is down overall, and

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-85126728204016622942009-10-16T06:18:00.000-07:002009-10-16T06:19:14.227-07:00

The paintball industry is still in a buzz over the expected .50 caliber push by GIMilsim. It’s slowly dying down only because every possible scenario has been discussed over and over again and I believe people’s fingertips are sore from keystroking.As far as I know, nothing .50 cal related has been officially released yet, at least not for sale to the general public. GIMilsim had a booth set up

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-52051275710588595812009-10-08T22:00:00.000-07:002009-10-08T22:02:44.622-07:00

The first installment of a series of field owner interviews can be found below. For the first installment, I have interviewed Mick Gray of T-Square Paintball outside of Little Rock, Arkansas. Mick posts almost daily in his blog, http://tsquarepaintball.blogspot.com/, and the website for T-Square paintball can be found here, http://www.tsquarepaintball.com/Reiner: Thank you Mick for granting

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-76536728597652573122009-10-07T07:15:00.000-07:002009-10-07T07:16:36.780-07:00

During the next little while I will be interviewing some field owners across North America to get their perspective on running a paintball field and their general feelings about the paintball industry. The first interview will be posted in the next day or so. I hope all six of the regular readers of the blog tune in to see what others in the industry have to say about running a field. It

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-36748733048703058312009-10-05T22:00:00.000-07:002009-10-05T22:01:21.801-07:00

Well, lots of .50 caliber talk lately. I guess that’s only natural with GI Milsim about to “officially” release their Paintball 2.0. I wish I had some great words of wisdom or some amazing prediction about what will happen, but I don’t. I’m really quite bored of the whole discussion. So much speculation about something that will fail or succeed quite quickly once revealed.Will players

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-63671363951159222882009-09-29T21:39:00.000-07:002009-09-29T21:41:01.501-07:00

When opening a business most future entrepreneurs look around at their future competition to evaluate what they are doing right and what they think they are doing wrong. They will also look at other businesses in their industry they may not be competing with, possibly in other locations, that they want to emulate. If someone has found a formula for success, why not cash in on that and copy it?

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-87553582799673163012009-09-02T08:22:00.001-07:002009-09-02T08:22:22.796-07:00

We have a lot of staff that work at TNT Paintball. Other than my business partner and myself, none of them work at TNT full time. Over time, we’ve had some that have worked close to full time hours, but most work on a very casual basis, basically working a day here and there, mostly to support their own paintball habit. We have a few refs that work at a regular schedule (i.e. every Saturday).

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-17241003530267939482009-08-25T07:52:00.001-07:002009-08-25T07:52:48.161-07:00

I’ve seen this so many times at our field I can predict the future more times than not now. That is the “evolution” of a typical young paintball player that starts his paintball playing “career” at TNT Paintball. This may be different than a paintball player that starts his career at other fields, although there probably are some similarities.Step 1. A player comes for his first day of

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-12750441929142145902009-08-17T23:57:00.000-07:002009-08-21T06:55:44.335-07:00

Sometimes I wonder if paintball, as an industry, is on a course of self-destruction.Over the years we have seen fields change from places where players would go for an adrenaline raising day of plinking away at each other with paintballs numbering under 100 to a day where players are shooting a case (or multiple) cases of 2,000 paintballs. Of course this has happened because fields competing

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-31913381511366183322009-08-09T23:16:00.000-07:002009-08-09T23:17:04.782-07:00

I understand the necessity of keeping good records. I know I need to keep track of my employees hours and do all the necessary paperwork needed to make sure they get paid and the government gets their share. I know I need to keep track of PST (provincial Sales Tax) collected and send it in on time to the government so they can pay for schools and roads and healthcare. I know I need to keep

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-8981261634391992912009-08-04T23:29:00.000-07:002009-08-05T06:49:52.427-07:00

I’m writing this for anyone aspiring to become a paintball field owner or those relatively new to owning a paintball field. Those that have been running a paintball field for a while should already know who they want/should market to. Besides, giving advise to someone that has been running his/her own business for a while usually just gets the “who are you to tell me how to run my business”

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-42160055378354364822009-08-03T22:36:00.000-07:002009-08-03T22:37:21.694-07:00

Well, it’s all over but the cleanup (actually with the help of my wife, we got most of that done today). The last of the campers left this morning to catch an early ferry. Sunday’s recreational games were lots of fun. I managed to play most of the day after some early morning administrative stuff got accomplished. I still don’t have a final count, but we must have had very close to 60

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-899860495658336112009-08-02T07:15:00.000-07:002009-08-05T06:40:26.564-07:00

It’s early Sunday morning of the first weekend in August. We are halfway through our third annual West Coast Pump Weekend (WCPW ’09).Yesterday was our one and only Speedball tournament (for pump players) TNT Paintball puts on during the year and today continues with a day of all pump recreational play. It’s a lot of work every year to get things organized and pretty hectic on Saturday to get

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-53880238979187711102009-07-21T23:40:00.000-07:002009-07-21T23:43:52.877-07:00

I sometimes get involved in “discussions” on forums with paintball players regarding the virtues of higher priced/lower volume paintball over lower priced/higher volume paintball. Often when they find out our field is in Canada, they shrug my opinion off because our field is in Canada, and apparently Canadian fields are more expensive because the Canadian dollar is worth so much less and

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-15945758775877823532009-07-14T06:50:00.000-07:002009-07-14T06:51:25.432-07:00

I had a suggestion by a first time player yesterday at the end of the day when he handed in his gear.“You should charge by the amount of fun each person had. I’d owe a lot!”

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-67754495604116702042009-07-08T07:55:00.000-07:002009-07-08T07:56:14.639-07:00

In a recent interview with the Paintball Business Journal, Richmond Italia is quoted as saying, “Our sport is hurting and needs a cure fast. And I believe this is it [cheaper .50 calibre paintballs]. Most don't realize the number of players we lost to airsoft due to the fact that it is cheaper. Or how many are gone because they just can't afford it [to play paintball].In a survey conducted by the

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-83199291120040965322009-07-06T23:49:00.001-07:002009-07-06T23:49:54.410-07:00

How many people who play paintball throughout the world on any given Saturday or Sunday, are players playing for the first time or are players who play only occasionally and only for recreation? I believe that would be the majority of people.How many people who post on paintball forums and who express their opinions to manufacturers are players who play regularly? I don’t know how many, but I

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-1046867581369345322009-07-01T08:12:00.000-07:002009-07-01T08:16:01.713-07:00

I know Father’s Day was over a week ago, but I’ve been busy with moving and had limited Internet access and limited time. Also, I had a visitor yesterday that had played Father’s Day for his first time ever, which inspired me to take a few minutes to write.Unlike Mother’s Day, which was the first day in a long time we didn’t have enough players to play a game, Father’s Day was quite busy.

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-10084804181725455182009-06-19T23:14:00.000-07:002009-06-19T23:15:55.392-07:00

I’m a bit of a runner. Not great distances, but I like to get out two or three times a week if I can. I run somewhere between 5 and 10 kilometers (3 to 6 miles) usually. Running makes me feel like I’m at least not getting too out of shape.I like the simplicity of running, just me and my shoes, shorts and a shirt and off I go. What could possibly be simpler than bi-pedal motion? We’ve all

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-6111470117242568022009-06-17T07:49:00.001-07:002009-06-17T07:49:57.384-07:00

Every once in a while in my browsing of forums and blogs, I find someone who believes the lack of new innovation and technology is causing paintball industry’s slump. While I’m not saying that those companies who have built a business model around constantly releasing new technology, may not be hurting a bit with a lack of new mind blowing technology released, I can’t help but wonder how this

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-87289288785743123232009-06-15T23:20:00.000-07:002009-06-15T23:23:59.192-07:00

It was the middle of August 2001. We had only opened our brand new paintball facility a couple of months before that. We were wet behind the ears as far as running a paintball field goes and business was still slow. We didn’t know it yet, but our competitors had been undercutting our prices since we opened. I guess they wanted to nip the chances of success of the new guys in the bud.We didn’t

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-79991413058064491152009-06-11T10:46:00.000-07:002009-06-14T22:35:19.999-07:00

There’s a storm approaching. It started with a slight breath of air aimed at the right ears, but like all big storms, it has gained strength and even though it may have gone undetected by most for a while, eventually it cannot help but create a disturbance where it touches down.This is a man-made storm that will affect the paintball industry, or so the initial whisperer hopes. I first heard

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-61387615879844186692009-06-08T22:41:00.001-07:002009-06-08T22:41:19.851-07:00

The only thing constant in life is change.Our game has changed over the years; many times and in many directions. If we were to be able to travel back in time to that first paintball game in New Hampshire in 1981, we would see that it is a very distant cousin to what we play these days. Changes were made right from the start. Rules of the game and new variations of the game were dreamed up.

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-58037509968832692742009-06-05T23:15:00.000-07:002009-06-06T08:28:01.391-07:00

We operate a field just outside of a city that hosts a Canadian Military base. It’s a Naval base and on occasion we get groups of military personal out for a day of paintball. They are always weekday games and usually consist of about 20 to 30 players.It may be interesting to note, that these are not Milsim games. These are just military personnel coming to play recreational paintball. Even

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-59815990332638350332009-05-31T22:33:00.000-07:002009-05-31T22:36:17.187-07:00

I overheard a conversation a few of my customers were having today while I was standing at the BBQ rolling hotdogs (Yes, hotdogs are rolled. Burgers get flipped). I wasn’t eavesdropping, as those having the conversation were speaking loud enough for me (and others if they cared) to easily hear.It was a group of friends that had come up to play. All were renting and looked to be about 15 to 16

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5844794190793654937.post-36028500663727568362009-05-30T09:14:00.000-07:002009-05-30T20:24:51.434-07:00

“Paintball is too expensive.”“If paintball were cheaper, I would play more often.”“ A lot of my friends don’t play paintball because they can’t afford to.”The above are typical comments seen on a regular basis on paintball forums I visit. They are all legitimate statements. The second and third are most likely totally truthful.I like taking my family to carnivals when they show up in town.

Reiner Schaferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11735297279972068471noreply@blogger.com9