First GoPro Videos are up on YouTube!

I played some rec ball yesterday at Windsor Rush and got a chance to try out my new GoPro Hero3 camera to get some paintball footage.  I spent a few hours at the field and switched between using my Axe, setting up my PMR and playing around with the Splatmaster.  

Before the first game, a guy's gun went down and I let him borrow my Axe setup so he could play this game, and I used my Splatmaster.  This was my first GoPro footage for paintball and his reaction to shooting my Axe for the game is awesome.  

I also turned the GoPro around to record behind the gun and a different perspective, it's cool to see the rest of the team moving around behind you.

Subscribe to my YouTube channel and I'll have more paintball videos coming up soon!

Shooters Paintball Pro Shop Launches Canadian Online Store

For any regular paintball player from Windsor who has played at Windsor Rush Paintball, you've met or dealt with the friendly staff of Shooters Paintball Pro Shop.  Shooters has been helping out local Windsor paintball players with finding the paintball gear that they want at prices they can afford, and now they are gearing up to provide the same service to paintball players all across the rest of Canada.

New Canadian Online Paintball Store

Shooters Paintball Pro Shop has now launched an online store,  based out of their Windsor, Ontario location, and is ready to ship orders all across Canada.

If you're from the area and haven't checked it out yet, stop by Shooters Paintball Pro Shop inside of Windsor Rush paintball to check out the new products and deals, or gear up to play some paintball!

Check out the website at:

http://www.shooterspbproshop.com/

DieHard Paintball supports the community and Essex Food Bank

Fight hunger by playing paintball!  Donate just 5 canned goods to receive a free pass to bring your own paint for a day of paintball near Windsor!

Paintball is a community sport with friendly players from all walks of life who are always willing to help out and support a cause. Every so often, a field will take initiative to help their local communities, and DieHard Paintball is stepping up this month to give back to the Essex community.

For the month of November, DieHard paintball will be collecting canned goods to support the Essex Food Bank and give back to the local community.  As a deal and incentive for players to donate, they can donate 5 canned food items and get a free BYOP paint pass for the day.  This is usually a $15 value, so this does a great job in helping players play paintball for cheaper by allowing them to bring their own paint purchased from other stores or fields and use it at a field that is generally field paint only.

"For the month of November: instead of a buying a paint pass, bring in at least 5 can goods. This won't be mandatory this Sunday but for the rest of November it will be. And again this is for own equipment only. Fill MUST break white or yellow ONLY! Let's help out the local food bank."

Join DieHard's Facebook group to keep up to date on all of their latest promotions and find the best day to come out and have some fun playing paintball!

http://www.facebook.com/groups/diehardpaintball/

NPPL Las Vegas Recap

Well, I'm back in Canada and it feels good to be home in Windsor. There's no place I would have rather been last weekend than where I was: Playing paintball in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Event Setup 

I've attended the last three of the NPPL Super 7 Series this year, and I must say that Vegas was the most impressive event that reminded me of why we travel across the continent to play paintball. There is a massive amount of work that goes into preparing a field from an empty parking lot.  The event ran smoothly, with three fields being built within the course of a couple of days: rolls of turf laid out in the Riviera's parking lot, posts and netting being setup around the fields for safety, and the air bunkers and posts being staked directly through the pavement. 

  Paintball Industry and Sponsor Trade Show 

The trade show at the Vegas event this year was interesting, but no more impressive than any other event this season, with the usual vendors attending. As usual, Valken was there as the main paint sponsor for the league providing their Redemption and Redemption Pro paint for divisional teams. In the league, all divisional teams must shoot Valken paint as they are the league's paint sponsor, with the only exception being teams in the Pro division who can shoot their respective sponsors' paint. 

 Other vendors included MacDev at the Aggressive Sports trailer; HK Army selling headbands, pod packs, and their Shredder cleats; KM Straps; Bob Long brought their show trailer out selling soft gear and their new G6R line of markers; Custom Products with their show truck full of aftermarket parts and dealing the DLX Luxe; Valken had two huge tents selling gear of all kinds. Raza Paintball was there as well, offering a slick looking line of clothing and jerseys designed by top paintball players.

 In addition to the companies selling gear, Empire and Planet Eclipse were at the event to provide tech support for all of their markers and gear, providing fast and helpful service for all players.

  Canadian Express 

 As a team, Canadian Express had a great time in the tournament although we were plagued with small problems during our Friday games that led to our demise. Penalties took our bodies off of the field, combined with the heat affecting our paint so that none of our shots were breaking on target, leading to frustration and lost games. We regrouped after our games to fix our plans for the next day, and worked out a couple of strategies to improve on the rest of our games Saturday. The Saturday went better for Express, with an early start and 7am games, we were ready to roll. Although our tough luck continued in the morning, we had strong performance against the top team in the division, until a major penalty on the snake side dropped half of our team and lost the game for us. Knowing we now had no chance of making Sunday, the mood turned from serious business and game plans to tons of jokes between games. As we put it: "Wins are down, jokes are up!", and the rest of the trip was a great time. We rallied back for our last game and won it with five players alive, and everything was well with the team. Running the flag in for the win on our final game was what made the entire weekend worth it for me.

 

Canadian Express player Shawn Henderson reloading during a match at NPPL Vegas.

A Canadian Paintballer Abroad

Hello and welcome to all of my new readers, followers and fellow bloggers.  I'm starting up this blog to keep people informed on paintball news and events around the world. I'm a local paintball player from the Windsor & Essex County area so no matter where I travel to play around the year, my focus always goes back to my roots at the local fields.

A little about me: I'm Shane Carter, I live in Windsor, Ontario, and attend St. Clair college.  I've been playing paintball since the end of gradeschool, began playing local tournaments through high school in Flagswipe's old PETS series (now the ESPL). For local fields, DieHard Paintball's outdoor field in Cottam has always been my number one choice for speedball, and the players are always make it a fun time.  Indoor, Windsor Rush is in the city and has a great facility with a fun rec-ball field and friendly staff.

I decided to go all-in to paintball with the Xball format in 2008 when I joined up with Sarnia Ntensity in the RXL division of CXBL.  Afterwards in 2009, Ntensity made a huge move and shifted sponsors to Flagswipe our of London, and we had the chance to practice with London Express CXBL for the season to get a stronger and more convenient practice schedule.

After the 2009 season, life picked up and paintball fell to the wayside.  I got a car, started university, ran out of money to play ball and ended up quitting for a couple of years.  Work, school and a social life kept me busy, but something was always missing.

Flash-forward to this year: I worked full-time factory jobs for two summers, built up some cash, and wanted something to do with my weekends and summer.  I started playing locally again and began my team search.  I ended up contacting my old team camp at Flagswipe, attended the Canadian Express tryouts and joined the team for the 2012 NPPL 7-man season.  I saw this as an opportunity that would do everything I was looking for: to play paintball (almost) every week, to help the community by running local events, to travel across the continent with a team of friends, and to experience the world of paintball as few others from Ontario get the chance to do.

In the 2012 season, I've followed the Express tradition of running the Empire Series Paintball League (ESPL) to give back to the paintball community.  Our team doesn't just play paintball, we make paintball happen and go through all of the work that other players may take for granted when they show up at the field: gridding field lines and squaring the field; cleaning, storing, and setting up bunkers, and setting up netting, staging, chronographs and all of the little logistics that go into maing a paintball tournament run.  We have had 5 events at Flagswipe's outdoor field this year, giving hundreds of players the change to play tournament paintball in two divisions: the 3-man Young Guns division and the 5-man Rookie division.  It has definitely been a successful season for the ESPL, and coming next will be Blizzard Ball at Flagswipe's indoor field on November 18th.