What is the biggest moment and biggest regret in your 25-plus years in paintball ?
My biggest moment in paintball might be something people think is a weird one - it isn ’ t meeting and getting to know Maurice Gibb or working for Dick Clark on the ESPN NXL show , or meeting and interviewing William Shatner--though all those things were amazing ! Even the big-time paintball stuff like walking into the Skydome for Skyball , my first Lively Masters , or my first , or tenth or however-many-eth World Cup , or Invasion of Normandy as incredible as they ’ ve all been , aren ’ t the biggest moment either . Truly , my biggest moment was the first time I stepped out of my comfort zone in both paintball and my life . On New Year ’ s Eve 2004 I literally packed my truck up , left Virginia and moved to Myrtle Beach , South Carolina to take a job at Adventure Beach Paintball , start my career at Paintball Games International magazine and step into a fulltime role at the CFOA tournament series . I didn ’ t even have a place to live that night when I drove into town . Just packed up everything I owned and drove off . That ’ s nothing I ’ ve ever done before , and anyone
who knows me can agree it ’ s not how I act now . But something led me down there that night and I believe now looking back , that it was the Lord guiding me into the life he wanted for me . Proof of that is the girl from Myrtle Beach I met not long after I got into town who , a few years later , married me , the friends I ’ ve made since , and the connections that have truly shaped my life and career ever since , from paintball to wrecked Jeeps and barbecue restaurants . Everything in paintball and life before led me TO that moment , and everything since in paintball and life somehow traces FROM that moment , and I ’ m truly thankful and blessed for it all .
As far as regrets go , like any other person I have a few but I try not to dwell on the negatives of the past , once the discernible lessons have been learned . That said , I do regret that at the height of our success with the paintball tournament series with which I was involved all those years ago , we allowed outside political influences to fundamentally alter the formula we had used to grow and become a true phenomenon , and lead us down a path that would ultimately culminate in league ’ s demise as we knew it . Like so many things in life , it all seemed like a great idea at the time and the entire road was paved with the best of intentions , but the path ultimately led to the end of something we cared deeply for , and remain fiercely proud of . www . paintball . media
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