52
Paul Tournier (l)
Marty Tripes
Andy Van Der Plaats
Joe West
Adrian Vilaca
August 2014
Paul Tournier
Paul was the director of
marketing with RP Scherer
through the mid 1990s and
played a huge role in the development of the game, especially the tournament side.
Paul could be found handing
out huge checks to podium teams at the PMI North
American Championships in
the late 80s, as well as many
Lively events.
Marty Tripes
Marty Tripes was a presence
in tournament paintball in
the 1980s and 90s. In fact,
it was Marty that introduced
paintball to John and Rita
Gregory, then owners of JT
Racing. Marty convinced the
Gregorys that the growing
game of paintball needed
better and safer goggles and
the rest is history. After his
time with JT Paintball/Racing, Marty moved into a position with Scott Goggles and
success in paintball followed
for Scott as well.
Andy Van Der Plaats
Andy has been in paintball for more than 25 years
and he’s spent a great deal
of those years as a great
ambassador for scenario
and milsim paintball. Andy
has also written for several paintball magazines, he’s
been a scenario game general, a commander in Oklahoma D-Day games and an all
around excellent spokesman
for our game.
Adrian Vilaca
Bet this is a name you don’t
know. Villaca was the person
instrumental in securing the
Toronto Skydome, hose site
of the 1998 Skyball event.
Though his company didn’t
produce every Skyball event
held at the Toronto Skydome
since, playing paintball inside
the amazing sports facility
has been a high point for the
sport ever since.
Sean Walker
Sean is a staple in California
paintball. He is a field owner
(Camp Pendleton Paintball
Park), he’s run several large
scale paintball series including the NPPL and the XSPL ,
he’s a player and he’s been
involved in just about every
facet of the paintball industry.
Claudia Welikson
In 1990 five-man paintball
tournaments were huge—
they were everywhere. But
on the east coast the game
was 15-man. But that all
changed when Claudia Welikson’s Paintcheck five-man
took over Skirmish for a
weekend. Claudia was also
the founder of Paintcheck
Magazine, which debuted in
1989.
Joe West
Joe has owned J&J Performance Barrels since the early 1990s. He’s a long time
player, someone that was
one of the game’s early ambassadors, and a guy that’s
designed products that have
consistently sold for almost
20 years. Joe was also the
first person to bring ceramic
coating technology to paintball barrels.