I went to the recent UKPSF thingy a few days back and saw a bunch of people I hadn't seen for ages.
One face loomed larger than most and not just because this guy is bigger than most but because his achievements in paintball dwarf the vast majority of others, and I mean Dwarf with a capital fackin 'D'.
Ged Green
I don't suppose there are many reading this post who haven't at least heard of his name, and just in case you haven't, or indeed, are not aware of what this man did, I'll give you a brief summary:-
He, along with his brothers, Matt and John, Owen Ronayne and Bart Walkerdine spearheaded arena paintball, the first electronic marker - the Angel, Hyperball and finally the breakaway NPPL that manifested itself as the first Huntington Beach in 2003.
That's one kick-ass CV for anybody, let me tell ya.
I was lucky enough to go to this inaugural event in HB with the team I had just created, called Nexus.
And this tournament blew the frikkin lid off of event paintball across the world, it really did.
This is the reason I wrote this post.
Although Ged had many able people around him with Owen Ronayne being his right hand man and certainly one of the most able and focused, it was Ged who provided the inspiration and direction, he was the powerhouse.
Now, I can't remember if it was 2003 HB or 2004 but I can remember a quite surreal moment, I don't often get them in my life, and they are even rarer when it happens to me in paintball, they normally happen in some bar somewhere when it's just about to kick off.
I was standing on the main walkway that runs along HB, on the left of the walkway were all the myriad of paintball vendor booths threading their way up the beach, on the right, the fields and stands.
The stands (bleachers) at HB were massive, enough to hold 5,000 people I think, maybe more I dunno, but they were impressive.
It was about 3pm in the afternoon and kinda hazy with all the sand dust being kicked up from the games drifting everywhere.
It looked kinda surreal but a little later, was gonna feel even more surreal as a stretch limo pulled up .....and then another.....
I don't even know who was in them, I could just make out the huge figure of Ged making his way toward the limos followed by what looked like a gang of cameramen and their associated sound men.
They were all scurrying for position as the doors of these limos opened up like the legs of a pregnant woman giving birth to whoever was inside.
The first limo had triplets, all of whom were greeted by Ged, a no doubt daunting, if not intimidating spectacle as he assumed the role of the welcoming midwife into the world of paintball.
I think it was me who needed smacking at that point actually...
Anyway, I suppose the bit that really got to me was, witnessing this unloading of dignitaries and media bustling, and then trying to reconcile it with the game I so loved; this was paintball for god's sake, not Hollywood, not the FA Cup or the Superbowl, it was my beloved paintball.
It seemed in those few seconds, we really were at the beginning of a new dawn, and this dawn was being ushered in by Ged Green - It was like witnessing the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly, it truly was a weird-ass couple of seconds for me.
This game of paintball I had so loved , and had been so much of my life, was slipping away from me ...and for those of you who understand what I am truly saying here, you will know what I mean by that.
I had always been lucky enough to be able to talk to and influence people in our sport no matter who they were, but looking at what was unfolding before my haze-ridden eyes, I realized, or so I thought then, it was gonna be a different era, an era where I was gonna be redundant and nothing more than a has-been from yesteryear.
But that's not really the point here, the point is...we seemed to have it all...it was in our grasp, but did we ignore the beach-side omens?
We let it all slip from our grasp like sand through a fist so tightly clenched .....
Did we go too fast?
Did we never have a real chance anyway?
Did we make a tactical mistake?
WTF happened to destroy us so efficiently when everything seemed soooo fackin good????????
It seems more appropriate now, somebody needing to write an epitaph for paintball as against a eulogy ...... we need Ged back, UK paintball needs him back, world paintball needs him back ..... please, pretty please !
One face loomed larger than most and not just because this guy is bigger than most but because his achievements in paintball dwarf the vast majority of others, and I mean Dwarf with a capital fackin 'D'.
Ged Green
I don't suppose there are many reading this post who haven't at least heard of his name, and just in case you haven't, or indeed, are not aware of what this man did, I'll give you a brief summary:-
He, along with his brothers, Matt and John, Owen Ronayne and Bart Walkerdine spearheaded arena paintball, the first electronic marker - the Angel, Hyperball and finally the breakaway NPPL that manifested itself as the first Huntington Beach in 2003.
That's one kick-ass CV for anybody, let me tell ya.
I was lucky enough to go to this inaugural event in HB with the team I had just created, called Nexus.
And this tournament blew the frikkin lid off of event paintball across the world, it really did.
This is the reason I wrote this post.
Although Ged had many able people around him with Owen Ronayne being his right hand man and certainly one of the most able and focused, it was Ged who provided the inspiration and direction, he was the powerhouse.
Now, I can't remember if it was 2003 HB or 2004 but I can remember a quite surreal moment, I don't often get them in my life, and they are even rarer when it happens to me in paintball, they normally happen in some bar somewhere when it's just about to kick off.
I was standing on the main walkway that runs along HB, on the left of the walkway were all the myriad of paintball vendor booths threading their way up the beach, on the right, the fields and stands.
The stands (bleachers) at HB were massive, enough to hold 5,000 people I think, maybe more I dunno, but they were impressive.
It was about 3pm in the afternoon and kinda hazy with all the sand dust being kicked up from the games drifting everywhere.
It looked kinda surreal but a little later, was gonna feel even more surreal as a stretch limo pulled up .....and then another.....
I don't even know who was in them, I could just make out the huge figure of Ged making his way toward the limos followed by what looked like a gang of cameramen and their associated sound men.
They were all scurrying for position as the doors of these limos opened up like the legs of a pregnant woman giving birth to whoever was inside.
The first limo had triplets, all of whom were greeted by Ged, a no doubt daunting, if not intimidating spectacle as he assumed the role of the welcoming midwife into the world of paintball.
I think it was me who needed smacking at that point actually...
Anyway, I suppose the bit that really got to me was, witnessing this unloading of dignitaries and media bustling, and then trying to reconcile it with the game I so loved; this was paintball for god's sake, not Hollywood, not the FA Cup or the Superbowl, it was my beloved paintball.
It seemed in those few seconds, we really were at the beginning of a new dawn, and this dawn was being ushered in by Ged Green - It was like witnessing the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly, it truly was a weird-ass couple of seconds for me.
This game of paintball I had so loved , and had been so much of my life, was slipping away from me ...and for those of you who understand what I am truly saying here, you will know what I mean by that.
I had always been lucky enough to be able to talk to and influence people in our sport no matter who they were, but looking at what was unfolding before my haze-ridden eyes, I realized, or so I thought then, it was gonna be a different era, an era where I was gonna be redundant and nothing more than a has-been from yesteryear.
But that's not really the point here, the point is...we seemed to have it all...it was in our grasp, but did we ignore the beach-side omens?
We let it all slip from our grasp like sand through a fist so tightly clenched .....
Did we go too fast?
Did we never have a real chance anyway?
Did we make a tactical mistake?
WTF happened to destroy us so efficiently when everything seemed soooo fackin good????????
It seems more appropriate now, somebody needing to write an epitaph for paintball as against a eulogy ...... we need Ged back, UK paintball needs him back, world paintball needs him back ..... please, pretty please !
