There is a lot happening in British Columbia!. Steve Cox moved to Burns Lake, British Columbia in 2010 with a full 22 years of playing paintball under his belt. His personal background in paintball started in the late 80′s in Newfoundland where his friends and he started playing with Splatmasters for stag parties. They went on to form the “Screaming Seagulls” paintball team. They then lobbied their city hall and signed a deal with the Best Western Hotel in St. John’s, Newfoundland and leased some wooded land behind the hotel where they opened Newfoundland’s 1st commercial paintball field called ‘Paintball Paradise’.
For the full story in Steve’s own words: In 1994 I moved to Vancouver and joined a group of woodsballers called the ‘Warpigs’. I ran an 8 team tournament for this group and a larger scenario day for the group and the cast & crew of the TV show Stargate Universe. Each of these events was over 50 players in size. At this point I then started a new team called the ‘Dogs of War’ made up of elite members from the Warpigs group. in 2010 myself and my right hand man moved to Burns Lake B.C. (1000Km north of Vancouver). In Burns Lake we found there were lots of players but no organization and no commercial fields in the region.
We formed 2 new squads for the Dogs of War and now have 22 members and 4 squads between the 2 locations. (Vancouver & Burns Lake). As the groups in Burns Lake were outlaw woodsball players and safety was a major concern for us, we formed the Burns Lake Paintball Association (B.L.P.A.). This is a registered non-profit sports association with the aim of developing a public paintball park in Burns Lake. We have now applied for and received a grant of 100 acres of wooded land to develop into a public non-profit paintball park. Our aim is to run this park with low prices so that anyone can come and play safely for a reasonable fee. We offer full rental packages, air and paint but also allow players to bring their own paint, air and gear to the field. Our rental package runs $50/day for rental gear, all day air and 500 rounds of paint. We sell paint at cost ($15.00/bag of 500 rounds). Burns Lake is not a large or wealthy town so keeping prices cheap is the only way to insure players can afford to come play at our field. Our field is Insured and we run refs for games. Our safe areas are netted and chronograph, mask and barrel cover safety is strictly enforced.
We are in the midst of building a town for our scenario field that will also have a 25 ft jet helicopter chassis in the center of the town as we plan to run Blackhawk down scenarios each year. We are also developing several standard tournament style fields and a speedball field in this park. All of this is being done with grant money, donations & membership fees.
The Team (Dogs of War) has developed into a 
semi-pro team and has gained sponsorship from Tippmann, Hammerhead and Paintball Gear. We are 1 of only 4 Tippmann Sponsored teams in Canada. We travel around to other local towns for games and also go to larger events like the Tippmann Challenge in Vancouver B.C. We have networked with other groups in our area to form a league. We have linked up with groups in Prince Rupert (Prince Rupert Paintball Collective), Quesnel (Northern Strike Paintball Association) and other groups in Smithers, Houston and Prince George. All towns in our region. We hope to develop this league and run tournaments and events starting spring 2013, once our paintball park is ready.
Zach Czirfusz who runs the Houston B.C. paintball group and is now starting a Paintball Association there as well. Zach has created a new Facebook group to help network and communicate with the different groups. This is called the BCPU or British Columbia Paintballers Union. We are all still in the forming stages but hope to have this all up and running by next spring. We hope to make this area very active for paintball and a haven for players to come and play good games safely in an area with little to no commercial facilities available.
For more information see these websites:
- our team website: www.dogsofwarpaintball.ca
- Our team facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/125325674256178/
- Our BLPA facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/125325674256178/#!/groups/169002489846692/
- The Prince Rupert Paintball Collectives facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/125325674256178/#!/groups/PRPBC/
- Quesnel’s Northern Strike Paintball Association website: http://www.northernstrike.ca/
- And the new BCPU (BCpaintballers Union) Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/125325674256178/#!/groups/434632186571601/
This is a joint effort by all the groups.
- Burns Lake – Team captain and BLPA Director – Steve Cox
- Quesnel – NSPA Leader – Peter Bond
- Prince Rupert – PRPBC Leader – Mathew McClinton
- Houston – BCPU Founder and group leader – Zach Czirfusz
There are many others involved.
Our main aim is to provide fun a safe paintball at well developed & insured locations across northwestern British Columbia.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.