Tom gave all the kids there a GREAT Class. Ronn seems to be running a GREAT camp. Wish it was happening when i was 3-4 years younger....as everyone looked to be 13-15. They all seemed to be having a blast too. I arrived around 6:15 to the lobby only to see Tom surrounded (as usual) by 15-20 of the little guys. They were talking about backpack loaders and how Tom thinks that "Pods are the next big thing to go. I know you dont believe it". Inter-sting, eh? We moved on into the confernce room where over 45 attendees packed in to listen to the master give a tech class on paintball marker history. He started with pump markers design (sniper) and moved to the blowback (F1 Illustrator) and then to the Cocker and Shocker and Angel...whithout even touching on his own marker...I was annoyed, as was Shannon aka SHAZAM-AGD. We wanted to hear more about the mag, but apparently its not as good as those markersRonn and Don were there of course, telling the kids to listen every 5 mins, which reminded me of when i was that age (not TOO long ago). Josh2Xtremes was there...great guy as usual. APG had a reporter too. As I was leaving Bea, Mike, and Rocky were in the lobby signing posters for everyone. Ronn, Tom, Shannon: THANKS! It was a great event. I think Ronn's got the right idea with this camp, I think it can do even better next year!
The class started going back in history, to the invetion of the pump marker. Tom kindly drew it up on the whiteboard and got, piece by piece, a description of how it worked from the group. By the end of that everyone grasped the concept and learned that the RT Valve is NOT the fastest recharging valve...the hammer valve (found on snipers, cockers, and blowbacks) is. Nifty. Then we moved just one step down the line...the F1 Illustrator. They took the pump, drilled a hole and made it semi automatic. However, seeing the problems, Paintball came up with a better marker in 91 with the cocker. Skipping his own glorious invention, as you can see. He then moved on to the next big innovation: the shocker. Tom explained to the amazement of all how the spool valve in a shocker works and how the angel worked aswell. That brought back our knowledge on the hammer valve as the two are related. He also denied the myth about the "14 way valve"
We took a break and then went into the wonderful world of ORINGS! The same speech you all got at megameet and iao...yep, these 13 year olds heard it...and Im sure it went right by thme. My brain bleed hearing it a second time even!
To cap off the night, he talked about barrel physics. Porting this, Control bores, etc...it was covered. The fact that a paintball undergoes over 1500 Gs of acceleration while in the barrel.
After class was over, everyone hung around just talking and asking questions to the two mag masters: Tom and Shannon. They spent the next hour describing the workings of the mags and the features of the xmag. It was great to have Josh's X there to help them
I took TONS of pictures, about 50 of which were good. I'll post some here that are the best, but to view them all, go to: The BEOG Events page
here we go...
See Clare WAS there...well...her likeness
(ITS A PUMP GUN GUYS...PUMP GUN)
Shannon works the camera
Standing Room Only
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