Lee
02-29-2004, 10:04 AM
quoted verbatim from the sunday, february 29th edition of the tampa tribune:
House Bill 699 would add paint ball to a list of activies-including skateboarding, inline skating, freestyle bicycling-that can be allowed on publicly owned land. The legislation, which aims at preventing lawsuits associated with the sport, says that as long as the owner of the property specifically allows paint ball, the owner can't be held liable for the injuries that occur on the premises.
"You can't just open up on the side of the road somewhere," said Rep. Mitch Needelman, R-Melbourne, who is sponsoring the bill. "There have to be precautions, a referee and a controlled environment."
personal view: the state will soon be defining what a "controlled environment" for paintball is. good or bad?
who defines who is or is not a referee? staffing per player ratios? credentialling?
who handles the financial liability for an injured player due to negligence? how will this impact safety?
in my experience lately, i have seen in one day, more people remove thier masks despite safety briefings/lectures, referee presence and repeated advisements/warings, same goes for barrel blockers, than i used to see in months back in paintballs infancy.
example: yesterday, we ran a total of 50 people. two private birthday party groups with children from age 10-14 with at elast two supervising adults as players and at least two referees per group, at times there were 3 refs depending on availability.
along with this, our open ballers numbered approx. 15 people at it's peak.
in the party's, i sat one kid for a game due to mask viloations and issued at least one warning in each of the 4-5 party private party games i worked, as well as at least one warning to "cover you're marker" as a kid was about to exit (walking right by our entry man, but thats another issue).
i also called 2 barrel blocker incicdents on kids in the staging area, and caught a kid looking down the chamber of his marker. the barrel was off and had a full hopper and attached co2 tank and a ball in the chamber.
this was just me, though i am one of the more agressive refs at my field. i rate this field an 8/10 on safety, mainly due to newer ref's and owners desire to have happy and not yelled at customers. i once got a negative review from a party and called "that crazy ref" because i called an adult (approx 6-4" and 300lbs at least) out as he was about to bunker a 12 year old kid. the kid dropped everything and ran, the adult had just bnkered another adult, taking two hits as he did it, and kept on moving towards this little kid. of course i yelled...*sheesh*...venting there....
my point is, what does the furture hold? am i over reacting?
time for point/counterpoint/opinions......
House Bill 699 would add paint ball to a list of activies-including skateboarding, inline skating, freestyle bicycling-that can be allowed on publicly owned land. The legislation, which aims at preventing lawsuits associated with the sport, says that as long as the owner of the property specifically allows paint ball, the owner can't be held liable for the injuries that occur on the premises.
"You can't just open up on the side of the road somewhere," said Rep. Mitch Needelman, R-Melbourne, who is sponsoring the bill. "There have to be precautions, a referee and a controlled environment."
personal view: the state will soon be defining what a "controlled environment" for paintball is. good or bad?
who defines who is or is not a referee? staffing per player ratios? credentialling?
who handles the financial liability for an injured player due to negligence? how will this impact safety?
in my experience lately, i have seen in one day, more people remove thier masks despite safety briefings/lectures, referee presence and repeated advisements/warings, same goes for barrel blockers, than i used to see in months back in paintballs infancy.
example: yesterday, we ran a total of 50 people. two private birthday party groups with children from age 10-14 with at elast two supervising adults as players and at least two referees per group, at times there were 3 refs depending on availability.
along with this, our open ballers numbered approx. 15 people at it's peak.
in the party's, i sat one kid for a game due to mask viloations and issued at least one warning in each of the 4-5 party private party games i worked, as well as at least one warning to "cover you're marker" as a kid was about to exit (walking right by our entry man, but thats another issue).
i also called 2 barrel blocker incicdents on kids in the staging area, and caught a kid looking down the chamber of his marker. the barrel was off and had a full hopper and attached co2 tank and a ball in the chamber.
this was just me, though i am one of the more agressive refs at my field. i rate this field an 8/10 on safety, mainly due to newer ref's and owners desire to have happy and not yelled at customers. i once got a negative review from a party and called "that crazy ref" because i called an adult (approx 6-4" and 300lbs at least) out as he was about to bunker a 12 year old kid. the kid dropped everything and ran, the adult had just bnkered another adult, taking two hits as he did it, and kept on moving towards this little kid. of course i yelled...*sheesh*...venting there....
my point is, what does the furture hold? am i over reacting?
time for point/counterpoint/opinions......