What do you get for reffing?

[punkncat]

Just curious for those of you that work at pay fields.

What do you get for reffing?

How long are you required to ref in hours?

[REDRT]

I normally got a hard time and a few paintballs to boot. At one time it was part of a deal my former team had with the owner. Ref and help out for discounts on paint.

[arsonpaintball06]

i think alot of places, at least around here, pay minimum wage...could be wrong

[StygShore]

old timer

Decent Hourly Cash plus major discounts for being a regular ref since 1991. Usually work 8am - around 4pm-6pm plus an hour drive there and back = 10-12 hour day

...and a hard time from the owner

...and meet a lot of good friends


Styg

[Chronobreak]

meeting players and people in the know is a major plus


great hourly wage, discounts on paint(half off) free entry, free air etc

alot of fields pay cheaply, and or pay in paint and it SHOWS in the reffing btwn the fields that do and dont do that. also the age of a ref plays a large part.

16 year old refs that ref b-day parties arent gonna make as much as somone that is 20+ and does OP or large corporate groups etc

hours vary from 4-13 a day for 2-5 days a week

[sisco87]

The field i worked at was rite in the middle of adding a store, so it was pretty layed back.
I got payed in paintballs. Not as bad as it sounds though.
I think it was about 200 an hour. But i did get free admission, air, etc. So i basically played for free when i was able to.
Overall i loved it. Got to be around the sport more, met people, and learned a lot.

[jenarelJAM]

When I was a ref, It was a very casual job. to become a ref, you would play a day of paintball, and at the end, ask about reffing. He would invite you to try it out sometime(assuming you knew how to play, what the rules were, etc.), kinda for a trial. You would email him, scheduling a day you could work, and if you were lucky, he would email you back, asking you to show up at 7:00 AM.
It was a woodsball field, and so you would spend the first couple hours before people got there, putting barrels on spyders, attaching hoppers securely, stacking masks, bagging garbage cans, etc. When people started to arrive, you would either continue with your tasks, or begin collecting money. When the day started you would chrono the walk-ons(rentals were preset, so we weren't supposed to chrono them, which is stupid) and walk out to our preset positions over the field. It was on the side of a hill, with lots of brush, so there was a lot of movement, following the groups of players where they decided to go. It was a lot of ground to cover. This would be the norm for the 4 games or so before lunch. Then people would line up for hotdogs and sodas. At the end of lunch, as with between games, we would fill co2 and hpa tanks from canisters, tech broken rentals, etc, before chronoing and reffing. At the end of the day(3:30), as people would begin packing up and dribbling out, we would bag the trash, bag the masks to be washed, line up the rentals, and generally clean up the staging area.
For this 8 1/2 hour job, we would be given free admission(as long as it was cleared ahead of time via email) worth $20, free case of paint(as long as it was cleared ahead of time via email) worth around $40, and free air fills worth around $5. I regarded this as an excellent deal. Unfortunately a couple factors put me off:
#1 My dad was trying to get me to stop wasting my time reffing paintball, and to work for him instead. He would pay me more than the worth of what I would recieve reffing, and it would be cash that could be spent anywhere.
#2 It was extremely hard to get in touch with the field owner to schedule reffing days. I would ask to schedule a reffing day, offering several days spread out from the next two weeks to the next month, and he would either already have refs for those days, or frequently forget you would ref and overbook the position.
#3 I found after a few days of play, that although the field was a great place to work and play, I didn't like woodsball as much as speedball, and although he would allow me to take a case of paint to another field, it dropped the benefits from $65 to $40. Seeing as I could make around $80 a day for my dad, this is what finally decided me to quit my job(not really quit so much as stop volunteering), and play paintball at other fields around the area.
Hoped this helped, it wasn't exactly what you asked for, but once I started writing it, I decided to explain my whole experience.

EDIT* by the way, the field was Venture Games Paintball in Clayton, CA. If anyone is looking for a reffing job in that area, I would suggest you go there and ask him about it. In the 8 or so times I worked there, I noticed many new refs, newer than me. He doesn't keep the idiots around, hes constantly searching for good refs.

[Chronobreak]

The field i worked at was rite in the middle of adding a store, so it was pretty layed back.
I got payed in paintballs. Not as bad as it sounds though.
I think it was about 200 an hour. But i did get free admission, air, etc. So i basically played for free when i was able to.
Overall i loved it. Got to be around the sport more, met people, and learned a lot.

thats what im talking about..LOL

8hrs ad all you get is 1600 paintballs?....oooowwwwwchhhh

10hrs for a case....that they sell for $60+ probly and cost them...$40 or less

so your making like $3.50 or less an HR.....wow

[master_alexander]

not enough. thats why i dont do it all the time.

35 in about an 11 hour day

but i do get in for basically free when i play and a case of good paint for 30..

[topazpaintball]

I have a friend that wants to ref at a local field. Too bad its 45 min away \

I think they pay slightly above minimum wage, and let you play around when nobodies there (which is most of the time)

I myself lifeguard for like 2x minimum wage. Not to mention babe-scouting

[UTDragun]

I am a PTI certified ref, and at my first job, I was supposed to be sponosred and get all the gear I needed, since I was working 50+ hours a week, but in the end I only got a proto, armpads and some orings. If I had been making minimum wage, I would have made $4,967.38 after taxes

[Halliday]

Work 9 to 6.
Get $$ and paint

[Aggravated Assault]

The field I ref at pays in paint also. When I started there years ago, it seemed a good way to play for free...

Same as most others, we get there about 8am and leave around 4 or 5pm after cleaning guns and the place up. I think it's a case per reffing day now, never pay green fee, or for hpa/co2. For those of us of age, the beer is always ICE cold at the end of the day too... Bonus.
And the owners, well, they don't come any better. Some of the staff have been there for 10yrs plus. People just seem to hang around this place.

I ref because I like being around paintball, meeting cool people, and hanging around with my paintball friends. I think you gotta at least kinda like reffin, cause even at the best paying fields, I would think its hard to justify the time vs. payola. If I didn't like reffin, the field, the people, etc...I'd don't think I'd do it anymore.


BTW, if you're for kick-arse woodsball in central Illinois, give Action Games Inc. a try.
I know it's a shameless plug, but what the heck.

[Dryden]

A lot of welts.

... and a t-shirt.