PaintballX3 Magazine August 2014 Issue | Page 53

53 Michael Whybrew Michael Whybrew is Australian paintball. He’s the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning and the end Down Under. Michael has done it all and continues to. His brands include Action Paintball Games, Super 7s Tournament Series, Killer Paintballs (his new brand of balls), Sydney Swat, as well as his stores and fields. If it’s happening in Australia, he’s involved. Ritchie White The first multi-player game of paintball was played in the New Hampshire woods in June of 1981 and Ritchie White beat out his 11 opponents, captured all of the flags and won the first recorded game of paintball. Lane Wright After a rise through the ranks in the heyday of tenman amateur and professional woodsball that saw Lane Wright, one of the fastest people to ever play professional paintball, become a top player on teams like Xtreme, Image and Ground Zero, he took on what might be the most stressful job in paintball; running the PSP professional tournament series. As the man in charge of the PSP since its split with the NPPL, Lane shouldered the burden of captaining the PSP ship through all sorts of rough weather, from day-today operations and the promotion of its events through numerous format and rule changes to being answerable to the league’s ownership on one end, and its players on the other. A thoroughly thankless and stress-ridden position, Lane has handled leadership of the PSP with a mix of southern logic and genuine regard for what is best for the long-term future of paintball, earning him the respect of those in the know. Dave Youngblood One of the earliest superstars of professional paintball, Dave Youngblood made his name by playing in a business suit and shooting flashy, shiny markers while everyone else was trying to hide in the woods. After a successful career with the legendary Ironmen, winning ten-man tournaments left and right, Youngblood created what would become one of the most successful and influential companies in paintball’s history, Dye. Youngblood still captains the ship at Dye and Proto, making wildly successful barrels like the Boomstick and Ultralite, trend-setting clothing, goggles, DM and NT paintball guns and the amazing Rotor loader, as well as flexing his muscles as one of the major voices behind the PSP professional paintball league. Sean Walker Michael Whybrew Ritchie White Lane Wright Dave Youngblood WWW.PAINTBALLX3.COM