LA HITMEN - SoCal’s Premiere Pump Paintball Team

by Linh Troung

I was lucky enough to catch up with the busy Leon for a short interview to gossip about his new field.

Q: So how did you get into paintball?

A: It started 30 years ago when I was a mechanic in New Zealand.  There was a guy who brought  a 007 Nelsplot into the shop. He invited people to a local paintball event.  He showed us his gun and shot it at a steel can, putting a dent into it.  I was thinking, “hell no, I’m not playing with that!” But everyone in the shop went to the event and if you didn’t go, you were considered a girl….so I went.  Boy, did I have fun.  I basically fell in love with Paintball after that.  So much that I ended up buying the field that the event was held at.

Q: Was that the only country you played paintball in?

A: Well, no, I moved to Australia and founded the Australian Paintball Association.  Keep in mind that paintball was illegal so we had to keep everything underground.  Secret meetings, heck, we were like renegades, the mobsters of paintball.  I did travel to the U.S. for business, which I also took time to play paintball at S.C. Village.  Because playing in the U.S was so nice, I moved to the U.S. I was able to take over Lion’s Den (paintball field in Escondido) because they hadn’t paid rent for years.  I fixed up the field and made it better.  But in the end, a casino bought the land and I had to move out.

I searched around and then found Tombstone Paintball Park which I had made after the movie Tombstone. I had good years with the field until I ran into some bad luck.  We were forced to move out due to eminent domain regarding the dam.

Q: What about this new Tombstone field?  What makes this one special from other fields?

A: When I built this field, I want it to be just like Tombstone, but better and bigger, heck 3 times bigger.  It’s easy to spot being only 2 miles from a major freeway.  We provide both airsoft and paintball play. We have a variety of rentals from semi-auto spyders, 50 cal markers to 43 cal pistols. We have indoor and outdoor flushing bathrooms, lockers, waiting lounges, and hot food (truck).

Q: Tell us about the fields and their layouts?

A: Well, there are 2 town fields, a trench field, the largest hyperball field ever built, it’s 300 x 100 feet. We have 2 airball fields, an X-ball field by Apex and a spyder cup 7-man field by Kingman.  I’m also working on a field that will be up in 2 months, “The Ports of Longbeach” which consists of 300 large containers.

Q: What makes you really happy?
A: I’m happy to come back into the paintball world and am surprised by the support of  the vendors, sponsors and players.
Well there we have it, a happy Leon with a new field which will make a lot of players very happy.  Stay tune for updates when I get to test out these sweet fields.
-Linh

To visit the Tombstone Website click here!

To visit the Tombstone MySpace page click here!

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