[frankdatank]

another tournament is just days away, and thousands of people are going to huntington beach to attend (and/or play)the first USPL event. players will show up on thursday before the event to walk fields, and spectators will be there all weekend taking in the paintball atmosphere. but how many people know what goes on behind the scenes of setting up a national-level tournament event?

i am presenting a day-to-day journal of what is involved in setup for the first USPL event on the beach, and also a little bit of informational stuff. enjoy!

day one-monday

not much to do. the tent people have set up the pit tents, and the bleacher people are assembling the grandstands. the event location is directly south of the pier, just beyond the last volleyball pit.



the pits are located directly adjacent to the fields, allowing you to watch games from the pit. no more being late to the field!



ocean view from the pit



turf in the pit




day two-tuesday

this day started early. 6am+unrolling turf=not happy.



these rolls of turf weigh hundreds of pounds each, and we need to forklift the rolls into position.



it takes several people to unroll each individual roll.



notice the two 'supervisors' on the far right lol. those huge clamps they are holding are used to pull and align the turf once it has been unrolled. for huntington beach, this process of unrolling turf will have to be repeated about 75 times total for all fields.

once the turf has been unrolled, it looks like a jumbled mess. we use those huge clamps to tug and pull the turf into alignment. notice the difference?

before:



after:



after a few hours, turf has been unrolled, smoothed out, and aligned on two fields.



bonus points if you can spot the secret meeting with chuck hendsch, chris raehl, and camille lemanski!


trade show-this year, the trade show will be on the sand, right behind the bleachers for center court. there are 3 big trailers (BL, CP, and Spyder) that, for some reason, do not like rolling on sand. so in order to position them, we have to set(and continually reset) 100 pieces of 4'x8' plywood to form a makeshift road on top of the sand.





plans for day 3:

netting, poles for netting, and bunkers. all in one day! i will also have pics of the new 'U' bunker for those who havent seen it

check back for updates, i will continue up until thursday afternoon (field walking) and resume sunday evening (teardown).

[Dustinkwon]

dude awesome documentary frank....

every1 see's the amazing things happening on the day of the events but its awesome seeing the things that happen before it....=D

thx for the pics!...=D

[TzeentchianGod]

I thought you planted magical beans in the ground and watered them and the event grew itself...

[kwag]

good stuff.

Trade show on the beach though...eh. We will see how that goes. Cant wait!

[Nolan 310]

nice... franky, laying out turf is a ***** especially on sand

[immortal_baller28]

Awsome!

[pntball_dude1990]

for bonus points i concur that the secret meeting is going on at the bottom of the grandstands, opposite side of the picture taker.
i will gladly accept bonus points in the form of USD, prostitutes, or an ego9

[Rpfusa1]

I thought they were either on the far field near the pits OR on the bottom row of the bleachers.

Do I get bonus points for seeing a girl in a bikini diving so you can see between her legs

[frankdatank]

Originally Posted by pntball_dude1990

for bonus points i concur that the secret meeting is going on at the bottom of the grandstands, opposite side of the picture taker.

winner winner chicken dinner!

i will gladly accept bonus points in the form of USD, prostitutes, or an ego9

said bonus points have no physical or emotional value

[frankdatank]

Originally Posted by Rpfusa1

Do I get bonus points for seeing a girl in a bikini diving so you can see between her legs

lol, coincidental timing...

you and the 3 guys at bottom left are looking at the same thing

EDIT

on second look, she is doing a scorpion dive!

[pntball_dude1990]

Originally Posted by frankdatank

winner winner chicken dinner!



said bonus points have no physical or emotional value

atleast i still have my dignity.
wait.. no i lost that when i was pants'd at tampa '04...

[All-welted-up]

Nice to see...

[clee79]

Great Idea, keep the pic coming.
Living on the other side of the states, I can't attend the event, but I plan on watching the web cast.

[badboyz21]

awesome man...looks good.

[FatalKitty]

Sweat pictars!

ps - Chuck has to be the guy without his shirt on... just a guess

[hypnoticpimp]

lookin good. i cant wait to get my *** out of oklahoma for a while.

[painter4life05]

nice ghetto road

[scadreau]

Just 15 hours before I head out. I can't even focus on work today.

[pntball_dude1990]

you shouldnt. quit your job and bum around southern california and work for rounds and airfills

[frankdatank]

day 3: bunkers, nets, and poles

after all the turf is straightened out, it is time to put the bunkers on the field. if you look closely at the bunkers used on turf (all of 08 nppl, psp 08 NEO, and hb 09 USPL), they arent staked in. these new bunkers have a water bladder made inside the bunker, so it is not necessary to stake these bunkers in.

so first we unpack the bunkers from the packaging.



can you believe an entire field is packaged on 1 pallet from the factory? these bunkers will never get folded that small again.

we unpack the bunkers and lay them out on the field to fill them with water and air.




i use measuring tapes to position the bunkers exactly. my tolerances are +/- 1/4" for positioning the bunkers (i am extremely anal about precise placement of the bunkers)



after a couple hours, we end up with a completed field.





pictures of the U



who can name the person inside the U?





poles and netting


poles are assembled by hand before standing them up. these poles fold completely flat for storage, and we bolt them back together once we arrive at the event.



wires are strung across the field and connect to the tops of the poles, making an overhead grid of wire



netting is unrolled and placed around the perimeter of the field



we have to use a lift to bring the netting to the wires and connect the netting to the wires using clips.



tradeshow area-worried about walking through the sand at the event? no worries, the tent people have constructed a walkway that goes around the entire tradeshow area:




we did not finish all of the fields today, so it is another early day for us tomorrow. we have to finish by the time everyone shows up for field walking!

more updates tomorrow

[TommyDiablo]

Dammit! I wish I was there