On the mark

Mike Sciacca

Brian Cole has played paintball all over the world, but there was

something special, he said, about being able to perform on the

familiar sands of Surf City last weekend.

“I’ve played in a lot of parts of the world but this is exciting,”

Cole, 19, said of the inaugural event of the 2003 Paintball Super 7

World Series, an extreme sports festival, held at the pier.

The Huntington Beach site launched the tour’s 2003 season that

will take the World Series to Las Vegas, New York, Chicago, England,

France and finally, Miami.

Cole, who graduated from Corona del Mar High School last spring,

was one of the few local players among the 91 teams that competed in

the event which, some locals estimated, drew in excess of 40,000

spectators over a three-day period.

“To be able to play on a beach that I am familiar with, and in

front of my family and friends, well, that’s pretty cool,” said Cole

who now lives in San Diego and shares a house with seven of his Team

Dynasty teammates.

Team Dynasty, last year’s National Paintball League Professional

Division champion and European champion, came into the event as the

team to beat, and emerged victorious.

Team Dynasty finished the event with 214 points to finish well

ahead of the Ton Tons, a French team and rival that placed second in

the professional division with 108 points.

The third-place Naughty Dogs, and Bushwackers International in

fourth, rounded out the division’s top four teams.

Dynasty’s win garnered $20,000 for the team, which will be split

nine-ways.

“It’s was a perfect weekend, and it’s awesome to end it with the

big prize,” said Cole.

With a huge throng of people funneling throughout the site over

the weekend, many curious to see a new event taking place in

Huntington Beach, and the weather sunny and mild in early February,

Chuck Hendsch, president of the National Professional Paintball

League, was pleased with the weekend’s outcome.

“I thought it was a huge success,” he said. “We couldn’t have

asked for more: the weather was perfect, we had tremendous help from

the city and the spectators seemed to enjoy everything. We really,

really appreciate the support we received from the city. Everybody

went above and beyond the call of duty to make this thing a success.”

Preliminary figures indicate that with 91 teams in town for the

event, players put nearly $350,000 into the local economy by

patronizing hotels, entertainment establishments and restaurants,

Hendsch said.

“When our sponsors got into town, those numbers rose even more,”

he said.

By Tuesday, when the sunshine had disappeared and rains came,

Hendsch was still basking in the glow of what he deemed a successful

weekend as he and several crew members tore down the remnants of the

playing arenas, cleaning up whatever paint marks remained on the

sand.

“We will leave this beach exactly the way we found it,” said

Hendsch, who recently set up the league’s worldwide headquarters on

Main Street. “We had such a great time here at the pier and I’d love

to see the series come back to Huntington Beach next year.”

* MIKE SCIACCA covers sports and features. He can be reached at

(714) 965-7171 or by e-mail at michael.sciacca@latimes.com.