The Paintball Kings

DYE Travel Blog: Pete “Mr.U” Utschig CSP Equador 2011

Often I hear how lucky I am to be a pro player and get to travel the world go to cool places and meet all kinds of people. I do realize how lucky I am but there is always a place or an event that really emphasizes it. Last month I was able to live out one of my life long dreams and travel to the Galapagos Islands, the best sponsor any paintball player could ask for, DYE and my South American teammates Zurikatas made all possible. Since the islands are located in Ecuador the country where the CSP was being held. I called up my buddy Tony Perez, who was playing in the event with the team Wild Dogs Columbia, we set up a 3-day man venture.

First stop was Quinto the biggest city in Ecuador and then we were headed off to a real life version of Jurassic park. We were greeted at the airport by Andres a friend and paintball dealer of the Zurikatas guys. We were treated like kings and got to see the Island through the eyes of a local. The Island was alive from the moment we stepped on the ferry.  Sea Loins lounged around the docks as if they were part of the population, giants sea turtles swam up next to our boats to just check us out what we were up too. All kinds of birds, giant swimming lizards and big sharks, yes sharks were just an arms length away, and sometimes closer. Since swimming with sharks is something I would never ever do at home in NYC (because I am scared) Tony decided it was on top priority to do in Galapagos, and boy did we find the sharks. We rented a boat and hired a captain for a snorkeling tour, added in some breath taking Tortuga Bay beach hiking, and even some underwater cave diving to round up the three days of adventure. But as all good things eventually have to come to an end it was back to business as we flew up to Quinto where we held a clinic for 30 players at the site of the event. The clinic ran great with Tony taking time to talk at the press conferences setup by the organizer Isreal Hildalgo. All the players were eager to learn, as I have found from last trip to South America they picked up all the drills and skills extremely quick. At the end of the clinic all the participants were recognized for their hard work with a certificate and autograph session with the pros.

The venue for the event was a paintball players dream; it was 2 minutes walk from Ecuador’s most prestigous mall. The Organizers of the event went out of their way to make sure paintball was being brought to the media.

Interview with Juan Bermudez (the Paintball App King) of KillTech ...

68Caliber: So Juan, you’ve started up Killtech Software and are developing mobile device apps related to paintball.

What’s your background in programming/app development?

Juan Bermudez: I started as a Flash Developer for Digital Marketing agencies, first in Venezuela and then in the US when I came back.  At the agency I have worked with for the past 3 years I have taken upon R&D of new technologies we want to use to help our clients. So part of my job is to constantly learn new tools and some of them have led to experience in Facebook App Development, AIR Apps ( MAC/PC ) and Mobile Development( Iphone & Android), I also have experience with Flash Based games, Augmented Reality, Facial Recognition and other very nerdy stuff.

68: What’s your background in paintball?

JB: I Started playing with my brothers in Venezuela back in 2002, paintball down there had a lot of catching up to do. After a year of fooling around I got very involved with the development of the sport.

I was 18 and I was working with the Venezuela Paintball association  ( AVP) organizing  National Events, I believed firmly in paintball as a legitimated sport and practiced it as one.

From 2004 up to now, I have played events  in the South American Paintball  Circuit, Millenium Series and PSP. Now that I live in the US  I get to see the big difference, and how hard it is to compete at higher divisions.

I currently play with Venezuelans that live in South Florida and every time we can we take the trip to Play Fierce/TBD Fierce, our goal is to put Venezuela on the radar mixing our home team with some of our players from the Miami lineup.

68: So how did KillTech get started and who’s your team?

JB: I am the Founder and Lead Dev at Killtech, I have 3 other people that  have input at different stages and really help keep quality up.

Julien Tauban ( www.tauban.com ) and Audel Alvarez have been working for years in the field of Interactive with clients like Boeing, Sony Ericssson, Ford, HBO, Sony Electronics, MTV, Mercedes Benz, Uniliver to name a few. They check the app’s  UI and Design and make sure we deliver a professional looking product.

Santiago Obando is one  of my coworkers graduated from UF in computer Science and then attended the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale for Interactive Media. In the more complex developments he gets in to the grind, he also has experience with Java/PHP so I rely on him a lot for the ports and server side development.

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