Good Evening Buffalo Paintball Fans, tonight we're proud to introduce you to Kaine Schnagl. Kaine is originally from Pillager, Minnesota however he's currently stationed in Port Hueneme, California.
Kaine started playing paintball at 4 years old!!! That's right we said 4, not 14. His dad would have him up in a tower and his dad's buddies would run around trying to avoid the paint. So yeah, technically Kaine has been playing for 21 years even though he's only 25 years old. He's also been competing for the last three years. His first event was when he was 12 years old, he went to a big game in Wisconsin with his dad and his dad's friends.
While stationed on the west coast Kaine is happy to call Ambush Paintball Park in Moorepark California his home field. He's also played a bunch of the southern Cali fields including Victory paintball park, ASG, jungle Island, SC village, Stryker and combat paintball park. He's also played in Okinowa, Japan on the navy base. Outside of the "trip" to Japan the farthest Kaine has traveled was 6 hours to NXL Vegas from California (don't worry, Minnesotans are like Canadians and measure all long-distance drives in time not actual distance).
Kaine says his favorite part about paintball is the comradery, everyone is close and tight knit. He says "We will get into our bickering on the field but once we are off the field it's like nothing ever happend". He says it's also an amazing way to handle stress and I couldn't agree more. Kaines favorite marker to use is his planet eclipse cs2, since buying it new in 2018 he says the only thing he's has to do is replace a few o-rings.
For Kaine paintball is family, and rightfully so his favorite memories are from growing up with dad reaching him how to play. Even to this day Kaine says "whenever I play in a tournament I call him and tell him what's going on or to have him yell at me and tell me get my head back into the game", those are the moments that matter.
The first year Kaine played competitive he focused on the snake side. After that he started moving around and now he'll play every position depending on what we need for a match. In 2019 he placed 1st in 2 Wcppl events and we won the series title. He says they also won 1st place in the almost famous paintball league where again took a series title. In 2020 we played NXL Vegas and took 14th, he says "it was bad tournament for us" but sometimes the greatest lessons come from losses.
Kaines advice for new players is "Don't be afraid to ask people for help" Sure, some of us look intimidating or hard-core but we are all here to help and give advice and we all started out in backyards or at birthday parties. For the slightly more experienced players considering playing some competitive speedball "when you're at the field be at the field don't be lolly gagging on the side line because every second you waste is another second someone else is using to get better".
Keep up the great work on and off the field Kaine, and safe seas brother.
~Eli Gallibois - PFOSA Founder | Buffalo Paintball
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