Grey Ops Speedball Gear Trade-In Program

Well I don't know about the rest of my fellow Canadians, but Ottawa is looking pretty crappy today. In the past hour I've walked throw snow, rain, freezing rain, and hail. So why not get yourself a comfy Grey Ops fleece hat? Fo' free!

But of course, there's a caveat. Because of the ads Grey Ops has on the main page, I sometimes have some money to waste (because I still put everything I gain from ads back into the blog/you guys) and in this case I am actually giving the hats away for free. But only to the first 5 Canadians that do the following...

Featured Field - Marked Paintball

Here at Grey Ops, we try not to make a habit of reviewing individual Paintball fields. Of course if we review or report on a specific Paintball event, naturally we'll take a quick look at the field it's held at, and feature that in the review.

Another exception is if the field itself is exceptional. In a world of pallet bunkers, trees, blue coveralls, and rental 98s, it's refreshing to see something designed to be different and fun. Like if someone converts a mothballed military base into a Paintball facility, or designs a Paintball park around a historic scenario with real dedication to detail, it deserves to be featured here. But generally we'd rather not give free publicity to fields, which would lead to bitching and moaning from others who don't get featured (or get bad reviews). There's enough drama in the Paintball world as it is.

Another exception is when a field is active in supporting a good cause, or helps out in the community. As an example, we featured JT's Frontline Paintball last year when they hosted a charity event for cancer research. This time around, I'd like to review Marked Paintball, an Ottawa-area field that's very active in their community, and which we've only mentioned occasionally in passing on Grey Ops until now.

Shoot For A Cause 2011 in Smiths Falls

This Saturday, police officers and Canadian Forces members will be descending en masse on the town of Smiths Falls, Ontario with guns blazing...for a good cause! And Grey Ops will be there!

The third annual Shoot For A Cause competition takes place June 25th at the Smiths Falls Fish and Game Club, from 8am to 4pm. The $30-per-participant registration fees, and any additional funds raised by participating teams, go to benefit the Military Families Fund. This charity was set up by Canadian Forces General Rick Hillier in 2007, "to assist military families faced with unforeseen and often immediate needs that have resulted due to conditions of service."

A Nice Video From SAS' Scoundrel

2011 Relay-For-Life Paintball Tournament

As I discussed in a recent post, Paintball events held for charity are a good way to assist a good cause. If you're going to be playing Paintball anyway, why not spend your dollars where they'll do some good?

On that note, for those in the Ottawa area, the second annual Relay-For-Life Paintball Tournament will be held again at JT's Frontline Paintball on Saturday, May 7th, 2011. Last year's event was a blast, and if you can make it out this time around you'll be sure to have a lot of fun (and have a shot at winning some great prizes, including full marker kits).

Thank You from Grey Ops!!!

Today marks the official end of our fundraising campaign for Team in Training, part of The Grey Ops 10k Challenge. We hope you've enjoyed the giveaways to promote the campaign, and we hope you've learned a lot from the articles in the Paintball Fitness series to help you train for The Challenge and/or become a better Paintball player this season.

The results of the fundraising effort, considering the short time it was running, were FANTASTIC! Between reader donations and the SP8 marker eBay auction, a total of $512.50 was raised, and Patricia now stands just $77.00 short of her goal of raising $4000.00 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada (LLSC). To those who contributed, we at Grey Ops can't thank you enough for your help. If anyone else wants to help in the fight, donations are still being accepted at Patricia's Team in Training page up until Race Weekend here in Ottawa (May 28th & 29th).

But the results of the campaign go beyond just money raised.

Grey Ops 10k Challenge Giveaway Winners

The Grey Ops 10k Challenge giveaways to promote Team in Training's blood cancer fundraising effort have now wrapped up, and it's time to announce the winners! Without further ado, here they are:

Grey Ops 10k Challenge Gear Giveaway #8

As I explained in my recent post on The Grey Ops 10k Challenge, one aspect of The Challenge involves promotional giveaways of Paintball gear. Together, these giveaways and The Challenge aim to promote fitness for Paintball, increase awareness of blood cancers, and encourage donations to my fiancee Patricia's effort to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada (LLSC).


Today's (final) 10k Challenge gear giveaway features an OD Green Tiberius T8/T8.1 MOLLE Holster, from Action Gear Canada!

Mike Kicks Your Collective Asses

As you've seen over the past week, Grey Ops has featured articles on Paintball Fitness, as well as several giveaways to promote The Grey Ops 10k Challenge. We at Grey Ops are in full fundraising mode for blood cancer research, attempting to raise $600 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada, and trying to convince readers to run 5k or 10k for cancer awareness on May 28th. Our grand total so far, after 7 days of 10k Challenge-themed articles, and multiple giveaway posts drawing attention to the cause? A grand total of $25...

Grey Ops 10k Challenge Gear Giveaway #7

As I explained in my recent post on The Grey Ops 10k Challenge, one aspect of The Challenge involves promotional giveaways of Paintball gear. Together, these giveaways and The Challenge aim to promote fitness for Paintball, increase awareness of blood cancers, and encourage donations to my fiancee Patricia's effort to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada (LLSC).


Today's 10k Challenge gear giveaway features a pair of Damascus DTPK Low-Profile Tactical Knee Pad Inserts.

Grey Ops 10k Challenge Gear Giveaway #6

As I explained in my recent post on The Grey Ops 10k Challenge, one aspect of The Challenge involves promotional giveaways of Paintball gear. Together, these giveaways and The Challenge aim to promote fitness for Paintball, increase awareness of blood cancers, and encourage donations to my fiancee Patricia's effort to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada (LLSC).


Today's 10k Challenge gear giveaway features a Proto Switch Turbine Goggle Fan, designed to keep humidity and fog out of any Paintball mask in the Proto Switch line.

Grey Ops 10k Challenge Gear Giveaway #5

As I explained in my recent post on The Grey Ops 10k Challenge, one aspect of The Challenge involves promotional giveaways of Paintball gear. Together, these giveaways and The Challenge aim to promote fitness for Paintball, increase awareness of blood cancers, and encourage donations to my fiancee Patricia's effort to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada (LLSC).


Today's 10k Challenge gear giveaway features a Ranger MOLLE Vest in OD Green, from Action Gear Canada!

Grey Ops 10k Challenge Gear Giveaway #4

As I explained in my recent post on The Grey Ops 10k Challenge, one aspect of The Challenge involves promotional giveaways of Paintball gear. Together, these giveaways and The Challenge aim to promote fitness for Paintball, increase awareness of blood cancers, and encourage donations to my fiancee Patricia's effort to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada (LLSC).


Today's 10k Challenge gear giveaway features a brand-new in box Invert Reloader 2 electronic Paintball loader!

Grey Ops 10k Challenge Gear Giveaway #3

As I explained in my recent post on The Grey Ops 10k Challenge, one aspect of The Challenge involves promotional giveaways of Paintball gear. Together, these giveaways and The Challenge aim to promote fitness for Paintball, increase awareness of blood cancers, and encourage donations to my fiancee Patricia's effort to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada (LLSC).

Today's 10k Challenge gear giveaway features a pair of TRU-Spec BDU pants in black! This set is brand new without tags, with the inner tag showing the size as "Large Regular".

Grey Ops 10k Challenge Gear Giveaway #2

As I explained in my recent post on The Grey Ops 10k Challenge, one aspect of The Challenge involves promotional giveaways of Paintball gear. Together, these giveaways and The Challenge aim to promote fitness for Paintball, increase awareness of blood cancers, and encourage donations to my fiancee Patricia's effort to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada (LLSC).

Today's 10k Challenge Giveaway features a 3-piece accessory kit to trick out your Milsim marker! This kit includes:

1) A nylon rifle stock pouch, in black. Adjustable to fit any stock on the market, this zipper pouch is perfect for carrying Allen keys and other must-haves on the field. The outside features soft Velcro for attaching team patches, name badges, or interchangeable elastic holders (2 different holders included). Use these elastic holders to carry additional CO2 powerlets, Goblin shells, or Paintball tubes!

Grey Ops 10k Challenge Gear Giveaway #1

As I explained in my recent post on The Grey Ops 10k Challenge, one aspect of The Challenge involves promotional giveaways of Paintball gear. Together, these giveaways and The Challenge aim to promote fitness for Paintball, increase awareness of blood cancers, and encourage donations to my fiancee Patricia's effort to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada (LLSC).

Today's Grey Ops 10k Challenge Giveaway features a replica MultiCam Combat Shirt and Pants Set (Version 2) (brand new without tags). The combat shirt features removable elbow pads, and an Under Armour-style torso for keeping you cool while wearing a plate carrier or Paintball vest.

How to Double Your Chances of Winning

If you've checked out our recent post on The Grey Ops 10k Challenge, then you're probably stoked to win some of the free Paintball gear we'll be featuring in giveaways throughout this coming week. In that post, I also mentioned how donating $5.00 or more to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada (LLSC) for blood cancer research at my fiancee Patricia's fundraising page could DOUBLE your chances of winning in the giveaways! This post will explain how this system works.

More Giveaways, Curing Cancer, and the Grey Ops 10k Challenge!

Do you consider yourself a charitable person? Could you stand to get in better shape for the coming Paintball season? And do you like winning free Paintball gear? If you answered "YES" to all of the above, read on! Connor and myself are throwing down the challenge to our readers - The Grey Ops 10k Challenge, that is!

The idea of the Grey Ops 10k Challenge is this: We challenge all of our readers under 30 years of age to run 10km (about 6.2 miles, for our U.S. readers) on Saturday, May 28th! We challenge our readers 35 and over to run a lesser 5km/3.1 miles on that date (we understand the need to take it easy on the old-timers). In fact, on May 28th organized runs are taking place in cities all across North America, with the goal of raising money for cancer research and awareness. Why not take part in one of those in YOUR city, as part of the Challenge?

Connor and I will of course be running a 10k in Ottawa that day, putting rubber to the road! And while Connor's running because I blackmailed him with some pics of him drunk, my own motive is to support my fiancee Patricia. She's running a half-marathon on May 29th, all in the name of raising money for blood cancer research through an organization called Team in Training. Patricia's mother was diagnosed with a blood cancer called Multiple Myeloma in 2008, and managed to beat it into remission thanks to willpower, family support, and some high-tech treatments that cost a fortune to research and develop. Patricia's goal is to raise $4000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada (LLSC), so that they can continue this life-saving research into new treatments. She's at about the $3400 mark as I write this, and we'd like to enlist your help to get her that last little bit to her goal!


"But Mike!" you say. "You got my attention earlier when you said the magic words free Paintball gear. Now you're talking about me giving money away instead. What about the giveaways?"

Save Some Money, Support the Red Cross

Canadianpaintball.com had the awesome idea to combine a sale with portions of orders going to the Canadian Red Cross. This makes a huge amount of sense as people are more likely to buy during sales, so it drives lots of donations to an organization. In this case, the organization is awesome. The Red Cross has low administration fees (which makes that $1 a lot better better than giving significantly more to other organizations), and does some truly amazing humanitarian work. Now go get some cool gear for the upcoming season and feel good while doing it!

Ottawa Relay-For-Life Paintball Fundraiser Report

The Event

May 29th, 2010, the first Relay-For-Life paintball tournament was held at JT’s Frontline Paintball in West Ottawa. About 50 people got together for fun and charity, with a portion of the admission fee and paintball sales going towards cancer research.

The organizers and volunteers on-hand made everyone feel welcome, and made sure everyone had a great time.