I’m Jeff Bernheisel, Founder of NW Woodsball and the notorious “Jbern” of Portland Oregon’s OK Company Paintball Community.
I started NW Woodsball to help showcase paintball (and more specifically, woodsball) in the Pacific Northwest. Along with a collection of my personal thoughts and ramblings, I generally discuss related area events, new equipment, and other paintball related topics.
My paintball “career” started one day after I was recruited as fodder for a corporate indoor paintball event. They needed an extra player to keep the teams even. I instantly became hooked on the sport. While I wasn’t really fond of the indoor environment, I quickly realized how much fun something like this could be if played with friends out in the forests that surround Portland, OR. So, I began to gather a small group of friends on the weekends, playing on a chunk of one of their properties. It was a small area, maybe 1 acre total, but it was perfect for the 4-6 of us to play on.
Then one day my life in the paintball world was changed forever. I was on Craigslist looking for good deals on gear, when I ran across an ad for a local paintball “community” called OK Company, that was looking for new people to come out and play with them. According to the ad, it was also just a small group of friends who gather on private property to play every weekend. Sounds like my kind of people! So, since I was looking to get more active in the sport, I figured I’d respond and see what these guys were all about.
The minute I hit the field and started meeting the members of OK Company, I realized these guys were different than any other paintballers I had met previously at the local public fields. I wasn’t exactly sure how, but it became apparent very soon. These guys were some of the most honorable players I had ever seen. They played with no referees, called themselves out when hit, and were some of the safest players I had ever come across. Definitely my kind of people! I instantly felt welcome into the group, and within a few visits to the field they welcomed me as an official member of the community.
OK Company is not really a paintball “team” in the normal sense. We have no set ranking system. No practices. We’re just a group of guys that likes to play paintball. We hold small (20ish players) weekly games at our field and every few months we hold large (60ish players) scenario events. We regularly participate in large events at local fields throughout the Nortwest. Events like the Black Hawk Down games, TAW Events, and Supergames.
When we hold games at our private field, they are free. Invite only, 21 and over. BYOP/BYOA. All we ask is for a can or two of food that we can donate in the name of the community. At any given time we have several hundred pounds of food that we deliver to charitable organizations that can distribute the food out to the less fortunate. Some of our larger games we have gathered items and even $$ donations to send to the troops overseas (through a legit organization of course).
Outside of paintball, we regularly gather for drinks and to “shoot the shit” whenever we need to escape from our daily lives. We have a pretty broad range of people in the community: 21-60 years old, students, firefighters, police, execs from companies like Intel, Nike etc. Paintball is the one thing that can bring us all together and we’re thankful to have a great place to play along with some of the best and most honorable players in the Pacific NW.
If you ever have questions, suggestions, or just want to connect, feel free to get in touch with me. You can email me, or hit me up on twitter.
Thanks for stopping by,
Jbern