Ever since his first game with his father on his 11th birthday, Ryan Fitzgerald has been passionate about paintball. After running a paintball field primarily for friends for a few years, he learned the Lower Mainland’s only indoor paintball field was opening up—Ryan immediately submitted an application to work there, subsequently becoming Richmond Indoor Paintball’s first employee back in 2010.
Over the years, Ryan worked his way up the ranks. He enjoyed being a part of the friendly team that proudly offers paintball newbies and hard-core fans alike a fully immersive Call Of Duty experience. “We just want to get kids out of the house. Everyone wants to sit at home and play video games, but coming here is like stepping onto the actual battlefield,” says Ryan. “You get twenty times more adrenaline than you would with a controller in your hand.”
In 2014, Ryan was presented with the opportunity to take ownership of the indoor paintball facility, which at the time faced closure. “The original plan was to close the business, but I didn’t want that to happen. We have a really big community here and our staff is very important,” says Ryan. “There is pretty much zero percent turnover and we’re all family here, so I just couldn’t let it happen.”
