Colorado Springs’ Best Kept Secrets: AllStar Paintball

David Copeland, the 25-year-old owner of AllStar Paintball, shifted on his crutches. "I crashed my sports bike," he said, chuckling. "I've never crashed one of my sports bikes."

With a shattered fibula and tibia, Copeland is still up and about, running his indoor paintball field – the largest of its type in the Colorado Springs area.

AllStar Paintball opened in July of this past year. According to Copeland, there was a fight to open it – there were regulatory problems that delayed its opening. Now that that is done, though, he can focus on running his field.

Copeland also owns a professional team, the Colorado AllStar Paintball team. Despite only having been formed in July, the team took second place recently in the National Professional Paintball League championship in Las Vegas.

Paintball games come in two forms: woodsball and speedball. Woodsball is what most people think of when they hear paintball – a scenario game out in the woods.

Speedball is the indoor version. Copeland said, "The main difference is that speedball games take about 10 minutes, max." According to Copeland, a typical game of woodsball can last up to 20 minutes.

Each game of speedball is five versus five. The games are meant to go as fast as possible. Copeland said, "My refs are really good about always bringing people on."

AllStar Paintball uses an entire warehouse for its field, which measures 100 ft. by 150 ft. The field is covered with "bunkers," inflated plastic obstructions used for hiding.

The store offers several different options for playing. They have group rates in case you want to get some friends together and go play.

Copeland also accepts walk-on players, provided there is space for them. According to Copeland, he'll have space for walk-ons about 50 percent of the time.

AllStar Paintball provides all of the gear that players need, which includes the paintball gun, or "marker," all of the safety gear and the paint. The rental price is included in the group rate.

Each play session is three hours long, and Copeland starts out everyone with 200 paintball rounds. "Some people will be out there three minutes and be like ‘I'm out already,'" he said.

"Other people will play for three hours and still have 50 rounds left." The store does sell additional paint if players run out.

According to Copeland, the average speed of fire during games is about one shot per second and can get up to 15 shots per second. The store goes through about 140,000 paintball rounds every week.

Despite its young age, the store is thriving. "We even have some college kids that come in here," said Copeland. "They sit here and do homework [between games]."

The Lowdown

What:

AllStar Paintball

When:

Wednesday - Friday:

noon - 6 p.m.

Saturday - Sunday:

10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Where:

400 S. Sierra Madre St.

How much:

Groups of 10 or more: $25

Walk-ons: $29.95

Extra paint:

starts at $11.99