Nathan and Caleb Zdrodowski started P.O.W. Paintballing at a young age, and never saw it becoming much more than a small gathering of friends.
“Me and my brother started P.O.W. when I was in Grade 10, and he was in Grade 9,” Zdrodowski said. “We got our first slingshots and said, well this is fun maybe we should start a course. It was a spur the moment, just go with it idea.”
From there, Zdrodowski headed to the bank.
“I set up meetings with all of the banks in town and got my first loan,” he said.
The course is celebrating its tenth season, a milestone Zdrodowski described as “surreal.”
“It’s really cool seeing the support from local people and Alberta itself,” he said.
Looking back, Zdrodowski said the business started fairly small.
“We started in the basement in our house, made a small course on top of a hill and started inviting friends from school out, and put posters up in gas stations,” Zdrodowski said. “We are now at the point where we can handle groups of up to 60 people at the course, and we have rentals for up to 30 or 40 people.”
“It went from just paintballing once a month to every weekend; we are fairly full and booked up,” he added.
P.O.W. has also expanded its pro shop, which is run out of a modified sea can.
“It’s amazing, it’s really cool starting something, when you’re really just wanting to do something for fun, and just want people to paintball with, to see it to the point where people are coming from the city to come and check out the course and to come paintballing,” Zdrodowski said, adding the feedback they receive is nothing but positive.
“We’ve received amazing feedback on what we stock,” he said.
“We have a course that looks like a warehouse, so it’s a lot of close quarters and people love the adrenaline rush. It’s taking it to the next level, you get a good workout and you have even more fun than playing a video game.”
The course opened for the season later than expected this year, due to cold weather and a late snowfall, Zdrodowski said, adding another factor was the Canadian dollar, and how it affected larger courses paintball purchases.
“All of the big courses ordered all of the paint in Canada,” he said.
This year they have planned on expanding the course.
“For this season, we are hoping to see another course expand, we are hoping to take it up to four or five courses this year,” Zdrodowski said, adding they are also planning on bringing more people to the course. “Last year we had 500 people out, and this year we want to get up to 750 people out.”
Zdrodowski said when visiting the course people should have one main thing in mind.
“It’s all about having fun here,” he said. “If you come out with a group, you are guaranteed to have a blast, and play until you’re done, and you don’t have to worry about the next group coming and kicking you off.”
The course offers more than just a place to paintball with friends.
“We offer rentals, we offer bachelor parties, bachelorette parties, birthdays, and we also offer shooting galleries,” Zdrodowski said. “So for little kids, if they are too young to go paintballing, they can also come here and just shoot some paintballs at targets.”
P.O.W. also offers on-site paintballing.
“We will just bring out all of the gear and paint and you pay for what you use,” Zdrodowski said.
The course encourages youth to play, so long as they follow the rules.
“As long as the mask fits, and you get parental consent,” he said.
“The youngest kid we have had paintballing here I think was six and a half, and he was like Rambo.”
Zdrodowski said when the kids are young P.O.W. has a few recommendations.
“Usually when it’s small kids we recommend that it’s just families or small kids, and we turn down the guns so it doesn’t hurt as bad,” he said.
The course is open seven days a week from sunrise to sunset.
“As soon as it hits dusk, that’s when we have to shut it off until we get some lights,” Zdrodowski said. “Which we are hoping to get night games going here by the end of the summer.”
Picking a name was easy, but there might not be as much behind it as people believe.
“We just liked P.O.W.,” Zdrodowski said when asked what P.O.W stands for. “We’ve never came up with something, we just let people imagine what it could be.”
For those interested in finding out more or booking a time, contact Nathan Zdrodowski through the P.O.W. Facebook page, or by calling 780-283-1809.
