I can’t help you, but I’d suggest finding an online forum for paintballers, and asking there. You might also try finding a local paint ball club, who might be more than happy to give you a tour, talk about their operations, and connect you with their most active members.
(Replace “paint ball” with “Activity X,” and this approach works for just about any legal business, profession, or hobby you can name. With very few exceptions, people will talk your ear off about both the things they love and the things they hate.)
Katherine
Thanks for your response Katherine. I’m not sure I want to call up someone and ask the questions I have in mind. I’ve already sent a few emails, hopefully they don’t think I’m some sort of weirdo. And now that you mentioned it, I like the idea of a tour. Will try in a few months when babies are more manageable, but in the meantime Hubby has been given strict instructions to attend a paintball event first opportunity he gets. Poor thing, he’s so unfit, he’ll probably be a sitting duck for all the other players to shoot at.
druid - I know what google is and I’ve visited forums. I should have also said, I’m interested in the opinions of a fellow writer who is a paintball enthusiast, if one exist.
I haven’t tried with paintball specifically, and obviously I don’t know what questions you have in mind, but in my experience most people think it’s cool for someone to want to write about their interests. Even if you plan to portray the sport (or some participants) in a less than flattering light.
Katherine
I do understand what you’re trying to say Kewms, I just needed to get over the shyness. Telling people I’m writing a novel still makes me cringe. Anyway, I’ve decided hero needs a real rifle for the job after all, so going down another path. Sorry to waste anyone’s time, please ignore post.
Cheers,
Linny
PS. I really should have use ‘enthusiasts’ rather than ‘addicts’ in subject header. So sorry, I was tired. 
I would love to participate in the paintball competition
I played semi-pro from 1998 to 2001. Spent every weekend at team practice and during the season we would travel to a tournament one weekend a month, Thursday night to Sunday night, somewhere in America- Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Chicago, LA, Texas, Atlanta.
That was when MSPA did 5 and 7-man team tournaments and NPPL did 10-man, I played in both.
I was at the Paintball World Cup in Orlando in 2000, that felt like the peak of everything for me and I left during the season of 2001 as I was burned out.
I haven’t touched a paintball gun since then. I joined the army a few years later and I got out in 2012. I’ve heard it’s changed a lot, competitive paintball that is.
There was a pretty cool paintball magazine out back then that was called P8nt if I remember correctly, they had a nice vibe going on, lots of black and white photography and a very extreme sports feel that fit in with the late 90’s.
I could put you in touch with people that still play at the semi-pro level. They still have day jobs, but have sponsorship’s and the league they play in is the highest level of the sport, that part hasn’t changed much. It will never pay the best players because it’s a terrible spectator sport haha, it’s only fun for those playing.
The original post was from over eight years ago. No one is still going to be working on the same novel after all thi…
Nevermind.
Just @ me next time, bro. 
Scrivener for Windows. Helping people write a novel since 2011.
In my case, literally. 
I didn’t know people ate paint balls…