So far, my field experience with Parks Canada has only really seen the use of my educational skillset — and specifically the myopic and bureaucratic aspect of that: my lesson planning.
However, today was special. As I was sitting in my closet, working away on the Dune Environmental Education Program, I overheard a couple of the Parks Canada staff discussing something very unexpected but very near and dear to my heart: paintball.
I know, I was also very confused. Well, the two people talking work in the Wildlife Conflict Management department, and if they have an aggressive black bear, or wolf, or even cougar — they will use non-lethal force, first. To do that, they use paintball guns.
Well, as I eavesdropped, I overheard one of them say “So what’s wrong with them? Why aren’t they shooting?”
I leapt up from my swivel chair, and opened the door to my closet, and leaned into their conversation:
“You guys need help with paintball guns?”
“Yeah, for some reason they’re not firing. Do you know about them, or something?”
“Yeah, I’ve been playing tournament level paintball for the past 5 years”
“Oh.”
So naturally they let me take a look:
The Tippmann 98 — the “AK-47” of the paintball world: one of the first mass produced semi-auto paintball guns, very reliable, easy to use, and used everywhere — by rental players and seasoned woodsballers alike.
Oh my, a 98. Not only could I take a look at this marker, I could find out what was wrong with it; I own one, myself. So I investigated, and pulled the gun apart, and cleaned the internals. As expected, everything in the 98 is AOK. The other gun, a Spyder, was not so fortunate; it had the usual problems associated with a Spyder: gas leaks. The Spyder was beyond my airsmithing capabilities, but the 98, through a process of elimination, I determined to be fully functional. The problem was with the gas source: most of the CO2 tanks were under-pressurized or just plain empty.
So I went with Jeff, one of the Wildlife Management guys, to see his brother who works at the Marine Supply Shop in Tofino. He re-filled the tanks, and we drove back. However, again, most of the tanks weren’t filled to the right charge, and the guns usually wouldn’t pressurize. Yet, one tank was pressurized well with CO2, and so the Tippmann worked fine.
I then even got to spend time actually TEACHING! I went over the components of the paintball gun, and how it works, and why they “weren’t working”. I even went online and printed off two products for the Wildlife Conflict Management team: fully charged and disposable CO2 canisters. If they took my suggestion and used these CO2 powerlets in the attached quick changer, they would never have air troubles in their guns, again.
It was a great experience not only to engage with one of my main passions, but to integrate it with my other passion — teaching — and help out the folks at Pacific Rim in ways outside what was expected of me.