Today we’d like to introduce you to Darryl and Denise Hazlitt.
Darryl and Denise, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Velocity Paintball started because we wanted to fill a need for the Paintball community in San Diego. In 1994 none of the shops seemed to keep regular hours and none were open 7 days a week. Our Mission has always been to be available every day of the week. We pride ourselves on being the place everyone comes to for service or knowledge, whether it’s about rules, repairs or knowing when to hydrotest a tank.
We opened Velocity Paintball Park in 2000. The Park is located on 40 wooded acres in Ramona and caters to all levels of play and focuses primarily on the new player while offering a variety of game play on varying terrain.
Today we specialize in the Velocity Birthday Experience for kids ages 7 to 12. We have Low Impact Paintball Markers and gear for kids. The paintballs are smaller and the equipment is lightweight. This option is also available for walk-in players. We still offer regular paintball to Private Groups 7 days a week, as well as walk-in play on Saturdays and Sundays.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
When you are in business for 23 plus years the road has some bumps. To be honest, like other extreme sports or hobbies Velocity Paintball relies on the expendable income of its’ customers.
When the economic downturn happened, we probably were more in tune to the economic climate than most. We started to feel things as early as 2005. People were playing and purchasing less.
We have had to adapt to the many changes not only in our industry but also with the people who try paintball and play it for the first time and what their expectations are. Velocity Paintball is the only Paintball Store in San Diego to survive the economic collapse of 2008. We have had to make painful decisions to downsize and close locations as well as move. Choosing between how large we were and wanting to be here for the long haul made these decisions a little easier. We are always looking to the future. Our plan to be available 7 days a week doesn’t work if we are not looking ahead. With the addition of Low Impact Paintball, it has offered us options for younger and first-time players. The format has less sting when hit and smaller games with less players. These attributes address the intimidation factor some might feel when first playing paintball.
Velocity Paintball – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Velocity Paintball has been serving the San Diego community since 1994. Our mission – Service the needs of local paintball players seven days a week!! We offer sales, service and maintenance for your paintball and airsoft guns as well as accessories. Our store is located in Kearny Mesa.
Velocity Paintball Park is located on 40 acres in a beautifully wooded area of Ramona and offers the only true woods style play in San Diego County. 9 Woods fields to choose from! We also have advanced style play on our speedball and hyperball fields.
We specialize in offering the Velocity experience by hosting Private Groups with your own referee, including Family Outings, Birthday Parties, Church Groups, Corporate and Bachelor/Bachelorette Outings. With multiple fields there is never a wait to play and we can accommodate multiple groups without interfering with other games.
You never have to wait to play! We pride ourselves for remaining available to our customer’s needs. Whether it’s a part or service or making sure a Mom is comfortable playing alongside her son or daughter. We are family owned and operated and strive to keep families and first-time players our number one priority.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Business can be easy when sales and profits keep moving forward, but being able to adjust to a failing economy is no easy task. We are constantly changing our business to endure these hardships and make sure our employees are taken care of and our customers are seeing what they like when shopping. Change is not easy and can be challenging to implement. We still work every day to insure we don’t become complacent when times are good.
We are thankful, that after all the financial hardships, when the smoke cleared we are the only retail store to survive in San Diego.
Contact Info:
- Address: 8303 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Ste 106
- Website: velocitypaintball.com
- Phone: 858-565-1231
- Email: denise@velocitypb.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/velocitypbstore/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/velocitypaintball/
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/velocitypb/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/velocity-paintball-san-diego-3
- Other: https://flipagram.com/VelocityPb
Image Credit:
Denise Hazlitt
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