07/11/2025
Announcement: Hanging In The Towel…
I’ve been playing paintball on and off since 2002, and it’s no secret that in 2008 I bought my first Planet Eclipse Ego (which I still have) and the rest is history!
I came back to the sport in 2020 after a 7 year hiatus, and quickly built up a reputation as “the ego guy.” Before long, people started reaching out to me to fix their Egos. What started as a side gig during COVID when I had tons of free time grew to a point where I had nearly 10-12 Egos in the queue at any given time. Business was booming… perhaps a little too much.
2021 brought many life changes - mainly getting laid off towards the end of 2020, becoming a full-time realtor in Jan 2021, losing both my grandparents within 60 days, and then buying our first house and going through 6 months of renovations. While trying to grow my real estate business and finish my house (I did 80% of the work myself), I spent the little free time I had putting together a workshop so I could continue cranking through Egos. But the queue kept growing, and and one point I had 20 Egos on my bench. 2022 brought another death in the family which hit me hard, and I mainly tried to stay afloat with real estate and finishing Egos. By this time parts started drying up as well, and my personal store of parts began dwindling, which slowed progress further.
2023 I shifted real estate to part-time, started a full time job as a CRE analyst, and also began working part-time for an accounting firm. Halfway through the year I realized it was a terrible time to get into commercial real estate, and I went full time into the accounting firm. In November I became a “partner” - using quotations because after a year I realized that being a partner with someone who’s run their own business for 15 years means you’ll never be a true partner… by early 2024 my desk was cleared of client markers and I felt relieved - I thought maybe I would shut down ROF Airsmithing then, but I had a bunch of people still reaching out, and it was difficult for me to say no. I do enjoy working on Egos after all. Work at the accounting firm piled up, real estate became even busier, and what started as 2 Egos quickly built up to 10 Egos on the bench… all because I struggle to say no.
Here we are in July of 2025. I left the accounting firm in January to start my own consulting firm, and simultaneously switched brokerages with real estate - which was an absolute nightmare to do both at the same time in hindsight. Then, on April 16th, my dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and my #1 mission in life immediately became keeping my dad alive - which is going extremely well so far, thank god. What that means is that in addition to doctors appointments taking up 1-2 days per week and building my own two businesses from a hospital room for two months, I also have an opportunity to help my dad keep his two businesses afloat as he can no longer work full-time.
With all of the Egos completed from my work bench I have decided - officially this time - to close ROF Airsmithing. It has been a blast the past 5 years getting to work on all kinds of beautiful Egos, some of which are shown below. But it has been even more rewarding to meet some amazing people in the community along the way.
What’s next?
I’ve been extremely busy taking care of my dad, running my consulting firm and showing properties to clients - and now am helping my dad with his investment properties and his construction business. I still would like to help people get their Egos back on the field, so I’ll be recording videos and tutorials on how to disassemble, clean, and rebuild various generations of Egos as time allows. If you’re interested in seeing rebuilding videos, history videos, or different pieces in my personal collection, I invite you to follow me on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/
PS: if there’s any Ego or Planet Eclipse related content you’d like to see, feel free to message or comment!
