With Machine Paintball hitting the scene publicly this year, , it brought together a diverse group of people, including an old friend of mine, Mike Spurlock. I’ve known Mike and his brother George for several years now, back to when they were running Dragun, which brought reasonably priced blowback electronic guns to paintball. Later George and Mike teamed up with the people who created the HALO to run a company called OGI.
Behind the scenes, Mike designed and manufactured a lot of different products for paintball use, including the Dragun electronic blowbacks, the DXS Pulse, the Hard Corps Torque, and now he’s heavily involved in designing and manufacturing the Vapor paintball gun and coming soon, a line of other products for paintball.
In this latest venture, Mike’s brother George isn’t involved, but his other brother Andrew is. In order to aid the general paintball playing public as well as my brethren in the media below is a short profile and picture of each Spurlock mentioned on forums, blogs, and news websites.
I believe George Spurlock is the eldest brother. He possesses a sunny personality and in previous ventures, he served as the public face of the venture and handled aspects of the business that involved interacting with the general public. George is a deeply religious man, and is a father and husband living in Alabama.
At the moment he has no involvement with paintball, instead working for a software company in Alabama. An inquiry to George confirmed that he isn’t involved with paintball at all, other than speaking to me every now and then. Of the Spurlocks, I know George the best, and consider him a good friend.
I believe Michael Spurlock is younger than George, but to be honest I’ve never bothered to check ages and who stands where in the sibling lineup. Outwardly speaking Michael is quieter and more reserved than George, but once you get to know him and you gain his trust, he’s very open and honest about what he’s doing and how he feels about it.
Mike’s appearance and manner are deceptive, however. From a design standpoint, his work is generally considered top of the line, given the parameters he’s given to work with. The Hard Corps Torque was intended to be a relatively simple, inexpensive loader that gave maximum performance. Born and raised in the U.S., Mike Spurlock is now a naturalized Taiwanese citizen, living in Taiwan building and managing the factory that produces cell phone parts, automotive parts, and of course the line of products coming from Machine Paintball.
Of the three brothers, I believe Andrew to be the youngest, and the one I know the least. I’ve met him several times over the years, and swapped emails with him on occasion, but generally speaking I don’t know him very well. Like George and Mike, there’s no mistaking his parentage…he’s a Spurlock!
Andrew is currently involved with Machine Paintball as the US Sales Manager, and from what I’ve been able to get from our conversations online, he appears to be an even mix of George and Mike’s personalities. As things start ramping up with Machine’s efforts, I’m sure everyone will get to know Andrew better.
