It was late October 2005 when Hurricane Wilma, a Category 5 hurricane, ripped through the state of Florida.

It was also in late October 2005 when junior paintballer Adam Enright and his paintball squad GSE (Green Street Elite) were in Orlando, Fla. for the Paintball World Cup.

While swimming in the outdoor pool at a hotel with the rest of his teammates, Enright and the gang got to see Hurricane Wilma first-hand. The club’s reaction to the storm and its effects may help stabilize the paintball player stereotype as an adrenaline seeker.

“We were playing basketball in the pool, and Hurricane Wilma hit the area and water was going everywhere,” Enright said. “It was fun.”

Fun?

“Yeah, people were screaming to get out of the pool, but it was awesome.”

If Enright thinks this is a form of entertainment, surely he must be chemically imbalanced. But that assumption couldn’t be farther from the truth.

All Enright, a business administration major, sported last semester in a grueling business-laced schedule was a 3.25 GPA. He currently has a cumulative 3.5 GPA.

So what’s with this kid?

“I love the adrenaline rush,” Enright said. “That’s why I love playing paintball.”

And Enright plays plenty.

He has been competing in national tournaments since 2004 which have thrown him around the country to places like Las Vegas; Charlotte, S.C.; Buffalo, N.Y.; Los Angeles and Phoenix. He says it’s been a blast.

But don’t be fooled; Enright is an advocate of being responsible with a paintball gun.

He said his father bought him his first gun when he was 11 years old. It was made crystal clear how he should handle owning such a toy.

“Both my parents were very clear with the fact that I better not go around shooting cars or anything silly like that. If I did, they were going to take it away,” Enright said.

That’s pretty responsible for a kid who happily rode the waves of a swimming pool during one of the deadliest hurricanes in the U.S.