A Short History of NWPPA, By Rick Breneman

A Short History of NWPPA By Rick Breneman

North West Practical Pistol Association (NWPPA) was founded in the 1970s to conduct “combat matches” at what is now Interlake Sporting Association in Kirkland. Soon affiliated with the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC), and then its U.S. chapter, the United State Practical Shooting Association (USPSA), NWPPA became one of the premier clubs on the west coast.

Among NWPPA’s early members was first USPSA President, Dave Stanford. Stanford had been a Seattle cop, and when approached by USPSA to fill the position Stanford agreed to serve, but under the condition that the organization’s headquarters must be in western Washington, where it remains to this day.

Among prominent early members were John Wells, who literally “wrote the (rule) book ”for USPSA; National and World Champion shooter Travis Tomasie; and Chris Koontz, who developed the Practical Carry category for USPSA in the late ‘90s, which was in answer to the rise of the International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA).

IDPA was formed during the “Second Columbia Conference”, a reference to the meeting which had resulted in the formation of IPSC twenty years earlier; the “practical” shooting sport had lost its way, and anew sport with emphasis on readily available equipment and defensive principles appeared. NWPPA initially had mixed results as an IDPA club. Largely promoted and organized by one member, matches were not conducted on a consistent basis, and interest waned.

Realizing that a larger, enthusiastic core group was needed to help ensure success, long-time NWPPA leader Sandy Wylie approached a group of members with a plan; commit to one year of helping organize and officiate IDPA at Interlake.

After a few months, the idea of hosting a state championship match was floated. Certified Safety Officers would be required, so an appointment with an SO Instructor from California was made. The six NWPPA/IDPA founders sat around a downtown Seattle conference room table, going through the rule book page by page. The Instructor had established some requirements in advance; at the class’s conclusion, two of the attendees would serve as instructors, and one – Sandy- would assume the role of Area Coordinator for the IDPA clubs in Washington, Oregon, and Alaska.

Soon thereafter, Interlake was closed for a year, and NWPPA sought a new home, landing at Renton Fish & Game Club (RFGC) in 2001 and soon became the hub for new clubs radiating from the Seattle area. Emphasizing strict rules enforcement, NWPPA became known as a club that ran its matches by the book, but without a reputation for heavy-handedness.

As had happened in the past, enterprising competitors determined that there was room, no, need for a new shooting sport, and with their combined decades of experience in shooting, competing, club management, and business sense, this group – again headed by Sandy Wylie – formed Action Shooting International (ASI), “A move & shoot sport for everyone”. ASI strips away troublesome aspects of other shooting sports – complexity, expense, layers of bureaucracy and heavy oversight from a national headquarters – resulting in a short, focused rule book that emphasizes safe gunhandling and competitor self-improvement.

At the 2017 Washington State IDPA Championship, the fifteenth hosted by NWPPA at Renton, the announcement was made that in 2018, NWPPA would take over management of ASI activities at Renton, and that a new management group, under the name Renton Shooting Association (RSA), would take over IDPA at RFGC.