If you’ve ever wanted to blast on someone with your high-powered rifle (without going to jail) then OYE’s found the perfect sport for you.

You play one game of paintball and you realize all those hours spent playing Halo just pale in comparison. It’s like choking your chicken versus a night of steamy sex with Megan Fox. If you’re looking for something that combines fun, exercise, adrenaline, and hanging out with your homies, then paintball is a great way to spend your weekend.

Although paintball has been around for a while, it remains one of the fastest growing sports in the world. In fact it’s one of the most popular extreme sports, period, with more than five million participants in the U.S. As most paintballers will tell you, it’s a seriously addicting sport.

PAINTBALL 101
There are basically two formats for paintball: speedball and woods/scenario ball. Speedball is the game played by the pro teams. It’s called speedball because the action is fast and furious (in a span of less than 20 minutes a player can go through 2,000 paintballs). The most common version of speedball is called center flag. One flag is placed in the center of the field and two teams try to reach the flag and get it to their opponents starting position without being “eliminated”. As you might have guessed, getting eliminated means getting shot. Speedball is often played on a field of about 150’ by 300’. The field has large inflatable objects called bunkers that provide you protection. Teams start on opposite sides and when the whistle is blown, they each try to reach the flag. The game is finished when the time is over or total elimination of a team is achieved.

Woodsball on the other hand is often—though not always—played in wooded areas. In woodsball the playing field generally has large boundaries, or perhaps no boundaries at all. Woodsball has many popular variations, with the most common being “capture the flag.” Opposing teams each have a flag in their home base that they need to protect, while trying to capture their opponents’ flag. Some games will be “scenario” games where a specific storyline is being followed. Common story lines are WWII battles, although Crips vs. 18th Street or norteños vs. sureños might be more appealing to OYE readers. Large scenario games can attract thousands of players with competition lasting several days.

HOW TO GET STARTED
Most folks start playing paintball by visiting their local paintball field and renting gear. Once you’ve got the hang of it, you’ll want to get your own gear (it’s no fun wearing a sweaty mask that’s been worn by a few hundred other paintballers with bad hygiene). Forking out a few bucks for your own gear will dramatically increase your enjoyment of the game, primarily because you’ll feel much more comfortable wearing and using your own stuff. Your first and perhaps most vital piece of equipment is a good paintball mask or goggles. Why? Well, you’ll be encountering countless small gelatinous projectiles traveling at a few hundred feet per second directly at you. When one of those projectiles hits unprotected skin it’s gonna hurt. And if the unprotected skin happens to be an eye, you can expect to lose it.

As for as guns, rental guns are built primarily for the purpose of taking abuse from lots of renters. The pride and joy of any paintballer is their gun. There’s a huge variety of paintball guns available and the technology is rapidly advancing. The type of paintball game you prefer to play will determine the type of gun you’ll want to buy. You can expect to get a very respectable paintball gun for less than $200 from manufacturers like Tippmann. Or for you high rollers there are paintball guns that cost up to $1,200. Yeah that’s more than a real gun, but remember you get what you pay for. High-end guns have advanced electronic firing mechanisms and can fire up 25 balls per second! But you’ll have to resist the urge to test it out on your neighbor’s cat.

WHERE TO BUY
OYE recommends A-1 Paintball Store for all your paintball guns, masks and gear. They offer a great selection, fair prices, and good customer service.

If our little introduction to paintball hasn’t convinced you to run to your nearest paintball field to try the sport then perhaps nothing will. “Well, maybe if there were hot chicks involved…” you say. Done! Enjoy.

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