Paintball Experience
I”m a total paintball noob. I went one time when I was 18 and smoked weed before hand for maybe the 2nd time in my life and it was a complete disaster. Being paranoid while trying to shoot opposing team members while being half scared to death was not a fun experience although it was memorable. Today went a little different.
I arrived with Steve and Ed and we went through the brief instructions and got our weapon and paintballs. I paid $42 bucks extra for a gun upgrade, some camouflage gear, and an ammo belt that carries 3 extra sets of paintballs. The teams divided into about 12 v 12 and we headed to a field that looked like what you see to the right.
We started with a capture the flag game with 5 minutes of amnesty which means you can get hit and re-spawn for the first 5 minutes. The game began and I immediately had a problem…my camo pants were too big and were falling down while I ran. I was careful the first game while I tried to figure out which was the enemy and what was my own team. I ended up getting pelted right to the dome in my first game and was awakened by a nice ringing helmet.
I started to feel more comfortable with how far the gun shot and what type of encounters resulted in success. I moved to the far right of the map in the 2nd game and was creeping down the line. I was advancing like a high school kid on prom night. I had completely flanked this one bro and while I was pelting him with bullets, I was unaware of his buddy hiding behind a rock and he fired what felt like 100 bullets into my exposed back because my pants were still falling down at this point. It hardly hurt.
The next few games we played had buildings like a castle or huts where you had to raise flags. Aside from one game where the best player on our team was strategically moving along the map and was directly in front of a hut with a opposing player and he was met with one of my friendly fires, I held my own once I understood how exchanges happened. I tended to hide behind trees which I was wider than which is not ideal. The paintballs don’t hurt that much and I even took one to the bare neck and on my hands and still lived with minor injuries (my knee hit a rock).
Aftermath
The experience was advantageous because it taught me that I’m not ready for war. I want no part of it. If this were live ammo I would have dug a hole 6 feet deep, jumped in it, and filled it back up. I would have thought my speed would help a bit on the course but it doesn’t make much of a difference. It’s not fun getting hit and war doesn’t excite me all that much. Wonderful to do one time but nothing that I’d continue doing.
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