Armor

[Riot]

Hey folks,

The older I get, the less fun painful paintball shots become. I generally wear some featherlight paintball pants (HK Army, I think), a custom jersey w/ no padding, a headband, and mask.

What padding do you all recommend?
Protecting what and what brand?

Thanks.

[BrickHaus]

Ive been a long standing no pad guy too. I went as far as ordering the high end jersey option, and having them skip the padding as an option.

Lol, that being said i now have a defibrillator on my ribs under the skin, so I ordered a jersey with full padding, and a custom pad sewn in over my defibrillator.

All in all. The nastiest shots I seem to take bruise wise are in the edged of my torso ( essentially love handles.)

It if you got a padded jersey which will cover elbows, chest, and neck. Then a PE under armor shirt, it has padding up the flanks. That'll pretty much nullify any torso shots.

[Trbo323]

Really depends on the weather but I run some dye c9 pants which are in the era of fairly heavily padded pants, I wear some empire neoskin slide PANTS under them, these have built in knee pads.

On top, raza jersey, light pads on forearms, shoulders. Under that, if weather allows a PE bounce vest and empire elbow pads. Typically it's just a tee shirt though

Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

[Ecapnation]

I wear full arm pads only soni don't look like a leper in the office on Monday.

And knee pads because old...

[Riot]

Do you guys have any brands you recommend?

[Alexndl]

I really like my Dye arm protector they stay well in place and cover enough without being bulky. The HK one seem good too.

I use the empire bounce vest but I am not fully satisfied with it. I would look at either HK army, PE or DYE if I need to change (in this order).

I really like my HK pants, I think its have been replaced by the HSTL line now, somewhat breathable and good protection.

[cougar20th]

My pants have some padding, they are also a size larger then I typically wear to help bounces.

I sometimes wear elbow pads that go to the wrist. Depending on what I think the games gonna play like. Mine are eclipse.

Sometimes i used to use a bouce jersey under my normal jeresy. Again depending what i expect for a game. That is until got to fat for the one I had. It way I either dye or eclipse. Been years since I outgrew it.

I always wear a neck protector. Every and I do mean everytime i dont i get shot in the neck.

[Grendel]

I am loving my CRBN SC Pro Bottoms and if I can tolerate the heat I like HK Crash Padded Jersey and Dye Performance Elbow/Forearm Pads. I'm rapidly approaching 60 and take blood thinners so using pads helps a lot. Actually the SC Pro Bottoms are for me but the Padded Jersey is to keep from getting in constant trouble with the wife. She loves to find all of the "ouch buttons" and push them and give me hell for them. Last event I made it to I came home with almost none and I think it ruined her fun

[superman]

I 2nd the carbon bottoms. They are not cheap, but i have been wearing mine for several years now. have a tiny hole in them now but they are holding up great.

[Brokeass_baller]

PE's padded shirt is the bomb-diggity. I used the first generation when I reffed PSP when they were still at 15bps. You'd get lit the hell up. It's relatively lightweight, and was easy enough to run around in. Has that moisture wicking material too, so it breathe pretty well. Definitely buy a size up though.

My dad uses it nowadays. Has no problem with maneuverability.

[Ecapnation]

Do you guys have any brands you recommend?

My arm pads I've used were dye but a few years back I switched to UNDR he doesn't make them often but mine are easily 4 or 5 years old and still feel like new.

Knee pads.... Honestly I used ancient redz ones until a friend of mine gave me a pair of empires that didn't fit him right.

[Chuck E Ducky]

If I’m playing a game I expect to get shot a bunch of times I wear my bull denim jerseys. (Evil Gerbil or Renagade)
Pants I’m currently running Duluth Firehose pants yup it’s heavy, yup it gets hot, yup they last for a long time and prevent me getting hurt and massive welts all over the next day. Before that I used 5.11 Tac pants (I like lots of pockets for stock class) they lasted pretty good. The Duluth seem more durable, 5.11 are lighter. I have several Paintball specific pants but from PE, CK, JT cargo, I really like the fire hose pants. I’m going to get another pair when these kick the bucket.

I have gone threw a few different pads I find Planet Eclipse have for sure been the most durable. However I have used others I picked up cheap. Others work fine when new but eventually wear out pretty quickly. Tom at OSG was telling me about this D30 material used in the Mtn biking industry he swears by after watching a guy rip his patella off not using pads. The D30 pads are expensive but the material has impact protection like no other. I’m going to try a set next see how they hold up. I’m old I need good pads because I would like to continue playing as long as possible.

You could get one of those padded under shirts like PE makes I had one at one point when I was playing a lot of Xball. They work good especially under those thin light weight jersey that are popular today. But they do get hot. I’m at the point in paintball that if it’s disgustingly hot out I go drink a beer by the pool and play another weekend.

[nerdcore]

Are there any parts that you find particularly tender, Riot? And can the amount of protection you need be solved with just an extra layer, or are you looking to just pad the whole temple?

[BrickHaus]

I had to.

[MrBarraclough]

I usually wear an old Proto "performance top" sleeveless chest protector/undershirt to cut down on the welts on my ribs and shoulder blades. They haven't been made in years, but are essentially a precursor to the current DYE chest protectors. The padding panels are mostly some kind of open cell foam (urethane I think), so they are fairly soft and flexible. I'll still get some bruises but they won't be nearly as bad and they fade quicker. I recently bought a used Valken padded shirt and wore it one day last month. It has more continuous coverage than the Proto and covers the upper arms as well. The sew-in padding panels are fairly thin EVA foam, which is stiff enough to provide more protection but still somewhat flexible. The sides are mesh for breathability. I wore this thing in February with just a long sleeve dry fit shirt over it without feeling cold, so I think it might be rather insulating. I'm a little reluctant to try it in the heat for that reason.

DYE slide shorts are awesome. Very comfortable, have a built in soft cup, and the thigh padding extends around to the front.

I don't bother with a padded jersey since I have some HK Army CTX elbow pads that fit pretty well. Bought some PE Overload pads a few months ago and they fit okay, but feel kind of chunky. Might just need to be broken in. Before I started wearing arm pads, I would wear a British Army UBACS (under body armor combat shirt) that had pockets inside the sleeves for these neoprene panels that covered from elbow to wrist. Those provided plenty of lower arm protection, and if I wanted to cover my upper arm I could just slide a piece of 3mm EVA foam into the large outer sleeve pockets. You can find them at www.keepshooting.com.

For knee pads I've been running Exalt FreeFlex pads, which are surprisingly flexible for their thickness. They'are also rather tall and provide some upper shin coverage. I'll often wear normal length hiking socks with a pair of knee high soccer socks over them and just fold back the excess at the top to give my shins a bit of protection. Most of the time I just wear some surplus fatigue pants. Occasionally I'll wear some old style Proto paintball pants with the reinforced heavy nylon knees.

Exalt makes a decent neck protector, but the velcro wears out too easily. Got tired of mine trying to come off while playing and switched to the DYE neck guard. It offers plenty of protection but it does get rather hot.

[Warmongrel]

As others have said, CRBN for me as well. I use their SC compression top with the built in arm pads and their compression shorts. For knee pads, I use Hydra knee pads, it’s a compression knee pad and stay in place and pretty comfy.