Your beginning in paintball.

[Trbo323]

Where's DocsMachine ?

I want to hear that story.

boomersruckus , great idea for a thread, this is fun

Sent from my motorola edge 2024 using Tapatalk

[William the Third]

You're not welcome anymore
You're the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye

[Cdn_Cuda]

Think I'd crumble?
You think I'd lay down and die?

[boomersruckus]

No, not I, I will survive
Long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive

[cheapguitarscheapthrills]

What a cool story OP I feel like the majority of people my age "Went for a birthday party..."

I believe my first time seeing paintball markers was watching the 1996 Disney movie "the Paper Brigade" on TV probably sometime around 97-98. The crazy old war vet played by Robert England armed with a PPS and KP2 pelting the paper boy and later the bullies. I was fascinated but pretty young at the time and never had the money to play. A few years later my brother and cousin got in trouble for doing drive-bys with a Brass eagle talon going around shooting mailboxes. So I don't think my parents were in any rush to help. Basically had to settle for playing paintball mode on Goldeneye dreaming of the day.

Fast forward a little I'm 12-13 hanging out with a rich Jewish friend I went to preschool with. His parents would take us! Being a nerd I did all the research I could online so I would troll PBnation and online paintball stores to see what I could afford. My dad (Portuguese as hell) had a landscaping company so I'd been working for him, saving some money probably for video games, candy and the like. In all my research I found out that Spyder made a full auto scenario marker the MR2 which to my teen brain looked like a G36. It will be mine, oh yes! Basically only knew Tippmann and Spyder reputable companies you could find in your local Walmart. Even then I thought Brass eagle were trash tier. Very much of the time I heard an older kid say it and don't wanna be a loser.

So after reading reviews on PBnation I found out I would also need an electronic hopper settled on the Halo B w/a rip drive. Threw that on to the MR2 with an elbow (still hate any guns that need elbows to this day). I think I got a lower end V force mask probably single pane lense because I was more focused on fire power than seeing. To round out the setup a pure energy 48/3000 steely, a bottle of the spit anti fog, and a cheap extreme rage pod pack. Mind you I bought all this before I played a single game of paintball. My scrawny little arms struggled to hold up all that weight and I was terrified of breaking any of my gear that was basically my life savings. I tried a remote line later on but ultimately found it too awkward.

I thought the bright colors and space age guns the speed ballers were using were lame. I wanted to play woodsball, in camo, and be tactical but they definitely were right about having a light setup. I was obsessed with having a stock but I realized they just weren't for me. You can't aim down the sights in a mask with a stock, just shoulder the tank. Playing paintball at Randolph paintball where they used Spyders, and piranhas as the rentals taught me you didn't need the latest and greatest markers to have fun. Initially I thought I needed to keep up with the older kids with autocockers and angels melting faces but I lost sight of the most important aspect of paintball, FUN.

[cheapguitarscheapthrills]

Pic from the Paper brigade

[wunderbarsafari]

I grew up in the sticks in California and we'd always have family friends stop by to shoot bows, zero hunting rifles, hit golf balls, whatever outdoorsy stuff they couldn't do in the suburbs. I think in the winter of 97-98 we had some friends who got their two sons Stingrays and brought them out to shoot with my brother and I. We all had a good time until the paint was gone, but I was the only one totally mesmerized by what just happened. It was the perfect sport for kids in the middle of nowhere. I begged and pleaded until I got a Talon for the next Christmas, and it just progressed from there. I quit playing after I joined the Army at 18.

Fast forward to 2018, I was 32, married, working full time, grad student, paying my bills, and had absolutely no hobbies to enjoy. After a trip back home, I dug up my old phantom, ordered some new gear, and I've been back at it ever since.

[homerj]

When i was in high school (probably a junior so around ‘92) a guy i knew just up & bought a marker. One night when i was working at Jitney Jungle i was outside gathering up the buggies. All of the sudden he comes pulling up, hangs out the window with whatever marker he had bought, & proceeded to start shooting at my feet. He wasn’t doing it to be a dick. He was just the kind of guy that was always joking around & didn’t take anything seriously. I thought how fun it would be to play an actual game but quickly forgot all about it. Fast forward to sometime in ‘97 when Walmart started carrying Brass Eagle. I bought a Talon for myself & my brother. We ran around the field next to our house just kind of plinking at each other but that’s about it. I was instantly hooked but my brother wasn’t into it at all. ~26 years, dozens upon dozens of markers, hundreds of welts & who knows how much money later, & I’m still hooked.

[Socalpumpballer]

Southern california 1999. Had friend who was moving out of state and invited a bunch of us to play paintball for a going away party. Barely 10 years old. It was at friendly fire indoor in LA county. It was single field unit in a business park with a mud covered floor, plywood maze like bunkers, a small pro shop and a staging areas separated with hockey rink style walls so you could watch the games. Tippmann prolites with co2 and shake and bakes. I want to say the paint was real .690 paintball junkies brand jester paintballs. First time ever shooting a paintball gun on a field I gogged one of my buddies on the other team right off the break. Been hooked ever since. Bought a camo dipped brass eagle genesis surge starter pack from sport chalet with my birthday money. Never played with it by that time my step dad bought my brother and I the new electronic spyder imagine and revys. Parents never supported it though pretty much played twice a year on mine and my brothers birthday at SC village. Until highschool when I had a PayPal account where I could buy autocockers for $50 throw a $50 ccm pump kit on them and flip them for $300. Started playing 4 days a week at Hollywood sports park for about 4 years. Played old school challenge, national stock players association and nppl/uspl until they all disapeared. 26 years later still buying and mostly collecting play about once or twice a year because of the kids and family.

[Shan1Fat]

A kid I met in 7th grade (so I believe around 2000) that lived in a neighborhood where some local dudes threw up an outlaw field in the woods behind his house. I believe there was at least 6 of us with the vast majority using crappy Walmart pump guns (like the Brass Eagle Blade blue ones), mask that fogged up the minute you put them on, and likely the cheapest paint Walmart had to offer. I remember being scared shitless the whole time and barely moving around much. I'd say I'm almost 100% sure I didn't shoot a single person that day. He winded up having a birthday party later that year at a real paintball field and I was hooked after that.