Where, When, What?

[Tinybear]

Where did you play your first real paintball game? When was it? What were you shooting? What was it that hooked you into coming back for more.

I played first with a couple brass eagle saber pumps. Just farting around in a field with my brother shooting cardboard targets before Turning on each other. Was around May of 1998. Shortly there after my brother and I went to paintball city, a indoor field In toronto. It was our first real game. We both purchased new markers that day as (My pump arm broke on the brass eagle). I got a tippmann pro/carbine (Still own it) and he got a PMI gtx (I believe).

The moment I got hooked was playing that first time at paintball city. I ended up being last player on my team. It was a hyper ball field back then surrounded by buildings. I was holed up in a standup bunker and doing my best to snap out and shoot back at the advancers. The constant whizzing of paint flying past me and the plastering the bunker was receiving was so exciting. Obviously I ultimately got eliminated but It was such a rush I couldn’t wait to get back in and try again. From there the rest was history. A year later I had my first really good marker a 68 Automag (again bought new and still have). And have been playing off and on ever since.

[moving_target]

First REAL paintball game? Field 51 Gorham Maine, summer of 2007, rental 98s.

First game ever? Me and my dad using a players package pair of talons at the camp he volunteered at in... 2004? Maybe 2003. I forget when they shut down.

[Roger7pball]

Hell Survivors in Pinckney Michigan, 1998. Pretty sure it was a rental 68 carbine or SL2 or some kind of tippmann. It was lots of fun but the thing that really got me hooked was that it was something to do with my friends.

[freedom]

'94 at TopGun in jackson NJ. i was shooting a sniper 2 rental and promptly bought a phantom the next day...
my buddy who was also a first timer then, caught a paintball in the throat on his very first game, ouch!

[spikeball]

Stan's paintball field in New Mexico. 2001 or so.

It wasn't an official field, but rather a piece of property in a canyon we would play on. Everyone would meet at Stan's house in the morning to get paint and CO2. Once loaded up, people would pile into any truck that was going down there. Everyone wanted to ride in Stan's 6x6 neon green Dodge T-rex.
My first time out I used a Trracer that a friend gave to me with just a 7oz tank, a hopper full of paint, and a clear JT X-fire mask. My first game I was told to hold the flag which was in the middle of a clearing on a post. Even with my simple Trracer, and a couple other kids, we managed to keep the opposing team from grabbing the flag. It was the most fun I had ever had. The next few games I was able to be on the attacking force and really felt what paintball was like.

[Cunha]

Really cool story. My first game was at woodstalk paintball in Fort Ord, CA now part of seaside CA or marina CA and the lease for the land was not renewed and the land is now like a dog walking trail. It was an incredibly beautiful woodsball field the likes of which I have never seen since. 1 extremely large field, well cultivated with minimal / none at all poison oak, well made bunkers with good sight lines and very few broken over powered positions.

Then there was one perfect 100 yard or so square field that was the perfect not too big not too small field that allowed movement but also kept everyone in the combat zone not wandering around the woods.

There were 4 fields total or 5 if you counted the really large field as 2 because I think sometimes 1 side was not playable. One of the other fields was a steepish slope but still fun in an awkward terrain way.

My friend had just got a spyder shutter and showed it to me, and it made me realize it was possible for me to play paintball. I was old enough and could afford a gun, my dream was finally going to be possible. I had always wanted to do paintball but knew it was for people that were older than me. I was hooked probably from age 6 when I first saw one and barely understood what it was at big 5. in the gun area.

We went to the field and were spectators for a day to see if we wanted to play. It wasn't too far from my house.

My dad came and my older brother. We went home and bought new versions of the rental gear at the field, piranha g2's. The owner had converted from VM68's to the Piranha g2's. He convinced us that they were unmatched in reliability and serviceability for the price. We got 3x vertical bottle powerfeed piranhas, 3x vl200's and 3x (because they matched) PMI N-VADER masks I really wish we got N-FORCER's but we couldn't tell what the difference was from the pictures. We installed COMBAT VISION THERMAL INSERTS into our single pane lenses because the field owner told us they were just as good and could get you going thermal style and save a few bucks, so we did that too. We got all out stuff from paintballgear.com

I typed out way more but decided not to walk everyone through my paintball life story. Our 12oz co2 tanks from paintballgear.com were dated 2001. I was 12 at the time. I came almost right away to messageboards and have been trying to act older than I really am ever since.

[gabe]

Awww c'mon man you didn't even get to the part where you played your first game! Tell us more!

[Jordan]

It's a bit fuzzy on when, but I got introduced to paintball by a couple of highschool friends... one had a big property out in the country and they all played, so I bought a Tigershark off one of them (he'd upgraded to a Spyder TL, I believe) and played outlaw for my first few games.

Once I'd been to a local proshop (DMZ) to buy some paint and co2 fills and had a chance to play actual recball on an organized field the hook was set hard... I've taken breaks intermittently over the last 20 years but I think I'll still be doing this in 20 years with any luck, if paintball is still around.

[nobbie333]

Jaegers 94 or 95 spring I am not sure our rental gear was a sl68II with a 12oz tank The thing that got me hooked was we playing paintball in a cave as a kid what more do you need

[Cdn_Cuda]

My very first time I think would have been at a hockey year end party. Played another time with my dad on a field but didn’t get into it much until later in high school, so 2000, 2001 era. A few friends bought guns and I remember my dad taking me to the local store and buying my first gun.

Ended up playing a lot with my now brother-in-law. Good times on an old, since redeveloped field called Big Shots.

[Ratzo]

First game was played at Niagsra Tactical Adventure Games in 1992. First Saturday after my 16th birthday, stupid field insurance age limits, now it's 10 years of age. The rentals were Tippman SL 68's. Loved the game could not stand the refs. Soon after playing, I bought a used Brass Eagle Poison and began playing at DMZ Pursuit Games.

[SETHZILLA!]

First game was in 1986. I was 11 years old and had read about a local place to go play from an article in the newspaper.
My friend and i rented a PGP from the Surplus store but ended up having to buy Woodstalk masks and Uvex goggles to play with. Headed out to the creekbed and met the local players.
We talked to the 5 or 6 players there and split up into teams. Since we only had 1 pistol between the 2 of us kids, we had to take turns who would play each game. Another guy showed up later and let my friend borrow a nelson long barrel rifle type gun and i kept the pistol the rest of the day.
Being hunted and doing the hunting was an adrenaline rush I'll never forget.
Pretty sure we were wearing denim jeans and shoes with hooded sweatshirts that day. They came home stained orange and never washed out.

I told my mom i wanted a gun and she said, "get a job and buy one." So i looked into what i had to do to become a paperboy and started delivering newspapers.
Took me about a year to get enough money to buy my first gun, a Brass Eagle Cobra.
Been hooked ever since.

[glaman5266]

Ran a Cobra for a long while maybe 12-13 years ago. Solid paintgun.

[iamthelazerviking]

I had been familiar with paintball, growing up in Oregon and all. It was a regular activity at the church I grew up in for the teenaged members/boy scouts and I would always hear the war stories as a younger kid. The Hansen brothers who played on Phantom Force (and I think Paraplegic Turtles?) also went to the same church, or at least their family did. The idea of playing always scared me. "It will hurt!"
Then I made good friends with a new kid at school who moved from Cali, he had his own gear and talked me into going. We played at an indoor field in Tigard called "Hit n Run". I borrowed his spare JT Spectras and PMI Piranha. I don't think I shot anyone, but got hit by my buddy and his Minimag at the end of the day. I still remember the feeling and also surprise that it didn't hurt as much as I thought. I was hooked that day. Also for an indoor field, that place was awesome. This was in 2000 or 2001. Paintballonline.com was located a few miles away, so I saved my birthday money and anything I could earn. Bought myself all fresh gear: JT Spectra, PMI Piranha G3 vertical feed, VL-200, Pure Energy 20 oz, fingerless tiger stripe camo gloves. Then the obsession of upgrading/selling/trading started and hasn't stopped.

[Arthur]

1997 in my buddys backyard with a spyder compact.

[Mjlynnjr]

I started in 95’ (I was 14) when a couple buddies let me shoot some paint in the backyard at a few pop cans. I already loved to hunt and now adding the idea of hunting people and them hunting me really seemed exciting. So we went to the local pro shop, bought a nice spyder compact and headed out to the local field. Had an absolute blast with my buddies and couldn’t get over the adrenaline rush this game gives you in the middle of a fire fight. Have been playing ever since for the last 26 years. This was at field in Western Washington that I can’t remember the name of.

[Meleager7]

Was middle to late 1980's maybe, and I saw a copy of Action Pursuit Games magazine on the shelf at grocery store in Ontario Canada. The front cover had a smokeshow of a woman on the front (maybe half Asian, or maybe part Native American if anyone recalls that issue, which i wouldn't mind to find a copy of again one day ) . Anyhow, she is gorgeous, and holding some sort of gun, so of course I picked it up , flipped through, and begged my Dad to buy it for me.

Read that APG front to back several times, and I couldn't wait to try out this new game. In the back directory, they had a section for Canada, and I found the listing for Combat Pursuit, in Milton, Ontario, Canada. I was able to organize a few friends, and I remember we had to drive out the Owner's house out in the country to deliver the Deposits!

That first game we played there, the rentals were brass eagle cobras if i remember, the 2nd time playing there for sure we shot Tippmann SL68 or SL68II pumps, paint was issued to us in little plastic baggies of maybe 50 or 100 each?

I loved the game from this first introduction, the pump action of guns, the sound of them shooting, the excitement of getting into my first gunfight, the sneaking around and hiding in the woods, the smell of the co2 , etc, etc.