Where, When, What?

[shadow191]

Summer of 1993, some friends in 8th grade were into paintball and started sharing their magazines. Spent most of spring saving money and picked up a PMI Trracer while they had a mix of VM-68s and Tippmann SL-68s. First games were all outlaw in the woods behind their neighborhood. Was pretty much hooked from the first game.

First time at a field was a local indoor field (name escapes me but it was in a shopping center so pretty small. Had to rent an SL-68 because my Trracer wouldn't stop shooting hot. A lot more intense game since it was a small space and a lot of people.

Stopped playing sometime in '00 because of school and had a 20 year hiatus. Then came back in March 2020 and had my son's birthday party at Paintball Atlanta. Used rental Tippmanns and had a blast, since then have play just about every other week.

[kevin qmto]

Summer 2004, I was 12. I was a younger kid compared to most on the street I lived on, so I was late to get into paintball (ironic now as I'm probably the only one still playing on a regular basis).

I played outlaw ball for the first 5-6 times I played paintball, in the woods behind my house. I didn't play at a real paintball field until 2006.

I used a Viewloader Triad in my first game, then borrowed a Spyder Compact in some of the others until I got my first gun in 05, the Spyder Pilot ACS.

[Lt. head-shot]

2003. Some of the kids in my class had older brothers that played, I had been begging my parents to let me play, and finally was about to go with a friend to out to Midway Paintball in Vacaville, CA. Played with a Spyder of some sort, and the entire first game I thought I was shooting. Turns out the ball detent was turned in too tight and I was just firing air. Ref helped me out when I went to shoot a bunker after the game and saw that there was no paint splatter.

Didn't get to play again until 2006, bought a Tippmann 98 and pimped the hell out of it. Then found MCB and went down the rabbit hole. Played until 2010, then sold everything off in college. Came back in 2019... Man it is way nicer to actually have money to fund this sport. I get to buy all the things I used to want back in the day!

[BigRed]

Winter of 1990 I went with some friends to an indoor field called Ambush. They had Tippmann 68 Specials and VM68s to choose from. I went with the 68 Special with the 40 round high capacity hopper! Playing Paintball indoor in a dimly lit warehouse with an obscenely loud sound system pumping out Carl Orff's "O Fortuna" did it for me. That said, it was the only time I've played in a dedicated indoor facility. We used their outdoor field with a trusty PGP from then on. My best shots ever were there with the PGP. Two eliminations from about 100 feet as they ran towards me with two shots! Then as they got closer I realized I just tk'd the two guys who captured the flag as they were coming back with it.

[ChuckLove]

Myself and my degenerate friends would shoot each other with one of their older brother’s Tiger Shark around ‘99-00. I think my first real renegade style game I played was with a friends tippmann carbine in ‘01. I think the first field I went to was Strategy Plus (East Hampton, CT) that same year or in 2002.

[sugarstump]

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.

Yes, the Hanson brothers (Dalton and Dustin) did play on The Turtles after Phantom Force, (then on Bob Longs Ironmen and Lockout after that). CTR baby!

[tarakian]

First time playing was in 1992 at Skirmish. Game was organized at work between our plant in upstate NY and our sister plant in NJ. The day was mostly a disaster, had to wait four hours to get started and they ran out of CO2 after we got four games in. I had to walk back to my car to get the ticket for whatever crappy rental they were giving us along with the shop goggles. Car was about a mile away, and by the time I got back, my case of paint had been stolen. I lost my shit and started looking for someone to beat. One of my co-workers stepped in and took the brunt of my anger and calmed me down. I bought some more paint and Marcus Neely of MontNeel loaned me a Tippman Pro-Am. I managed to pull the flag for all four games, so even with the bad experience, I was hooked. Got asked by Marcus to come to a tournament at Wolf's Lair (now EMR) and see if that interested me. Ended up reffing that tournament and joined the Highlanders, the rest, as they say, is history.

[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.

... and here she is , the woman who gave me a half chubb in the grocery store as a teenager, and started my journey down the road of paintball ! I wish the image was better quality , so i could see the exact Issue Date....