New Paintball Field review "Gold Dragon PB" in Upstate South Carolina

[cphilip]

Ok I went out there yesterday and today to look this over. My son Caleb and our other AO friend Lance (aka ccaleb and SPOOKI) are head reffing there and they opened today. So I got some picts of this realy nice facility still in the makings. But as you will see this thing is first class. The fields are very technical and some unique ideas.

Main reason for review is this is looking like the host field for the AO meet in Clemson SC this November!

And you will also see a keen sense of detail in everything from the cover and shade provided the players to the crono station. Why there was even water squirt bottles and paper towels provided on each table for the players! A real nice touch.

Some structures are temp set up until the permanent structure can be built. Note that in the rental, fill and snack area. But even the temp stuff is nicer that most. Not the crono station and the unique "charge the hill" field. They right now have a three man, five man, Top Gun field, this scenario hill challenge field and a real clean nice woods field. And some of the nicest player staging areas I have seen.

The Owners are some of the nicest folks and of course the Refs are good! :)

Gold Dragon Paintball is located in Central SC (realy Norris) at 586 Robinson Bridge Rd. (864) 639-4066

Also can reach them through email at: golddragonpaint@earthlink.net

There home page is: http://home.earthlink.net/~golddragonpaint

Now some picts!!!! (remember temp structures will be finished and perhaps a Sup Air will be here by then

[cphilip]

OK the player area I was braggin about:

[cphilip]

Now the three man...

[cphilip]

Five man...

[cphilip]

Hill Challenge field (net not up yet)

[Army]

Wow! Great looking place. We can only play in the green vegetation in the spring. Even before summer hits, everything is all dead and brown.

Too bad the uncaring (no personal ethics) attitude of far too many players will have it trashed soon.

[cphilip]

Fill Area, consessions, rental (remember this is temporary structure but nice huh?)

[cphilip]

Crono Stand area:

[cphilip]

One last shot of the player staging area taken looking back from Crono stand and towords the "office - fill area".

AND NO IT WILL NOT BE TRASHED!!!!! Plenty of tash cans and people monitoring.

This is the host site for AO meet South Carolina in November it appears!!!!!

[cphilip]

One of the woods!!!

[cphilip]

yes they have rentals!!! (one of owners trying to hide...)

[cphilip]

SO IS THIS THE AO MEET SITE FOR SOUTH CAROLINA???? WHAT SAY YOU?

[Tunaman]

WAY COOL! Thats all I have to say!:D :D :D

[PaInTbAlLeR476]

TC venum paint rules...sorry just had to add that in...that hill feild looks awsome i wouldnt mind playing on that.

[Load SM5]

Looks good to me....

[Arturus]

Nice place...

I really.... really, really... really want to try that Hill Challange Field.

I wonder why we can't have fields like that over in Southern California.

*looks under seat covers for change*

How much is a flight to S. Carolina?


:(

[Snewk]

Looks cool. Never seen a field like the hill challenge before and it sounds like it would be fun to play on!

[SPOOKI]

Hey Fellow AO members! As Uncle Phil said, This new field is awesome. And for those of you who want to partake of the hill??? You just give us a week. By Saturday (8-10-02) it should be all finished. Ever read about the beaches of Normandy? Welcome to the war baby. This thing is gonna BLOW YOUR MIND!!! You oughta come give it a shot...

-Lance

[cphilip]

Great to hear Lance! Do you see anything I missed? And also you and Rob please link this over at some of the other sites. I posted it over at Kingman already.

[personman]

Oh my god...
Begging sequence activates in 5 seconds.
I WILL SO BE THERE EVEN IF I GET HOARSE FROM BEGGING! :D

[cphilip]

well there is a local guy who can some up anytime. Atlanta is real close this is not far off 85 and just after you leave Georgia and enter SC.

[cphilip]

Up for the day! Caleb and I are now leaving out for IAO!!!

[personman]

By the way I asked my mom and told her where it was and how long it would take to get there and she said it doesnt sound too bad but she isnt promising anything :/
Hehe thanks IRB for the barrel, It kind of gave my mom a nicer eye on AO she noticed that I gave a pf plug to dansim and irbodden gave me the barrel and she said wow it seems like there are some nice people on that site (or something like that lol) oh well, I'll keep asking..
Is that player area big enough?
;) Hopefully by the time the AO Day is I'll have a diffrent tank and a new mask (if you guys would just offer stuff :p)

[cphilip]

Well maybe she will bring you up for the AO day!!!

Getting interesting for the AO day. Even Army is thinking about coming all the way over from California and bringing Sarah along too!!!! Would that be cool or what!!!!

[shartley]

Well.. I just got around to reading this thread.

Nice looking place. No doubt. :D Thanks for showing us!

What kind of makes me wonder though, is why MORE places are not as nice. I know Adventure Games (no offense to this field because it IS a great field and setup) is much larger than that, has a much larger crono / target range, several even larger “player areas” (covered and uncovered), BBQ’s, Concessions, at least 10 different fields, and more (they have even expanded from what you can see from their site.. those photo’s are 4 years old).

Again, this is NO slam on this WONDERFUL field shown by Phil. It is actually a compliment. I just don’t understand why anyone would settle for LESS. Oh, I know…. They want only cheap fields with cheap (or BYOP) paint, cheap fills, etc. Well… some of us like just a bit more than that. When I want “cheap”, I play in my OWN property (or that of friends)… when I want to go out and play with other folks and enjoy the “bigger picture” of paintball, I prefer the place to be nice. And sometimes that means you have to PAY for it. ;)

I wish more people felt like I did…..

[cphilip]

Well these guys expect to expand things Sam but only after they start drawing a crowd. Since they are new this will take some time. But the early crowds are very impressed and bringing their buddies back. Thats the effect it has and that is good business.

But your right. And I have to think the general feeling that players will trash it up has something to do with that. But with proper police action this can be avoided. And I surely think going into it with a negative attitude that "why do it if they are going to trash it" is wrong. I think that is the attitude prevalent here that I am hearing. I do not think it has to be that way at all and your only inviting that if its trashy to begin with. So your right it's a image thing. This field has an initial image of neatness. I think that pshycologicaly will promote neatness. And if it doesn't...ask them to leave! Simple.

Oh and these guys prices are actualy quite reasonable. Field fee is $10. All day air is $10 and paint is good quality for $60 a case I think. Those are south east prices and very competitive. Its not cheap paint either. Their field paint is good quality.

I think it has to do with capital expenditure. Many fields are cheaply thrown up by people not willing or capable of backing it up. This one seems to have people running it who know how to back it up and can. For that reason they will succeed.

[shartley]

That is GREAT to hear Phil... and the more fields like these that get built and maintained, the better image the public will have of the sport as well. :)

[SPOOKI]

To all those hill challenge lovers out there, have I got some news for you!!! After careful deliberation, the refs, owners, and players of Gold Dragon Paintball have come up with an awesome idea for the hill. Interest peaked??? Well, I can't ruin the surprise, you'll just have to come check it out for yourself. With any luck it will be finished within a couple of weeks. Sorry about the wait, but BELIEVE ME it's gonna be well worth the wait. ;-) In anycase, come out and see our other fields, I guarantee you won't be dissappointed.

-Lance

[personman]

Haha I already have plans for when I get there (if I end up going) IM GOING TO HAVE TALON ROUNDS!! Im gonna get my Talon out and play a couple rounds with it.. :D

[spacemanspiff]

Nice looking place. It should be great for the AO meet:D

[cphilip]

Bringing this back up to make a couple announcements.

AO DAY SC will be Nov 9th

We are in final negotiations with Gold Dragon (this field) and it seems good at this point.
Hope to formal announce this all this week in a seperate thread dedicated to this.

Paintball Inc. is penciled in waiting final word and will be supplying PowerBall at $50 a case to you.

Paintball Inc is letting us use their Sup Air Field too! So there will be super air of some kind!

Paintball Inc supplying some Raffle stuff too.

We are almost to the point where we can ask Celebrites for attendance and they will be announced as soon as we can.

3 Man Tourney on one field only will be held and a small entry fee for it will be seperate from registration. It will be small and only to cover trophies presented. Note that this leaves two five man fields and the woods open for rec play all the time. Tourney rules are being drafted and will be published long before you get here.

Planning a nice sit down dinner with band that night after the play day which *will be included* in the registration. All day Air and field fee also includedin the registration. Target for this registration is around $20-25 FOR EVERYTHING!!! Note: except 3 man and your paint which is/will be reasonable.

[Cabbagetoe]

Some buddies and I went to Gold Dragon Paintball on Saturday. First impression--WOW. This field is by far the nicest I've ever played, and I have played at approximately 8 fields in and around South Carolina. The owners really want to do everything to make the customer happy, unlike other fields who are only trying to make a buck. If you haven't played this field, and you live in the upstate, my only question is--- What are you waiting for?? If you want to play on the premier field in the upstate--Gold Dragon Paintball is it!!!

Cabbage

[Mossman]

Originally posted by shartley
Well.. I just got around to reading this thread.

Nice looking place. No doubt. :D Thanks for showing us!

What kind of makes me wonder though, is why MORE places are not as nice. I know Adventure Games (no offense to this field because it IS a great field and setup) is much larger than that, has a much larger crono / target range, several even larger “player areas” (covered and uncovered), BBQ’s, Concessions, at least 10 different fields, and more (they have even expanded from what you can see from their site.. those photo’s are 4 years old).

Again, this is NO slam on this WONDERFUL field shown by Phil. It is actually a compliment. I just don’t understand why anyone would settle for LESS. Oh, I know…. They want only cheap fields with cheap (or BYOP) paint, cheap fills, etc. Well… some of us like just a bit more than that. When I want “cheap”, I play in my OWN property (or that of friends)… when I want to go out and play with other folks and enjoy the “bigger picture” of paintball, I prefer the place to be nice. And sometimes that means you have to PAY for it. ;)

I wish more people felt like I did…..

Of course SHartley...but a lot of us wish we were middle aged with a good job too :)

The people who complain are not the responsible folks with a good job, family, and great connection to this board like you. I prefer the middle ground ;)

[cphilip]

HOLY MOLEY!

Went out to Gold Draggon this afternoon and its been like over 6 weeks since I took those pictures. LOTS of things are done that you didn't see last time. For one thing the player set up areas are expanded maybe double. More tables and such...

BUT...

The main things is the progress that has been made on the Hill CHallenge field . Still not completely done but much more stuff is there now. It was very early when you last saw it. I going to go back and get some pictures in the next few days but let me at least try and descibe it for now. All the sand bagged bunkers have now been dug out very deep behind and shored up. Nice big pits. And there is plans to place large culvert pipe between some of these fortified pit bunkers to make tunnels to cross over to them. And they have built several very large house like structures on the top and bottom covered with Bamboo latice. Sort of looks like a far east village. Very large staging areas they make. A cool thing that they decided to add at the top of the hill to the right of that main fort is a tower with siren and revovling red light. If you can take the top of the hill and rush past the fort and hit the button its over. This all plays into the use of the hill as part of the whole adjoining woods for Scenario play. You can extend it into this hill area if you like. YOu realy do need to see picutures of this. I will try and get some this weekend. I cannot describe it well but you are gonna be impressed with the progress and of course more of it will be done before we get there on Nov 9th at SC AO day

Stay tuned I have over 50-60 people already committed to come even this early!!! LOOKS LIKE WE GONNA BE BIG!!!! make your plans to get here now...Look for registration to start soon!!!!

[cphilip]

Some people have asked...4500 psi fills? YOU BET!

Food for the day time a the field? yes I think the field is doing hot dogs and such and has plenty of vending stuff.

Paint? well real good Powerball Pearl for $50 a case. No we will not run out. We are overbuying as we can take back unsold cases for no charge so no reason to short on it. This is FatMan and my personal choice for paint when we play. Very consistent medium bore and breaks well. We use .689 bores with it. Takes a temerature change real well too.

Dinner? Included in registration. Nice authentic Italian we think. this place is Closing to public just for us. We got the whole place. Should nail that down in the next day or two. Hope that will work out. Will hear soon.

Tourney? yes a 3 man on the 3 man field. All other fields open to pick up play all day. Figure to start at 9 and play till about 6 pm. Then clean up and meet for dinner and party.

Band is supposed to be The Wild Hog band. Personal friends of ours. More on them later but: They will be moving from table to table for a few song each area. Very versatile group of musicians been together for 10 years. Features the 2000 National Banjo Championship winner this takes place out in Winfield Kansas and he also won the East coast "Merle Fest" Championship that year before. You will hear Jazz, Blues, Folk, Dawg music, Garcia, Traditional and newgrass,... you name it. Your gonna like this here stuff!!!

[joeyjoe367]

Wow! That looks really great! I wish we had some fields here in Washington that are that clean and well-prepared.

$50/case paint sounds awesome too

[cphilip]

Further development of the field has occured since this review. See them here:

http://www.automags.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=49290