Face Masks or not?

[Digits]

I want to use a word not allowed on this site to characterize ALL of you who have said no, I would never play without a face mask.

However, I'll stay away from emotional responses for the nonce.

How many of you responding in the negative ever played with goggles only? I'll bet hardly any of you.

The fact is, I played for years with shop goggles only, I never got a hit on the face I couldn't handle (yes, down the throat, up the nose, in the ear, on the cheek); none of them was any worse than a hit anywhere else on the body.

I played two seasons of semi-ball with goggles only also (that's for the HRF argument).

I'm not suggesting that you are all wimps (despite my opening paragraph); I am suggesting that most of you have no basis for evaluating this argument.

I am also not suggesting that we force people to play without their preferred level of protection. What I am suggesting is that we allow everyone to seek their own level of comfort - including those to whom a nasty face welt at work on Monday poses no obstacles or concern.

haha you can play in only goggles all you want.. But once you get lit to hell in the face by a DM4/Timmy/Anything that rips I doubt you'd say the same.. I don't care if you played some semiball with only goggles.. That was probablly with mags and cockers.. Not with todays electros.. You could get a mean face mangling in todays hi bps world..

[Beemer]

haha you can play in only goggles all you want.. But once you get lit to hell in the face by a DM4/Timmy/Anything that rips I doubt you'd say the same.. I don't care if you played some semiball with only goggles.. That was probablly with mags and cockers.. Not with todays electros.. You could get a mean face mangling in todays hi bps world..

Like I said safety and standards. WHAT A JOKE

[Digits]

For sure.. He seems to think he's portraying himself as a tough guy by saying he would only wear goggles if he could..

lol.. I find that commical.. I really just want to light the hell out of his face and see if he still thinks the same way..

This aint no mech world anymore.. On average a person gets hit 4-5 times a game playing speedball.. If all 4-5 are in the face you would look pretty screwed up at the end of the day

[Beemer]

Um you missed my point. Fullauto 20bps bring it on im in but I aint using no cheap crap lexan lens. Im bringing the stuff that can take 20 direct hits close range and still be used in the next game. 1 shot 1 pull ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Safe not funny

[SuiciDal Sn Y p ER]

ok now, imagine that welt. but on ur face...times 10
sure some people would like to play without masks...but they will be the ones that end up having a messed up face with swollen lips and bloody cheeks.

If you don't want to wear a mask, that's fine with me. just don't go crying after your nose gets broken or when your teeth get shot out

[Beemer]

Nice touch for the thread. Is that you? How close was that?

[SuiciDal Sn Y p ER]

yes that was me, and that wasn't even close at all. the guy was all the way across the field. we were playing a night game and everyone cranked up their guns to the point that they were lense cracking and even deathstalker felt the paintball right through his harness.

[Tyger]

Tyger..... can we do a follow the MONEY thing?

I would, but nobody cares as long as they can play paintball.

**sigh** But I can narrow the money flow now to three companies. One doesn't care, the second wants the rec market but wanders into tourneys, the last just wants to own most the media outflow. There's the wildcards of indie companies, but we really have three places the money is.

-Tyger

[mist001]

Mask or No Mask???

I havn't played paintball for a wile, 8-9 years actually lol. Was a bit too poor while attending school and starting out in the work force ect. But i'm happy to say i'm starting up again :) with an automag of course. Had a bad experiance with my old Tipman, mainly parts availability and a crappy local rep who fixed my gus (suposidly) while under warenty and used used springs that didn't fix the prob lol.

The last time I played a tournament was the 95 canadian championships in regina sask. I played bug-eyed, I never got hit in the mouth or nose so I can't say how that feels, but I had a pile of bounces off my cheaks with minimal welting and not much pain lol. I remember the ref's coming over to chk and them calling me still in. A few times the person I was shooting at was out and the balls bounced off my face and I was still in, gave a bit of an advantage to me. For woodsball (which I mainly play or will be playing unless a good team starts up and I really get into paintball again) I feel a mask is important but at the pro level I would go bug-eyed as it's too great of an advantage if your willing.

To close this up I have played in and out of a mask, they both have advantages. But I feel it should be up to the players to decide what they are comfertable with. I don't agree with the gov forcing us to wear seatbelts though I would wear one iregardless, choices like these should be left to the individual. Yes you may say that some inpressionable kids (also older kids in their 40's lol) may go bug-eyed to impress others and to look tough, and this is a good point, but I beleive in free choice and the right of the individual to decide what is best for him/her-self.

[Gadget]

When I first started playing rec-ball, Uvex 'shop' goggle were the norm and boy did getting shot in the face hurt. First thing I did when I decided to play more reguarly was go and get a BIG mask to protect my noggin.

When Preds, Iron Men and AAs all started popping up in PGI pics only wearing goggles I thought it was a stupid idea and ignored it, I still feel the same way today.

[xXHavokXx]

When Preds, Iron Men and AAs all started popping up in PGI pics only wearing goggles I thought it was a stupid idea and ignored it, I still feel the same way today.

Ive only been playing 4 years, but I can remember people I knew playing in only goggles and they would come back with mangled faces. I was like why would I play that?

[rabidchihauhau]

Nothing to do with being 'tuff'; I've played against your high rate of fire guns (what a waste) and would still play w/o facemask if allowed.

I want to move back onto a discussion that might perhaps bear more fruit: why are you guys so intent on forcing everyone to do what YOU want to do?

I never said 'you may NOT wear facemasks' - why are you all saying 'you MUST wear facemasks'?

The welt pic was nice - but I've had worse. The throat shot was potentially much more dangerous than a face shot - if a ball can knock teeth out, it can crush a larynx or a jugular vein. Why weren't you wearing a neck protector? (Why were you even playing in a game where they 'cranked' the guns way up? - I don't even do that...)

[Beemer]

who says

I dont say you have to. The fields I go to say I have to for SAFETY and Insurance reasons.

gotta meet the standards for that yet the e- markers arent even close to the stated standards. Oh ya shoot more paint make more money so those standards dont count. Explain that. Where does it end? It will come to a bad end when someone gets hurt or the gogs fail.

[PsychoBaller]

I remember when kids at my local field (10 yrs ago that is), would have all sorts of modified, cutup and limited masks. I was also one of those kids, used to cut fangs into my JT Flex7 bottom, and cut sections out of the Visor, and such...

Now that I come to think about it, it was stupid. Even if u are just wearing goggles.. paint could possibly hit u right below the eye, or from the side, thus penetrating into ur eyes. The rest of the mask surrounding the Eyes/Goggles should always be mandatory as it protects even the possibility of paint from getting past / getting under through the goggles.

-da "safety first " baller

[rabidchihauhau]

psychoballer,

the 'goggle' standard requires that the goggle (not the mask) 'fully enclose the eye cavity'; when goggles atre made to the standard, there are no holes or gaps through which paint can enter;

on the other hand, I know of at least one mask design that was discontinued by its mfg because the MASK design caused paint to ricochet up into the eye cavity...

Beemer,

how to put this point without offending the insurance guys? ummm - I think that APL and the others provide a great service and do a wonderful job; the fact that they've chosen a set of standards to base their coverage on means they're doing their job. however, if they had chosen to utilize a different set of standards (a legitimate set), then we would be free of this mandatory mask thing.

Others,

back to the 'tuff guy' bs: I'm the voluntary test target at work; I wear what a 'typical player' wears - no extra padding. I've done it often enough to have gotten unintentionally 'hurt', and I'd do it again tomorrow without even thinking about it. 'Pain' is just a nerve signal that you can go a long way towards controlling. I remember many teams 'back in the day' who practiced 'not flinching' when hit, because it would give them away. I'm by no means the only player who can and has done this.