How did you start paintball?

[dave_p]

well... back in 97

my buddy al and i who work for a large tree company together were looking through the fairfield county weekly and came upon an ad for paintball, it looked cool as hell so we convinced our boss to take the whole office @ 16 guys to play instead of our yearly customary bluefishing trip. it was indoors in a basement of a large commercial building. used to be a woolworths. it was dark with loud thrash music playing, smoke machines and strobe lights and stuff. other groups were already playing when we arrived. i remember walking into this basement hearing the slap of balls on plywood and the smell of my sweaty rental mask and broken paint sneakers squeaking on concrete and lots of yelling. al and i were instantly hooked, to the point of illness. spent every day in the truck at lunch perusing catalogs and apg planning our equipment purchases, talking strategies etc. thus began what will be a lifelong love affair(me and paintball... not me and al).

[~Backdraft~]

The very first time I played paintball was when I was in 6th grade '97 I think. It was my friends birthday party and we were looking for something new to do. So we went to a field near by and rented some equipment and had a great time. I didn't even know anything about paintballing then so I didn't even know where or if i could or even how to go about buying a piantball marker. So i never played again untill '99 when I bought my first gun...a spyder TL plus. It was a good gun until I wanted to get more serious into the sport. Come 2000 I bought my mag and have been happy with that ever since. I got my dad and one of my friends to buy a paintballgun with me, that was son to be exact, then after we got our paintguns, XspyX got one along with Boltsmack. We've been happy paintballers since '99!

[CRiZO]

I have a bad memory... I don't even remember buying my gun a few months ago... So I think I was abducted and brainwashed by paintballers.

[WpMiKeMaN]

church camp 3 years ago, we played with aci maverics. i wore shorts and a tshirt, and no cup. thank god i was not hit "there"

[Hasty8]

I first started paintball with three rounds in my back.

Four years ago or so. first time I ever played paintball. My brothers birthday party at the indoor field in Oceanside NY.

Whistle blows.
I take three steps out of the base area.
And my girlfriends son shoots me in the back three times.

And I've been getting tagged ever since.

[InfinatyBPS]

Well my story is a little different. I was going to Wal-Mart and saw all these colorful and shiny paintball guns then looked at the price tag for most...$150... $129... $89... $29 and that was a talon, I had $60 because I was in the market for a new airgun, but I had to beg my dad for like an hour to let me get it, and finaly he did, I got the talon and some 12 grams and a tube of brass eagle. I thought my talon was sickness. Then I went to BE.com and saw the Raptors I was like wow, im never gonna be able to afford one of those(the msrp is like $150) and I was like looking at the stingrays, and when I went to wally world like prolly a few months after I relized I wanted to play so I knew i needed a mask, and a tank. I got a Stingray ICE kit that came with a mask and everything else I needed... But I still needed a tank, so I looked on yellow pages.com and saw a paintball store in downtown San Jose(about 15 mins away) and I went there one day and I got a 9 oz tank for like $20 and was happy. They told me about I&I sports wich is only like 10 mins away from my house, because the first store was closing down. Then my stingray leaked so I took it back, got my $89 back. Was disapointed, then checked out ebay to see if they had paintball stuff and saw a Blue raptor brand new for $90. I had just enough and I got it. And as soon as I got it I was in shock to see how beutiful it was, no matter how crappy a new gun is, its still a wonderful feeling when you first get to hold it. Well I got a new barrel and got to play for the first time at TAG which was like 1.5 hours away. And had lots of fun. Even though I was using BE balls and I was breaking them every other shot. But then I upgraded the raptor to the end, then I played with it more. Finaly I got a team together, and I was looking for a tournie level gun, I looked into mostly mags and cockers. And finaly found a great deal on a cocker and got it, and now im upgrading the cocker and hope to have a backup mag some day...

[oldsoldier]

I started WAY back in 89. Was stationed at Ft lewis. A sergeant there told me of a game where we hunt one another...being in the infantry that sounded like fun. Anyway, the first game I was hooked. we played in a bunch of woods behind a farm...I was high tech and had a bushmaster pump with a quickchanger! I bought this immediately after getting pummeled by the team Bushmasters, who were up from CA. I played a few years, took a few years off, played again 94-96, stopped, and recently started playing again. Really picked up here in NJ...fields nice & close, proshops to spend money on...

[marley618]

I started off with a brass eagle stingray in '98. One of my friends older brothers started playing and they got my friend and I into it.

[BTAutoMag]

i had a friend who talked me into playing cat and mouse with him and after several game (all of which i was the mouse) i got frusturated and went to walmart, bought a vulcan, and chalenged him to a game. well my plastic pump against his spyder SE was laughable but after 3 rounds he wasnt laughing cause i had won all three. thats when i decided to buy a good one (at the time my definition of good was a spyder compact) and then it blew up into an obbsession from there.

[SlipknotX556]

Lets see iv been playing for about a year, sean (The Patriot) got me started and told me to get a mag for x-mas, i wanted a cocker, thank myself that he made get a mag instead of the worlds biggest paper weight.

[Rocp15126]

I started in college (SJSU). Several of my dorm mates were going and convinced me to go. Man it was awesome! Indoors with SL-68's it was a lot of fun. Later when I moved out of the dorms, my house-mates played and thats were I decided to get a minimag! (Best damn investment I made!)

Rocp15126

[Chupr0kabra]

My friends kept hounding me to go with them. Finally, last October we had a really pretty day in Houston, so I went with them. One of my buddies loaned me his frankenstein Spyder Compact/Shutter and, although it didn't shoot very straight (had a slice like one of my golf swings), I had the time of my life. Since then, I have been researching, pondering, reading, and (eventually) buying gear to go play again. With any luck, I might make it out this weekend.


-Mike

[ShooterJM]

Man I first played in '91. Was living in CT and a went camping with my boy scout troop. A bunch of the dads would go play and that's when I first saw it. Didnt' get my first splatmaster for a few years and never could get the thing working right. Was out of it for awhile then picked up a PMI Trracer pump gun and played almost daily all throughout high school. Ran out of money to play regularly in college, so just ended up tweaking and fixing other people's markers for paint and air. Finally graduated and was able to afford to start playing again. Still have my Trracer and my trusty mag. Not sure where the Splatmaster is. Think it was passed on to another newbie as a free gift.

[CoFFeY[NiTrO]]

Friend went to a b-day. Took me one more time. Me got hooked on it. Me begged my mom for about 3 months to get my first gun. (I was like 11 years old)(now I'm 14)

Then I put some upgrades on it. Then my only friend started to hate me (which was really rough (best friends from like 1stgrade to 7th) and then I sold it. about 4 months later for my b-day I got a piece of crap mag. (at the time I throught it was awsome ) Slowly but shurly it became my minimag with hyperframe with Dingo foregrip(15*) with custom drop forward.

I upgraded my gun without having a way to earn money. Bacially what I do is I don't eat lunch at school and save $20 a week. So all in all my gun is my lunch!!

[Mega Man]

About four years ago my good friends mom was working at a factory and a kid would always shoot paintballs at the factory, and one day she took the kids gun, a raptor, and gave it to my friend, so I decided to get a gun and so did the rest of my friends, and the rest is history.