 bsmonks |
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Monday, September 20th, 2010 |
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Period of
Field Use: |
3 months |
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| Last There: |
September 18th, 2010 |
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Paintball
Experience: |
1 year |
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Other Fields
in the Area: |
Velocity
Giant Alpine |
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| Review: |
First off, if you like the scenic route, you will enjoy the drive from Lakeside up Wildcat Canyon. It's a nice drive into the hills and past the Barona Casino & Resort. About a half mile after passing the drag strip you'll turn off the road at the "Sports Center" sign. This puts you on a dirt driveway that takes you to the motocross track (to the left) and the paintball fields (to right).
The parking lot is only several yards from the entrance to the fields, so staging from your vehicle is definitely an option. If you're not blessed with an abundance of vehicular space, there are 8-10 shaded picnic tables available.
My favorite aspect about this field is that it is a BYOP field. Beware, though, if you are coming with a "coupon" read it carefully. Most of them require you to purchase a minimum of 400 rounds and all day air for you to get the free admission. Even if you brought your own paint, with the coupon you'll still have to buy a bag of their paint. The air isn't a problem; you're going to use it anyway. But make sure you are aware of the requirements on your coupon.
(SIDEBAR: Speaking of coupons, GIANT recently opened a store on Woodside Ave in Santee that sells the same GIANT/SC branded paint that they sell at the fields. This paint is usable at all their field-paint-only fields. There is also a case you can buy that gives you free admission to their parks without the requirement to buy a bag of paint. So... if you buy your paint from the store, you get free admission with no other purchase requirements.)
Check in was easy enough. I got there early enough that chrono-ing was an easy in/out procedure. And I never had to wait in a line for air.
There are 4 areas of play at Lakeside: a "western" town, a "bombed city," a castle and a wooded area. Unfortunately, the day I played there were bees at the castle and no explanation was given regarding why we didn't play the woods field.
The western town is set up using ConEx boxes/c-trains. Other than the doors at one end, they have cut doors and windows into the sides and lined a "street" with them. The cement city is a field littered with huge cement pipe sections and fabricated building corners. It is a real duck and cover field. And it's very easy to lose sight of the opposite side of the field and suddenly realize you've been flanked! There is plenty of "cover and concealment" in both of the fields, though the western town had more open area. During the busiest part of the day, we had enough players to utilize both fields at once (they are side-by-side).
The rounds we played were straight elimination – “kill” all the enemy players to win. But the final thirty minutes or so was a respawn game. Instead of sitting out the rest of the game if you were shot, you simply walked back to your team’s start point, touched it and resumed playing. Other than expending large amounts of paint, the object is to surround the enemy’s respawn point to prevent them from rejoining. If you don’t have a lot of paint left, you’ll be leaving this game early.
The refs are good about keeping a close eye on the games. I was called out a couple times when I didn't even know I'd been hit. (But sure enough, there were splats.) And they're always willing to run in and check you or the person you thought you hit if you're unsure. The staff was always courteous and I even received a couple marker upgrade suggestions during the breaks.
They do have a 30 min lunch break, but there is no guaranteed food sold on the property. What I mean by this is that if you're lucky, there's a food wagon at the motocross track. If not, you'll need to have brought your own, or drive a few miles down the road.
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