Taking the whole family for first PB games.

[oct31man]

Hey everyone! My wife and I are taking our sons and a couple of their freinds tomorrow. My sons went last week, but my wife and I have never played. I've been reading about the sport alot, and I am stoked! I think this is going to become a habit! I'll let you all know how it goes!

[Plasma]

That will be fun you should have a great time.

[Curly Fry]

paintball is quite a magical thing. especially when get your first head shot

[trolleyman98]

yeah man you should have a great time. Once you play paintball for the first time, theres no turning back lol.

[di$TOrTed]

Yeah you should have a great time. Just remember to keep your mask on at all times until you are in a safe area. Safety is #1.

[malcontent]

as far as habits go, a crack habit would be cheaper... but paintball is safer, family friendly and generaly more fun. also wont get you arrested and you wont need to spend time on Statin Island afterwards.

[dead head]

I hope your ready to spend mucho money on your soon to be addicition.

[zoomie]

1. Keep your mask on at all times on the field. Always! You can go blind if anything hits you in the eye. You got two eyes, but two is much better.

2. Before the game begins and you're standing there at the end of the field, identify where you want to go (which bunker you want to hide behind). When the ref begins the game, run to that bunker but keep your head up and identify where your opponents are going! That way you won't have to guess and figure it out during gun fire. You'll know.

3. Don't spray and pray. Use paint sparingly. It'll save your wallet.

4. Don't spoil your kids. It's easy for them to ask you for a $600 Angel. Don't go for it. Keep them at the minimum and give them upgrades for their birthdays and holidays.

5. Bring water!....in an ice chest.

6. Have a blast!

[yigo65]

Did the same thing in Jan with my family. My son started in Nov, then my wife, daughter, and myself went with my son. My daughter is still a little shy about it but I'm letting her take it at her own pace. It's a great way to spend a day with the family and meet new peeps. But yeah we're hooked.

[cool_b_63]

I'm curious as to how it went also. I went to the outdoor field today and met a lady who brought her daughter to the field for her 12th birthday. There were 14 people in the party. They looked like they were having a great time. The birthday girl had a shot to the neck and was rubbing it sorely. Just remember to encourage them so they will enjoy the time.

Let us know how it went.

[Govinda_T]

Good luck, I know you all will have fun. Let us know how it goes. Just as others said before, safety is the most important aspect of the game. So, have fun, be safe, and enjoy our wonderful sport!

[oct31man]

Sorry to leave this thread hanging for so long!

We had a great time over all! While most of the other players there were very cool! I mean I was surprised at the level of respect that I witnessed!
There was one group sitting in the corner together, that I should have known better than let my 12 year old play with. These guys thought they were soldiers or something. One of them was shooting hot and fired on my son after he surrendered hitting him in the neck and breaking the skin. The guy that did it made himself scarce for a while, which was probably the best thing for both of us! When he returned I confronted him, long story short, the guy isn't stable! Although the owner of the field was very nice, I think he chose not to upset this guy because he was a regular at the price of safety! I will not return to that field because of the owners response to the situation. I also will know to avoid the ones who appear to take the sport too seriously! I think my son must have shot the guy in a previous game and his ego couldn't take it, so he let him have it the first chance he got!

[oct31man]

I was sore for 3 days after, I dove and ran too hard for my age! :crazy:

[Evil_Wayz]

Sorry to leave this thread hanging for so long!

We had a great time over all! While most of the other players there were very cool! I mean I was surprised at the level of respect that I witnessed!
There was one group sitting in the corner together, that I should have known better than let my 12 year old play with. These guys thought they were soldiers or something. One of them was shooting hot and fired on my son after he surrendered hitting him in the neck and breaking the skin. The guy that did it made himself scarce for a while, which was probably the best thing for both of us! When he returned I confronted him, long story short, the guy isn't stable! Although the owner of the field was very nice, I think he chose not to upset this guy because he was a regular at the price of safety! I will not return to that field because of the owners response to the situation. I also will know to avoid the ones who appear to take the sport too seriously! I think my son must have shot the guy in a previous game and his ego couldn't take it, so he let him have it the first chance he got!

Do you KNOW he had a hot gun or just think he had a hot gun?

Close up hits sometimes break the skin, and hits to fingers almost always do.

It did suck that your kid got bonus balled, but this ain't checkers, it's paintball, and sometimes, crap happens.

[Ebonclaw]

Just be careful who you choose to play with. Most of the time a majority of the people at the fields are nice enough, but it generally only takes a game with a hotheaded jerk to sour the experience. Every field I've been to is like this and I've learned to just play with other people.
I will say getting bunkered in the neck is no fun, but just because it broke skin doesn't mean the gun is shooting hot. Up close shots on bare skin usually end up breaking skin no matter the velocity, I've had more than my fair share in tourny ball.
This by no means excuses his unsportsmanlike behavior, but it's very difficult to tell on a shot like that if the guy was being unsportsmanlike AND shooting hot, or just being unsportsmanlike and a general jerk. To be honest, while I know it doesn't seem like it from the mark that I know was left, if the gun wasn't shooting hot, there wasn't any unsafe behavior at the field.
Also, I'll speak from experience, I hate trying to get a surrender out of people when playing recreationally. It takes enough guts to go running up to someone's bunker that may come out and shoot you up close at any time, but announcing your presence usually startles the defending player and unless they surrender immediatly, they tend to spin with their gun out of confusion. Having played tournyball, that always was a behavior exhibited right before firing about 6 rounds into whatever was closest to them, I'm always on edge when people spin on me in rec play. As a result, I always try to have my gun aimed at thier waistline or pack or something and try to limit myself to shooting until I see paint break. As much as I try to prevent surrendering from going awry, I get a successful surrender about 40% of the time, end up shooting someone about another 50% of the time, and having us both get stitched up pretty good at close range about 10% of the time.
Here's how this could have happened from his perspective.
The player comes to bunker your son. Your son, startled, hesitates. At the same time he does manage to get the words out, the acting player either doesn't hear them due to adrenaline, outside noise, or whatever, chooses to fire at the same time, or due to the fact you son may have surrendered without raising his hands, interprets the target as hostile. One shot that happened to hit the neck broke skin not due to shooting hot, but because it was point blank. I think players with malicious intent usually deliver three or four shots...the fact this guy made an effort to only score one hit shows he restrained himself on some level.
In order to make a call on if he was shooting hot deliberatly or not would require a chronograph, and proving him to be shooting hot deliberatly would be very difficult if he were using Co2...this cold weather can cause velocity spikes pretty easily.

Please know that I'm not trying to refute your version of the story, and at the very least the guy should have apologized, I'm simply asking you to look at it from multiple perspectives and giving you a forwarning that the majority of recreational players are cool guys, but one or two jerks can be found on any field.
I've accidentally shot my fair share of younger players at close range and I generally feel terrible whether the kid takes it in stride or not and I always try to make amends, but it's something that does unfortunatly happen more often now that we have guns with hypersensitive triggers. The good news though, is that your son has experienced probably the worst thing that can happen to you in paintball and lived, so he should pretty much be unafraid of anything else on the field at this point!

Incidentally, I cannot stress to anyone reading this how important it is for rec players to remember to RAISE THEIR HANDS when getting out of a bunker. If you stand up, you get lit up. When you surrender, RAISE YOUR HANDS. I shoot more dead players on account of them getting up without their hands raised than is even funny.

[Evil_Wayz]

This by no means excuses his unsportsmanlike behavior, but it's very difficult to tell on a shot like that if the guy was being unsportsmanlike AND shooting hot, or just being unsportsmanlike and a general jerk. To be honest, while I know it doesn't seem like it from the mark that I know was left, if the gun wasn't shooting hot, there wasn't any unsafe behavior at the field.

Last weekend I snuck up on a 13 year old who wanted to paintball for his birthday and instead of surrendering he attempted to light me up so I shot him in the neck ( that was luck.) Left a small bruise, didn't break the skin. So then he went whining to his mom and she came over to yell at me, and I pointed out to her that:

1. He wanted to play paint ball with the adults, this is what happens.

2. He didn't surrender when I gave him the chance.

3. I didn't do it on purpose, I'm not that good.

I still got an earful from the mom. And I thought he was a wuss for sending his mommy to yell at the bad man who shot him. I would have had much more respect for him if he came and yelled at me himself. After all, the same mean man that bunkered him loaned him two pods of paint mid game the game before ( he was on my team that game) because it was his birthday.

I think in the future you should let your kid handle it out on the field.

Cuz the rest of the kids that play at my field will gog me and then talk smack to my face in the staging area if they can . :)

[oct31man]

Just be careful who you choose to play with. Most of the time a majority of the people at the fields are nice enough, but it generally only takes a game with a hotheaded jerk to sour the experience. Every field I've been to is like this and I've learned to just play with other people.
I will say getting bunkered in the neck is no fun, but just because it broke skin doesn't mean the gun is shooting hot. Up close shots on bare skin usually end up breaking skin no matter the velocity, I've had more than my fair share in tourny ball.
This by no means excuses his unsportsmanlike behavior, but it's very difficult to tell on a shot like that if the guy was being unsportsmanlike AND shooting hot, or just being unsportsmanlike and a general jerk. To be honest, while I know it doesn't seem like it from the mark that I know was left, if the gun wasn't shooting hot, there wasn't any unsafe behavior at the field.
Also, I'll speak from experience, I hate trying to get a surrender out of people when playing recreationally. It takes enough guts to go running up to someone's bunker that may come out and shoot you up close at any time, but announcing your presence usually startles the defending player and unless they surrender immediatly, they tend to spin with their gun out of confusion. Having played tournyball, that always was a behavior exhibited right before firing about 6 rounds into whatever was closest to them, I'm always on edge when people spin on me in rec play. As a result, I always try to have my gun aimed at thier waistline or pack or something and try to limit myself to shooting until I see paint break. As much as I try to prevent surrendering from going awry, I get a successful surrender about 40% of the time, end up shooting someone about another 50% of the time, and having us both get stitched up pretty good at close range about 10% of the time.
Here's how this could have happened from his perspective.
The player comes to bunker your son. Your son, startled, hesitates. At the same time he does manage to get the words out, the acting player either doesn't hear them due to adrenaline, outside noise, or whatever, chooses to fire at the same time, or due to the fact you son may have surrendered without raising his hands, interprets the target as hostile. One shot that happened to hit the neck broke skin not due to shooting hot, but because it was point blank. I think players with malicious intent usually deliver three or four shots...the fact this guy made an effort to only score one hit shows he restrained himself on some level.
In order to make a call on if he was shooting hot deliberatly or not would require a chronograph, and proving him to be shooting hot deliberatly would be very difficult if he were using Co2...this cold weather can cause velocity spikes pretty easily.

Please know that I'm not trying to refute your version of the story, and at the very least the guy should have apologized, I'm simply asking you to look at it from multiple perspectives and giving you a forwarning that the majority of recreational players are cool guys, but one or two jerks can be found on any field.
I've accidentally shot my fair share of younger players at close range and I generally feel terrible whether the kid takes it in stride or not and I always try to make amends, but it's something that does unfortunatly happen more often now that we have guns with hypersensitive triggers. The good news though, is that your son has experienced probably the worst thing that can happen to you in paintball and lived, so he should pretty much be unafraid of anything else on the field at this point!

Incidentally, I cannot stress to anyone reading this how important it is for rec players to remember to RAISE THEIR HANDS when getting out of a bunker. If you stand up, you get lit up. When you surrender, RAISE YOUR HANDS. I shoot more dead players on account of them getting up without their hands raised than is even funny.

The guy asked my son if surrendered and my son said yes, put his gun and hands in the air, but the guy lit him up any way.

Do you KNOW he had a hot gun or just think he had a hot gun?

Close up hits sometimes break the skin, and hits to fingers almost always do.

It did suck that your kid got bonus balled, but this ain't checkers, it's paintball, and sometimes, crap happens.

The guys gun was supposedly acting up, he had just bought it off of e bay. The owner, I thought should have forbidden him from using the gun the rest of the day.

[oct31man]

Last weekend I snuck up on a 13 year old who wanted to paintball for his birthday and instead of surrendering he attempted to light me up so I shot him in the neck ( that was luck.) Left a small bruise, didn't break the skin. So then he went whining to his mom and she came over to yell at me, and I pointed out to her that:

1. He wanted to play paint ball with the adults, this is what happens.

2. He didn't surrender when I gave him the chance.

3. I didn't do it on purpose, I'm not that good.

I still got an earful from the mom. And I thought he was a wuss for sending his mommy to yell at the bad man who shot him. I would have had much more respect for him if he came and yelled at me himself. After all, the same mean man that bunkered him loaned him two pods of paint mid game the game before ( he was on my team that game) because it was his birthday.

I think in the future you should let your kid handle it out on the field.

Cuz the rest of the kids that play at my field will gog me and then talk smack to my face in the staging area if they can . :)

My son tried to play it off, but my wife knew something was wrong with him when he came off of the feild. Of course when pressed, my son could not hide it and told her what happened. He's 12 and it was in a tender spot on his neck. He told his story, the guy that shot him hid for a while, instead of handling the situation. There was a regular that saw the whole thing. My son and some younger regulars called the game, the adults joined in after. Does that make it better? I guess my son should have only played games with his party instead of allowing other players in.

[Evil_Wayz]

The guy asked my son if surrendered and my son said yes, put his gun and hands in the air, but the guy lit him up any way.



The guys gun was supposedly acting up, he had just bought it off of e bay. The owner, I thought should have forbidden him from using the gun the rest of the day.

Hmm. That changes things somewhat. Shooting a kid who surrendered is lame. And anytime my gun starts acting weird I take myself out of the game and don't play til I fix it, or use a backup.

[oct31man]

My wife went from wanting to buy both of my sons full gear at christmas, to never wanting them to play again! I of course do not agree with the abandonment of the game, but I will be more cautious of the hardcore players.

[Evil_Wayz]

Does that make it better? I guess my son should have only played games with his party instead of allowing other players in.

OK he didn't break the code of the schoolyard, which makes it better fo rme.

I have mixed feelings on only playing with kids your own age. On the one hand, kids can be really mean to each other where taunting, bunkering and bonus balling are concerned. On the other hand, crazy adults have no business holding anything capable of firing a projectile, especially around kids.

Then again the 10 year old that gogged me with a pump my first day back playing had a really fun time telling his friends how he "totally PWN3D the old guy in the army clothes."

I'd talk to the owner before finding another field. He might have thought the same thing I thought.

[Evil_Wayz]

My wife went from wanting to buy both of my sons full gear at christmas, to never wanting them to play again! I of course do not agree with the abandonment of the game, but I will be more cautious of the hardcore players.

Dude, never take Momma ANYWHERE where she might see her kids get hurt. Doesn't matter if it's jump rope or marbles or paintball, Momma will freak out if her baby gets hurt, whether he's 18 months or 18 years.

[oct31man]

My only beef with the guy was hey come over and show some concern instead of hiding out til things cooled off. He changed his story after producing his own witness, that he suspected my son of wiping and thought he'd teach him a lesson. Which contradicted what his witness said. BTW My son had no evidence that he had wiped and his witness didn't even know us, so had no reason to lie.

I know Mom will always freak out, but Dad don't tolerate his boys getting intentionally hurt by someone that should know better.

We'll be back with out Mom, after we get full body gear! :)

I think this guy (the owner)made a business decision over a safety issue and that doesn't deserve another chance. He admitted this guy is a hot head.

I will go to the closer Field that the owner yells at people that are unsafe. I prefer safe to nice!

[iridespyder]

I'm sorry your family's first paintball experience wasn't a good one. Us paintballers try to treat newcomers of any age respect, and it just looks like you found one of those players that don't respect anybody but themself, but hey, that happens with every sport. If you ever need any help or guidance or gear or what to buy a beginner(your son) feel free to send me a message, I'm on here everyday!

[oct31man]

I'm sorry your family's first paintball experience wasn't a good one. Us paintballers try to treat newcomers of any age respect, and it just looks like you found one of those players that don't respect anybody but themself, but hey, that happens with every sport. If you ever need any help or guidance or gear or what to buy a beginner(your son) feel free to send me a message, I'm on here everyday!

Thanks! We went through almost 3 cases of paint, so it wasn't all bad! I was surprised at the connection I felt with everyone that was there around us at the table area. It was the small group that kept to them selves that finally killed the mood, even for me. We were going to buy another case of paint and stay as late as the stayed open. Oh well, it was just a lesson learned. Don't take for granted that everyone is as cool as the majority of people at a field. There is probably always one guy! :rolleyes:

[Ebonclaw]

Well, hearing a bit more on your side of the story, yeah, that is totally lame. I am glad that you had a pretty good time however. Get the kids some good paintball pants, a decent jersey....and a neck protector......and have some fun! It's good you have other options in your area, including a place where the owner takes everyone's safety seriously.

[Lopez17]

Sorry to hear about the decidedly negative experience. Not all fields are like this. I'd encourage you to seek out a better one where these types of players get booted. These types of players aren't hardcore at all. All the hardcore types I know don't shoot players who have surrendered at all, let alone in the neck. I'm a BIG fan of safety and safe playing environments and hearing stories like this makes me cringe. Especially when fields enable hot head players by not confronting them.

[oct31man]

Sorry to hear about the decidedly negative experience. Not all fields are like this. I'd encourage you to seek out a better one where these types of players get booted. These types of players aren't hardcore at all. All the hardcore types I know don't shoot players who have surrendered at all, let alone in the neck. I'm a BIG fan of safety and safe playing environments and hearing stories like this makes me cringe. Especially when fields enable hot head players by not confronting them.

I stand corrected then. I guess hardcore would be incorrect. let's just call that type of player, lame. :tup:

[Lopez17]

LOL...couldn't agree more! :P

[kyle_p8ntballer]

this should be lots of fun for you and your family. I hope you have fun. I really hope this game will become adicting to i you. have fun