druid
04-15-2008, 08:33 AM
Two years ago, my [then] 9 year old daughter Elizabeth asked about playing paintball with me. Explaining that she not only needs to be at least 10 years old, I also told her that I didn’t think there were any masks available to fit her petit face. So the following year she turns 10 and continues to ask me to play the game. She’s still very petit and of the 7-or-so masks I own, still none fit her properly. To her dismay, another year must pass because safety gear just won’t fit. As I build, reconstruct, reconfigure, upgrade or simply fool around with markers at home, she’s always asked “can I shoot it?” and I’ve let her. It’s at these times that marker safety and other instructions have been taught, but she’s really never used paint in a marker and never experienced a game first hand.
Well, on Friday night I was setting up to play (on Saturday) and she cornered me to show me her pouting face. Confronted with her pitiful presence (and all my masks splayed out on the bed), I had her try on a few. To my surprise, my old Dye Invisions fit her - perfectly. She ran out to her mother in the living room, squealing with excitement that she has gear that will fit, and her mother rolling her eyes - dreading this very moment. I dug out an old padded vest I had and had her try it on. It’s big on her but it adjusted down to her frame pretty well.
I ran through the basics of the game (not that she hasn’t already heard it a thousand times before), my safety expectations, mannerisms and some tricks and field-craft. Excited to go, I sent her off to bed, that we were leaving at 0830 hours the next day.
Now that I got the gear out to the living room, I dug out my old Dye tourney jersey. Too small for me anymore, I figured it might fit her well enough and it’s padded enough but not bulky…and I thought she could look ‘cool’ in it.
The field is our renegade field on private property. We previously did some reconfigurations of bunkers and bases…and also added safety netting for spectators and those eliminated in the game.
We arrived at the field at about 0900 to get the CO2 and chrono stations up and running and as other players start to trickle in. Chris, the property owner, begins to fill CO2 bottles, as I run the chrono and gun teched for those that needed it. We created a small ‘plinking range’ at the chrono station and gave Lizzie a pod for the Tippmann M98 setup she would be using. The configuration for that marker is an old M98 with gravity hopper, stock barrel (forgot the Progressive for it at home) and a vertical bottle-mount in the front grip. I figured this would be the easiest for her maiden voyage because the setup is fairly well-balanced. Given her small stature, I didn’t want anything too bulky or heavy for her.
The players that attended were several Twsp. Police Officers, a Paramedic, several of us from the Prison, a Federal Correction Officer and several younger players around the age of 14. At any given time of the day, we had around 16 to 18 players on the field. A few times I called out because I wanted to get pics of Elizabeth and others just in general.
I assigned her to stay with me all day but much to my surprise, she’d go off on her own in the mid-games. Never out of my eyesight though, she’d run from bunker to bunker, taking pot shots at opponents like a champ and getting in some eliminations as we went along. At some point in the day, she took 2 shots to the neck, which you will see in the photos. She never cried, never whined, nothing. As a matter of fact, she never whined about being hit at all…lol. In once instance, she and a 14 year-old opponent were the last 2 on the field. Enacting a 10 minute time limit, that gave me the chance to grab some video of the last few minutes. It’s obvious that her 14 year old opponent was playing “cat and mouse” with her and could have rushed her a dozen times over…but that speaks volumes to the ethics learned at out field. The 14 year old wanted to let her have a good time and made that game end in a “draw.” I’ll be getting that video up on PhotoBucket for all you forumers to see.
I’m very proud of how she behaved the entire day. She’s normally a “chatterbox” and just…“girly”…in general but she was undaunted by the running water (a stream to cross), mud, thorns, painful hits and wants to go back the next time we play. She had an awesome time and that’s all I care about. The two of us burned through 3 cases of paint. Nice…twice the paint and air costs and the wife’s now giving me the hairy-eyeball. HAHA!!!
I also ran the new Spitfire board I acquired a few weeks ago (again), this time in actual game-play. It performed flawlessly until I ran out of HPA. Since I refuse to run CO2 through my Ion, I needed to change over to my AutoMag mid-day. Leaving the Spitfire settings at default/semi auto, I got a little more than 3 bags of paint (1500+ shots) out of my 88/45 tank. No one took pics of me using it, but I have pics of me with the Classic Mag near the end of the day.
Pics:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v388/druidsdecendant/Paintball/Gebharts%20April%2012%202008/Loadout2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v388/druidsdecendant/Paintball/Gebharts%20April%2012%202008/Daddy.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v388/druidsdecendant/Paintball/Gebharts%20April%2012%202008/4onDaddy-Notfun.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v388/druidsdecendant/Paintball/Gebharts%20April%2012%202008/4onDaddy-Notfun1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v388/druidsdecendant/Paintball/Gebharts%20April%2012%202008/4onDaddy-Notfun2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v388/druidsdecendant/Paintball/Gebharts%20April%2012%202008/4onDaddy-Notfun3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v388/druidsdecendant/Paintball/Gebharts%20April%2012%202008/4onDaddy-Notfun4.jpg
Well, on Friday night I was setting up to play (on Saturday) and she cornered me to show me her pouting face. Confronted with her pitiful presence (and all my masks splayed out on the bed), I had her try on a few. To my surprise, my old Dye Invisions fit her - perfectly. She ran out to her mother in the living room, squealing with excitement that she has gear that will fit, and her mother rolling her eyes - dreading this very moment. I dug out an old padded vest I had and had her try it on. It’s big on her but it adjusted down to her frame pretty well.
I ran through the basics of the game (not that she hasn’t already heard it a thousand times before), my safety expectations, mannerisms and some tricks and field-craft. Excited to go, I sent her off to bed, that we were leaving at 0830 hours the next day.
Now that I got the gear out to the living room, I dug out my old Dye tourney jersey. Too small for me anymore, I figured it might fit her well enough and it’s padded enough but not bulky…and I thought she could look ‘cool’ in it.
The field is our renegade field on private property. We previously did some reconfigurations of bunkers and bases…and also added safety netting for spectators and those eliminated in the game.
We arrived at the field at about 0900 to get the CO2 and chrono stations up and running and as other players start to trickle in. Chris, the property owner, begins to fill CO2 bottles, as I run the chrono and gun teched for those that needed it. We created a small ‘plinking range’ at the chrono station and gave Lizzie a pod for the Tippmann M98 setup she would be using. The configuration for that marker is an old M98 with gravity hopper, stock barrel (forgot the Progressive for it at home) and a vertical bottle-mount in the front grip. I figured this would be the easiest for her maiden voyage because the setup is fairly well-balanced. Given her small stature, I didn’t want anything too bulky or heavy for her.
The players that attended were several Twsp. Police Officers, a Paramedic, several of us from the Prison, a Federal Correction Officer and several younger players around the age of 14. At any given time of the day, we had around 16 to 18 players on the field. A few times I called out because I wanted to get pics of Elizabeth and others just in general.
I assigned her to stay with me all day but much to my surprise, she’d go off on her own in the mid-games. Never out of my eyesight though, she’d run from bunker to bunker, taking pot shots at opponents like a champ and getting in some eliminations as we went along. At some point in the day, she took 2 shots to the neck, which you will see in the photos. She never cried, never whined, nothing. As a matter of fact, she never whined about being hit at all…lol. In once instance, she and a 14 year-old opponent were the last 2 on the field. Enacting a 10 minute time limit, that gave me the chance to grab some video of the last few minutes. It’s obvious that her 14 year old opponent was playing “cat and mouse” with her and could have rushed her a dozen times over…but that speaks volumes to the ethics learned at out field. The 14 year old wanted to let her have a good time and made that game end in a “draw.” I’ll be getting that video up on PhotoBucket for all you forumers to see.
I’m very proud of how she behaved the entire day. She’s normally a “chatterbox” and just…“girly”…in general but she was undaunted by the running water (a stream to cross), mud, thorns, painful hits and wants to go back the next time we play. She had an awesome time and that’s all I care about. The two of us burned through 3 cases of paint. Nice…twice the paint and air costs and the wife’s now giving me the hairy-eyeball. HAHA!!!
I also ran the new Spitfire board I acquired a few weeks ago (again), this time in actual game-play. It performed flawlessly until I ran out of HPA. Since I refuse to run CO2 through my Ion, I needed to change over to my AutoMag mid-day. Leaving the Spitfire settings at default/semi auto, I got a little more than 3 bags of paint (1500+ shots) out of my 88/45 tank. No one took pics of me using it, but I have pics of me with the Classic Mag near the end of the day.
Pics:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v388/druidsdecendant/Paintball/Gebharts%20April%2012%202008/Loadout2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v388/druidsdecendant/Paintball/Gebharts%20April%2012%202008/Daddy.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v388/druidsdecendant/Paintball/Gebharts%20April%2012%202008/4onDaddy-Notfun.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v388/druidsdecendant/Paintball/Gebharts%20April%2012%202008/4onDaddy-Notfun1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v388/druidsdecendant/Paintball/Gebharts%20April%2012%202008/4onDaddy-Notfun2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v388/druidsdecendant/Paintball/Gebharts%20April%2012%202008/4onDaddy-Notfun3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v388/druidsdecendant/Paintball/Gebharts%20April%2012%202008/4onDaddy-Notfun4.jpg