As I head in, one of my team sprints for the flag and I take control of the building. A horn blows. Game over.
What an experience! I will never forget this and I suggest that everyone try it at least once in his or her life. If you don’t fall in love with it, there has to be something wrong with you.
“That was the biggest rush I’ve had since basic training, 20 years ago,” my dad, James Smith, said.
Courtesy of Matthew Smith and www.warpig.com
Paintballs: Yep. The founders played with the real thing, actual paint goop that took turpentine to dissolve. That’s good for your soft skin and baby-face complexion! According to 64-year-old Nelson Paint , the original paintball supplier, Charles Nelson was the first person to develop a ball of paint that could be shot out of a CO2 marker. Timber cruisers – men who surveyed woodlots and decided how much and what quality timber was available for cutting – used these first paintballs for marking trees. (Nelson still makes oil-based paintballs for timber cruisers.) With names like Chaos, Fury, Anarchy and Upheaval, today’s water-based Nelson balls scrub off with soap and water. Unlike the early versions, these balls are almost perfectly round, and if stored properly, they stay that way.
Headgear: Early players might have worn baseball caps and maybe some protective goggles from the hardware store or just their own glasses. Today, no one – field owner, player, judge, photographer or observer – is allowed on an active field without complete face, ear and, if possible, neck protection. Today’s players wear safety gear designed specifically for paintball, like Raven ’s NVX, an adjustable combo facemask, eyeshade and lens system.
Clothing: Blue jeans, tee shirts and tennis shoes or long sleeve tan work shirts and leather boots were the fashion on early fields. Old clothes were mixed with WW II army surplus woodland camo and tiger stripe from Viet Nam, feeding an early and unfavorable reaction to survival paintball games as militaristic, shabby and lower class. Certainly not a game for respectable families. Then, starting in the early 1980s, entrepreneurs like Jim Crumley (Trebark), Bill Jordan (Realtree and Advantage) and Toxey Haas (Mossy Oak) realized there was a men’s market for boutique camo patterns, primarily in the hunting field. For its first decade, camo was the paintball garment standard. You still see old clothes and camo on the playing fields, but a whole new style has developed for paintball. Radical rap! These days, hot colors and bright, fun patterns are standard on playing fields. JT USA’s Yellow Flame jersey and gloves, special all-purpose shoes with cleats, and black sock hats from Ronin Gear emphasize the development of merchandise for what has become a young person’s market. Ain’t no more shabby chic except at your local rec ball field.
PAINTBALL TIME CAPSULE
Paintball as an individual survival game was based in the socially and politically turbulent ‘70s, but this was also a time of extreme technological innovation. To understand the debate that is the foundation of our game, here is a quick look at some of the background events that shaped it and the men and women who developed it.
| 1970 | Daisy builds first paintball marker for agriculture and forestry purposes. “Cold War” pits U.S. against Soviet Union in nuclear standoff.World Trade Center twin towers are completed in New York City. |
| 1971 | U.S. and South Viet Nam invade Laos. The first microprocessor is available. |
| 1972 | U.S. begins withdrawal from Viet Nam. Watergate scandal begins to overwhelm President Richard Nixon.Apollo 17’s Eugene Cernan is last man to walk on to the moon. |
| 1973 | U.S. Supreme Court rules in the Roe vs. Wade case.Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns. |
| 1974 | Richard Nixon resigns: Gerald Ford sworn in as president.Hank Aaron beats Babe Ruth’s home run record.The first pocket calculators appear. |
| 1975 | Saigon falls to North Viet Nam.The first home computer does not have a screen or printer.Disposable razors are introduced. |
| 1976 | Jimmy Carter becomes president.Apple Computers is launched.VHS VCRs are introduced. |
| 1977 | U.S. turns Panama Canal over to Panama. |
| 1978 | In Jonestown, Guyana, 900 Americans commit suicide.“Garfield the Cat” cartoon is syndicated. |
| 1979 | The Ayatollah Khomeini takes power in Iran.The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan. |
Paintball took off in popularity in the mid-1980s. Economically, those were boom times. The stock market got bullish and stayed that way. Money, happiness and prosperity seemed within the grasp of every citizen. And there was trouble in the Soviet Union’s international worker’s paradise because “The Wall” between East and West Berlin was going to fall this decade, something baby boomers, the children born in the decade immediately following World War II, never thought they would live to see. And almost immediately, our game began to change from an individual survival event to a team-oriented game of paintball.
| 1980 | Ronald Reagan elected to the U.S. presidency.Bill Gates licenses MS-DOS to IBM (for virtually nothing!).The Empire Strikes Back is released. |
| 1981 | First paintball game with Bob Gurnsey , Hayes Noel and Charles Gaines.The disease AIDS is first identified.Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II wounded by assassins.World population is estimated at 4.5 billion. |
| 1982 | Caleb Strong opens the first outdoor paintball field in Rochester, NY.Hayes Noel markets paintball as the National Survival Game (NSG).PMI (Pursuit Marketing, Inc.) becomes first paintball products distributor.Barney Clark receives first artificial heart. |
| 1983 | First NSG National Championships have a $14,000 cash purse.First Canadian paintball field opens in Toronto.Sally Ride is first woman in space aboard Space Shuttle Challenger.U.S. invades Caribbean island of Grenada. |
| 1984 | Called “Skirmish Games,” paintball gets a start in Australia.Caleb Strong opens the first indoor paintball field in Rochester, NY.Paintball as “The Ultimate Challenge” takes hold in England.Ronald Regan is re-elected U.S. president. |
| 1985 | Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of the Soviet Union.Palestinian terrorists hijack Achille Lauro ocean liner. |
| 1986 | Space Shuttle Challenger explodes.Halley’s Comet is visible.U.S. heavily involved in Nicaragua. |
| 1987 | Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister in Great Britain. Severe earthquake rocks Los Angeles. |