Friday, July 14, 2006
Paintball 8 July 2007
Last Saturday, I joined other Kendo club members for a full day of Paintball on Rouse Hill, about an hour’s drive from Central Sydney. Luckily, JH and myself managed to grab a ride from a fellow member and saved our transport money! :D We were the first to arrive and waited for an hour for the others. But the moment we went out of the car, we were back inside within 10 minutes, it was so cold outside! Slowly, everyone arrived and we gathered to fill up our indemnity forms and presented our identification cards to proof that we are 18 to be able to play Paintball. I pick package 2 which came with a standard gun and 600 paintballs for AUD$100 plus standard items like camouflage overalls, thin layer of armour and protection googles. There were different packages to pick and choose to our hearts content, like upgrades of guns, more paintballs and other peripheral accessories as well. Some of the members upgrade their guns which can fired paintballs at 8-10 paintballs every second or purchase as much as 1000 paintballs.
After I’ve paid for the package, I was given a tag to be hung round the neck, this tag can be used to buy drinks, identify the package I pick, buy more bullets etc. and only pay at the end of the day. I was provided with thin armour and camouflage overalls which I just wore over my clothes. And we proceeded for a briefing about the rules of the game and proceeded to collect our ammo which are paintballs (paint in small round thin plastic shells) and our proectection googles. After securing our googles, we went into the area for gun collection. I realized the gun was rather heavy due to the gas tank at the end of the gun. The gun can be quickly reloaded with paintballs rather quickly in an intense battle.
We were lead to our first battleground with plastic air floats with different shapes and sizes. We were split into two teams with red tags and no tags. Each team start from the opposite end of the field and after one whistle is blown the match begins. Every one ran and ducked behind the air floats and start aiming and shooting. I got hit in the head early in the game and was stunned at the impact of the paintball. The pain only went away after 5 to 10 minutes. I will never forget the pain. And if it’s the real impact of a real bullet, it’s no wonder that one can lose consciousness. We played two rounds with this battleground before proceeding to the next one.
The next battleground was littered with many abandoned tree trunks, logs and twigs. And there were oil drums that are markers for the starting point of each team. This time’s operation is to be the first to obtain the other team’s flag. In the middle of the battlefield, there were many zinc wall partitions that are good hiding places to engage on an offensive stance. Some preferred a gung ho style of just dashing towards accomplishing the goal while others approached too cautiously in the first round. After a few rounds of intense battle, I kind of felt that our team (with no tags) are losing because there’s no team cooperation. There’s no leader to give instructions and no strategy to follow. It’s just blind shooting upon sighting a target.
After several rounds of defeat, we proceeded to a battlefield, which is much more interesting and was one of my favourite. This battlefield had many oil drums, abandoned cars and two caravans. That particular mission for that battlefield was for the police to crush a group of drug traffickers who are all inside one of the caravans. As police, we just concentrate on eliminating the people inside the caravan. However, when the roles are switched over. I had to lean really close to the walls of the caravan, and try not to stick my head at the windows and doors or I’ll be bombarded with flying paint!
In the next section, I did better as I begin to hit as least a few opponents. Blue oil barrels that piled up as high as 2 metres and we were warned not to climb on the barrels but only duck in between.
Before long, it was time for a break and lunch. Lunch was a self-service burger. Grabbing a bun and pile up lettuces, tomatoes, cheese and a choice of chicken or steak. Drinks were not provided and had to be on our account.
After the lunch hour, it’s another 3 hour intensive battles with goals that include protecting a medic to obtaining the enemies flag to eliminating everyone.
The final playing field was a large area of forested area with only trees and decomposed logs to give us cover against the enemies who are hiding among the backdrop. We had to start from the bottom with an oil drum as a starting point and had to overcome an upslope before approaching the main area. I had to approach cautiously and slowly as the enemies can spot any movement. However, this round lasted the longest which caused my legs and knees to get tired due to the constant kneeling and crouching. The camouflage overalls blended so well with the backdrop that I had a hard time spotting the enemies. Luckily, I managed to survive the end of the round but my team wasn’t able to win this time.
As everyone’s paintballs were close to reaching zero, our referee declared the final rounds of free play where everyone can shoot anyone, be it a friend or enemy. I suffered the most bruises as many paintballs came flying in my direction on the head, thigh, hands. Multiple impact at once really hurt! The final person standing was Joel, who just kept shooting and kept getting hit till his whole body had many bruises.
Overall, I enjoyed the feeling of “killing” off some people with realism; different feeling altogether as compared to PS2 games. I would like to go again!!
Dreams never come true
10:45 pm
