Reading Based Noobie With Dumb Questions

[Sharpe_95]

Hi there,
This is a continuation of an 18 month on and off again desire to get into paintball as a full blown hobby. Since its been a while I thought I would just float a few generic questions out there and see if some kind soul could direct me to answers or informed opinion on any or all of the points below?

1) In terms of woodsball, can I buy my own kit and just rock up on any day to a local paintballing site, or do I have to play on a specific day (are there limits on kit etc)?

2) In terms of Sup-Air, when I last looked it seemed really diffuse in terms of where you can go to get involved. I seem to remember I would have needed to go into London or an hour and a bit round the M25 to partake. Does anyone know of any Sup-Air venues that might have shot up in the Berkshire area in the last year or two (and why are they soooooo hard to come by, surely standard paintball sites/users would enjoy using such a layout)?

3) A weakness of mine is shiny new gear (I simply must have it all). I have been reading a lot about the DYE DAM marker and I am currently considering trading in my wife and child for one. Are there any rules against using this marker in Woodsball/Sup-Air/Walk On Games? I appreciate there may be a few 'you don't want to do that' type responses here, but I would like to focus more on the 'you are not allowed/cant' type response, I will work the rest out later.

4) While I think my preference would be for Sup-Air, I fear it may be something I cant do due to traveling commitments. As such are there such things as 'woodsball' teams/tournaments?

5) I cant remember why or where, but are there now rules about a max rate of fire on markers (12rps?)?

6) Anyone looking for a total noob with no gear and limited idea to join a team in the Reading area? (I hope to be able to address at least one and preferably both issues ASAP).

Thanks in advance for any help/advice/opinion rendered.

-Sharpe

 

[Tom]

1a)In terms of woodsball, can I buy my own kit and just rock up on any day to a local paintballing site
Possibly, depending on the site. But Idealy with your gear you want to attend a walkon
Some sites will let you play with your own gear amongst there standard rental punter players
Look up my 'what paintball costs' thread
This covers the forms of paintball generaly around and shows the savings (or more for your money) that can be obtained

1b)or do I have to play on a specific day
Idealy yes. As above, look up the thread, and then seek out a local site that runs walkons which will probably be monthly

-c) are there limits on kit etc
At walkons etc no. (Unless it's themed / targeted to a style such as pump, mag fed, limited paint
These are not normal restrictions on a walkon but could be preferences of a local crowd

2a) In terms of Sup-Air, when I last looked it seemed really diffuse in terms of where you can go to get involved.

Someone will put up likely venues
There are more around as far as I can see, but havent followed the supair scene
The grass is always greener on the other side. When I began everything seemed to be going on up north, and i was oblivious to what was around local

2b) surely standard paintball sites/users would enjoy using such a layout?
Possibly / probably
However every single woodland site that I'm aware of has a speedball area. Few will have inflatables, many have pallets, tyres, perhaps the giant tubes that were the precursors of sup air
So you can play the style pretty much anywhere
Speedball on an open field with barricades leads to short intense games. For some this is absolutely perfect, for many it gets boring fast, and if you get shot in the first second every game because you're slow off the mark it loses the novelty fast

Inflatables take great levels of resources. Not only the expense of a sip air fields inflatables, but whether you just get inflatables, or a current tournament level setup - and then maintain it every year with new barricades, setting them up in the right layout etc (which attracts tournament teams to train for events, but they need the right layout at the right time
You have to put it up in the morning, top up the air all day, let out air at midday when the sun expands it, take it all down, repair leaks, store it

I just spent the weekend helping with southampton university's paintball clubs fresher taster experience weekend - laser tag tournament paintball!
In less space then a tournament field, without the need for safety netting etc it took 2 hours to set up, up to an hour in the evening and morning again to make it safe from the environment over night , and about 2 hours to pack away
To a paintball site that's in the region of 4 hours wages per day for staff on top of the normal setup and close down

In this case also getting mains electricity into a field. A site would need petrol blowers etc

Some sites can manage to run this kind of setup

3) I have been reading a lot about the DYE DAM marker ...
Are there any rules against using this marker in Woodsball/Sup-Air/Walk On Games?
Punter woodsball - up to the site, but many won't allow electric guns up against rental customers, and may run co2 instead of compressed air which will harm most electric guns
If allowing the equipment they will typically ask you to keep your trigger finger calm
Sup air - no issue. But comply with the site - event rules with the required settings
The 'should'nt' point of view is that fully assembled the dam could be unwieldy for supair. But you can strip down some of the body and keep off the stock

4) As such are there such things as 'woodsball' teams/tournaments?
There are such things as woodland tournaments, such as uwl, but can also mean traveling
In uwl there are teams as in tournaments
There are also teams in non-tournament environments, especially scenario teams. A team could be two people who play together
They are usually mates, and could mates from an area who became paintballers, or even a team spread throughout the country who only ever meet when they play

5) I cant remember why or where, but are there now rules about a max rate of fire on markers (12rps?)?
Not an explicit rule, but almost all events will have a maximum rate of fire

6) Anyone looking for a total noob with no gear and limited idea to join a team in the Reading area?
Possibly .... See who shouts you
Or find somewhere to go and say hi

 

[Tom]

... And if you'd like to see what 'laser tag tournament paintball' is, check out:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/SotonUniPaintballAndAirsoft/?fref=ts

There were over 2000 photos and videos taken of the weekend, so only a fraction is on there so far

 

[Sharpe_95]

Hey all,
Having been looking at a couple of the local paintball sites and I have found the following:

1) You can't use your own paint.
2) IF (stress the if) you can take your own weapon, you can't take your own air tank.

Is this normal? Does it only apply to 'every day punter' type days or does it include walk on's/woods ball events too?

Sorry for the follow up and thanks for your response Tom.

-Sharpe

 

[Tom]

Site paint only is standard for punter sites
Consider it the same as a pub - pub beer only

The primary reason people want to bring their own paint to punter sites is the price paid for paint compared to the Internet prices you find
The markup on paint is the way paintball sites make money. Entry fees go nowhere to cover costs of running a day of paintball, and with the overheads of land and putting everything on site they get customers twice a week, but not every week

Walkons may let you bring your own paint, and events commonly did. More often now it's event paint / trader paint, and is on a par with similarly grade paint on the Internet. This puts the profit margin into the event organiser or traders who turn up

The other factor is condition. Order from else and you have to collect it or pay postage, hope it's not damaged in transit, store it properly etc
Buy on site and they do all the logistics, store it properly and should a bag be damaged etc with breaks take it back

Your own bottle:
It is quite standard for punter sites to require their bottle
With air the owner of the cylinder is responsible for its condition, a sites risk assessment and insurance is likely to cover them for only staff to operate the full station and to do so with only their bottles
If it's air then no problem, if it's co2 then as earlier this restricts your choice of gun
Air safety is highly important, back in my early days there were some true flash fill explosions
Nothing to worry you about if you fill at a steady rate, and don't oil air systems
Search this forum for 'hpa1' and you will find plenty air information

Go to walkons, events etc and you will be allowed your own bottle, and probably let you fill
Ask for a familiarisation on how to fill
Some copies of the hpa1 air safety sheet have added fill instructions, but it's best to familiarise and to be shown propery

The sites you have found may be the big corporate chains with advertising budgets that place then high in search results
Search this forum for 'Google map' and you should find maps showing sites. Compare those to the sites you have found so far

 

[Tom]

Also checkout paintballcalendar.co.uk

It lists all flavours of paintball, tells you what events are going on and also has a map system

It's built by the guy I spent the weekend with, and he's only been involved in paintball half as long as me, so as such an inexperienced amateur ( ;-) ) his paintball passion is getting there but is nothing compared to me!
His passion for student paintball however is off the scale

@cjsoftuk