I’ve updated my calendar of scenario dates.  Simply click on “US Tour 2008″ under links to see my Google Calendar.  I still have some dates open, especially in the summer months.  If you’re a field or producer and you’d like me to cover your event or write about a walk-on day at your field, contact me before my 2008 is completely booked.

Ah, summer camp – the fond memories of canoeing, eating cafeteria food, and singing around the campfire. I also recall gluing popsicle sticks together at arts and crafts time and playing embarrassing games designed to establish a bond of mutual humiliation between the campers. This summer, instead of learning more camp songs, why not hone your skills at paintball camp instead? My local paintball field, Line-of-Fire brings in a celebrity staff of paintball instructors each summer for their annual paintball camp. Anyone who has aspired to improve in a sport knows that game after game of trial-and-error isn’t the best way to learn any skill, but focused instruction by knowledgeable experts will put your game on the right path.
While some paintball camps require extensive travel and expensive accommodations, the Line-of-Fire camp brings top notch instruction to a convenient location. If you want to learn from the best, you can hardly go wrong with the teachers at Line-of-Fire’s camp. Mike Paxson of the world champion LA Ironmen brings tournament experience from the highest levels in the game. His wife, Bea Youngs-Paxson, is the editor-in-chief of Paintball Sports Magazine and brings a paintball pedigree as long as any in the sport. The third instructor, Rocky Cagnoni, was paintball’s first “rock star” player, and he knows the game inside and out. Together they teach everything from paintball fundamentals to the advanced techniques developed from years of playing at the professional level.
Line-of-Fire opens their camp to players of all ages and skill levels. Whether you play for a local tournament squad or you’ve just started in the sport, you can benefit from expert instruction. Campers should expect two days filled with activities and drills, and plenty of fun games to keep things light. Each day’s session begins with some stretching routines followed by activities geared towards the specific needs of those attending. The instructors cover game fundamentals such as breaking out, snap shooting, laning, gunning on the run, and formulating a game plan. They’ll also teach the aspects of paintball that you may have thought of as basics but are actually crucial skills that need to be developed to play the game at the highest level. Expect to learn proper body positioning, the best way to hold your marker to shoot accurately while keeping your profile as small as possible, and how best to reload given the fast pace of today’s tournament games.
Paintball isn’t only about on-field skills, and the Line-of-Fire’s friendly camp counselors are ready to meet those needs as well. They teach tech classes on how to care for and repairs some of the most popular paintball guns on the market. Players who fully understand their gear perform better on the field.
Following a second day of drills, instruction, and scrimmages, the camp culminates with a big meal, allowing campers and teachers alike to cement the friendships formed along the way. In the past they’ve also been treated to photo and video presentations documenting the campers’ accomplishments. There will also be plenty of opportunity for autographs or individualized instruction time with the celebrity instructors, and by the end of the experience, the campers will have gotten to know those top players as more than faces in a magazine or on television. Space in the camp is limited, and the chance to learn from the best is one that doesn’t come around very often, so make your arrangements now.

I’ve added a link to my events calendar, which is quickly filling. It’s looking like I’ll be playing 20-24 scenarios in 2008, so look for me at a field near you.

Adventure Beach Paintball is a fine field on the east coast. Located in the southeastern corner of North Carolina, ABP has an amazing town field, plenty of excellent woods, some forts, a cool pyramid, and a home team, Shadow Group, with great vision and sportsmanship. I’ll be attending a charity scenario game there on January 26th. They’re offering reasonable prices for registration, BYOP or three grades of field paint at nice prices, and a full day of scenario action. Teams within driving distance should definitely plan to attend. If you’ve never played a game at Adventure Beach, you’re missing a field that’s already fun but that also has incredible potential. They’re hosting an MPP game this year, which should draw some teams, but those same squads would be wise to learn the terrain by playing the charity scenario in a couple of weeks. Check out www.abspaintball.com for more details and directions.

I’m on a quest for 2008, to find the ultimate scenario marker. It’s looking like I’ll be playing 24-30 events this year, and with a packed schedule like that, I want to have a gun that functions as close to perfectly as a paintball gun can. If you’ve read my articles on paintball road trips, you’ve seen the gun collection I take to games. If I’m flying I’ll take a single marker, but if I have the luxury of the trunk of my ‘94 Civic, I’ll haul a stash of guns - a primary, a back up, and a pump. While I like all the guns I’m using now, I’d like to pick a new primary marker that meets all my personal criteria the best gun to shoot at a scenario game.

Those criteria are:

• Weight. If I’m going to lug something around for six hours straight, it needs to be light. I have owned some heavy guns, and while some of these are really fun for their mil-sim fantasy look, if I’m playing for an extended period, I want a gun that doesn’t weigh my arm down. I like hanging out in the camping area, but now when the game’s underway. That’s when I need to be on the field making things happen.
• Accuracy. Stick a good barrel on most high end guns and they’re accurate, but scenario games don’t always offer the best in paint choices. Sometimes you luck out with great paint (I’ve shot Russian Legion at a scenario!) and sometimes you get summer fill white box in the dead of winter. My ultimate scenario gun will handle crappy paint with reasonable accuracy, and when I put great paint through it, it’ll be dead on.
• Air Efficiency. Again, I don’t like coming off the field. When I’m eliminated, I head for the insertion zone to renegotiate the situation, and trips to the air fill station slow me down. The ultimate scenario gun is going to shoot close to a case of paint on a tank fill.
• Nimble. It’s hard to quantify, but the best paintball guns are nimble shooting machines that make gun fighting easy. Of course I would rather find angles and shoot everyone in the side, but too many times to get those angles it comes down to a one-on-one with the player who’s in the spot where I want to be. A great gun spits paint with speed (when that’s needed) and makes snap shooting a breeze.
• Reliability.  Simply put, the last thing I want to worry about on the field is whether I’m going to have to sit out and fix my gun.  Of course I carry a backup (and a backup for the backup), but the ultimate scenario gun isn’t going to let me down.

I’ve shot most everything out there, and I have a short list of possible contenders for the title. I’ll try a few out and make a decision in the next month or so, in time for the full slate of games I’m playing this year.

Why don’t you weigh in with your opinion? Give me some advice. What’s the ultimate scenario marker? You can assume any budget (although I’m as cheap as they come). Give me some feedback people.

I rolled out this morning with a Google map in my hand and adventure on my mind.  I used pbreview to search for fields within 100 miles of my house, found a few, then decided to try one out.  After stuffing the Civic with gear enough for any type of game, I first drove to Premier Paintball Park (P3) in Fort Mill, South Carolina.  Here’s what I found.

There are few things as sad as a defunct paintball field.  Where’s the 40 bunker X-Ball field?  Where the “attack the fort scenario?”  Crap.  I can only speculate as to why a field as nice as the pictures on the website would go under in such a short time, but dang it people - support your local paintball field!

My next stop, Palmetto Hills Paintball.  This is an interesting one.  It’s honestly a three minute drive from one of the premier tournament facilities on the east coast, Paintball Central.  Home of the now defunct Baltimore Trauma and Carolina Gridlock programs, Paintball Central is a smooth, professionally-run field.  Palmetto Hills brings an entirely different vibe, and it has its pros and cons.

The Cons

• If you want to buy all day air, you have to do it at the beginning of the day, otherwise they’ll charge you by the fill.  Huh?  So if I arrive with 2K in my tank, play a game, then decide I want to stay and get all day air, it’s no dice - pay up by the fill?  Bizarro.
• The fields.  They have a packed airball field, a fort field with some woods,  and a few other courses.  Imagine throwing some pallets on a par three golf course.  If you can picture that, you have it to a T.

• Safety.  I don’t like being the narc, but I will not let some kid walk around a shootout with his goggles off.  I was never asked to sign a waiver; the refs dress in jeans and hoodies so they look like players, and they typically stand to the side and quietly observe the action.  I couldn’t tell any specific goggles-on area on the property, and it seemed to be okey-dokey to blast off a few shots no matter where you might be.  In one game I tagged a kid in the forehead - one shot, right in the middle.  He yells something, rips off his mask, throws it on the ground, and boots it across the grass.  Safety?

The Pros

• Price.  $7 field fee, $6 all day air.  BYOP or buy it.  As I heard the owner say, “You get what you pay for.”  So, the field may not be the prettiest, but it’s inexpensive.
• The Players.  You can have a lousy set of bunkers and still have a fun game with the right players.  Aside from the temper tantrum kid, the players at Palmetto Hills were a swell bunch.  They also knew the aspects of the layout that weren’t immediately apparent.  What I saw as a set of pallets in tall grass turned out to be a land bridge with hidden creek beds that allowed me to flank the other team - super fun and unexpected.
• The Fields.  Despite decrepit bunkers and brambles, the fields actually played pretty well.  The sparse cover made for some exciting dashes, and the good attitudes kept the games fun.  Not safe, but fun.

Overall, I wouldn’t bring my kid for safety reasons, but it’s fun to mix things up now and then.   And I also took this artsy photo between games.

The Blue Balls of Palmetto Hills

I’m already booking my 2008 calendar of events.  If you’d like me to play and cover your scenario or recreational event, or if you’d like me to show up for a day of walk-on play at your local field, contact me at jason@blackcatpaintball.com.  I typically hit 30-36 events a year, so contact me early to get your event on the calendar.  I’m based out of North Carolina, but I travel coast to coast for the greatest paintball adventures.

I’m looking forward to meeting new teams at some of the best games in the country in 2008.  If you see me at an event, say hello.

See you in the middle,

foolybear

Here’s a picture taken of me at the Halo 3 game - photo by Splatshots.  This was taken during the first half of the game as I led a charge across this bridge to take out the human defenders set up around some bombs we (the Covenant) had to disarm.  The humans finished the round 200 points in the lead, but the Covenant came back to kick some butt in the second half.

I’ve just returned from a really fun game, Line-of-Fire’s Halo 3, which was actually their fourth Halo game. I know, these Halo games are a dime a dozen, but this one really stood out from the crowd. For one, they built a real, working, awesome, insert adjective here, Warthog. Take a look at the pictures. This thing handled like the video game vehicle (only not so much air time) and it featured a mounted gun on the back - the .50 turret. The game also had a couple of guys dressed as Spartans in the full armor getup, an amazing double barrel Spankr rocket launcher, and a set of missions written to follow the plot of the newest Halo installment. I hate to break it to you humans, but the Covenant emerged victorious and destroyed the galaxy. Sorry ’bout that.

Spankr and ammo

Master Chief, Warthog, and Spankr

Wartog Turret Gun

I had the privilege recently of playing some rec’ ball with Bea Youngs Paxson, Mike Paxson, and Rocky Cagnoni.  The photographer at the field (Line-of-Fire in North Carolina) took this picture immediately after Bea shot me out.  Hey, it was down to a three-on-one, and I held them off until Bea made her move.