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Essential Paintball Equipment

Dictionary

What is paintball?

Buying your first gear

General advice

Game types

Requirements for Paintball

This is an easy game to start playing - you just go to a field and rent all the necessary paintball equipment! The requirements are pretty basic: a mask or goggles (made for paintball!), a marker and something to keep your paintballs in (the hopper).

You will also need appropriate clothing, a gameplan and a few other odds and ends. I'll get to all of that in a moment ... First, though, lets go through the basic equipment... This is the essential paintball equipment, although there is a lot of extra gear which you can get at a later stage.

The Goggles

This is easily the most important piece of equipment you need for paintball. It protects your eyes, your face, your ears and your temples. Without a decent set of goggles, paintball would be no fun at all! You can rent a decent set from whatever field you go to, and if you become a regular player you can buy your own set (see buying your first gear).

The Marker

This is also kind of handy to have - without one you would just look silly :-) Markers come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and performance ranges, but they all have one common goal: to eliminate your opponents.

You should be able to rent a perfectly functional marker at the field - it may not have all of the latest "gizmos and gadgets", but it will do the job! And besides, for your first few games you don't want to sit there figuring out how the darn thing works - you just want something that will send out a paintball every time you pull the trigger......

Your marker has two seperate accessories which are improtant for it's operation: the hopper, and your CA bottle.

The Hopper

The hopper is what stores your paintballs. You just attach it to the marker - usually on the top -and the paintballs will drop into the marker as you go along. Simple, really..... I have chosen an image of a transparent hopper (below) so that you can understand how it works....

The CA bottle

This is your air supply, and it "powers" your marker. Without it, you would not be able to shoot any paintballs. Bottles come in a variety of sizes, and can be attached to the marker in a number of different ways, depending on the marker. You don't need to worry about this though, it will be done for you when you hire your paintball equipment.

What to wear

Clothing is an important part of your paintball equipment. When you are first starting out you don't need to worry about spending lots of extra money on clothing just for paintball. This is what you should bring along.....

Comfortable clothing that you don't mind getting dirty
Layers of lightweight clothing rather than one thinck layer (also helps you deal with heat)
Solid footwear that provides good ankle support and traction
Bring dark clothing, preferably with natural colors - black, green or brown
Long sleeves, hats, lightweight gloves and "athletic support" will help you avoid unnecessary pain.

Other things to bring along

Extra cash for more paintballs and CO₂ refills. This varies from field to field, but $25 per person is usually sufficient.
Camera gear (optional)
A set of dry, clean clothes for the ride home
Plastic or garbage bags to put your dirty clothes and shoes in.
A cooler with extra pop, juice or water (NO alcohol!!!!)
Sun screen and bug spray.

That's it! Go out there and have some fun :-)