Oregon or Bust: Hosking Field

All I can say about my October trip is WOW!  First I was in Colorado paintballing one Saturday and then the next thing I know, I am paintballing the following weekend in Oregon.  If you are keeping up with my blog entries, you read that I paintballed at Dynamic Paintball Park in Aurora, Colorado on October 16.  On Friday October 22, I flew from Colorado to Oregon to part take in a Big Game at Hosking Field in Lebanon.  The original plan called on my fellow paintballers Leslie Ireland and Chris Cotilla to pick me up from the airport, then we would drive together to the field and camp out for the weekend.  Unfortunately Chris had knee surgery the week before, so Leslie had to take care of him.  In jumps Donnie McFarlin (Spike) to the rescue!  Leslie spoke with Spike and he was awesome enough to not only pick me up from the airport but also provide lodging in his house located about 5 minutes from the field.  FYI, his fiancée Kristen makes a mean ass spaghetti and meatball dinner.

Hosking Field is located in somebody’s back yard; literally.  Gijsbertus Eikelenboom or "Gijst" owns the land and lets Charles Allen of TAW Scenarios put on games on his property.  The size of the paintball playing field is 120+ acres.  That is nearly the same as SC Village here in So Cal.  On the field are a small castle, 2 dugout bunkers, a boat, a truck, an outhouse, a city, trench line, and a forest.  The cool thing about fighting in the forest is the wild blackberry patches.  If you find yourself waiting for the fight to come to your hideout or you’re trying to get around the other teams six, pick a few berries for a yummy snack (but always keep your facemask on!).  For Saturday, there were about 50 people in attendance.  Unfortunately during the night, the rain and wind swept some people back home before the start of Sunday’s game.  Sunday’s attendance was roughly 35 players who didn’t mind the rain and wind.  I was not part of that group for half the time though.  I chickened out as soon as it started raining because I didn’t want to get my DM10 wet and ruined in the process of playing.  Say what you want, but I if I had my Ion it would have been a different story.

For both days of game play, Damien was the man assigning missions to both teams.  This was not going to be like the other Scenario games I have been to where a General gives out the missions.  This game was going to be played with both teams taking turns attacking or defending a certain location.  Or both teams attempting to accomplish the same objective while thwarting the opposing team in the process.  The most fun seemed to be when Damien had us all concentrated in the city playing speedball.  6 buildings, 50 players, and unlimited re-spawns until Damien yelled out “Elimination!”  Once he yelled out Elimination, the players could not re-spawn once hit.  One of the cool advances a player made that Damien and I commented on was by Timberghost of Cascade Commandos Scenario Team.  He was able to move from his start point to the second middle building without being hit.  Outside the structure were three opposing players and another opposing player inside.  Timber used CQB techniques and cleared the inside player out.  From inside the structure, he was able to take a couple of other players out who were behind another building.  The opposing members outside the building had no idea that Timber was inside picking people off.  Once Timber made it outside, both sides became aware that the building was a HOT bunker and could only be cleared by a suicide run.  Red team had a couple of players attempt to remove Timber.  They made it, but Timber was able to eliminate both players as well.  The money shot I saw was also at the same structure.  After Timber was eliminated; a young women ran up and retook the building for yellow team.  As she is firing to her right, a Red player advanced up and saw a shot all of us could only dream about.   One shot to the distracted players back landed squarely on her spinal column.  In the end, Yellow Team was able to clear Red team out and control the city.

As I said before, it rained Sunday and I think Mother Nature was playing games on us that day. Normally I don’t mind playing in the rain but this was the first time I've played in Oregon when it rained.  The morning was more drizzle than rain and somehow we almost had clear skies.  I was able to play for an hour at most before the rain really began to fall.  After that I treated my paintball marker like my “Precious” and packed it in.  The fun part about paintballing in the rain that I saw, were the puffs of air coming from the markers.  No matter if a player was running on CO2 or HPA, every time someone fired you could see the marker puff a small cloud of air with every shot.  With the rain coming down harder, everyone started firing as fast as possible.  As the rain slowed, people’s rate of fire slowed with it.  Once everyone had walked off and Damien was doing his closing speech, the rain decided to stop and the sun shined down again.  Some of us took a look up at the sky and just shook our heads in disbelief.

With that, my trip came to an end and I had to fly back to the OC Monday morning.  Oregon was a great trip aside from Mother Nature laughing at us.  I got to meet new people and reconnect with others I met the previous year; Russ Griffin of Reaper Army, James Waldroupe a fellow Denver Broncos fan, Xander Eikelenboom a great paintball medic, "Lil D", his dad Joel, and the Fuesler Family. The ones I missed slinging paint with were Leslie and Chris, Spike on a paintball sabbatical, and Robert of Team Side of Beef.  My thanks also go out to Charles “Damien” and Nikki “Twofishes” of TAW Scenarios for making it all happen.  I also want to give a shout out to Gijst for letting paintball players run around on his property shooting each other up and snacking on the blackberries.  So if you are ever interested in paintballing at Hosking Field, check out the TAW website because Charles has the date of the games setup for 2011.  As for me, I have to be ready in December for my first time as a General for a scenario game in Oroville, California.  Ready or not, Game On and I hope to see you in the middle.

Internet Links:

http://www.hoskingfield.com/HoskingMainPage.htm

http://www.facebook.com/reqs.php#!/taw.scenarios
http://www.tawpaintball.com/

Colorado: Dynamic Paintball Park

For those of you following my paintball adventures, you can now mark Colorado as being half way done.  I visited Dynamic Paintball Park in Aurora, Colorado on Oct. 16 and spent all day playing.  For this adventure, I took two of my cousins; Alex and Nathan Moss.  Also tagging along was my uncle Buck (Civilian Observer).  For this day of paintballing, I chose to shoot my DYE DM10 marker while Nathan used the Smart Parts Ion I also packed along for this trip.  Alex used the Smart Parts Ion XE that the field rents out to all its players using rentals.

Dynamic Paintball Park is located approximately 45 minutes east of Denver and near Buckland Air Force Base.  I would consider this field to be perfect for those just getting into paintball and small group gatherings (birthday, scouts, company, etc).  For those of you who paintball at SC Village in Chino, CA; the size of this field is about the same as the Bosnia map.  It’s one large field divided into quarters by imaginary lines in the dirt.  The park does have two speedball fields for those looking for a little faster paced game as well.  Entry is $10 for those with your own equipment and all day air is included.  Rentals cost $15 plus entry.  Included in the rentals are an electronic marker, so newbies can have nearly the same advantage as those with their own markers.  They are a Field Paint only field but the prices are decent ($60 for a case of 2000) compared to other FPO fields.  The paintballs sold are Draxxus Field Paint by Pro-Caps, of which I am not a big fan.  I broke about a dozen rounds in the barrel of the DM10 throughout the day.  Look on their website for monthly specials: www.dynamicpaintball.com to see when their next big game or tournament is scheduled.  When I went, entry was only $5 for all players (before 11:30am) and a case of paintballs was only $50.

Some people would think playing on one field would get a little boring after awhile, but I found that not to be so when I played.  They played your basic elimination game,  President, and Center Flag Capture.  A new game I was introduced to was Alamo.  Rules for this game are; 4 attackers to start and everybody else has to defend a pre-designated area and may not leave that area (the Alamo).  Once a defender is eliminated by an attacker, that player must reinsert as an attacker at the attackers start point.  The attacker must take the Alamo and is allowed to respawn as many times as needed in order to finish the game.  On a side note; I was an attacker during one of the Alamo games and may have inadvertently shot my Uncle as he was taking pictures of his grand kids.  Whoops, my bad.  In my defense, I was trying to shoot the opponent who took refuge near where he was standing.  Now my mom is mad at me after she heard what happened.

The paintball day ended with the President game.  The whole field was in play and both teams designated a President they had to protect.  The Presidents were armed this time around.  Goal is for either team to kill the other team’s President or get their President to the opposing team’s start point before the 20min time limit ran out.  I went solo along the left side of the field while everyone else on my team went to the right or center.  The other team sent two people to their right (opposite me) and the rest took defensive positions near their President.  Both the opponents engaged me and I was only able to eliminate one of them.  By some miracle, the second player who was trying to make a move on my position, was shot out by one of his own teammates who was a little trigger happy.  This left the whole left side unprotected and open for me to advance and pick off players as I came up behind them.  Lots of “where did that come from” and “What the???” could be heard from the eliminated players as they were hit.  Soon our team pulled in closer to where the opposing team’s President was hiding and kept pelting his hideout with paint.  Unfortunately for their President, his hideout had a big enough opening between the logs that I was able to rush the opening and yell for his surrender.  By this time, the rest of my side converged on the hideout as well and just kept firing at the log building so I could not hear if he had  surrendered.  So, as I have done before when offering a player a chance to surrender, I yell out “surrender, surrender”.  If that player made a move I perceived as a  threat, I would then give them a ball in their pod pack.  However, this player did not have a pod pack and started making a move from the prone position I found him in.  So I gave him a shot to his right butt cheek.  First time I ever heard anybody yelp from a shot to the butt.  After that the Ref called the game and I did apologize to the player for taking a close shot.  His friends however were laughing it up and offered me congratulations for making the kill.

I still feel bad for shooting the player from so close a range and for possibly shooting my Uncle on accident.  The staff at Dynamic Paintball were friendly and pretty cool to talk with.  One of the Ref’s, Aaron, moved out from Oceanside recently and returned home to Colorado a couple of months ago.  We got to chatting about what paintball fields in Southern California we liked and why.  Bob, one of the two owners of the store and field was pretty cool, complimented me on the way I play and liked my attitude.  He was a little surprised to see me play all day, seeing as groups of people showed up and left throughout the day.  James worked the back counter and helped with the air fills and taking players money for entry and paint.  He even diagnosed why one of my air tanks was leaking and fixed it for me.  “B”, was a cool Ref and kept the players happy with different ways of playing the game.  Thanks for introducing me to the Alamo game “B”.  So besides the sore feet and a few bruises I’ll be taking with me back to California via Oregon this week, I will also be taking back with me the fun experience I had at Dynamic Paintball Park.  Thanks to everyone at Dynamic Paintball and I hope to see you in the middle sometime soon.  Next stop is Lebanon, Oregon October 22 - 24.

Internet Link:
http://www.dynamicpaintball.com/

Herbies Paintball Park

On September 10, I traveled to Fernley, Nevada for a TAW Scenarios game at Herbies Paintball Park titled Starship Troopers: Always Bet on Aces.  This trip had me catching a Southwest flight from LAX to Reno and crossing my fingers that I would not have to pay an overweight bag fee.  The NXE paintball gear bag came in at 47lbs (50lbs pays $25) with all my gear that was neatly packed.  Once in Reno, I had to cross my fingers again because Thrifty Car Rentals had a rule of not taking my bank issued temporary bank card.  With a BofA rep on the phone, the Thrifty manager was able to complete the transaction after getting confirmation that the card was good and not stolen.  After that adventure, I found my way to Herbies to walk the field.

Herbies Paintball Park, about 5 minutes south of Fernley almost looked like Planet P from the movie Starship Troopers; high desert region with hills and no brush for cover.  This paintball fight was going to be an uphill for battle for both teams both Saturday and Sunday.  One CP was located up top and the other was located down bottom.  The elevation difference between the two was 180ft.  The terrain allowed both teams to see where each army was going due to the unobstructed view.  Areas of the field were split with 5ft berms that consisted of soft fine dirt (not great for high end markers) and the legendary attack rocks mentioned on the forums.

The Generals for this game were Fridaddy of Team Lockdown (Ace’s Army) and Shadow of Team Shadow Path (Rico’s Roughnecks).  Ace’s Army started at the bottom CP and Rico’s had the top CP.  The game brought a couple of changes that Damien of Taw Scenarios decided to throw into the mix.  Our lone player from Oregon, Spike, was given the role of a Bug and he was immortal.  This meant he could fight both armies and not have to tag back in at a flag station when hit and could keep playing until he ran out of paintballs, air, or couldn’t take anymore hits; whichever came first.  Damien also selected a few players to play the part of the Federation and initially play with Rico’s Roughnecks but switch sides when Damien gave the order.  3 armies, 1 with no allegiance to either, and a lone Bug on a paintball field made for a fun two day affair.  The Saturday night game saw about 40 participants go out into the night while some of us watched the movie Starship Troopers that The B-Team setup at the staging area.

Sunday was the last day of battle.  This time our army (Ace’s) was on top of the hill and Rico’s army was on the bottom.  The Bug was still giving both teams a huge hassle and the Federation army joined back with Rico’s Roughnecks after shooting a few of us in the back.  The strangest activity some of us saw, were both Generals and Damien held a Tea party in the middle of the field while players were still shooting at each other.  When asked why they chose to hold a tea party in the middle of the field they replied, "just to have fun and see what the players would do, shoot at them or around them."  Before the final battle, Ace’s army held the advantage in points but it was still anybody’s game.  This battle saw Spike join Ace’s army and still carry his immortal role.  Damien then had a player dressed as Waldo be the immortal for Rico’s army.  During the final battle, a Stonecutterz member of Rico’s army took cover in a tire that was just beyond the 50yrd mark and flattened himself inside waiting for time to expire.  This move allowed Rico’s army to gain the points needed to snatch victory away from Fridaddy’s hand for the weekend.

Shhhh!  Don't wake Alpha

Gosh darn it I had a lot of fun that weekend.  It was awesome for Alpha and his lovely wife Ladi Di to allow Spike and I to use their area as our staging center.  All it cost us was a jar of Cheese Puffs from Walmart and two coffees from McDonalds.  As usual the Stonecutterz played a great game and went home with Team MVP for Rico's army and The B-Team took the same MVP award representing Ace's army.  So that's what took place Sept. 10 through the 12 in lovely Fernley.  I can't wait for next years game but I have to get ready for October where I'll be in Colorado paintballing and then Oregon for another TAW Scenarios event.  So to everyone out there reading this, I'll see you in the middle.

Internet Link:
http://www.herbiespaintball.com/


Sorry this entry is soooo late!
Chrisassin

Game on!

So my adventure of traveling to 100 paintball fields in the 50 States has officially started with Decay of Nations 4: World Pandemic, at SC Village in Chino, California. The biggest scenario game on the West Coast happened August 22-23 and consisted of over 750 paintballers playing for either the Ekron Corporation or UNA Army. Also running with the paintball players were 5 tanks that could either carry troops or fire on enemy positions with their own guns. The game organizers had invited Charles Allen of TAW Scenarios (UNA Army) and Ben Torecelli of Millennium Paintball Productions (Ekron Army) to be the Generals for this event.

The storyline for the game was Ekron was looking to build WMD’s and unleash it on the UNA army. UNA’s job was to find the WMD’s before Ekron and beat back the Ekron army once again. My team Foxhound Ops was running with the UNA army that weekend. With more than half of the paintball fields reserved for the game and their boundary tapes lowered, we found ourselves going into areas that were unfamiliar to us because some of the fields had not been used in a long time. These areas were filled with overgrown plants and small pathways in which to maneuver. This offered plenty of cover for both armies to launch ambushes and to also get lost within each other’s lines of advance. Occasionally we would find ourselves going in circles if we weren’t careful. The Generals had us run missions ranging from patrolling certain areas, retrieving intel, finding props and bringing them back, holding flag stations, to the fun mission of blowing up the opposing team’s CP (Command Post) with their General inside.

Both days ended with a Blender/Bloodbath type battle with both teams on one single field with the main objective of overrunning the opposing teams start point. Saturdays Blender saw the UNA push hard and taking the field away from Ekron after a 20 minute fire fight. Sundays Blender had both armies shooting it out in the city of Beirut. For every building gained by either team, another was lost. This game lasted more than 30 minutes with no team having the advantage. In the end, as both teams came off the field and waited for the results of the game; Team UNA was able to pull out a win by having the advantage of having blown up Ekron’s CP one more time than Ekron.

Although the game started on Saturday later than I like, I did have fun both days. I got to sleep at a teammate’s house and eat some awesome food. Bartered with the same teammate with our gear (1yr old Rotor for a 48/4500 air tank). My new Dye DM10 was called sexy by a handful of people who saw it. It also fired flawlessly. First time in a while that our whole team showed up and played together, it was great to see them and catch up. All in all, it was an awesome paintball filled weekend even if I did have to come home with a few bruises and sore muscles. So as I write this, I now have to get ready to pack and fly out to Reno in September for another scenario game that Charles is producing at Herbie’s Paintball Park in Fernley, NV. Starship Trooper: Always bet on Aces, ready or not here I come!

New Paintball Marker...Yeah!

I did it! I have found and bought my new paintball marker that will be traveling with me across America for the next few years. After much research on various paintball forums and feedback from my fellow paintball players, I was down to two choices. The 2010 Eclipse Ego or the DYE DM10. I decided to purchase the DYE DM10 with Bombardier graphics. This marker is lighter than my Ions and more professional grade type of marker. It will also allow me to shoot up to 33bps (balls per second) if I program it correctly. I also purchased from Maxon Paintball Shop, a new carbon fiber wrapped 50ci/45psi air tank. Although this tank is smaller than my 68ci/45psi air tank; this shorter tank will allow me to hold the marker against my chest as I pull the trigger without adding a drop forward to the marker. I can't wait to shoot it!

In two weeks time, I'll be at Decay of Nations 4 at SC Village in Chino, CA kicking off my adventure. Check back here for details of the fun I'll be having the weekend of August 21 through 22. Remember to play safe, don't wipe, and have FUN this Summer paintballing. Until next time, I hope to meet you in the middle.


More pics of my DM10:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=73600&id=1409744371&l=a912d026ec

Really?!

Yes really! I know it sounds crazy and may not measure up to the 13 year old who summited Everest or the 17 year old making a solo sailing trip around the world this year, but it's something I first thought about in the summer of 2008. Two years ago, my parents took our family out to Hawaii as Christmas gift. During this trip I had a chance to paintball for a couple of hours at Paintball Heaven in Hilo, Hawaii. Once back on the mainland, I thought how fun it would be if I could paintball in Hawaii again. The thought did not last long and retreated to the back of my mind.

During the last two years since returning from Hawaii, I have been going out to the field (SC Village) and getting to know some people. I joined the Foxhound Ops. team in the winter of 2008. After joining this team, I have traveled with them to Northern California and Oregon for different paintball games and have made great friends along the way. In May of this year, after paintballing again in Northern CA something clicked in my head. "If I could do something fun that I enjoy and make it a better experience for me what could I do?" Paintballing in Hawaii returned from the archives and into my thoughts. "Hawaii was fun lets add another state to that." Soon another state was added, another, another, and another. The end product is me visiting all 50 States and picking two paintball fields to play at in each state. Why all 50? Because I remember my Dad doing a trip to all 50 States and hiking in each of them. So if he can do it, I could do it also.

Some of you may be asking, why now Chris? I am doing this now, because I want to do it now and I have no excuse not to try and do it. I want to do something I do not believe anybody else has done yet. Plus, like it or not I am not getting any younger. I will still be living and working in Orange County (I can't fly or play for free) during this adventure. The plan is to save enough through out the months and take one or two day trips out to each state and go paintballing. So if your are interested in my adventures I invite you to follow me through this blog where I will be updating you all on what is going to happen, where, when, and how it ended.

If you want to make a field recommendation please email me or contact me on Facebook with your ideas. Thanks and I'll meet you in the middle.