The full scenario style of play with replica markers & military style camo doesn't appeal to me either, however there's no requirement to goto that extreme when playing woodland tournaments, although camo tends to be a good idea simply for obscuring movement, rather than for militaristic posing.
I think you're giving sup air far more credit than it deserves. It's nothing like a sport, despite the best efforts of the industry for 10 years. In the eyes of the non-playing masses, it's still people playing soldiers, regardless of the gaudy colour schemes and bouncy castles. A gun is still a gun to the man in the street.
There is also bugger all glamour in sup air. No matter how awesome the PBfashion videos may make HB look, for 99% of us it's still a muddy field early on a Sunday morning followed by aching limbs and welts - zero glamour, just like woodsball.
It's time to accept that paintball will never be mainstream, it will never have widespread TV coverage and it's not a sport.
As others have pointed out I'd also disagree that a return to the woods would harm the sport. There were lots more tournaments back in the early 90s than there are today and it was far easier to attract new blood - after a punter day it's an easy transition to a woodland tournament, you're playing the same style of game. Moving from punter day to sup air is like moving from rugby to football, different rules, different pace, different equipment.
People dont seem to read my posts, simply pick up key words and make up the rest
Its not
taking glamour in a literal sense, we aren’t all going round with supermodels on our arms, its the idea and image that is everything, and yes HK and various others push this image of a hard athletic grind followed by nights of partying etc etc that the glamour that attracts young people. You said it perfectly with this quote
“zero glamour, just like woodsball.” there is no glamour in woodsball, none of that high adrenaline, fancy jersey wanting to be a badass on the field style and image that attracts young players (there is from certain players perspectives but its far easier to sell the image of sup‘air at HB than running around the woods). I’m not saying that the sole reason for people to come and play paintball, but that image is a big factor, I work at a paintball site and when young teens come up to me asking how to get into paintball I “sell” them this image, and they are capsulated by it. Its something new and alternative to the mainstream, looking back at the woods deflating our bouncy castles wont help the sport of paintball. Im not going to get into this Sport/not a sport debate right now, because we would go on forever, but lets consider it one for the purpose of this debate, the idea of getting officially recognised which it was so close to doing, (the only problem was our infrastructure was inadequate as Robbo himself has told me in the past) would have opened up new areas of opportunity for us, did players move out of the woods and on sup’air fields purely for the pursuit of television? Area’s of that may have been engineered that way but im hard pressed to believe that was the sole purpose of its creation. Even so Sup’air paintball has evolved paintball into a new way of paintball. I understand there are far more woodsballers about, but then we need to look at how they conduct themselves in woodsball? Is it for the war simulation or the purpose of competition? Is it for the weekend enjoyment of having a laugh with you mates shooting at people with paintball markers, or a structured league of competitive teams pushing a sport that is in its infancy. Lets no abandon sup’air so easily because of a few bumps in the road, to do so would be to loose a vital part of paintballs economy, and also a lot of paintballers myself included.
You make another great quote by saying
“Moving from punter day to sup air is like moving from rugby to football, different rules, different pace, different equipment” Which is exactly what im trying to establish in my posts, the current path of paintball, being lead by commercialisation is not helping out sport grow. The sport needs to be established through organisations such as the federation, the establishment of academies would teach those interested the sport of paintball, if we relay on punter sites to keep our sport alive without any institutions to start regulating our players then we will be stuck in this rut. The need for creating that true sporting organisation, which has the voice of the players, and negotiates with the industry which will alter sup’air yes, but for the better.
I understand what you and others are saying also, in the past it was easier to find new players due to the similarities of punter/woodsball the transition wasn’t so much of a leap. And the value for money was better, but I don’t consider that to be the sole result of the fact it was based in the woods dressed in camo. The circumstances were far wider than that, the outreach for an evolution in paintball brought it to what we see today, I bet arguments over moving to such an idea back then were rife, but look at what it has done for paintball, you may personally prefer camo and woodsball, but not everyone does. And to cut out those that don’t want to play in the woods would be to ultimately harm paintball, people can see that right? The sup’air manufacturers, all the makers of markers and gear would have to alter their businesses, the whole image of paintball would change, companies would go out of business and people like me would look for another sporting outlet, like extreme ironing.
