First Experience

[blinket]

also, make sure you bok directly through the site you will be playing at, booking companies often charge a fee.

we had one group yesterday that paid £18 per head through a booking company and were getting the exact same deal as a group who booked through the site and were paying £10 a head

 

[goldenelite0]

Some sites offer Walkon days which are usually one Sunday a month. On a normal walkon, on top of an entrance fee (let's say £30) you may only have to pay £20 for a box of 2000 paintballs. Some places will allow you to bring your own paint too but if you choose to bring your own, it will pretty much cost the same from an online store. Only difference is you have a lot more choice as paintball sites might only offer two brands.

Some Walkon sites offer spare rental equipment for the players who want to bring a non-paintballing friend, a lot of sites however do not do this service. Research your local area, I will be surprised if there is not a walkon site nearby.

 

[Rom]

Glad you enjoyed it !

I started years ago, in the same way. Went on a friends birthday, then a stag do etc. Got to like it, my first purchase was a Dye Invison mask, which had a thermal lense. I used it for regular days paintballing, and it made the whole day a lot more fun as people have said.

Anti mist spray will help, try online or halfrauds etc as its used for motorcycle helmets sometimes. I used it a fair bit, everytime i cleaned the lense. It does help, but its not a cure.
Ive never had a thermal lense fog up, no matter how damp and humid its been.

Off all the people i know who gone on paintball days, this is ALWAYS the complaint, the mask steamed up.


As said, paint is where sites make their money. As unfair as it may seem, they have to make a living. Ive never know any site to allow you to bring your own paint.
The exceptions are called walk ons. For players with their own stuff. And some sites still insist you buy site paint.
A walk on will be a fee, which normally includes lunch, and the days play. And balls are either supplied a lot cheaper, or you can bring your own.
Most sites ive played at, say they dont really make much from walk ons, but do it more to help the sport etc.

I hope you enjoyment of paintball continues, be prepeared to end up buying your own marker, becoming obssesed etc

 

[james sutton]

hey the problems with your masks are somtimes un-avoidable even with some of the sprays out there, the best way to go about things is to get your own it really does help and you will enjoy your day alot more, plus having your own mask will let you see how it is to play with a clear sight of vision which will make you want to come back and play again and again, you dont have to go buying first hand masks direct from companies, ovcourse your on p8ntballer-forums, you can really pick up a good themal lensed mask from here for very cheap, ive seen them go for £15-20 cheaper, also as its second hand the price you buy at normally wont go down at all, so if you do decide to quit just post it back up on here and sombody will more than likely buy =p, yeh you might loose £5 or so on postage but your going to spend that anyway on sprays otherwise =(, its not only the lense that you will benefit from, %90 of the time you own mask will be more comftable than rentals as they are battered about and used every weekend.

 

[Bandwagon]

Hi Flingy,

Do yourself, your friends and the site a favor, and book in directly with whichever site you intend to play at.

As has been mentioned above, 9 times out of 10 you will end up paying more than standard for the privilege of having one of these booking sites making one phone call or email on your behalf. Also the site looses out as the majority, if not all, of your booking fee goes directly to the booking company - not the site.

Call the site yourself, make a provisional booking, deal directly and ask any questions about equipment / deal prices to someone who knows the information first hand.

Trust me, that by doing it this way your day can go smoother (and probably cheaper, but without the site itself loosing out !)

Enjoy.

 

[CraigofScotland]

When i first started the site asked you to put fairy liquid on the inside of the mask to damper the fogging. Im assuming it creates a barrier that water can not stick too, thus keeping the mask clearer for longer.

I use non thermal lenses with spray atm but go thermal if your funding allows.

 

[phill-w]

Thanks a lot for the replies.

As it seems the rental masks obviously weren't the Thermal type you speak of, this was probably the problem. The next time we go will only be our second so we are looking into getting some of the anti - fog spray stuff that may help us enjoy the experience that bit more and push us into getting some of our own equiptment. Are there any particular products that we can apply to the masks to stop them steaming, Or will the spray do just fine?

We have tickets with treatme.net, so we'll be purchasing our next paintball experience through there. Thanks for the help on the bulk buys, we will phone up the venue and ask when we take a look at where we'll be going.

Hi flingy we had the same problem few weeks ago it was our first time paintballing ,as soon as we stopped moving the mask steamed up came a pain in the a** after a few minutes ,but ive just ordered some anti fog spray for next weekend hope it works lol,if im not happy it will be a new mask of my own ,hooked on paintballing now lol