SPLAT!

Paintball offers plenty of time to duck, dodge and evade

By David Witte / Independent Staff Writer Friday, Mar. 28, 2008

Bored?

Too much free time? Friends getting on your nerves?

In the sport of paintball, you can give them a nice welt for revenge.

With the growing popularity of paintball, youths can be seen trying to mark each other at two paintball facilities in the area: Blackbeard's in Fresno and Agape Playing Fields in Mendota. Another is under construction at the Regional Sports Complex south of Fresno.

"It's just the rush of the game," said Clovis East graduate Stephen Garza, 21, on why he plays the game. "Going out with your friends and seeing all these balls flying at you, it's all-out war trying to get the opponents."

Garza spends time at Blackbeard's with his friends, and says the facility's two fields will attract 60 to 100 players on a Saturday.

The paintballs are all water-soluble, according to Jesse Heitzman of Instant Replay Sports, which sells paintball equipment and supplies. "Shell, paint, everything," he said.

Instant Replay starts a beginner set with a Spyder gun, a mask, a hopper (magazine) and a CO2 canister for $124.95. Heitzman said a mask will be required at all fields.

"Eyes are the only thing you can permanently damage," he said. "Unless you're running something really hot or outrageous."

Those "hot and outrageous" paintball guns can get pretty pricey.

"I've seen people spend as much as a couple of thousand dollars for their setups," Heitzman said. "It's like buying a cheap car. I had a kid in here that spent $1,700 on his equipment."

The brands popular among the high-end equipment are Angels, Bob Long Intimidator and Eclipse.

He added a lot of his customers have their own land they play on.

Garza, a part-time employee at Instant Replay Sports, suggests that beginners rent a gun for their first couple of outings.

"Some people like to spend a bunch of money only to find out they don't like the sport," he said. Garza uses a Smart Parts Ion gun from Planet Eclipse with a magnetic rolling-ball trigger, which cost him several hundred dollars.

Clovis Area Recreation capitalized on the sport's growing popularity recently with its second father and son tournament of the year July 28 at Blackbeard's. The first was in February.

"We have gotten a positive response," said Brian Hines, a recreation coordinator with CAR. "We don't have one planned for fall because of the weather, but we may do one for our winter flier."

Game On is an occasional series profiling local recreational sports and activities. Suggestions are welcome and may be e-mailed to David Witte at dwitte@clovisindependent.com.