Camouflage

Players often ask me, if we got white "camos" in the winter? To be honest about this question, your opponent is about 100 feet away from you, because that's the effective range in paintball. It isn't like "real life" where opponents are miles away from each other. What would you see first the tree or the "snowman" standing next to the tree? Point given, camouflage isn't real important in recball paintball type of game play, some may differ, but that's the reality of this game most of the time. Depending on what your style of gameplay is, sometimes camouflage does matter, like if your the team's sniper. If you're more into milsim paintball then that's another subject for another post.

When you start playing more, you might want to invest in your own camouflage setup. I had many phases, way in the beginning, I was always dressed in black with about 4 layers of clothes. Let me tell you I stood out like a soar thumb on pictures and on the field. At the end of the day, I was so tired not only from playing but I had way to many layers. Over time, I understood that keeping things simple is way better. I'm not saying to go play in a speedo. But if you're playing in the summer simply wear a normal BDU (Battle Dress Uniform). I can get a sweet deal around 90$+tx that will have a top and a bottom in prettifying much any camouflage you want.

About 10 years ago, I got this camouflage setup at "Bass and Pro" in the US. It was made out of fake leaves and in our Québec summer and fall outdoors it was perfect. The key is to adapt your camouflage to the place where you're planning on playing.

Let me tell you about a funny thing I did a few years back, "us regular paintball players" like to play at different parcs occasionally to try out different games. I always make it clear at the getgo that I own and run my own park. So between owners we all know each other and also like to help each other out when needed. It's all one big happy family in the industry.

Anyways, to get back to my story, I drive down to Voodoo near Trois-Rivières and use my leafy camouflage attire at one of their D-Day events. At one point, I'm simply crawling towards my objective and I see an ankle ahead of me.
So I ask : "Hey dude what colour team are you on?"
And he answers : "yellow"
So I reply : "Your out, I'm red"
Out of respect the guy stands up without saying a word. Seriously that's great sportsmanship, the guy could of yelled "sniper here" and given away my position on the field.
So I keep on crawling. Guess what? Another ankle!
So I ask : "Hey dude what colour team are you on?"
And he answers : "yellow"
So I reply : "Your out, I'm red"
Again there was great sportsmanship.
So I keep on crawling up to the edge of the forest and 40 feet away is a building.
I stay low. I feel some balls flying over me, I guess my position was starting to be compromised. Probably the fact that they saw 2 of their own dissimulated snipers walk off the field, they probably figured something was wrong in my corner? Well a referee is literally standing in front of me.
I ask him straight in a soft voice : "Hey Ref, am I hit?"

It's too bad, we can't see people's faces under paintball masks, but the ref jumped out of his pants, he had no idea I was there. I think he was only a foot away. Then a few minutes later, I was actually hit and as an honorable player, I stood up and walked off the field. Voodoo Paintball has a legendary D-Day event and they have a new field "NukeTown" from a few years back that I haven't tried yet.

A few years later, me and a buddy drive down to Commando Paintball, near Ottawa. Again I wear my leafy camouflage and decided to play with a Tippmann RT X7 with a canonizer tip. Experienced players would be like dude that is so not right!

For you less experienced players, a canonizer tip simply increases the sound when you shoot, making it sound like thunder. The Tippmann RT X7 is a semi-auto paintball marker and there is a piston behind the trigger, so when you shoot it pushes back and gives you the opportunity to shoot "machine gun style" without batteries. RT (Response Triggers), on the Tippmann markers are really fun to use in all weather conditions. But I'll talk about that too, in a later post.

Anyways, let me slip back to my adventure at Commando Paintball near Ottawa. So these kids where behind this small bunker and about 150 people were on the other side shooting in their direction. They were yelling like 2 scared lambs in the pasture. So I sneak up behind them and they are like "wow a sniper's coming to help us". I stand up behind them and just let my RT trigger rip with the canonizer tip. I don't remember who was more afraid, the opponents or these 2 kids that dashed back to safety. Wondering what the hell is this sniper doing? After that I had 150 people shooting in my direction, so eventually I was hit. Commando Paintball is one of Canada's awesome parks.

Well, I'm wondering off subject, but camouflage all comes down to wearing clothing that will help you win games or in some other cases, juste look cool.

Cheers,

- Dan
Fort Ouest owner since 2005

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