Splat! : In the Colorful, Controversial, Fast-Growing Game of Paint Ball, Armed Combatants Fire Rubbery Pellets at Their Human Targets
WHITTIER NARROWS RECREATION AREA — Between the thick brush and sandy dunes of this wildlife sanctuary, Dick and Becky Smith stockpile ammunition, load their paint guns and map an attack.
“This is a physical, competitive game that gives us all a chance to control our aggressions,” said Dick Smith, 45, a Pomona mechanic.
“It’s a game the whole family can enjoy,” added his wife, Becky, 34, an office manager.
On a Sunday morning, the Smith children--Jennifer, 11, and Johnathan, 9--watch from the sidelines as their parents play soldier in the underbrush.
The game, a grown-up version of cowboys and Indians, is paint ball, and its fans boast that it may be the fastest-growing sport in Southern California. It is certainly one of the most colorful.
Equipped with face masks and expensive guns that fire, at slow speeds, rubbery paint (preferably neon) pellets the size of gum balls, the players seek to both stalk and evade the enemy on a playing field.
The game is believed to have originated in New Hampshire in 1981 when two friends challenged each other to a duel, choosing as their weapons the same paint guns that loggers use to mark trees. Enthusiasts say the sport now attracts as many as 150,000 “combatants” of all ages and incomes to playing fields from Riverside to Valencia.
Southern California has become a center of paint-ball activity because of its year-round play and its tournaments, which draw as many as 1,500 people. The International Paintball Players Assn. is based in Los Angeles, and Action Pursuit Games magazine is published in Burbank.
California has also become the epicenter of controversy surrounding the game. Some activists, convinced the game encourages dangerous attitudes, are working to have it banned from public recreation areas.
“It’s a shame that they’re making games of war a family affair,” said Jerry Rubin, director of Alliance for Survival, a national anti-war-toy group based in Santa Monica. Every year, the alliance organizes a Thanksgiving Day demonstration in which young people trade toy weapons--including paint-ball guns--for teddy bears.
Jessica Sparks, a Los Angeles attorney who founded the Paintball Players Assn., said Rubin’s interpretation of the game is off-base. “Playing paint ball makes a person realize he is not invincible. He is taken out of the game, and he knows that if it were real, he wouldn’t be able to go back and laugh about it. It’s just another form of ‘tag.’ ”
Hardly, countered Rubin, who is among those working to ban the game locally. “You don’t have fake blood squirting all over when playing tag. You’re not ‘killing’ people. This game desensitizes children to the horrors of war.”
Despite the controversy, the game’s popularity continues to rise. At least 38 Southern California businesses now cater specifically to the game, forming an industry that pulls in $100 million a year, according to the players association.
A few playing fields feature buildings that serve as fortresses or hide-outs for players. A popular theme among the combatants is the Iraqi attack scenario; desert fatigues are in demand in local paint-ball stores.
“But it isn’t a bunch of warmongers or mercenaries out playing this,” said Jed Burns, 32, who runs Field of Fury in Valencia. “Now, whole families are joining in, and it’s good, clean fun.”
Although there is no age limit for players, the protective masks required for the game do not fit children under age 8, so it is rare to see young children playing. But many children, such as the Smiths’, say they enjoy both playing and watching the game. And because there is no limit to the number of players on a team, entire families often compete together.
The sport is not inexpensive. The cost of an average day of play--including gun rentals, safety equipment and paint balls--is about $50 to $80 per person.
The Smiths spent $200 each for their paint guns. And although critics may think that the players are radical survivalist types, Becky Smith said, “The only guns we own are the kind that don’t kill.”
Some of the air-propelled guns, including rapid-fire models, carry a $500 price tag. Most of the play weapons are pump-action guns with milk carton-sized paint-ball loaders above the trigger.
The paint pellets cost a nickel each. In games in which ammunition is unlimited, the player with the most firepower often wins. The water-based paint is biodegradable, enthusiasts are quick to point out.
To help offset protests about the alleged violence of the game, a group of California paint-ball players formed the North American Paintball Referees Assn. to create and implement standardized rules.
“People who criticize (paint ball) just don’t know the game,” said Dave DeHaan, 20, a referee trainer from Lawndale who works for Carter Machines, a paint-gun designer. “We are not psychopaths or ex-vets who like to kill. We’re adults with a little bit of kid left in us.”
DeHaan wears a double-breasted suit a la James Bond when he plays paint ball; his code name is “Youngblood.” A surfer, golfer, tennis player, skier and kick-boxer, DeHaan said, “Nothing gives me as much of an adrenaline rush as paint ball.”
On one recent outing, a group calling itself Blitzkrieg faced off against the Asian Invasion. Before the game, the players compared battle scars.
“Yeah, well look at this one, that’s at point-blank range,” Tim Jee of Hacienda Heights said, showing a quarter-sized bruise on his right elbow. He pulled a hood and bandanna over his head and muttered, “That happened last week, it won’t happen again.”
“I’m ready to kick some booty!” shouted Glenn Murray, 22, captain of Magoo Crew. A former Navy man, Murray said paint ball helped prepare him for the service. “It helped me learn quiet tactical moves. I used to get more of a rush playing this, but since I’ve done this for real, it’s not as exciting any more.”
The teams split up and scattered to hide in the brush, in trees and behind hills, until a referee started the action. The first few minutes were eerily quiet as each team snuck up on the other. Paint balls flew in the direction of any breaking twig or rustling bamboo stalk.
A group from Downey rushed up a hill. Two men hit by hidden snipers “died” with dramatic shouts and a few obscenities and walked off the field. One of the snipers was ambushed and left the fray with a paint-splattered mask.
This version of the game lasts 45 minutes, or until all the players on a team are “dead.” Referees patrol the field to settle disputes.
After each game, players gather to share war stories and heroics. For some, that is as much fun as the game itself.
“Playing the game is an addiction,” said Joe Padilla, 23, of San Gabriel, who boasted of his team’s recent victory over a group of Marines at Angeles Crest National Forest. “It’s good exercise and good competition.”
“Most of us have friends in the service or reserves, so we always want to be ready,” said Roman Martinez, 19, who joined the Navy two years ago and is waiting to be called to Saudi Arabia as a reservist.
Military maneuvers in the Mideast have pumped interest into the games, said Ric Smith, owner of Ric’s Adventure Games in Rowland Heights, one of the oldest area paint-ball shops.
“I guess we can experience our own frustration about Iraq vicariously through this game,” said Smith, whose customers drop by to test-fire their guns at his shooting gallery.
Most of Ric’s patrons are men ages 18 to 30 with military connections who own real weapons as well as paint-ball guns. “Most of them can’t afford girlfriends because they spend all their money on the sport,” said Smith, who is 26, married, and plays almost every weekend.
“Going after someone on the field and the element of surprise really gives you a rush that’s hard to describe,” Smith said. “Some people become real fanatics about the game.”
One self-described fanatic is Ric’s brother, Mark, 20, who dresses like a Soviet soldier on the field but plays like Rambo. “I think this game is teaching me how to handle stress,” said Mark, who is studying to be a paramedic.
The Smith brothers have challenged tough players, including a military squad from Camp Pendelton that is now in Saudi Arabia. Dropping in at Ric’s shop recently were two San Gabriel Police Department detectives who took up paint ball a year ago.
“My son got me involved, and I realized this was a fun way to deal with confrontational situations,” said Dennis Tracy, 40, who competes with his son and hopes to simulate the game in police training exercises.
“This is realistic in terms of agility and tactics,” George Cortez said. “We are trying to get everyone on the police force playing.”
