History of Paintball

Series Summary

Paintball is a sport in which players use air or gas-powered guns which fire balls of paint to tag and eliminate other players from contention. There are numerous paintball games, like Capture the Flag, King of the Hill, and Elimination, and the most common forms of play include Woodsball and Speedball. There is a wide range of paintball gear and equipment available, but the helmet and goggles are most essential in safety and preventing serious injury. The popularity of paintball continues to grow in both pro leagues and amateur circles, and it is estimated that over 10 million people in the United States play the game annually.

Paintball is a very competitive sport, so any edge you can get over your opponent is crucial to your success. You want to be able to run across any landscape, through bushes, through ditches, through gravel without getting hurt. The protective gear in this series not only protects you from the paintball pellets of your opponents, but helps you to thrive in any environment. Follow the tips of Robert F. Stewart and not only will you stay safe, but you will be hard to see as well. With these great camouflage tips, you will blend right into the woods.

Video Transcript

"Hi. My name is Robert Stewart, with hill13.com, a recent addition to the Austin, Texas paintball scene. Today, we're going to be talking a little bit about paintball. We're going to start with a little bit of the history of paintball. It's now the fastest growing extreme sport in the U.S. It's the number one ranked extreme sport in the U.S., as well. The average demographic runs from about 17 to 35. And over the past 15, 16 years, the sport has grown from a very niche market to something mass market that the equipment is now sold in most major department stores. The basics of paintball begin with the beginning of paintball, which was, as I said, less than two decades ago. Hayes Noel, a gentleman in the Midwest, found in an agricultural catalog, a paint marker, single shot paint marker, pump-style. And it was used by cattlemen and lumber people to mark cows and to mark trees. So he thought it would be a great idea for him and a friend of his to invest in a couple of these. They took them out in the woods, and from the very first day when they walked out of the woods, they knew they had found something. And the rest, as they say, is history. Nowadays, paintball has become very specialized. You have people that are devoted to speed ball versus wood ball, pro, pro-am, and then your general weekend warriors that are usually walk-on players at rental fields around the country. So, now the sport has taken on the mantle of being the number one extreme sport. And it is critical that those people that are new to the sport, coming in for the first time, know some of the basics so they can stay safe, have a good time, and uphold the reputation of paintball."