At the invitation of our buddies from the IRC #paintball channel, Steve--, and Ken--, we packed our gear and the dog in the Jeep and hit the road. A few hours later we were in Berkely, staying in the deluxe accomodations of Steve's apartment. The next morning, we took the short jaunt to Mare Island. What a great field! It has marshes, woods, bunkers, "a van down by the river" (read in the voice of Chris Farley's motivational speaker character on Saturday Night Live), and 4-5 foot tall anise fields riddled with maze like paths. Due to a minor injury, I didn't play, so I took pictures, and even ended up reffing part of the day.
Steve Courtney, one of the original Bob's Biz Boy's crew, drove over from San Francisco with his room-mate Bill to join up with us. It was great to see him, we hadn't seen him in 3 years or so.
From one of the reffing platforms (some scaffolds set up in the anise fields) I watched a group of 3 yellow players sneak up on a clearing. When they got to the edge, the pointman shouted to the others, "Forget it they're on our team."
On the other side of the clearing, Dawn yelled to them "What team are you on?"
"Yellow!"
Dawn, being a member of the orange team, marked all three of them before they could scramble back into the anise. :-)
Get the flag through!
A player carrying the flag leads a group through the anise to the flag station. Yep, that's Dawn's pink 'gun-strap in the back.
Charging newbie
This was one of three young men who joined in at lunch time. It was their first time playing, and from the looks of things, they had a great time.
Flag Grab
The flage gets pulled down in a center-flag game.
The hounds are afoot!
Dawn and Steve-- were two of the 4 foxes, who were hunded by 30 or so hounds. It was a valiant effort, and after the first two foxes were taken out, Dawn and Steve-- evaded the hounds for a while by wading across a waist deep river. The ending was quite comical with all the hounds lined up on the river bank hailing paint at Dawn and Steve--.
RP-Scherer 10W-30
A player with a home-grown oil can feeder. Reminded me of the good old days. The expansion chamber on his VM wasn't a commercial one that I recognized. I wonder if he made that too.
Surrender!
After "Desert" from the orange team shot BizBoy Steve Courtney, and took the flag he was carrying, he headed through the anise to the tapeline. He and two other orange players circled wide around all the yellows back to the yellow flag station (it was a center flag game). As they neared their goal, this yellow player, with is double barreled semi auto from Palmer's, and an empty CO2 tank (drained in half the time with both those barrels pumping out the paint!) yelled "Surrender!"
"No Chance!" 'Desert' yelled as he hung the flag for the win.
Some guy with a 'mag
A player with an Automag, a boonie hat and a headset radio.
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