with the tip of their marker touching the “dead box.” But only maybe five percent of all paintball is done in competition. The remainder is done for fun and to have the most fun you can possibly have, don’t let your opponents realize that you are coming out in the same area every time. If you do, sooner or later, they will be waiting for you with their gun up and balls in the air. By then, it’s too late to switch sides.
Bunkering. A strong, sandbagged position on a hill combines effective cover and an advantageous slope.
Whether you win or lose, the most important part of paintball is learning how to play the game fairly and well.
WOMEN IN PAINTBALL
Clare Benavides is spokes-model for Tom Kaye’s Airgun Designs .
For Paintball Digest, the author had an opportunity to interview some of the girls, too! Here’s what Blue’s Crew “Press Wench” Amy “The Girl” Chantry says about playing, competing and kicking butt!
Paintball Digest: Amy, you’re an avid paintball player and a member of a well-known amateur team with Michael “Blue” Hanse and EMR Paintball Park in Pennsylvania. I understand you’re the official “Press Wench,” so you must handle the publicity for Blue’s Crew. Is that right?
Amy: Yes, I help out with press for the team and I’m also the mother of two beautiful little girls and, as you might imagine, I’m very involved in their lives. I volunteer at their elementary school, work with the Parent and Teacher’s Association (PTA) and help out in the classroom, too. Plus, I cook and clean and play the big games when I can. I have a life, you know!
Paintball Digest: Anything involving children makes for one busy life. But don’t you think playing paintball is kind of extreme for women and certainly for the mom of two little girls?
Amy: Well, it’s like I told one of the paintball magazines a while ago, there ought to be a support group for us women paintball players, like Alcoholics Anonymous or Overeaters Anonymous, you know. “Hello, my name is Amy and I play paintball …” There aren’t that many of us yet, and people are only slowly realizing that we can play as well as and have just as much fun as the guys.
It’s when the other moms find out I play paintball that I hear, “Ah…. oh…really? Paintball ? Doesn’t that hurt?”
I remind them it’s childbirth that hurts and we’ve done that! What the heck is a little paintball going to do to you unless you have an accident? Some tiny welt if you catch a ball in a soft spot isn’t anything compared to the excitement of capturing a flag, or putting the opposing team’s general out of the game or defending a castle. Now that’s what I call fun. That or just sitting on the floor and playing with my little girls.
There’s a double standard at work in sports like paintball and we need to change it. Paintball is not just a sport for men. Neither is skateboarding or snowboarding.
I see more women playing every time I go out. I hope it will continue to rise. I truly believe that paintball is for everyone. So, I say, ladies, if you have a desire to try paintball, try it! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. You might just have the best day of your life. Hope to see you on the field!
Paintball Digest: So, as a woman player, how are you treated by the guys? After all, men are 90-something percent of the players.
Amy: My saying that we women need a support group probably makes you think I’m complaining about the guys, some kind of macho attitudes on the field, but I’m really not. That couldn’t be further from the truth. When it comes to playing with the guys, I’ve never felt unwelcome on a field or felt like they were taking it easy on me because I was a girl. Actually, I’ve made some outstanding friends, maybe life-long friends, during the time I’ve been playing. I have always considered myself an equal on a playing field that’s mostly men. When the mask goes on, we’re all just players, and unless you know what your buddy is wearing, everyone is kind of anonymous.
Paintball Digest: So, being a woman on the field doesn’t slow you down and it shouldn’t be handicap for other women, either. Is that right? Attitudes are changing, and that’s good for everybody.
Amy: Women love playing paintball as much as men. We girls want to tell people about it, share stories about stuff that happens on the field and encourage other people to give it a try. Nevertheless, when you’re a girl, you sometimes get some odd reactions.
It starts right at home in your family. My mother, Patty Zewinski, was horrified by the thought that I was “taking up arms” and running around in the woods with a gun! She just couldn’t (maybe she didn’t want to) understand why I would put on camouflage and drive hundreds of miles to play “that stupid kid’s game.” I tried to explain to her that paintball is fun. It’s an exciting sport my husband and I can do together. I’m out there getting some aerobic exercise while I’m having fun, too. It’s not like playing bridge or even pedaling a stationery bicycle in front of the television. And I can compete on an equal footing with the men, even guys who have been in the army and marines.
JT USA’s promotional poster features their pin-up girl and spokesmodel Bon Bon.
The Airgun Designs spokes-model is more beautiful than her surroundings near the entrance to the Big Butler Fairgrounds north of Pittsburgh in July 2003.
Girls. Ladies. Gals. Women. Say what you will, women can play paintball as well as men. Before you take this tricked-out female paintball combatant for granted, you might want to check out her shooting iron, the sniper scope, the military camo, the sidearm and the gleam in her eye that says, “You slip up just once and you’re dead meat.” (Photo by Ted D’Ottavio .)
Still, mom kind of grouses about me playing paintball. Mind you, she never had a problem when my husband started playing. So, why the double standard? We’re working on that, but it ain’t done and gone yet. One day, maybe when my girls get to be my age, maybe.
Amy (again): Before we’re done, I also would like to comment on the use of sexy girls in ads to sell equipment and such, but I didn’t know if that would be mean spirited.
Paintball Digest: Hmm. Sort of a comment about the old advertising adage “sex sells,” eh? From what you said, it sounds like you’re against it, right? Well, fire away.
Amy: Now how did you know I would take the con side? Actually, I can see both sides, but here’s what I think.
As
