Paintball Gift Ideas for the Beginner and Experienced Paintballer

by: Blair Stephens

Looking for a great gift for the Paintball enthusiast in your family? Well, fall of 2006 marked the largest debut of new products in Paintball's history. No matter what your budget; there is a hot new product to fit the bill.

Custom Products has always been known for their wide selection of "after-market" items for many different paintball markers. This holiday season they're released their new Air Systems. They will be available in both 48 and 68ci and in high or low pressure. Prices on the air systems start around $220. They also just released 06 Ego Sling and Rake triggers as well as on/off plugs for the DM6. With prices below $30, these will make great stocking stuffers.

As anticipated, Dye rolled out their entire 2007 arsenal at this year's World Cup. They didn't disappoint with a redesigned C7 paintball clothing line, new C7 Slide Shorts, and their flagship marker the DM7. The DM7 is both smaller and lighter than last year's DM6 and now includes a lever locking clamp feed neck. The new DM7s are retailing for $1399.

Dye's daughter company, Proto, has also been hard at work. Their answer to Smart Parts low end / high performance Ion is the Proto Matrix Rail. The Rail retails at a mere $400 but includes BIG features such as anti chop eyes, a super light composite trigger frame, rate of fires in excess of 17 balls per second, and a bolt assembly that can easily be removed and cleaned from the back of the marker. It will be available in Black only through the holidays and additional colors will be available in early 2007.

Kingman and Tippmann are both battling for the entry level crowd. Tippmann's new X7 Marker is designed to be the most customizable marker ever. It has thousands of combinations possible including new barrels, barrel shrouds, stocks, mock magazines, and many other accessories to fit any user's desires. Kingman dropped their new VS line in the 3rd quarter. The VS2 and VS3 are complete revisions of the Spyder line but affordably priced. The VS2 starts at only $190 and includes high end features including low pressure operation and anti chop eyes.

Planet Eclipse completely redid their amazingly popular 06 Ego in the newly release 07 Ego. The 07 Ego isn't just a revision; it's a complete redesign of the Ego platform. The paintball marker is nearly a half pound lighter and has a new solenoid, grip frame, trigger, shaft barrel, totally revamped internals, and much more. This is the "must have" marker for 2007. Prices start at $1250. They will begin shipping to dealers on December 8th.

This year Empire released a full line of new paintball clothing and most notably their new marker the Invert Mini. The Invert is scheduled to begin shipping December 1st and has a laundry list of features including a gas through grip frame (a first for paintball) that allows the air in your bottom line to feed directly through your grip and into the marker. No more external hoses! It is both small and light and at only $400, it offers features comparable to markers double its cost!

Smart Parts has astonished the Paintball world with a complete revamp of their product line in the last 2 years. The introduction of the Ion in 2004 was their first step into the high performance low cost market at only $285. Only 2 years later, they've released the Epiphany. The Epiphany is based off the Ion design but includes a metal body, newly redesigned trigger frame, freak barrel, fire bolt, and a new adjustable firing chamber for increased efficiency. At only $400 this will be one of the hottest sellers this holiday season. Epiphanys begin shipping December 10th.

Other notable releases include VForce's new Grillz system, Draxxus's new 30+ balls per second Pulse Loader, and DerDer's Soldiers of Misfortune DVD.

Evil Rolling Gear Bag

MSRP: $129.95
www.evil-paintball.com
Still using Grandpa’s old knapsack left over from the Korean War to carry your gear in? The one that smells of sweat socks and dried mold? Time to upgrade, Gunga Din. The new Evil large rolling bag is big enough to accommodate the packing habits of even the most extreme players, including all your playing gear, your clothes for the week, magazines, iPod, and five-inch heels (see picture). Multiple compartments let you keep your valuables away from each other, so that when your plane heads into a nose dive, you don’t have to worry about toothpaste getting into your loader. The best part is, when your whole team is rolling your matching bags across the airport and you tell people you’re a team of traveling paintballers, you won’t get as many weird looks as before, which is nice. Or you could just tell them you're roadies for The Stones.

Greg Hastings' Tournament Paintball PS2

Short Description
Building on the intense speed action of Greg Hastings' Tournament Paintball, a 2004 sleeper hit, features more new field locations, and over 100 new field layouts. Players will use a combination of speed and tactics to take out their opponents, including 14 pros from Keely Watson and Chris LaSoya to Greg Hastings.

Don’t Underestimate Paintball Girls

by: Anne Morris

If you think paintball is a game only for the guys, then you are in for a surprise. Many girls also enjoy the game and are starting to make their presence known in the world of paintball. There is always an all female team in every major tournament for paintball and many females turn out to participate. And some of them are exceptional players. Just because the players are girls, don’t let it fool you into thinking they are not formidable.

Actually, some say that paintball girls are better suited for the game and have an advantage over males on the field. For one reason, females are usually smaller and are therefore harder to hit and it is easier for them to hide. Also paintball girls tend to be more patient than their male counterparts and will therefore have no problems out waiting an opponent until he outs himself. Some have noted that paintball girls tend to bond quicker and better than the males and therefore work together better as a team.

Paintball girls don’t like to be restricted to playing amongst all girls however, but are eager to compete against the men on the paintball field. Most of the paintball tournaments have at least a few girls competing against men.

The all girl paintball teams have taken down many all male paintball teams. Not only do these paintball girls have to be tough and strong to go up against the men, but they have also had to overcome a lot of obstacles to be able to compete in tournaments. Paintball girls may look meek and somewhat fragile, but in this case, appearances are quite misleading. They can use this to their advantage too as men tend to underestimate the ability of female players of paintball. Most paintball girls are extremely serious about the sport and they are very good at it.

Women are no different from men in the beginning because everyone hesitates to suffer the pain of being shot. And getting hit by a paintball can be extremely painful. But once the game gets underway and the adrenaline kicks in, some paintball girls get hooked; and who could blame them? Paintball is an exciting game that is quite competitive but is also fun to play.

So if you thought paintball was just a guy’s game, you can see that isn’t the case. Women are quickly joining the ranks of exceptional paintball players and many have become aficionados of the game. The next time you are on the paintball field, watch out for those paintball girls, they make for formidable opponents.