You readers knew very well how I am always reminding about safety when it comes about paintball topic. But sad to say, it will fall unto deaf ears, being this kind of mentality that says "It won't happen to me." or "It won't happen lah!" or (even worst) "I don't care, it's my money, so I can do what I want!" kind of attitude.
Well, apart from the 'Mask On!' issues, there's another one that I wanted to highlight here - the person who owns the paintball 'gun' or it's proper term that we called as MARKER (because basically, you'll be shooting 0.68 calibre pellets and you use it to shoot at your target/opponent, the splat will 'mark' them.)
Whenever you are inside the field, always put your mask on! =)
Today, I found something that needed some attention, especially for parents out there, and those who was about to get into this paintball business.
A paintball friend messaged me this afternoon asking for a favor. He said there's a buyer for paintball marker he put on sale and the buyer happened to come from KK, the place where I am now. The thing is...the guy who supposed to buy that marker said that he didn't know how to use the cash deposit machine, so this paintball friend said that he trusted me enough to collect the money from the guy and bank it to him (it's quite a hefty sum, and I am not talking about merely couple of hundreds). Since I am not free today, so I told this friend to ask that buyer to meet me at my paintball field tomorrow. Somehow that guy replied to my friend said that he was busy and giving lots of excuses.
Looks pretty to see, nice to touch...but when used for wrong purposes,
it will surely not fun for every paintball players, operators, proshop owners in this country!
I then asked from my friend the name and contact number of this guy. Which when I got it, turn out to be...the so called 'guy' happens to be a KID who barely at the age of 13! Imagine the surprise my friend got! How did I knew this boy? He used to be playing at my paintball centre, along with another friend who is the same age as him, but this boy has some attitude problems - refuse to train, follow instructions, not to mention rude, wanted to be treated as a pro - when he forgot where he stood. Because of his bratty attitude, he himself pulled out from his weekly training because he didn't get the first class treatment that he thought he should have. (sorry, happens to be he went to a place where our guys are more than happy to train these kind of kids, the harder way - so they'll learn to respect, to be more disciplined.). Owh, did I mentioned that he lied and said he was 16 and has experience in paintball tournament - naming our paintball league as his 'resume' to impress (which he never was - I mean how he can be placed into playing for tournaments when he absents from training, refuse to train when asked?)
Which again triggers my curiosity, the kid is basically from a well to do background, but for parents to simply wanted to give him that much amount - I think they won't be simply giving it to him, right? So, it's one of my main concern as well, because we don't want in the end, parents blaming us for allowing their kids spending so much money to purchase things and they claimed it happened behind their backs - well you know, it's much more easier to blame someone else than their own kids. Thankfully, my friend immediately call the deal off.
The youngest player during Sabah Paintball League 2012 (Round 1) last January.
He is only 13 too, but his mother will send him to the field, sit there for a good few minutes, leaving some advice to him, picked him up after couple of hours. She would remind us to be strict to her son, make sure that he is playing under the sun, given the proper training to play paintball.
So parents, do keep a close watch on your kids, especially those who wanted to start get active into this sport. We don't mind if you wanted to purchase paintball things for your kids...but...:
1 - Make sure you are there with them when making the purchases. Any proshop owner/paintballer will teach you how to keep those marker safe, the do's and don'ts to keep them.
2 - Know where your kids playing paintball - ensure that the field is a reliable operator, with strict (yes, strict) operators and staffs that implement safety all the time. Owh yeah, they will scold and yell at your kids if they break the rules, no first class treatment no matter if you got the most expensive marker for your kid. Safety comes first and believe me, after some time, if your kid is really into this sport, they will eventually understand why they got scolded for taking off their mask in the field, for not having barrel socks before going out from the field, for overshooting their friends, etc. If you think it's unbearable to see them getting scolded at, then ask them to play chess.
3 - Never let your kids visiting paintball fields on their own - not sure with other centres. But in mine, kids aged 16 and below are not allowed to play if they came without their parents/legal guardian because we need the parents/legal guardian to sign the waiver form to allow them to play. That way, we knew that parents acknowledged the kids to play paintball and not complaining to us about the bruises and all (well, you know some kids are a little fragile these days).
4 - Play with them! - sometimes, it's fun to play along. So you'll understand more about this sport.
5 - Be your kids' personal marshal - we really appreciate it if parents themselves scolded their kids if they break the rules during game play. I seen a lot of parents do this and really thankful, at least they knew why their kids should follow the rules and talk to them about it.
So parents, never let your kids toying with the idea of bringing this marker outside to show off. It's not a toy. It's nothing wrong to let your kids play, as long as they follow the safety rules - every single one of them will be treated as equal as the adults.
To adults who thinking of purchasing this marker as a mean to shoot the 'annoying dogs in front of my house' or whatever purpose that is except for paintball sport, if you ever had those thoughts crossing your mind, we would rather lose a sale than selling paintball markers to the people who will ruin the sport. For you it looks like a toy, but it's NOT. Please find something else to toy around with, a teddy bear or something fluffy; stay away from the sport that we love so much.
To the sellers too, I hope today reminded you that each and everyone of us must check the background of the buyer throughly before selling them anything. It could be fallen in the wrong hands. Better be safe than sorry later, right?
Play hard, play fun and stay safe everyone!
*All photos are credited to ShutterBomb and Splatzone Proshop
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