Our Paintball Gear

The first few times we played paintball, we fell in love with the game.  The more we played, the more we started to notice that the available rental equipment just doesn't cut it.  We're talking about masks that have awkward fit, with lenses that are badly scratched up and fogs like crazy we could hardly see in them.  Then you get to use old markers that aren't well maintained (thus not very accurate).  To top it all off, the paintball brand used is not of very good quality.  You see, the accuracy of paintball is dependent on a few things:  paintball size to barrel bore size match, how clean the inside of the barrel is and the quality of the paintballs used.  That's right, we did our research.

So, we at Rush Paintball Cebu thought we'd give Cebuano's a chance to experience paintball at its finest by bringing in the best entry-level rental equipment from the US.  Check it out:

Let's start with the V-Force Vantage Anti-fog rental masks.  We're a fan of Mike over at TechPB.com and in the site's forums he nominated this as the Best "First Mask".  Let me tell you why:

1. Safety is our priority - The Anti-scratch Crystal clear V-Force optics used in this mask is made up of a material that not only reduces the chance of getting scratches compared to ordinary lenses, more importantly it has proven to withstand a direct hit to the lens at point-blank range.  We've tried this ourselves.  Should you be shopping for a good mask make sure it has good eye and facial protection, a good snug fit and can take a lot of beating.

2. It uses a foam-less hypo-allergenic polyseal (Woah! That's a mouth full.) - What's this?, you ask.  Well, much like your swimming goggles, this is a rubbery material that comes into contact with the area around your eyes.  No foam means no sweaty/soggy feel to it.  Plus this is a germ free material so you will not have skin irritations.  What's more is that it is so easy to clean.

3.  Light-weight - Once you get used to it, you'd hardly feel like you're wearing it.  This may sound exaggerated, but in paintball you'd want equipment that will help you focus on the game more rather than get in the way of you enjoying it.  Even the smaller/ younger crowd can use these with ease.

4. Anti-fog - This means it has a coating of anti-fog on the inner part of the lens.  Clearly the name suggests that this prevents it from fogging.   Do note that after a while the coating wears off so we make sure to maintain it by spraying anti-fog on the lens every few months.

5. Let's face it, it looks darn good.  Some say it looks kind of like what a ninja would wear to a paintball game.  We have a yellow one that reminds us of Scorpion from Mortal Kombat.

V-Force has been known to make some of the best masks in paintball and the Vantage takes the trophy in the entry-level category.

Next up.

The Azodin Kaos.  Also nominated by Mike as the Best Starter Paintball Marker.  I could mention many of it's features but some of these only amateur paintball players to enthusiasts would understand (if you want to get into paintball and would like to know the details, drop me a line and I'll fill you in), so I'll name a few that just about anyone can easily appreciate:

1. Light-weight - Weighing in at only 2.1 lbs, any player can effortlessly operate the marker and run around the field all day.

2. Fairly accurate - Comes with a 12-inch barrel out of the box for better accuracy.  Most of the usual rental markers come with 8, sometimes 10-inch barrels.  Tests have shown that barrel lengths between 12 to 14 inch results in the most optimal accuracy.

3. More efficient CO2 consumption compared to the common rental markers.  This marker consumes CO2 like a green car sips on fuel so you'll have more rounds per tank fill.

Azodin may be new to the game but they are slowly and surely building their name up with the release of very good quality products.

Next.  What equipment should every responsible, safety-conscious field have?

The answer is...a Chronograph.  This is the X-Radar Deluxe Handheld Chronograph.  No, this is not a time machine.

What does a chronograph do?  Well, airsoft players should be familiar with this.  A chronograph measures the Feet-per-second (FPS) of your paintball marker.

Why is this important?  This measures the speed/velocity at which the paintball travels when shot from the marker.  Or you could also say, how hard (or painful) it will hit you relative to distance.  In the US, paintball fields are required to chrono their rental markers between 250-300 FPS or most average at 280.  Unchronoed  markers are very dangerous and may cause unnecessary injury or worse.  So before you even consider playing at a field, make sure to ask if they have a chrono.

Then, we have the very thing that started it all...the Paintball.

We use the WPN Weapons Grade paintball.  One of the best recreational-grade paintball in the US market.  Our experience with 4 other US-brand paintballs has proven this.

When Rush Paintball Cebu started, we experimented with 5 well-known recreational-grade paintball brands.  Namely (arranged by quality from average to best) - Diablo Heat, RPS Stinger, DXS Triumph, WPN Weapons Grade and Valken Breach.  Out of the 5 we like both the Weapons Grade and Breach the best.  Sadly, the Valken Breach has been discontinued making the Weapons Grade our go-to brand.  The following characteristics are what you'd want to look for in paintballs:

1. Consistent roundness - I mentioned early on that the accuracy of paintball is dependent on a few things.  This is one of them.  Deformed balls makes for very bad accuracy.

2. Thick and bright-colored paint fill - The visibility of paint breakage or splats is very important to paintball.  In the first place, paint fills that are hardly visible defeats the purpose of paintball.

3. Breaks on your opponent, not inside your marker or its container - You want paintballs that are brittle enough that they are sure to break on the object you hit but durable enough that they wouldn't easily break in the box or inside your gun.  Paintballs that are too tough or hardly break are very painfull.  And it is such a mess cleaning up paintballs that easily break where you don't want them to.

4. Good storage shelf life - We have found the Weapons Grade to last longer and work better in our humid climate.  Where other brands started to deform after a few months of storage, the Weapons Grade maintained its consistency in quality even better than the Breach.

All these characteristics are found in the WPN Weapons Grade.  You can try it out yourself.  Our tests prove that it does better than the other well-known brands, how much more for the not-so-known ones?!  You be the judge.