Living the life of James Bond
There’s no gain without pain in paintballing, an international phenomenon that has got the adrenalin pumping in Cyprus too
My best pair of trainers had been totally ruined, my hair filled with an orange gunk that made my blonde locks appear as if a visit to the hairdresser had gone horribly wrong, and a dark purplish bruise on my arm gave the appearance that I’d just been battling it out in a boxing match. A pretty picture I was not, and yet I found my self grinning from ear to ear. Not for the faint hearted, a paintballing experience will make you feel like you’ve just spent the day living the life of James Bond.
I wouldn’t really call myself the fighting type, nor do I like to think that I’m particularly aggressive. But put on a paintballing field, my best friends became my worst enemies as the sheer exhilaration of stalking an opposing team gave me one of the biggest adrenaline rushes I’ve ever experienced.
Forgive me for sounding sexist, but I always thought that guns were something that only amused men because of the ‘macho’ attitude that seems to go with the whole territory. When a friend suggested we try out paintballing I instantly imagined I’d be the one sending the men off to battle as I took a safe and passive position behind all the barbed wire with a tissue in hand for tragic moments. I’d cry out at the very sight of a man down and I’d be there to greet the dishevelled soldiers after battle.
When it was pointed out that paintballing is a game not to be taken quite as seriously as war time crises, I came up with a million and one excuses as to why it wasn’t for me. I was far better off taking on the role of photographer for the day, or perhaps I could give out water bottles whenever anyone got thirsty – a highly valid job that no-one seemed to want to take seriously.
But no, I was suddenly faced with someone handing me a rather large and strange looking gun, while I politely obliged and accepted it. Was I actually paying for this experience? And what exactly was I meant to do out there on the dreaded field? I didn’t even feel comfortable holding the clumsy device. Without having a clue how to aim or deal with the cold chunk of metal, I was sent out to fight and told to help my team achieve victory as I took my post behind a stack of old car tyres.
Seeking camouflage on the ground and studying the movement of my enemies through tiny peepholes, the strangest thing happened as fear turned to delight, nervousness to an adrenaline rush, and the little feminine girl inside me became one beastly warrior. I may not be ready to join the army, but I now admit that the least likely candidate ended up loving paintballing. In fact, the experience was so enjoyable it became a bit worrying to think of the great delight I received from systematically shooting at my nearest and dearest as they raised their arms up high in the air in final pitiful surrender.
In 15 short years, paintballing has become one the most exciting outdoor sports around the world, currently played in over 40 countries. A far cry from the way paintballs have now come to be used, they were initially invented in America in the 1950s allowing the forestry service to easily mark trees from a distance. A group of friends then came up with the idea of a paintballing game in the 1980s, and from then on, word spread like hot fire.
The first recreational paintball field opened up in the States in 1982, and in 1992, the National Professional Paintball League was founded and began hosting highly publicised tournaments offering hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizes.
Recreational paintball fields were soon springing up across the world, and today paintballing stands as the third most popular extreme sport in the world behind in-line skating and skateboarding.
Now catching up with the trend, licensed paintball fields have been opening up at a fascinating rate around Cyprus. If you’re looking for the biggest paintballing ‘city’ on the island, covering 15,000 square metres, then Nicosia is definitely the place to be as an entire paintballing complex has been built to accommodate the sport in the small village of Ayious Trimithias.
Created specifically for action filled paintball, the grounds include a Wild West Town, a speedball field and recreational arena. The Wild West town boasts a mayor’s office, saloon, chapel, graveyard and a whole host of barrels that you can hide behind as you try to shoot down the enemy. The speedball field is where all the competitive games take place, with a Cyprus Paintball Tournament held on a monthly basis. Built by the founder of ‘Paintball Cyprus’ and president of the Cyprus Paintballing Federation, Dimitris Georgiou, the company also has smaller grounds in Limassol.
“I’ve been paintballing in Dubai, Greece and Jordan and so far the Paintball Cyprus field in Nicosia is probably the biggest in the region,” says Dimitris. “I used to live in Africa and I played paintballing there once. I came back to Cyprus and the memories were so vivid that I just had to do something about it. That’s when I decided to set up my own company that would promote the sport.” While paintballing was first established in Cyprus in 1998, it’s only now that it is escalating into a booming business. “Back then it was a foreign concept for everyone living here but it has suddenly become a huge trend. It took ten years but somehow it seems that everyone is suddenly talking about it,” he adds. Adrenaline and excitement mixed in with a good dose of fear, it’s no surprise that it has become the latest buzzword in extreme sports entertainment.
Not as risqu? as one would initially be inclined to think, it’s all about understanding the basic concept of the whole activity. At the start of each game groups are divided into two teams with a special brightly coloured arm band differentiating opposing sides. Paintball guns are handed out and loaded with plenty of pellets – a round, thin-skinned gelatine capsule with bright coloured liquid inside it. The battle then begins out on the field, with the aim of the whole occasion being to ‘kill’ as many members of the opposing team as possible to allow your team to grab hold of the victory flag and carry it over to your side of the battlefield. The first team to capture the opposition’s flag is then declared the winner.
When any player is hit, the paintball breaks upon impact and they are left visibly marked with a splatter of paint. When a team member is shot down, they immediately have to surrender and walk out of the game. And cheating isn’t allowed; there is always a referee on the grounds, who judges whether or not the player has a valid hit. Fairness and team spirit are the names of the game.
“You need a minimum of five people for each team so if you want to come along and play, you have to get at least ten friends together,” says Dimitris. “We’ve recently seen a great number of companies bring their employees down to the complex. As odd as it may sound, paintballing essentially facilitates group effort as you’re battling it out with your team members. We’ve even had banks and plenty of offshore companies bring employees and clients here.”
Each game lasts between ten to thirty minutes on average, and you’ll usually play quite a few rounds until you finish off all your balls. Rules may sometimes vary, but the basic idea of eliminating the enemy is always the same. As Dimitris chats away with such fervour about the sport I realise that paintballing for some is a way of life, even travelling abroad to try out the latest fields. “We have six professional speedball teams in Cyprus that travel abroad to participate in foreign tournaments,” he tells me. “Recognised by KOA (The Cyprus Sports Federation), our Cypriot athletes are fast becoming a force to be reckoned with.”
In the past five years Cypriots have certainly embraced all sorts of extreme sports, from kite surfing to snowboarding. But why the sudden surge in popularity of paintballing? The answer seems to be simple as paintballing stands as the only extreme sport that doesn’t require any prior training to really be enjoyed. It’s legal for anyone over 14 to play, and you can get a real rush out of it as well as a good bit of exercise without necessarily being a sports lover. “We’ve even had senior citizens running up and down the field. Then there’s a disabled man who comes to play regularly on his wheelchair and he really enjoys it,” says Dimitris.
The really fun thing is that you can play just how you like, as long as you abide by the general rules. Our team decided to separate players into defenders who had to protect our own flag from capture, and attackers who went straight in for the kill. It all started with the men of the team way up at the front battling it out as the female members giggled away at sporadic intervals in an attempt to defend the territory. But alas, us women soon toughened up and defended the post with such passion that it was as if our very lives were in danger. We wormed our way through heaps of earth, warned our fellow soldiers of immediate threats with subtle whistles, and shot at our enemies so ferociously when they approached that one would think we’d trained with the military for years.
It may sound awfully painful, but worry not, you’ll be given so much protective gear that you’ll end up looking like a rather unattractive man in a spacesuit. There’s a face mask, protective neck pad, and a khaki jumpsuit. Saying all that, the shots can still be a little harsh, especially if a team member attempts to aim at you from a close range. But no pain, no gain, right?
I really thought I was onto a good thing when I snuck up behind a dodgy looking ‘Mr. X’ hiding behind some nearby barrels until he turned round with sudden anguish and gave me the look of death. I had made the mistake of shooting at my own team member who wasn’t all that far away from me. And the unattractive bruise on his leg is proof enough that a girl with a gun can be far more deadly than she looks. Then again, insurance statistics actually show that paintballing is one of the safest sports, with fewer injuries per exposure than games like tennis, golf, or bowling! And there’s more good news – paintballing pellets are water soluble and non-toxic so they don’t harm the environment and it’s not a nightmare to wash off all the rather ghastly florescent paint.
After a good dose of soap and shampoo I was suddenly out of James Bond mode and ready for a lazy night in. My team won the game hands down, while my voice was somewhat croaky after the rather ridiculous number of times I screamed ‘man down’ as I did a little jig of delight on the spot. Sure, I may have pretended to be in the military as I clutched onto my gun with sweaty palms and a great smirk on my face, but truth be told, girls will always be girls!
WHERE TO PAINTBALL IN CYPRUS
Nicosia
Paintball Cyprus (Gun Smoke City), Ayious Trimithias: 77777204
Lapatsa Paintball Ranch, Tseri: 99-669343
Paintball Mania, Kokkinotrimithia: 99-686225
Limassol
Paintball Cyprus (Village Paintball Fields): 99-656474
Aftermath Paintball Arena, Zigi: 99-929712
Larnaca
KWEST Paintball Park- 99-669343
Paphos
DNA Paintball- 99-620920
Prices vary but on average a game of paintballing costs €25 per person with an extra cost if more paintballs are required.
