My awesome (former) Yodle co-worker, Ammon Brown organized an unofficial work trip to go play paintball at Skirmish out in Pennsylvania!
If you've been reading this site for any amount of time, this probably goes without saying: Me = Not a Morning Person. In order to play paintball with my co-workers I agreed to a 5am wake up call. Here's me making sure I'm actually in real life after only getting about ninety minutes of sleep. TIME TO PLAY PAINTBALL! tags:me
poke
tired
Walking through Stuytown admiring the spring time green! tags:stuytown
The courtyard outside our building has paddle-tennis and bocce ball courts! tags:stuytown
And on the way out the street I passed trays and trays of beautiful flowering plants that they were getting ready to plant all around the Stuytown grounds. (Whoopsie! Sorry about wasting money on flowers and defaulting on the 3 BILLION DOLLAR LOAN! Love, Tishman Speyer!) tags:flower
stuytown
Our bus left at 6:40am. Oooof. tags:bus
Ah, the peaceful pastures of Pennsylvania. tags:field
We got to Skirmish a little after 9am right as it stopped drizzling and started to clear up! tags:skirmish
SKIRMISH! tags:skirmish
I've dicked around in the woods with painball guns before, but I'd never played paintball at a huge professional place like Skirmish and I was totally blown away by the scale and organization of the operation. AWESOME! tags:skirmish
Aziza and Ben busted out a bottle of whiskey and we all had a few "warm-up sips" before existing the bus. tags:aziza
ben r
bus
yodle
Matt showed off his jock strap (and his pecs). (Psssst, ladies! He's single!) tags:matt
gay
Emanuel stepping off the bus and tying on the sea-foam green bandana that signifies the kickoff of his ritualistic paintball preparation proceedures! I'm actually just making that up. The truth is, he actually wears that bandana every day! Ha! tags:emanuel
bus
yodle
So excited. tags:crowd
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Filling out my form poorly. tags:skirmish
Wait, HUH??? What kind of hillbilly, bait and switch, invite you to play paintball and then rape you in the woods with a hose (apparently) kind of shit is this? tags:best
skirmish
wtf
That's probably not really going to happen, right? tags:nathaniel
todd
yodle
Probably not. tags:aziza
yodle
Who cares? PAINTBALL! tags:matt
yodle
Yes! tags:matt
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I stowed away my three peanut butter jars of paintballs in this fancy little hip-satchel. Mercenary chic! tags:me
cigarette
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With everyone outfitted, we walked closer to the playing fields to pick up our guns. tags:best
paintball
Me and Matt. tags:matt
me
sunglasses
Getting guns. tags:paintball
Into the woods! tags:paintball
Face protection. tags:me
paintball
While my co-workers were gearing up, I wandered into one of the ammo shops and bought a bunch of TACTICAL SMOKE GRENADES. We hadn't even started playing yet and I remember I kept thinking to myself: "They just sold me tactical smoke grenades! PAINTBALL IS AWESOME!" tags:paintball
smoke grenade
After loading up on guns and ammo, we headed deeper into the woods to play our first match. tags:paintball
There are many like it, but this one is mine. tags:matt
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The referee gathered us to explain the rules... tags:aziza
matt
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...and then sent us trudging into an awesomely creepy set of houses that looked like they were leftover from some Hollywood Western made in the 50s. tags:paintball
Right?
Playing the first match confirmed the suspicions I'd had earlier whilst purchasing tactical smoke grenades: PAINTBALL IS FUCKING AWESOME. tags:paintball
(But it's not very awesome when you get hit at close range). Here's Nataniel showing off two close range shots he took in the arm in the 3rd match we played. tags:nathaniel
ouch
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Resting up between games.
3:30pm. Yet another ammo refill!
We've been playing painball for many hours and it is fucking EXHAUSTING! Not only are you running around full speed while carrying heavy gear, the fact that you're running through the woods and hunting other humans (and trying to to get avoid shot by the people hunting you because it HURTS) sends your adrenaline spiking through the roof every single game. It's intense. tags:rajiv
paintball
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4pm. Resting up for the final match! tags:aziza
matt
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yodle
Ammon, the man who organized the event! Thanks, Ammon! tags:ammon brown
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Beleaguered me. tags:me
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Before the match started, I made sure I had the last of my TACTICAL SMOKE GRENADES handy. I'd used the other three I'd purchased in the heat of other battles, but I was so completely absorbed in the games that I didn't want to take photos and risk getting killed. But the smoke grenades were so awesome that I was determined to document me using the last one in an actual paintball-combat scenario! tags:best
smoke grenade
Awwww, yeah! About 20 nail-biting minutes into the last match, we were trying to silently creep through the woods to track down the other team when we fell into an ambush! I threw the last grenade, snapped this rad photo, and then a couple seconds later the smoke provided a dense enough cover that allowed a couple of us to right-flank our ambushers! AWESOME! tags:best
paintball
smoke grenade
Leaving the field after the last match. tags:paintball
So much fun. tags:paintball
Emanuel! tags:emanuel
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Matt posing for one last "HOW AWESOME IS IT THAT I'M HOLDING A PAINTBALL GUN?" photo before we had to hand our guns in. tags:matt
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Ammon showing off a close-range arm shot that had already started turning a deep purple behind the still-bright-red impact spot. Ouchie! tags:ammon brown
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Bus ride home. tags:bus
It was a perfect day of mock-killing in the woods! There was even a rainbow on the way home! Thanks again for organizing such a fun trip, Ammon! tags:driving
rainbow
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