Eric Brunt ducks in and out of his bunker, desperately snap-shooting on both the left and right side. Three or four opposing players dart forward to eliminate him. Paint hurtles through the air in loud, aspirated bursts; a moment later, Brunt is waving his hand and yelling “hit.”

After the game, he emerges from the netted playing field to wipe the white paint from his mask. The adrenaline rushing through his veins dissipates as he sits down to begin the meticulous process of cleaning and refilling his paintball marker in preparation for the next game.

A few minutes later, Brunt, a Husky Paintball Club member, and his teammates in the club talk tactics as they prepare to take the field for the next round of games.

Playing paintball on the weekends is a lifestyle for Brunt and the Husky Paintball Club, but it is also a relatively cheap, safe and rather painless way for anyone to spend a weekend afternoon.

You will be shot, probably on numerous occasions, but the nervous anticipation of getting hit is almost always worse than the actual thing.

“People think it hurts more than it does,” said Matt Quijano, a club member and graduate student.

Being shot by a paintball is often compared to being stung by a bee, but that may be an overstatement. A sharp, quick whip with a towel is a more accurate comparison to being shot with a paintball marker. If you’re afraid of being shot, wearing baggy layers can reduce the bite of the paintball impact by partially absorbing its force. Additionally, protective masks are required to cover the face.

“It is not dangerous,” Brunt said. “You don’t get a bruise every time you get shot.”

A nickel-sized bruise is about the only injury players experience, and the slight pain from being shot is only a split-second experience of a very complex game.

The ‘adrenaline rush’

The Husky Paintball Club partakes in tournament-style paintball, and is played on an artificial turf field about the size of a basketball court. Dotted throughout the field are bunkers, or large inflatable barricades, which are the only objects protecting players from an opponent’s flurry of paintballs.

“It’s a very fast paced game,” said Jeramy Neff, manager of Danger Zone Paintball in Fircrest, Wash. “Keep your eyes and ears open to everything around you and work as a team.”

The game begins with each team standing at opposing bases, which incidentally serve as “deadboxes” for eliminated players. A referee counts down to the start of the game. At that point, players from both teams sprint toward bunkers. Players begin to shout and shoot nearly simultaneously, resulting in a fast-paced cacophony that doesn’t die down until the game ends.

“It’s just a big adrenaline rush,” Brunt said.

Normal games play out over a short period of time, often as brief as a few minutes. The games are fluid in nature and are best characterized by a continuously morphing game situation. Players shoot paintball guns, called markers, capable of spitting out upward of 15 balls per second. A sudden movement or loss of a key player can change the whole game in seconds.

“It’s kind of a live game of chess,” said senior Thanh Bui, a Husky Paintball club member.

Paintball reflects chess in that team strategy, field position and tactical awareness are crucial to winning or losing a game. Paintball, however, is a fast-forward and manic version of the quiet board game.

“It’s an exciting game to play,” Brunt said. “There’s action going on all over the field.”

Angles are very important. Bunkers come in various shapes and sizes, and are appropriately named for their shape: the triangular bunker is called a “Dorito,” the tall rectangular bunker is dubbed a “tower” and the long, sinuous bunker is known as the “snake.” No matter what the shape of the bunker, a player is never safe because an opponent can rush to a better location on the field. To put it simply, an opponent can always move to the side or behind your defenses to eliminate you.

“You’re fighting to move up the field to key areas,” Brunt said.

New players welcome

Despite the tactics involved, the sport of paintball remains accessible to new players. The Husky Paintball Club welcomes any fellow students who would like to play with them.

“It’s a game anybody can play,” Brunt said.

Many people find it surprising that he is a paintball player.

“People don’t look like paintballers,” he said. “It’s a fun game to play as just a recreational activity.”

And it’s easy. The basics of the game are pretty simple: Take cover when necessary and pull the trigger to shoot at the other team.

New players might not hit an opposing player during their first couple of games, but the games are quick, and breaks between games are a great time to ask more experienced players for tips.

Markers and safety

During breaks, players must necessarily tend to their equipment and wipe away any paint residue from their clothing. A considerable amount of time is dedicated to cleaning and maintaining equipment between games.

The basic tools necessary to play paintball, all of which can be rented or bought, are a marker, a mask, a hopper, an air canister and the paintballs.

The marker actually fires the paintballs. The hopper, which is attached to the top of the marker, holds and feeds paintballs into the marker as a player fires. The air canister, attached to the back of the marker, delivers pressurized air into the marker when the trigger is pulled; the punch of air sends the paintball flying out of the marker’s barrel at up to 300 feet per second. The mask, essentially a pair of ski goggles with a plastic grill over the mouth, protects the eyes from paintball impacts and is required on all fields.

Besides the mask, there are other safety insurances involved with paintballing.

Despite the company name, Danger Zone Paintball’s field, and paintball in general, is very safe, Neff said. Protective cloth sleeves or “barrel condoms” are placed over the barrels of all paintball markers to insure against any harmful accidental misfires. Additionally, all markers are checked at the beginning of the day to insure they aren’t shooting paintballs at more than 300 feet per second.

Once players have finished reloading their hoppers, refilling their air canisters and wiping paint from their masks, it’s back to the field for another game. Brunt leads the UW team out onto the field. The referee calls for the game to start, and the Huskies begin a mad dash for cover as voluminous amounts of paint zip through the air. It’s just another weekend for the Husky Paintball Club.