I have never wanted to hurt anybody and I certainly never wanted to shoot someone so I found the idea of paintball a little strange. People go off to the woods at weekends and get shot at with paint balls by people they hardly know and it turned out two guys from my office do this most weekends. I never could understand why grown men would want to run around in the woods playing at being soldiers while they dodged paintballs flying through the air.

I knew I had nothing planned for the following weekend so when they invited me to join them I decided to gve it a try. As we travelled out of town heading for the paintball camp site I was a bit nervous as I didn't know quite what to expect.

I awoke nervously and was given some protective gear, a paintball gun and some instructions and told I must not remove the face mask at any time in the fighting area which puzzled me as I had no intention of removing it at all that day. Next I was shown how to operate a simple paintball gun and the we were off to my first paintball fight. No sooner had I arrived in the fighting area I was hit by a bright pink ball of paint. I knew I had a lot to learn about all this paintball stuff and I hadn't even seen who it was that shot me.

I had a lot of fun that weekend. If I had a dollar for each time I got hit I would be rich but I also shot a few of the guys and I just had such a terrific time that weekend. The protective clothing gives a degree of protection but there is always a bit of a sting from the paintball hitting you. It's just part of the fun of the game.

You might guess I am now a regular paintball player and most weekends you will find me out in the woods with my cheap paintball gun. I started out with some cheap gear but I am slowly improving the quality of the paintball gear I own but you don't have to spend a lot of money and you can still have a great time with some cheap paintball gear.