Ghillie Suits and Paintball Safety

It Hurts Less In A Ghillie Suit

 Paintball can be a very painful experience, especially for those inclined to ignore prescribed rules of safety and common sense. It is also painful for those too old to bend as easily as they once did, but those injuries should fall in the "lacks common sense" category.

It would appear from my research that a great many injuries are minor and can be considered part of the game. The injuries I address here are the more serious and avoidable ones. All injuries are avoidable, but taken too far you lose the spirit of the game. I find it ironic that the most serious injuries are the easiest to avoid.

The most common injury by far are the eye injuries. The simple expedient of wearing the face mask immediately takes this injury off the playing field. In supervised play the face mask is mandatory, but not all play is supervised and those participants are obviously not going to be the most responsible. While these injuries are avoidable, it is my opinion that we will always have them.

Those wishing to avoid those injuries should simply avoid the unsupervised arenas. I would like to point out that those players wearing Ghillie Suits have an extra measure of protection from eye injuries, especially if their suit has a Hood as any Paintball Ghillie should.

The next most common injury is being struck by pellets in the gonads or groin area. This is a serious injury only because most paintballers are young and have their procreation years ahead of them. Some of these genital injuries have indeed left the victims permanently incapacitated. Again, all of these injuries are preventable through the simple expedient of wearing a cup. Think of it as a face mask for the balls. Of course this injury is serious only to the injured party while for some reason I will never understand, the rest of the world finds it hilarious. I don't think this injury comes under any supervision, so you're on your on to protect your valuables. Yet again a certain measure of protection is available by wearing a Ghillie Suit.Quite often paintballers in Ghillie Suits are struck repeatedly and never even feel it.

I mention this last hazard only because of the severity of the injuries. There have been deaths recorded as a result of stray CO2 cartridges. This is absolutely preventable. The canister valve must turn with the canister. Failing to take notice of this one fact can be deadly. In this particular circumstance I cannot imagine A Ghillie Suit providing any benefit.If you play paintball in a regulated environment, it is extremely rare that an injury will occur that could be considered severe. Hurts, scrapes, lesions, bruises aplenty are an integral part of the sport, just as they are in football, baseball, or any active sport. To avoid it all take up shuffleboard.