The war mark stained Tim Yip’s cheek, a big bright orange smudge of pain that dripped down to his chin.
“We didn’t do that well,” he said, sweat beading on his face after his fifth game. “But we had fun today. A day at the beach is better than work.”
Paintball junkies from around the world flooded into Huntington Beach this morning, the first day of the Super 7 World Series of Paintball tournament, which runs through Sunday.

Click here or on the image to the right to see a video of the event.
The competition is the first stop of the five-city tour, put on by the National Professional Paintball League. More than 1,500 paintballers – amateur and pros – will be blasting balls at each other during seven-minute competitions.
Yip, on team “Flipped Out,” was among the amateur players who battled it out today. He plays once a week at Hollywood Sports in Bellflower, and today took a day off of from his job as a physical therapist for brain injury patients so that he could blast some opponents.  At 44, he’s a bit out of the average playing age of 22.
“I’m not as young as I used to be,” he said, chuckling. “It’s all about speed these days. They’re so fast.”

One all-girls team – Destiny - were among the 220 teams signed up for the event, coming from around the nation to battle the boys.
“We’re girly girls,” said Bea Youngs, owner of the team. They just have a bit more edge, she added. 
The team touts a laundry list of athletic accomplishments, with a professional snowboarder, a hockey player, and a soccer player among the players.
“A lot of those elements make a good paintball team,” said Youngs, who played softball.

Youngs said being the only girls’ team puts on the pressure, and the guys sometimes give them a hard time.
“Our industry needs new blood,” she said. “Our objective is to get more female participants. We’re here to stay.”
About 80,000 people are expected to head to the beach this weekend to check out the tournament.
Some highlights include a competition at noon Saturday between Indie 103.1 DJ’s and a few listeners who won a contest, and also a battle on Sunday with members of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County.
The pro finals are on Sunday, with prize money totaling $100,000.

Matt Doyle did a few arm and leg stretches on a patch of grass before entering the competition area.

Doyle, a Marine from Camp Pendleton, has been in the event for four years. He said this is a great event to get paintballing out to the mainstream.

“A lot of people don’t see it as a sport, they see it as a hobby,” he said. “They don’t see the athleticism in it.”

More stories from the beach:

- Pit bulls to be euthanized after killing small dog at Dog Beach

- Surfers reporting sharks in water … a shark’s tale, or not?

- For more info on Orange County’s beaches, go to ocregister.com/beaches.
 

This entry was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 1:22 pm and is filed under Beach culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.