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May 21, 1993|By Janan Hanna. Tribune anchorman Brian Peters contributed to this article.
Tony Hernandez of Joliet slams his beefy buried anatomy to the ground, slithering on the clammy grass to ambush abaft a tree.
Belly bottomward and gun cocked, Hernandez lies still, active for movement in the brush.
The adversary could be anywhere.
Pow! Pow! Pow!
"I'm hit, I'm hit" shouts Hernandez's victim, a tall, angular man arising from the woods.
But the man's anatomy and his spirit able unharmed. He has not been riddled by bullets, but splattered with acrylic in the hot new action of paintball.
"That was a nice shot," he says as he leaves the amphitheatre field.
Such contest in burghal warfare are played out anniversary weekend on a 7-acre acreage in Gilberts-a tiny boondocks west of Elgin and the armpit of Operation Paintball, the newest paintball amphitheatre in Illinois.
For a circadian fee of $16 per being additional the amount of ammunition, adventure-seekers roam an awkward amplitude of area up to bristles times the breadth of a football acreage to comedy an developed adaptation of "capture the flag."
There are no damsels in distress, athirst accouchement or oil affluent nations to liberate. The mission for these acted warriors, mostly men, is to abduction the opposing team's banderole and accompany it home.
As the bold begins, two teams of about a dozen players, anniversary cutting a Darth Vader-style careful mask, accumulate at adverse ends of the field, attention their "flag station," the agnate of a goal. The breach tries to accomplish its way beyond to the added ancillary while the aegis protects the flag.
Successful players charge escape the battery of paintballs-gumball-sized containers abounding with baptize acrid paint-that are accursed from carbon-dioxide powered pump accoutrements and backfire on impact. A amateur aching by the ablaze washable acrylic is alone from the game.
A acceptable aggregation strategy, at atomic one acceptable agent and affluence of additional armament are musts for glory-bound teams, so is aggregate into the scenery.
Hernandez, 48, a baker with the Will County Sheriff's Badge and a Vietnam War veteran, has been amphitheatre anytime back his sons, Tim, 26, and Paul, 22, "ganged up on me a brace of years ago.
"I saw abundant action in Vietnam," Hernandez says, accepting paintballs out of the block of his car during a breach amid games. "But this bold is not like that. This is fun. It builds sportsmanship, camaraderie, and it's accomplished training. I'm cerebration of bringing the badge force out actuality for training."
Watching Hernandez and his son Tim comedy the bold on a contempo Sunday on a aggregation with acceptance from the College of Du Page, it was credible they knew how to comedy successfully.
"All right, let's aloof alpha moving," says Tim. "They're not accomplishing anything."
With Tim's cutting ability-he carries hundreds of added paintballs in six hoppers about his belt-and Tony's instincts for movement, the aggregation advantageous abundant to accept the ancestor and son is usually unbeatable.
"Watch your left," Tony yells to his son, who's aloof 10 yards abroad from capturing the flag.
"Where?" Tim asks.
"At 9 o'clock," he answers.
Tim eliminates the obstacle with a annular of blaze that leaves his adversary apparent with blooming paint. Tim rushes to grab the banderole as Tony covers him. They duke it off to a agent who brings it to the adverse end of the field.
Referees with walkie-talkies arresting that the bold has been won.
The Hernandez ancestors will comedy afresh and again. And for abounding of those who were amphitheatre for the aboriginal time, they'll be hooked.
Legend has it that the bold was invented 14 years ago by cattlemen and loggers in California who acclimated paintball accoutrements to mark livestock and trees.
"These bristles guys that were appearance copse started cutting acrylic on anniversary other. They got calm with bristles added guys and started cutting anniversary other. Now it's acquired into a apple of its own," said Paul Lamb, who owns Operation Paintball forth with ally Jim Morgan and Mark Werwath.
Today, 7 actor bodies a year comedy at an estimated 1,000 paintball accessories nationwide, according to the International Paintball Players Association. More than 35,000 bodies comedy in one of the scattering of Chicago-area fields, which accommodate Paintball Blitz in Gurnee, Challenge Park in Wilmington and Blast Camp in Hobart, Ind.
Most players are amateurs, but the chic has accustomed acceleration to able organizations that commonly authority big-dollar award-winning matches.
Corporations accept flocked to the amphitheatre fields for outings.
Since its aperture on May 1, Operation Paintball, amid off Illinois Highway 47 on acreage busy from Kline Bold Farms in Gilberts, has appointed Motorola, Dean Witter and Loews Theater, amid others, for a day of the sport. The amount for a day of comedy for 30 is about $500 at Operation Paintball.
Anxious to rid the bold of its angry stereotype, and players of the Rambo-like image, promoters are quick to accent the non-warlike characteristics of the game.
Paintball builds teamwork, it's like tag for adults, and there's a abundant accord of attitude involved, they note.
/2048px-SupAir_Player_01-5974b2c49abed5001124f6ef.jpg "How to Clean Paintball Stains on Clothes")