Express Action Sports

It depends on what you want to play.I personally play speedball and know more about it and will talk about mostly that.
Speedball-Fast-pace, air bunkers, fast guns, quick and short moves, split second decisions, smaller fields, 3, 5, 7 ,10, and 12 man tounaments.
Woodsball-Slower-pace, usually played in the forest and more realistic battle fields, slower and more accurate guns, more tactical playing, games are longer, bigger fields.

electric guns are great for speedball while mechanical are used more for woodsball.

Good speedball guns for a beginner-Smart parts Ion, Smart parts epiphany, proto matrix rail, invert mini

Woodsball-Tippmans are all that i know(that rental gun you always use)

Paintballs-For speedball my favorite would be xball bronze. It is good priced for what it is and will not cause any problems for your gun.

My favorite mask is teh V-force profiler but there are also dye invisions which are very good and jt proflex and e-ventz.

For woodsball camo gear is a good idea but for speedball, anything could be worn. Top brands for speedball are dye, redz, eclipse and smart parts.

Thats all im gonna write cuz this is really long and i could spend hours explaining more.

Talk to the people at the paintball shop and theyll hook you up. Plan to spend a good deal of money though. you could do lots of research paintballgear.com. Enjoy!!!
References :
Im sponsered by redz and have been playing speedball for 3 years.

Good anwser rich. Okay this will be a long one but i’ll just hit the high points for you. Congrats on your decision, paintball is an amazing sport. Paintball is the 3rd largest extreme sports in the world and the most played sport every weekend around the globe ever. Alittle history lesson next. Paintball originated well over 25-30 years ago by cowhands that used pellet rifles with small claiber paintballs to mark cattle with but quickly turned into a game with each other. There for a decade or so paintball had a rough start but eventually gained ground when people began making companies to produce products and markers. Paintballs where WAY more expensive than they are today but considering if your pump pistol only shot an average of 1bps per second and games where mainly woods you didn’t need much anyways. Through shakey beginnings companies answered the players needs by trying to build a reliable semi auto marker to bust the pump blues people had fallen into. The first real success came from tippmann and pmi with the introduction of tippmanns smg68 and 68 special along with pmi’s infamous Pmi 3 (vm68) despite being gas hogs they did their job of reliability in 1990. The vm68 paved the way for the new stacked blow back design markers (i.e spyders) and tippmann setting themselves inline for further sucess. While both companies continued to push their way further in technology more and more companies hit the market to try their hand in the trade.
Agd hit the scene with one intention in mind, to cut the air hog issue down thus breaking the mold with their blow foward design (automag) which opperated at a much less 400-500psi than previous markers on the market. Agd was also the first to offer a rate of fire statistic (7bps). Due to the markers low pressure cycle an air source above 850psi was needed so these markers were more or less pushed into a highpressure league but the incarring public still supported it’s amazing success and their markers are still being produced today! Wgp hit the scene with being well known for their earlier projects (nelson and sheridan pumps) had taken the sheridan based pump (the sniper) and turned it into a trigger actuated pneumatically automated semi auto marker know as the autococker.Thanks to this automation system, the gun used a very low gas pressure fed to a pneumatic ram to cock the gun following each shot. Since the cocking action and the firing are not happening simultaneously (which is the case with a blow-back / spyder), the gas is not required to do double duty, thus overall gas pressure is not an issue.
This marker went on to become the first marker to ever be made entirely out of aftermarket parts and it’s upgradability and closed bolt function made this an instant popularity winner which is still in production today. After these steps foward most of the semiauto markers became "higher end gear" field forcing pumps to an entry level status until the introduction of kingman industries which produced a reliable blow back marker for under 200 dollars and still hold the title for entry level markers today. The pumps on the other hand got the shaft for awhile by being seen as "the poor persons marker" and yielded a big disadvantage to the user if they were to be playing with semi auto owners. Recently pump leagues have began to spring up and regain the pumps popularity with the help of chipley machine and many others.
Since the mid-late 90’s paintball really took off. Not only for gear but in playing style. People began to come out of the woods to play the new exciting speedball games and left a few in the middle for recball. Thus spreading the game to new horizons. The gear began to take a turn for the sky as tons of new companies hit the market with improving the sport in their sights. Electro pnuematic markers ruled the speedball fields and apg magazines but were rarely in the price range of the average person. Air systems began to get more reliable and complex while dropping slighty in price while paintball goggles began to encorporate the face shield more into their normal makes pleasing many users. Around the turn of the century markers began to slide toward an electric mode of operation starting with electric frame upgrades for mags,cockers,spyders,ect. and eventually a few years later leading markers to come stock with such. The big joke we always had back around 1998-2000 was that one day electronic markers would be affordable which open mouth insert foot occured because now the low level markers that hover around 100 dollars or less come strapped with electronics. Break throughs in the paint area was nothing short of amazing also due to a much better .68 shell and fill at a lower price. Around 2000-2003 higherend markers of the 90’s began to fade away (cocker,mag,ect.) as the market gave birth the the new shocker design and dyes dm series spool valve markers along with many, many others. Here we are today with 25+bps compared to the old 7bps from our friend the mag and electronic upgrades are affordable and well worth the dollar. A full gear setup for a beginner can now be purchased for under 100 bucks and walmarts deal with brasseagle (daisy) helps bring it just a tad closer to the public by helping new players get their feet wet and upgrade from those beginnings.
Tournements in speedball styles became very popular and attracted many multimillion dollar sponsers which helped speedball glamorize the sport across the globe. Woods became a milsim (military simulation) based style now which further pushed tippmanns amazing track record and following.
It seems in your answer you’re wanting to play more of a recball/speedball style of paintball judging from your willingness to join a team. Don’t put your buggy in front of your horse friend, every successful team started out small and worked their way up to a win. Nobody, not even Lang or The troll can do such a feat as starting on the speedball field.
I suggest you invest in a model 98, spyder or piranha and familularize yourself with all the styles of play to get your feet wet before focusing on practice. Crawl before you walk, start in the woods as where most all of us did and enjoy yourself and get used to your gear and gain some building blocks of knowledge then move on to recball which would to get a faster pace feel for things and then after awhile move on to the speedball field. Start solo and practice with some friends to get the feel of the objectives and bunkers in the game. Upgrade your gear about this time to an electro pnuematic and learn to use it as a part of your body, like a 3rd arm if you will. Always challenge slighty better players as to gain some sort of a staircase to climb with experience and practice. After you’ve gotten a good tase of things and feel confident enough join a team and prepare for tourney play. There’s hundreds of drills a seasoned player would be glad to show you to help out when that time arrives. During this evolution into different styles I still enjoy playing woods just as much as I enjoy getting nasty at huntington beach for a tourney. Doing this step up program gives your a MUCH wider view of the sport as a whole and it’s gear which in the long run will fuel yourself to numerous wins and fun times. Paintballs? I suggest going with a good brand such as draxxus or rps. Stuff to wear? I wear a pair of paintball pants and a longsleeve shirt, cleats and gloves. Most wear that setup or just a simple pair of pants and a tee. To ensure the most out of your marker be sure to stick by the three b’s of paintball which is Bolt,Barrel & Ball. An aftermarket bolt will not only increase the markers efficiency but you’ll gain some accuracy. The barrel which anything over 14" becomes a friction problem on the exiting paintball causing a drastic loss in air efficiency and accuracy so a good 12-14" barrel such as an evil driver,j&j ceramic,armson stealth,smart parts tear drop,ect will do the trick. Paintballs have a shelf life and unless used quickly or stored correctly will begin to break down the shell and form dimples and softness which will not fly straight and might repture before exiting the barrel.
Markers all should be operated at under 300fps and goggles to be worn at all times when around a armed marker without a barrel blocking device secured. By insurance standards paintball is the safest sport out there and that includes tennis,golf,frisbee,ect.
Congrats,enjoy and for anything further or if I left something important out (i’m sleepy) then email me at hotshot_pb@hotmail.com
References :
Playing since 1993, am a licensed tech at a pb store, play d3 tourneys and own a local field.