Summer Guide ’08 | Get Outside! Get Your Woodball On! | Summer Guide | Salt Lake City Weekly
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June 11, 2008 Culture » Summer Guide

Summer Guide ’08 | Get Outside! Get Your Woodball On! 

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Our fair state enjoys numerous ways to experience and revel in the majesty of the great outdoors, for example: crawling commando-style on your hands and knees through thorny brush and scrub to flank the enemy and rain down upon them a barrage of CO2-fired paint. Woodball, according to the paintball lingo, is where people gear up and take the sport to the great outdoors. Unlike speedball or hyperball, which are short, intense games usually played in small indoor fields, woodball is much more of a strategic game. “The outdoor game is 360 degrees of play,” says Jeff Wilkinson owner of the Action Paintball Center. “You can never think, “Nobody is going to sneak up behind me.’ On my field, you can expect them to come from every direction.”

Indeed, Wilkinson’s field located at the east end of the Morgan County airfield includes about 30 acres of trees, brush and a small crick. The field has good group rates and, for 15 people, averages out to about $12 a person, for mask, air, gun and paint, though you’ll probably want to purchase extra paint. The rental guns are Tippman 98 Customs and Piranhas. Try and get a Tippman if you can; the brand is a stalwart in the industry.

Pegleg paintball, a Utah institution in the sport, has recently finished an eight-acre field in Ogden with good varying environment as well as a recently finished “town” decked out in small buildings for a bit of an urban-warfare feel. The staff says the Saturday crowds average 60-plus players, making for some excellent paintball warfare, and, with the shop right next to the field, it’s easy to buy more paint, refill tanks and even get minor problems fixed onsite so you’re not sidelined from the game. A day’s worth of play here with gear and paint will run you $35, or $20 if you have a Peg Leg Gold Card. If you get real serious and buy your own gun from any Peg Leg store you can get a field-day pass for just $5.

Once you really get into the game, you’ll perhaps discover the most enjoyable fields are the free ones: the hidden canyons, forests and creeks all over Utah. For example, Crestwood Park nestled right in the ’burbs of Sandy has a nice, free midsize field right next to it—just be courteous of the nearby houses and park patrons. Action Center Paintball, 4129 Cottonwood Canyon Road, Little Cottonwood Canyon, 801-876-3132, ActionCenterPaintball.com; Peg Leg Paintball, 291 W. 33rd, Ogden, 801-866-1122, PegLegPaintball.com; Crestwood Park, 1700 Siesta Drive (7485 South) Sandy.

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