Wayne Montle Reports from Down Under

Submitted by Wayne Montle, host of Blast Radius Woodsball Podcast

Operation: Invasion 3
Camp Extreme, Australia

Not many things can top the thrill of flying overseas to cover a paintball event. Months of prep and planning on the part of myself and my co-host Ben in Brisbane, went into making my trip to Australia possible. Those endless hours were well worth the effort, as I got to experience woods paintball down under, aka “bushball.”

For a paintball player, there’s nothing better than visiting new places, meeting new people… and shooting them with paint.

The Australian bushball players I met this past weekend were as enthusiastic as any players I’ve ever met anywhere. They help each other both on and off the field. They take their sport seriously and are working hard to help it grow.

For the duration of the trip, I was "mic’ed;” everything was potential material for the show. When the Aussies realized this, most of them gave a nervous laugh. I could see them trying to remember what they had said in the past few minutes.

The hardest part about recording audio of Australian paintball players is editing it all later. Their colorful use of descriptive and often crude language was entertaining, but left me “bleeping out” bits of the recordings late into the night.

The terrain down under is tough, and the thick growth makes stealth difficult. Fun to play, though.

I'm eager to summarize this trip for RECON readers after I return to Colorado. Thanks to RECON for helping sponsor the trip, and be sure to check out Blast Radius Woodsball Podcast for more about my trip to Australia.