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PAINTBALL IN CROATIA
Paintball is a game in which players attempt to eliminate their
opponents by shooting them with paintball weapon, which is filled with
gas and projects bowls filled with paint.
Paintball rules are very wide, goal of these rules is to provide
enjoyment to it’s participants.
Beginning of paintball as a sport, which we know today happened in
1981. when few friends from New Hampshire (USA) designed a game of
sneaking with goal of winning a flag.
Paintball “infected” their friends soon, and “contagion” called
paintball started to expand.
Within next few years paintball has spread in Australia and in Great Britain.
IPPA (International Paintball Players Association) non-profit
organization was founded in 1988. because there was already a need for
organization which would take care about safety and development of
paintball.
Within next few years paintball started to be played all over Europe.
In 1992. first professional paintball league (NPPL) was launched, and
this indicated real beginning of this sport.
Number of paintball players was growing up very fast and at the same
time paintball industry started to grow also, to satisfy their needs
for paintball equipment.
Paintball is played by all generations and it is still growing.
According indicators from 2004. paintball is in the third place of
“extreme sports” in the world according number of participants and
profit which paintball industry is making.
Paintball is recognized as ideal activity for getting rid of stress
and as a teambuilding activity.
In Croatia paintball is still progress. It started to be played in
Croatia at the end of nineties and in 2003. Croatian paintball league
was launched.
In 2005. Croatian regional paintball league was launched. In this
league beginners are also participants and it is played all over
Croatia.
2LAND league also started, this is the league where best paintball
teams from Croatia and Slovenia compete. This league has shown that
paintball in Croatia is going in the right direction and that it is
following a world trend.
There are more and more players, more tournaments and more people
playing paintball as recreation.
Also, there are more and more commercial paintball fields, so offer is
getting better.
Paintball gear is: marker (gun), protection mask, clothes and gas bomblets.
There is a big difference between professional and recreational
paintball gear, especially in prices.
Safety rules are very severe, so player without protection mask is
kicked out the game immediately.
Paintball is a very safe sport - research shows that yearly on 1000
participants there are just 0.2 injuries.
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