What to wear on the first day out!

[PandaP]

I've been researching airsoft for a few weeks now (Just like the tutorial said! Whee!) And i'm pretty sure i'll be ready on my first game. I'm going to rent obviously because i'm still not 100% sure I want to invest all the money in this, but what should I do for what i'm wearing on the first day? I don't want to spend money on camo clothes or anything yet, and I don't want to get immediately shunned haha so any ideas? I'll be playing in BC at either panther or up at burma!

[Eeyore]

OK well, first thing you need is protection for your face. Thats either a paintball mask or ballistic goggles. Thats the most important piece if kit you have. Protect your eyes. Don't worry about anything else until you can do that, it doesn't matter whether you buy or borrow. Now once thats taken care of that you need good boots. These are also not an option. Good boots protect yout feet and ankles from all the abuse that the environment will dish out. Running shoes are not good enough, nor are steel toes. Both will destroy your feet. You don't need camo yet, although it would help. Green clothing will be ok, or failing that neutral tones. Besides that, weather appropriate clothing to stay warm and dry, extra socks, and water and something to carry it in. And food, bring a decent lunch as well as a snack.

[L473ncy]

White sweater (bonus if you have a cycling jacket or safety vest), skate shoes or sandals, and dress pants.

Seriously though, some people don't like people having no camo but IMO we should slightly move away from that and make some of the regular skirmish days more relaxed in rule format in regards to what to wear (milsims should still have strict requirements though but for regular skirmish days IMO whatever you have is good enough). For camo depending on where you live Gorilla Surplus on East Broadway in Vancouver, Daves Army Surplus (DSTactical) in New West, or PoCo surplus (in PoCo obviously and another branch in Langley) will have cheap OD combats for you most likely.

Anyways, I suggest some old raggedy clothes you don't care for too much preferably in a dark but NOT black colour, believe it or not but black actually stands out quite significantly (try it one day and see for yourself especially try it at night, you won't believe it till you see it), navy blue or a dark bluish purple is actually best.

As for footwear, at minimum those hiking cross trainer things but better to have proper hiking boots (you probably have hiking boots, and if not I'm surprised since there's so many nice trails nearby Vancouver like the Baden Powell and West Coast Trail)

Gloves if you have some, preferably "low profile" and form fitting. Grab a pair of dark coloured work gloves from home depot or rona (I use a pair of "Watson" gloves for biking) this is to prevent lots of pain from finger shots in case you're unlucky and get one in the hand.

A mask you can probably rent from panther for $5-10 for the day or w/e but I'm not so sure about Big Foot, best to ask around and see if another player has any. Are you on the Op-For or BCAC forums? Ask there and you'll probably be able to borrow from someone who has an extra mask.

EDIT: Also this is something I picked up on but CADPAT works better in west coast environments than MARPAT because of the green "mossy" trunks we have on the west while MARPAT is better in prairie and badland environments since the trunks of the trees are "dead" and more brown.

[PandaP]

Excellent! It's probably going to be a paintball mask since then I can use it at both, and I have really good hiking boots like you said from doing 4-5 day hike and portage trips. Thanks alot guys, this really helped out.

[JuicyFruits]

+1 for the gloves, fingers / knuckles shots don't happen too frequently but if you get hit there and you're not wearing anything it can be very painful.

[Rubs]

I wore jeans and a hoddie. I also bought a full face mask for the first day.

You WILL need one, get one.

[Eien]

Honesty, on my first day playing, I wore a cadpat top and jeans. As long you have eye protection, good boots and a AEG. Your good to go.

[NoGear]

Knee pads, its a life saver