The following are some short description of shield types along with their benefits and disadvantages. Use at one's own discretion.

UMBRELLA: Umbrellas can be used as portable, collapsable shields Umbrellas come in a variety of shapes and the size usually can be used to cover a good part of one's body. However, the material used to make umbrellas actually allows some water to penetrate. Also, some of the smaller umbrellas can be easily damaged by the stream of water from some of the larger Super Soakers(tm). It also usually requires two hands to manipulate the umbrella into the proper position to protect, leaving no hands free to counter attack.

PLASTIC SHEET/SLED: Once only useful during the winter, those crazy carpets/sheet sleds also make great protable shields. This type of shielding comes ready-made with handles for carrying and are usually light and easy to move with. The only potential drawback is that they are made of flimsy plastic and may be hard to position properly at times.

FORE-ARM SHIELD: The fore-arm shield is a piece of water-proof material about 1.5'x1.5' in size attached to the fore-arm. Either arm can be used to hold the shield. The shield can be made of cardboard wrapped with a plastic bag, plastic, or plexiglass (if one has money to spend). The shield should not be made too large as this will inhibit movement. The shield is held to the arm by a series of straps sometimes made of duct-tape/foam, rope or cotton cloth. Since this shield will be on one's arm for the duration of the water war, the straps holding it should be secure, but comfortable.

This type of shield is easy to use when blocking or deflecting oncoming streams of water. The main difficulty is that its size does restrict movement a bit. Also, by being attached to the fore-arm, blocking and shooting back can be tricky.

WEAPON-MOUNTED SHIELD: More information to come...