Plastic giveaway: What’s your best story?

/ P.J.

Somebody will win this... will it be you?

For those who don’t know me, I’m a pretty competitive softball player. I’ve been playing it since I was 17 and I’ve loved every minute of it.

I’ve run a team for that long as well — and we’ve had a lot of success. We’ve won championships, reached the finals and done all sorts of fun things.

But one thing I always remember was playing in a league as a younger player — and I was one of the youngest on the team. During those days, I listened more than anything.

Oh the stories.

Things about the days gone by. Past tournaments and league shenanigans. Great games and road trips. It was a grassroots way of playing the sport of softball.

In recent years, the style of softball I play (modified) seems to be fading some. The local leagues have dwindled and most have folded. Slow pitch has taken over, especially co-ed.

In those young days, several of the older players told me that I grew up in the wrong generation. I was a bit of a throw back on the field in the way I played and how I saw and viewed the game.

I see disc golf in the same way. A growing sport in a grassroots atmosphere. But really growing — not on the flip side, such as softball was (at least in our area).

I’m still a sponge when it comes to stories and such though. I love hearing things of days gone by — even if it’s last Friday.

Flinging a piece of plastic down a narrow fairway in hopes of rattling the chains within a few throws is a pipe dream of sorts. Never hit a tree? Never hit something crazy?

There are always great stories of things that happened on the course.

In the few years I’ve played this sport, I’ve heard some great ones. Some are just amazing — long aces, bombing shots that somehow found the chain for an unbelievable ace. There are funny ones — I’ve heard about someone who was playing a course with a few others. They each drove and someone rode by on a bike. The bike rider stropped, picked up the disc and took off — never to be seen as he disappeared.

Maybe it’s the shot that ended up in a tree, on top of a building, in a car or hit an animal.

Who knows?

The stories are endless. And we want to hear about them!

So do you want to win some plastic? If so, you need to tell us the story. Share it in the comments below. Posting on Facebook somewhere will not count as an entry. Give us details, too. A story isn’t done in a sentence or two. We want to know the situation, where it was — anything you can tell. But make it a good story!

We want to give away the disc — and maybe something else!

The disc will be given to someone randomly via the randomizer at Random.org.

Then there might be a second prize. As long as we get at least 50 stories, we’ll give something else away (we haven’t decided what it will be yet — maybe some more plastic, maybe something else. We have to look through the prize box and see what we have)! So tell your friends to share their story. The more we get, the more likely we’ll beef up that second prize a little!

How to win the second prize? It will be given to the person with the story voted best by the staff of Rattling Chains. Make us laugh. Make us cry. Do something to make us say “That story absolutely rocked.”

It’s as easy as that.

And if you guys can make us laugh as much as Gregg Barsby did with his Ken Climo impersonation… well, you’re on the right track!

Contest details:

This contest will run for two weeks. The end time is 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, April 11. The winners will be announced on/or about April 12.The winners will be notified via e-mail.

If no response is received from the winner within one week, we reserve the right to give the prizes away to the second people on our lists.

Members of RattlingChains.com and/or immediate family members are not eligible to win.

We will be posting some of the most entertaining stories in the winning announcement post.

Disc info: Discraft Nuke ESP, a distance driver. Weight is 170. The disc is orange with a 2010 Jersey Jam logo stamp.

Discraft’s website says this about the Nuke ESP:

Longer drives are now as easy as pushing a button: NUKE™ delivers virtually effortless maximum distance for moderate to expert players. The wide, heavy rim and refined aerodynamic engineering give NUKE unparalleled velocity, while a 1.6 stability rating makes it more useful to a wider range of players. Seize the power!

Special thanks to New Jersey professional Bob Graham for donating the Discraft Nuke that is going to the winner.

If you have any comments, questions, thoughts, ideas or anything else, feel free to e-mail me and the crew at: pj [at] rattlingchains.com. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook!

0 thoughts on “Plastic giveaway: What’s your best story?”

  1. Pingback: Plastic being given away at Rattling Chains! « talkdiscgolf.com

  2. Last summer I was playing a solo round at Borden Park, which isn’t in the nicest of neighborhoods, when a guy in torn up jeans and no shirt who was sitting on a bench came over and asked if he could borrow a disc and play with me. Since I was carrying over 20 discs I figured I couldn’t really say no. So we are playing and he starts telling me how he used to play there all the time but he hadn’t for a while because he had been in jail and just got out a few weeks before. He didn’t say what he’d been in for, but then he goes on to say, “Yeah, and I’m probably going back as soon as I go home today. The cops are probably waiting for me. I got drunk and beat the hell out of my ex-girl’s old man.” I wasn’t really sure what to say to that so I think I just said something like “Oh yeah?” and made a mental note not to criticize his game. After about 5 or 6 holes he decided he should probably head on home, “before he got any more drunk.” An exciting day on the course to say the least.

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  3. Summer of 2011 I was planning on entering 8-13 tournaments for intermediate. This was the first time I played league and or tournaments. Needless to say I wasn’t very good. Met a couple local pro’s and they gave me some tips. Going into my first tournament it was mixed, int and am’s. I placed 13th. I was very disappointed. The next tournament I placed 3rd in intermediate. The following tournament I placed 4th in intermediate (playing against adv players). The following week I broke my ankle and in the process I tore my ligaments in my right ankle. I was out for most of the summer. Going to the doctor for a checkup he said I could start exercising again, I flew back to my hometown for a week to spend time with my dad, I went out disc golfing to test out the ankle, went to compete against my friend, my brother and my brothers friend. We were on an almost impossible ace hole, Hole 7 in Huntington Beach, CA. I told my brothers friend, I am going to skip ace this hole for you. He laughed and punched me. I took a big hyzer route, watched my disc flip up, saw it had a chance for the skip route, it hit the ground 30ft from the basket skipped and drilled center chains. We all just froze and had to re-look to make sure it really was in the basket, people were yelling and clapping, after I finally noticed it was in the basket I was yelling at the top of my lungs, my first ace and on a broken ankle. It was a great day out disc golfing. Distance: 305ft. Score for that day, Me: -4 Ted: +13 Steven: +8 Josh: +6

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  4. OK….this just happened a few weeks ago.

    Due to the nice winter weather there has been a lot of disc golf going on in Upstate New York.

    On a cold but clear day I was finishing up my round when I saw some guys throw a long, bombing drive into a pond (the pond is a clear hazard on 1, it’s somewhat in play on 18).

    I walked over to see what was going on and the disc was maybe 20 feet out in the pond, but clearly visible. The guy who threw it was bummed, it was one of his favorite discs and he had no way to get it back.

    I had JUST (like, that day) gotten a Golden Retreiver in the mail, so I was anxious to try it out. I went to the car, tied on the longer string and came back to be the savior.

    Since the disc was pretty far out, we each tried to get the Golden Retreiver to it maybe 6-8 times. Finally we realized that it might be helpful if one of us threw and the other held onto the rope to try and get a cleaner release.

    After cautioning the guy to please hang on tight since I didn’t want to loose the Golden Retreiver, I tried another 10-12 times with no luck. The other guy was having some trouble giving me enough slack in the rope, and I was getting frustrated.

    Well, you can see where this is going. I took the rope from him, said, “let me try to hang on to it while you throw,” and, on the first toss, it slipped out of my hands and the whole thing went flying out into the pond. Grrrr.

    Being frustrated and angry and subborn, I said (well, I can’t type on this site what I said)….and just trudged out into the FREEZING water to get my Golden Retreiver, as well as the dude’s disc. It’s been about a month and I don’t think that my boots are dry yet!

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  5. this happened just last week, i took out 2 friends who were pretty new to disc golf and lent them each a driver and a putter to throw for the round. It was a little windy on hole one and we were playing at Tully Lake in MA.

    I decided i was going to drive first and show them a general idea of what to do. As i stepped up to the teebox I said to them, “obviously you want to make sure your disc doesnt go in the water, its going to hook left for both of you so aim far right.”

    I took a few run throughs showing how i throw, and finally decided it was time, I took my relatively new blizzard boss and threw it, about 150 feet after i let go a gust of wind came and turned it over sooner than expected. I watched it soar into the lake and again told my friends to ensure they didn’t do that with one of my discs!

    My friend got to the box, he had claimed to have played a good amount of times so i wasn’t worried, in fact i figured he had a good idea of what he was doing, he wound up, threw, and the same thing happened to him as me. My second boss got caught in a gust and landed in almost the exact same spot in the lake.
    There i was on hole 1, 2 bosses down!

    We finished up the round with no more problems and went to a place so i could replace my lost discs and pick up a new one. I bought a new Boss and a new teebird (no blizzards at the time). And convinced my friends we should play another round since it was so beautiful out, they obliged me, mostly i figure since i was driving.

    I wound up with my brand new boss, went through the flight pattern it would take, because i wanted to ensure it would stay dry.
    I finally threw and despite my run throughs, i launched my disc into the lake once again.

    Finally Count for the day, Lake: 3 Bosses, Mason: 0

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  6. during the winter of 2010 in the infancy of my disc golf career i played as many ice bowls as i could. at one particular tournament at a course that I’ve grown to hate IE j-park in upstate NY, the ice bowl was after a recent large snow storm. The weather had been warm and then got cold again so there was a nice crisp layer of snow for the disc to land on and not get lost. unfortunately I was too heavy and broke through the layer with every step and sank in about 3 inches above my knees. this made for a tiring first round. For the second round i thought i was being smart and wore my snow shoes. this was nice because i stayed on top of the snow but was very bad, due to the fact that the snow shoes have 3 inch metal ice cleats. needless to say i couldn’t pivot during my throw.
    on one of the woods holes which i thought i liked I threw my drive. one of the guys in my grouped yelled “split em!!” the disc hit the right side of a split and dropped into a hole in the tree about 15 feet off the ground and plinko’d all the way down inside the trunk. Needless to say there was no getting my disc back and i got stroked and i didnt even finish in the money… ARGH i really hate that course i gotta go get my chain saw!!

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  7. So, Cheryl and I headed out last spring to play the first round of disc golf of the year. We chose to go to the Meadow-Vale Campground, a private campground near Gilbert Lake State Park (www.meadow-vale.com) because they are close, the owners are friendly, and they allow non-camper to use the course free of charge. It isn’t a challenging course or a long one– but at least it is well-marked and well-maintained.

    Anyway, we checked in at the front office and the owner offered us a warning. “Be careful on the 18th hole, the pool isn’t open yet and the water is filled with algae. You might want to throw to the left a little to make sure you don’t go in there.” We had played the course before, so we knew what she was talking about. Hole 1 is right outside the office and heads down a hill and around a copse of trees. Then the course zigs back and forth through the trees and tall grass ending at the far end of the lawn with a long straight shot to the basket on the side of the office building. The fenced in pool is to the right of the basket and a poor throw or a bad wind can easily result in a swimming disc. Not a problem for us, usually, but it has happend so we filed the warning away for the last basket. An extra throw to avoid losing our disc in the green soup of a swimming pool seemed like a good trade-off.

    So, Cheryl steps up to the green mat tee, grabs our cheetah disc, cocks her arm back and let’s loose the disc… and off it flies– 90 degrees to her right. Straight towards the pool. The disc hits the top of the fence, deflects off, hits the cement and then rolls slowly but surely right into the green soup. We watch as it sinks deep into the emerald abyss. I just look at Cheryl and say, “Really? First basket? First shot? Straight into the pool? Really?”

    We finish the course and then check in at the office. We let the owner know “we” threw the disc into the pool. The lady looked at us like we were unruly children and said, “I warned you about that.” “Yes…. yes, you did. But “we” threw it in from the first tee.” She looked at us and didn’t know what to say. Finally, she said, “Well, we can’t it out now. That water is toxic.” We shook our heads, resigned to losing our disc. She then took our name and address for when the pool was drained and refilled.

    A month later, the owner called us and delivered the recovered disc right to our front door. It was unscathed by the month long dunk.

    The next time we visited the course, we thanked the owner profusely.
    And I threw a disc in the pool from the 18th hole.

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  9. Last year, I went out to one of our local courses with some of my students on a beautiful day for disc golf. We had played the first three baskets with some success and were moving closer to the creek for the fourth. There were six of us in the group, and four had thrown pretty close to the basket. I remained with one guy to search for my disc and his, searching the high grass next to the creek, scanning and scouring for his disc when suddenly I heard a quick movement of some twigs right next to me. I looked over, and about four feet away was a black snake, set up in striking position. I ran faster from that disc than I think I’ve run from anything in my life. Although the other guy had only been playing with two discs that day (a driver and mid-range), I tried to break it to him gently that I was not going to be the one to fight the snake for the disc. He agreed, and we gave up on the search and left it for another day. Frankly, the day has not yet arrived that I am ready to head back into that high grass to look for his disc.

    Sadly, the other guys who learned about the misfortune later were then more inspired to search for the snake than the lost disc. Though I’m sure the disc is logn gone, I still hear a rustling in the high grass sometimes and keep my distance.

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  10. As I became fimilair with my new plastic, Innova Pro Valkyrie was my fav and still is! On 8/13/2009 I went out to practice at a local park. At no point did I think, I would do, what I did that day. I anhyzered my BFFdisc in the pond & cat-tails, after 2 hours+ of searching, I had to give up because of darkness and went home to post an RIP for Chocolate Candy on FB! My Best Story is…..I went back to practice on 1/23/2010 and found Chocolate Candy a foot from the City’s winter mowing operations! (off the record) I slept with CC for a week after!

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  11. Not a story about a one time disc golf evnt, but how the sport has changed my life. My son and I were introduced about three years ago to the sport by my brother and his son. The strangest feeling came over us as we played a round at a local course with our Wham-O beach frisbee. At the time, we didn’t know there were disc specifically designed to play the game. Quite frankly, with our lack of a skill set it would not have mattered if we had had the latest and greatest plastic available to man. What the feeling was I can not describe. I just know my son and I were instantly hooked. We bought “real” disc and began playing every opportunity that presented itself. My son has become a real student of the game watching endless videos to improve his play. In between studying the game and playing rounds he is active in Scouting and works hard in advanced classes at the local high school. He decided because of his love for the game, it would be a good idea to plan his Eagle Scout project involving disc golf in some way. I told him it would never be approved, but much to my surprise, not only did it receive the go ahead, but the local disc golf club helped by donating monies over several weeks of random double pay outs. The local club embraced my son and has helped him over the past couple of years to improve his game and to reach the highest rank in Scouting, Eagle. The project was a huge success with benches being constructed at every hole on the course.My son has continued to improve and just recently received an invitation to play in the Worlds this summer in Charlotte. I have grown closer to my son than I ever imagined along with losing a little weight in the process. Man, who could have imagined how life changing slinging those little round disc at distant baskets would be for a father and his son.

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  12. My Anniversary Weekend 9/4-9/7/2009

    Let me first start out by apologizing . . . for having no other way than to tie this short story into a blog entry. It has nothing to do with this roadtrip, except for the fact that it happened on my actual Anniversary and the roadtrip I am going to describe happened to be the 3 courses I played while on my Anniversary getaway. Now that I have apologized here is the story:

    I went for a round of disc golf at Village Park in Sussex before we headed out of town for our anniversary getaway because I knew my disc golf would be limited over the weekend. I was only playing one disc this round, but I threw a handful of extra throws on a few holes because this was only my 5th time playing the course. I wanted to try out a few discs to see if they would be better suited for specific holes. I played through a guy on the third hole because he was playing a little slow. I kept ahead of him the whole round and I reached the 16th hole and I threw a few extra shots, one was with this 150 DX Destroyer (which I had found over the winter and hadn’t given it much of a chance yet). I just figured the lighter disc might allow me to get to the bottom of the hill on the 350’ hole.

    I finished #16 and then took the long walk to play 17 and 18 and after I threw my drive on #18 I realized I had left one of my discs back there so after putting out I started walking down towards the area where I had left it and it was gone. Little did I know that the guy who I had played through on #3 had nearly caught up to me, found my disc, picked it up and immediately went to his car. He didn’t even bother trying to find me . . . which also means he neglected to finish his round. I couldn’t believe someone would knowingly come up on a disc in the middle of a fairway and not try to find the person they saw in front of them and ask if they had lost it. He also didn’t bother to call the phone number written in black sharpie (I always number my discs). Well, the story has only begun, because about 10 days later I stopped in to Play It Again Sports to see what kind of discs they had available. I was still in that phase of trying to throw all the different discs to find which ones I liked, and which ones just were not suited to my hands or my technique.

    What do I find in their always scarce selection, but an orange 150 DX Destroyer . . .oh it sure looked like mine, but it had someone else’s name and # on it. My name had been scratched out in sharpie and his name had been written right over my information. His name and phone # were clear as day, but you could still see the shadow of my information underneath. I had to purchase the disc back (like I really need a 150 DX Destroyer) because of the story it created, and I had his name and # written on a post-it note on my wall. . .in fact I still do, until now, it is going in the garbage a this story will finally create the closure I need. The story got even more interesting when this clown showed up on the club page on Facebook. I tried to friend him, but he apparently was wise to my game. He had made some posts, and I finally decided to call him out in public since he was making stupid posts to begin with. Here is my personal retribution . . . to which he has not ever responded. “ I knew I would eventually run across you again Bryan . . .I left a disc behind on #16 at Sussex last fall and you were a couple holes behind me . . . I went on to finish Holes 17 and 18 and immediately began walking back to #16 where I left my extra practice drive . . . lo and behold it was gone and so were you. How do I know it was you . . . well I played through you earlier in the round. How do I know you took my disc . . . you crossed off my name and # . . . wrote your name and number on the disc, and then eventiually sold it to Play it Again Sports for probably like $2.00. I happened to be in Play it Again Sports a few weeks later and there it was . . . my disc with my name and number still visible scribbled over with your information. SO I bought it as a keepsake and I wrote the whole story on the bottom of the disc because I was appalled that you would walk off of #16 with a recently found disc knowing there was someone just a couple holes ahead of you who might have lost it. And then to find out it had been sold to Play It Again made it even sadder. So rather than be nice and look for me to try and return my disc you just headed out with it and sold your soul for $2.00 . . . This is not something I would expect to see from a GLDGC member . . . maybe you are just on the facebook page and not a member of the club. Ahh its just a little sad, when you could have been a nice guy and just returned my disc . . .even if you didn’t find me you could have called the phone number which was clearly written on the disc. Oh well karma will come back to bite you.”

    I enjoyed writing that and have since moved on, but it is a part of my disc golf experience so it ended up in my blog. I have also seen him on the course a handful of times this past fall, while I am unsure if he knows who I am, but I know who he is! As for my round that day . . . I ended with my personal best at the time (54) and a pretty darn funny (or sad) story, which I promptly wrote on the underside of the disc to commemorate the occurrence.

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  13. The first time I ever went discing was a few years ago and it was a bad. I never played the game before but had heard about it from a bunch of friends so I thought ‘what the hell i’ll try it out’. I showed up to the park with a beach frisbee thinking that was the tool to use, after everyone, and I mean everyone, got there laughs in a friend of mine donated her favorite disc for my use. My first tee off ended three baskets to my direct left at Brewer park in Grand Rapids / Byron Center Michigan on the blue course. I almost skined some poor kid with that shot. After finding out if I toss it 5 feet infront of me it will go where I want it to, the lines formed behind our group. I finnaly got good enough to go far, till I lost the disc! I had no idea where her favorite disc went to, we searched and searched. She was starting to get upset telling me how it was “beat” the way she wanted it to be and she loved that disc. Almost giving up on the search I looked straight ahead of me and found it jamed inbetween two trees 5 feet above the ground! I was so pumped that I had found it that I even took a pic of it. After that I switched discs with her and played a little more careful.

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  14. My friend and I step up to the tee on hole 9. Playing a so-so round, mostly just chatting about things. My buddy throws his drive and drops it right in the middle of the fairway. I throw mine and TWACK, right into a tree. As we are walking up to my disc, we notice something moving down the fairway. Ah no worries right, probably a squirel or something.

    I take my next shot, and it lands on whatever that thing was in the fairway. I is definitely startled it (it kinda wiggles and jumped in the air a bit), but what was weird is it didn’t run off. So we start up the fairway and we finally realize the animal is a porcipine. Apparently he lives near the fairway on hole 9 at Tully Lake in MA. I’ve been told he’s since been “have-a-heart trapped” away.

    As we approached he kinda wandered off. I was really hoping for a couple of quills or something in my disc. It would make the story better but no luck. We decided to give me a stroke penalty for hitting the thing. I still say I should have gotten a stroke off my score for almost getting stuck. I’m just glad he took off.

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  15. We moved my Dad-in-Law in with us a couple months ago after my Mother-in-Law very unexpectedly passed away. We have been trying to keep his mind off of the tough stuff and get him as Happy as he can be, given the circumstances.
    He got into throwing discs with me at his old place and started going to courses with me when we got him here. Last week, on hole #4, at White River in Auburn, Wa, he threw one of his best drives to date. About 285 ft on his drive (with his Favorite 150 Class NUKE), but he ended up about 90-95 ft right of the basket with one medium window to hit through the Cedar trees. Some how, he hit the window Perfect and went dead center chains. His 1st Deuce! 90 ft upshot for a 1st Deuce???? :0
    The group in front of us stopped and clapped. They had watched him throw. When I told them it was his 1st deuce, they came over from two holes away, shook his hand, and the woman in the group even gave him a big ‘ol hug. The look on his face was Priceless. I think it was the 1st time in a Long time he had a moment, even a short one, of Happiness.
    He is Almost as obsessed with Disc Golf as I am, already….. Lol. It’s been fun to try and help him learn, and enjoy the game. It was Even More Fun to see him be so Happy, because of Disc Golf.

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  16. It was Easter Sunday, and a typical New Hampshire spring day. Cloudy, about 47, blustery and spitting snow. So could there be anything better to do then go play some disc golf with my boys, Zach and Luke. My Sons and I started playing this awesome game together last fall, following my return from 6 months at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It was actually on the base where I first learned of the sport. There is a 9 hole course out there and we played random doubles at least once a week. Anyway, back to New Hampshire. We headed down the road to The Woods at Beauty Hill DGC in Barnstead, NH. http://www.woodsatbeautyhill.com/ This is a gorgeous course through the woods and fields of an old New England Farm. We had a good time throwing our first round. Although it was not a very good round for any of us. Coming out of the woods and into the fields on 13 I told the boys we need to play another round. We needed a chance to get some good throws in to wash out the memories of the bad ones. Luke, was not really up for it. He was not pleased with his performance and wanted to call it a day. But Zach and I were able to convince him by the time we wrapped up 18 to at least go through another 9.

    So we teed off at 1 and all three of threw decent shots and things were looking up. 5 holes later an were talking about the fact that all three of us were throwing the best game we have ever had at Beauty Hill. Keep in mind this is our personal bests we were not setting any course records here. As we set up to tee off on 9, Zach was -1, I was Even and Luke was +6. This represented an improvement of 7, 6, and 9 strokes over the front 9 we had just played the hour before! We were having a great time. Luke was no longer down and out. Nothing could hold us back an we were up for the whole 18. The 9th hole is of course the turn to head to the back 9. And in this case it was to be one of our most memorable holes since we started playing last fall.

    The 9th hole on Beauty Hill is not very long, maybe 240 feet. But it does have a couple of tight guardian trees not far off the tee and the basket is placed on the side of the hill. So it is very common that if you get by the guardians your disc will fly in right next to the basket hit the side of the hill and proceed to roll 40 feet to the bottom. It is real bummer. But on this day Zach stepped up to the tee with all the confidence of the previous 8 holes and sent a beautiful hyzer around the guardians and stuck his disc to the side of the hill by the basket! It looked like a he was destined for his third birdie of the round. As Zach approached the green he was pumped to see exactly how close he had landed. The disc was above the basket on the hill only about 5 feet away. However, the putt was straight down the hill so I miss would easily turn this “sure birdie” into a a bogey. So, Zach got himself into position, decided to kneel on the ground to get himself closer to the level of the basket took a couple practice pumps and proceeded to very gingerly toss the Aviar into the chains… The toss was so soft the putter just bounced off the chains and fell to the edge of the basket it teetered there for what seemed like forever then it fell, not into the basket, but to the outside but it did not hit the ground!!! The disc came to rest hanging on the outside of the basket. It just hung there. See the picture. We all screamed and laughed. Zach declared “that counts!!!!” Luke and I said sorry Dude, it needs to be INSIDE the basket or chains. That is a miss. Zach conceded and placed the disc in the basket for his par. It was such an amazing sight we will never forget it.

    We closed out the back 9 without any further drama, but we all continued our solid rounds and all recorded personal bests with Zach taking the win with a 64, I closed with a 67, and Luke had his personal best of 74. These scores were at least 11 strokes better than our first rounds for all of us!!! This day represents why I love this sport so much. It is such a challenge to improve your skills. There is always the chance to witness greatness at any moment. And there is no better way to spend time with friends and family enjoying the great outdoors and little friendly competition.

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  17. It was the first time I had ever bought plastic that wasn’t Innova’s soft DX plastic. A brand new, shiny, 174g, fiery orange Champion Innova Monster. I was excited to throw it as I stepped up to the cement tee pad on the first hole of Creekside Disc Golf Course in Salt Lake City. I wound up excitedly and hucked it as hard as I could, off it sailed far to the right (I definitely didn’t release on time). The first hole at Creekside is bordered to the right by a fairly busy road that is 5 lanes across, and my disc looked as if it might clear them all. Just when I thought I might be safe, the Monster’s hard fade came into play! It curved hard left, hitting the road, skipping up, then wobbily rolling down the pavement. As I looked up, I saw a HUGE lifted Ford F-350 with big mud tires on it, rumbling towards my disc. The Monster continued to wobble down the road, I held my breath, praying the truck would somehow miss my disc. Then all of a sudden, WHAM! The Truck slammed into my brand new disc, the first time I had ever thown it, running it over with both the front and back right tires.

    I was devastated. I thought my Monster was a goner for sure. I hurried over to the road, waited for a lull in traffic, and ran out to grab what I thought would be the remnants of my disc. I scurried up to it, picked it up and scanned over it for damage, and much to my surprise, only two small scratches on the edge of the disc, not even enough to alter it’s flight pattern.

    I was elated! A DX plastic disc would never have survived. Eight years later, that same fiery orange Monster is one of my most used discs.

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  19. Pingback: The stories were great — now let’s give away the plastic!

  20. I tried to log on yesterday to write, but the site was down when I had a minute… oh well. But, good news (perhaps) you still get another story!

    My story is not of glory or creepy dudes at the park, which if you play enough you will have a bit of both! My story is about the first disc I ever lost, which if you have ever played at all, just once, you have probably had this experience. I was playing at NSRA DGC (check it out on dgcoursereview.com, an amazing and essential disc golfer’s tool) in Sedro Wooly, WA. I was on my honeymoon and we were driving from Seatle to Mt. Baker for a nice relaxing week away from civilization. On the our route (well, a convoluted route so I could play this course) was a unique and thrilling disc golf course, practically in the middle of nowhere (appologies to those from Sedro Wooly). I thought it would be this awesome course due to six unique baskets such as an old tire turned basket or an old milk can with one side cut away (dont over throw that one!), and other odds and ends you would find on a farm, also with a in a very scenic surrounding. We arrived and were astounded when the grass was taller than me and then finding that first basket was tough! My wife, who by just being there with me on our honeymoon proved right there and then her undying love for me, was just getting into disc golf and this course looked daunting! About 4 holes in, she thought it would be better to “just watch”. We fight our way through tall grass and mirky areas and then we get to the top portion of the course. On hole 7, probably the most open, the least grassy hole on the entire course, AKA the hole you shouldn’t lose your disc on, I threw my disc and followed it as it careened into the only “obstacle” on the hole, a small thicket of stinging nettles. I had already been stung by those buggars a few time on the course and they hurt more than bee stings and red ant bites! (they last longer too!) I thought it might have cleared the thicket, but we looked and looked and looked, and we could not find it… so after a futile attempt and resigning ourselves to the fact that it was indeed in the stinging nettles, I reluctantly and dejectedly finished the hole and walked away. Losing a disc is never fun, it eats at you… if only I had thrown it a little higher, got a little more hyzer on it… you know the feeling. And when its your first, you never really get over it. To this day, and over 30 discs later (aquired, not lost), I remember the first time I lost my disc and it haunts me still.

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