Month: March 2012

Being a plastic addict (or why I buy too many discs)…

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The collection grows and grows...

Hi. My name is Steve, and I am addicted to plastic.

Innova. Discraft. Latitude 64. Discmania. I’ve tried them all.

ESP. Champion. Super Stupid Soft. It doesn’t matter what trendy blend it is, they’re all good to me. I’ll even slum it with some DX or Pro-D when I am really jonesin’, just for the taste.

Westside. DKG. DGA. MVP…Oh, sweet luscious MVP, with that inner core of candy-colored goodness wrapped in an outer, more grippy shell. You are like the M&Ms of flying discs.

But I digress.

Origins of the Obsession

I wasn’t always this bad, you know. No, it started innocently enough. Last March, my dad came into town to see our newborn daughter, but newborns nap.

A lot.

Naturally, we wanted to get out of the house for an afternoon, and I knew there was a disc golf course nearby. I had an early 2000s Innova DX Viper from when I experimented with disc golf in my college days (Who didn’t do a little experimenting in college, right?) collecting dust in the garage, and we went down to the local sporting goods store and picked up a blue 177 gram Innova DX Roc. Armed with one disc each, we were ready to go enjoy a leisurely day in the park throwing around a Frisbee.

We were just bored. That’s how it always starts, right?

One round, and I was hooked.

For reasons I can’t quite explain, the lure of playing disc golf just kept calling to me. I went and grabbed the Innova starter set (Leopard, Shark, Aviar), plus a DX Valkyrie, and was on my merry way.

Beware the Internet

I had been playing for a couple weeks, whenever I could snag some free time (or when my wonderful wife would give me a break from the new duties of fatherhood), when I stumbled upon something magical:

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So, who won the plastic?

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After finally getting everyone into the Random.org randomizer, the winner of our first plastic giveaway has been decided!

First, let me say how educational and interesting the responses were! So many different discs mentioned and I really enjoyed those who told about why the disc is their favorite.

And the winner is…

If you didn’t win this time, keep coming back. We have all sorts of things to give away and I received a few more pieces of plastic donated this past weekend. So, I’ll be coming up with some new ideas for ways to give away more plastic.

I’ve also been told by a few people/companies that we have some items to give away coming our way. Hopefully it will arrive soon and we can have some more fun giveaways.

You do realize I’m stalling, right?

This is kind of like American Idol and those talent shows… they hold off and hold off before announcing the winner.

And for us? Well this is plastic! The Innova Lycan!

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Leiviska wins at Texas State Championships; tourney wrap March 14-20

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Team Discraft member Cale Leiviska won the Open division at the 17th Texas State Disc Golf Championships from March 17-18 in Houston, Texas.

Leiviska is also part of the Non-Stop Disc Tour.

Leiviska shot a 52-48-65 for a three-round 165 to earn the $1,300 paycheck. His score was 21 under par.

Val Jenkins (shown at the 2011 Vibram Open) won the women's open title at the Texas State Championship.

Will Schusterick placed second, one stroke behind, to earn $900. Nate Doss, Dave Feldberg and Nikko Locastro tied for third at 17 under.

Val Jenkins cruised to the women’s title, shooting a 3-over-par 189 to win $500. Des Reading placed second, 15 strokes behind Jenkins.

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Did it rattle or did it not? That is the question. Here is the answer

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I’ve had more questions about this contest than any other we’ve done thus far.

It seemed to draw some interest.

I received a few e-mails and other messages. And I’m glad that people were thinking about it. Because if we’re giving away prizes, I need to make you think a little sometimes, don’t I?

It all started with this image...

So the big question was based around the photo posted last week and we asked — did the disc rattle the chains?

There were a lot of different answers and theories. I will be doing this again. I have ideas for it and different ways  I hope to capture the disc to really make you think.

Such as this one.

What I loved about this photo is that it can really make you wonder. You can obviously tell which side it’s coming from. And the flight path makes it look like it’s heading downward.

But does it rattle those chains?

I’ve missed — and witnessed others miss — shots like this. They look perfect. Heading right in.

And nothing.

Of course, we’ve all been on the other end, too. You know, it looks ugly only to rattle the chains like it was destiny.

And that sound is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?

Of course a grown that comes after missing a putt can be humorous, too.

I know, I know — get to the point, right? OK, OK, OK… here’s the results. Peek below to see what the disc did as it headed toward the basket…

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Striving for 700: St. Pat’s Madness

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Darren receives his winnings from tournament director Bob Graham. Darren represented Rattling Chains well by winning Am 3. My only saving grace was not finishing last.

I’m a daydreamer.

It’s always been in my nature to be one. I dream of winning the lottery (and, of course, build some wonderful disc golf courses). I wonder what the world would have been like if I had been a professional baseball player. Or a pro athlete in general.

I dream about great jobs and fancy cars. And floating down the river on a tube with no worries in the world.

I also dream of the day that I can make every 10-foot putt, drive 350-plus feet and not have to play every tournament in the novice division.

There’s a problem with being a dreamer, however.

Reality.

It really does slap you in the face. Often. And, unfortunately, reality has a firm grip on my disc golf game.

I putted surprisingly decent, despite some of the baskets at Rutgers not being the most kind to golfers!

There aren’t any courses in my area. If I want to get a round in, I have to travel about an hour and a half to get to a course. And because I have some other hobbies I do as well as play softball, doing field work can get tedious and boring at times because it’s the same thing over and over.

If I could do field work and then play a round or three each week, I think it would be better. As it is now, I’ll hit up a field, mark out some distances and throw for a while. Then I’ll putt. I love doing that because it can be relaxing.

But as I said, I get a little bored at times doing the same thing. I start dreaming of my other hobbies and go and do something else. I need to find a way to snap that funk. Maybe find a place to put my basket where there are trees and such to make it a little more interesting.

I need to get better. That’s all part of this year’s goal — to become a 700-rated player.

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Poll 3: What other sports do you play?

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It sounds like many disc golfers don’t like to worry about music playing to get through a tough round.

Last week’s poll produced some excellent comments and thoughts about whether or not one listens to music when playing.

Some do it during casual and not in tournaments. Some seem to need it to really prepare. Others won’t have it at all.

The interesting part is it seemed like a couple people might be talking about having music without headphones. Now that would be crazy and I would not be able to deal with that. Not because of the noise, but because of music preference. If I am in a situation where somebody has a genre of music playing that I don’t care for, I’m just going to get upset.

I’m not playing to get all upset and I’m sure most others aren’t as well.

Well, outside of that missed putt or two.

I personally voted no as I’ve never listened to music when playing. I have, however, kept the iPod in my pocket in case I needed it to block something or someone out. I haven’t had to use it.

Some people had some interesting thoughts, however, so I wanted to share a few of the comments.

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Disc golf in the media: March 12-18

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Here’s this week’s disc golf media wrap. As always, if you see some disc golf news in the media, forward the link my way so I can add it to the weekly report!

Don’t forget, too, we have a couple of smaller contests going on right now as well as handing out a disc. Saturday’s post as well as the poll for this week will give a random small prize to the winner. The disc contest runs through mid-week, so go back and check that out.

March 17 

March 16

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Does it rattle the chains?

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Well?

It’s awful nice out this weekend. Everything I’ve seen is great weather.

In other words, as much as we love for you to be reading us, get outside and play some disc golf! We’ll be here waiting when you get back!

I’m actually playing in a tournament this weekend (eek! First of the year) and being that’s the case, I wanted to get something fun up.

Last weekend, I did some photos of disc golf things. And I was trying to capture certain things. But a series of shots I got with this Vibram putter of mine really came out cool.

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I’ve become certified (or certifiable, pending on perspective)

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Note: This story originally appeared on my personal blog Sept. 16. However, being that readership and this readership are quite different, I wanted to bring this post here and share.

I’m certified.

OK, OK, that probably wasn’t the best way to describe me at this point, eh?

What I meant to say is that I’m a certified PDGA (Professional Disc Golf Association) official.

It’s not something I really needed. I don’t plan on being a tournament director, nor do I plan on playing in a National Tour event as a pro anytime soon. I’m thinking my whopping 672 rating probably wouldn’t go too far in those events.

Still, I had thought a couple of things in regard to this…

  • It would give me a way to learn the disc golf rules a bit better
  • It would give me something to do on a rainy day and make for a good blog post

Over the past few days, I’ve peeked at the PDGA rules book and competition manual. I’ve learned a lot of things I didn’t know about the game. Not all of it makes sense to me, mind you, but I at least know a lot of rules now.

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NSDG holds tournament, sweeps top four spots; tourney roundup: March 7-13

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The Non-Stop Disc Golf Tour held the Taos Open this past weekend in Taos, New Mexico.

The foursome of Dave Feldberg, Nikko Locastro, Will Schusterick and Cale Leiviska are touring the country this year as part of NSDG.

Will Schusterick (shown at last year's Vibram Open) is part of the Non-Stop Disc Golf Tour.

The group are playing in tournaments as well as running 15 B-Tier PDGA events. Feldberg, Locastro and Schusterick are part of Team Innova. Leiviska is a member of Team Discraft.

Feldberg, the 2008 PDGA World Champion, served as the tournament director for this event.

The four also took the top spots in the Open division.

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