We definitely want to know about your lost discs.
I’ve heard some great stories our there about discs being lost and the attempts to get them back etc.
So why not a poll?
The question is simple — you’ll let us know how many discs you’ve lost. But, the kicker is the comments. You have the chance to win some plastic in this one!
First, let’s go back to last week when we asked you how many people you’ve introduced to disc golf.
For this poll, 85 people took part. I was quite shocked at the top vote getter in that 32 percent (27 votes) said they have introduced 21 or more people to the sport. Well done, people!
That spot was followed by 3-5 (29 percent, 25 votes) and 6-10 (21 percent/18 votes). The fourth spot was 1-2 (9 percent/8 votes) and 11-20 took fifth (8 percent/7 votes).
The cool part? Of our 85 voters, not one said they hadn’t introduced someone to the sport, which is very nice.
Let’s check out a couple of the responses, too.
Derek O’Neil says:
It was one of the first dates I took my wife on when we met, I have introduced it to her whole family and now they go out and play regularly. And now I host a doubles disc golf date night with friends and many have caught the disc golf bug! Where ever I go for vacation, school travels, etc I always look for nearby disc golf courses and bring along anyone who is with me!
A match made in chains, perhaps?
Brian Buller notes:
It’s one of the greatest feelings in the world when you introduce someone to disc golf and then you see them out on the course playing with their friends that they just introduced to the sport.
That is very cool. I can’t say I’ve had that feeling yet, but it must be pretty awesome for sure.
Stan Frischman, who said he worked in Parks and Rec for more than 20 years, helped with a clinic recently. One of the boys in the group (which had about 30 kids) has Asperger’s Syndrome, which is a learning disorder similar to autism, according to WebMD.
Frischman says:
He was extremely anxious, and afraid he would be horrible at disc golf. With some positive encouragement from me and the other boys in the group he managed to calm down and have a pretty good time. He started to get the hang of it, and admitted it was kind of fun. I plan on following up with him, and hope to meet his parents, and encourage them to make disc golf a regular family activity. I definitely saw his success with the sport build his self esteem. That just made my day!
GR Mendoza said:
The way I got a few of my friends into disc golf is by telling how much fun it is. I tell them is pretty easy to play but hard to master. Then I point out it’s great way to get outside and hang out.
It’s great to see the stories about people introducing the game to people. I definitely give kudos to all of you out there. Keep spreading the word and keep on bringing new people to the game!
As always, we like to give something random away to those who comment on the weekly poll. This week’s Randomizer selection is Erica. Send me an address as well so I can get something from the prize box out to you!
And now for this week’s poll…
How many discs have you lost? A simple question, yes, but the prize can be in your answer. We’re looking for the best stories about losing a disc. So, in the comments, tell us not only how many discs you’ve lost, but tell us a story about one. The most creative story, as judged by our staff, will win a disc (not sure what disc yet, but we’ll give something away)!
(Note: We reserve the right to not award a disc if the staff doesn’t think any of the stories match what we are seeking. We don’t think this will happen as we haven’t been disappointed yet, but we need to put this here…)
On with the poll!
[poll id=”19″]
Vote away and make sure to comment as we’ll, as always, give something away to a random commenter. You can’t win if you don’t comment here. (In other words, comments on Facebook or other places where this poll might be linked won’t count… it has to be here).
NOTE ON PRIZES: If you have won something from us recently — and have sent us an address so we can send it out — and haven’t received it, our apologies. I’ll be hitting up the post office this weekend and will send everything out!
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!
rattlingchains.com 
Why is it that my favorite discs are the only ones I lose?!
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I’m going to put two stories, after losing probably over a hundred discs while playing for almost a quarter century, I don’t think two is too many:)
The first happened in the 90’s. We had mixed couples league night at Mt. Airy (championship level course in Cincinati) played during the rain and I didn’t not do well. I kind of lost my mind a little bit so I took some of my discs that I blamed for my rough night and launched them deep into the forest off of hole #9. About a month a later a golf buddy runs up to me at a tournament at the same park and hands me a disc. He got the disc because he saw it upside down after some casual player had thrown it and noticed my name on the back. He took it from the guy and his friends saying he knew the owner. He told me he almost got in a fight with the guys! I didn’t have the heart to tell him I deliberately tried to lose the disc! I was just amazed that someone was deep enough in those woods to find the disc.
Story two was only a few years ago. I was playing with an old friend in North Carolina, I don’t remember the course name though. There was a hole that ran along the water, first in the trees then opening up. I drive and my Star SL clips the last tree and ricochets out into the lake, at least a 100′ into the water. A couple of months go by and I’m at home and my phone rings. It’s a young man, probably around 12-13 who asks me in a sulky voice if I lost a frisbee. I ask him to be more specific but I’m intrigued by his southern accent. He explains where he found it and says “my mom said I had to call”. Yep, my disc from the lake somehow made it back to shore! I told him his mom was a good person and you should call if you find a disc with a phone number on it. However, since I was in Ohio he was more than welcome to keep the disc.
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In 7 years of playing I have lost 3 discs. Usually when I can’t find a disc after a throw I keep looking until I find it. Once I crawled around in the weeds and woods for 2 hours to find a disc.
Of the 3 I’ve lost 2 of them were just me forgetting them on the course and whoever picked them up did not call the number I had on the disc. The one disc that I truly lost was a wide throw that flew over a fence into a highway. As the disc was coming down it was hit by a boom truck. We looked for awhile on the side of the road to see if it had bounced anywhere close but I gave up on it after a little while.
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It’s been over two years now, but I’m still devastated by the loss of the best disc I’ve ever owned (excepting, of course, the new Blizzard Champion Bosses that now populate my bag because, seriously, no disc can stand up to true game-changers like those). The disc was a Star Orc, but not just any Star Orc: a special-stamped beauty of an Orc with an illustration so menacing that chains would rattle when I’d pull it out my bag.
It would be difficult for me to exaggerate the sentimental attachment I had to that disc. For starters, the disc was a burnt orange color that no alumnus of my alma mater could look on without a warm fondness (hook ’em horns!). Even more importantly, the disc had been a gift from my dad, who bought it at the Marshall Street Disc Golf Store to commemorate our first-even disc golf vacation. We played so many rounds at Maple Hill and the Pyramids course that week that my right arm was useless for at least a week after we arrived back in Texas.
I guess it was only fitting that I when I finally lost my Marshall Street Orc it was on another father-son disc golf trip (actually father-son-son, as my younger brother had seen the light by then and thrown himself into disc golf with gusto). Stupid Missouri River. How I loathe you still–you who so greedily swallowed up my errant drive, refusing to give it up despite my wading waist-deep in your murky waters for the better part of an hour.
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I only lost 1 of my own discs but when I first started playing, my friends that introduced me to the sport would loan me a few discs. And I lost 2 of theirs over the course of a summer until I went and got my own discs. Because of that experience, when I get people to play and loan them discs, I have a special collection of discs I don’t throw just to loan out (mainly to my dad lol)!
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I have previously shared on this blog how I lost my first disc, so I’ll skip over to my second disc. I lost my First Run Nuke OS (Z-plastic) while playing in an Ice Bowl in San Antonio. While playing disc golf, we expect to lose discs from time to time. However, some discs when lost present us with a real tragedy. Losing my Nuke OS that day felt like a tragedy. I stepped up to a hole with a small water hazzard to cross, I had the line, but knew I needed a very over stable disc to get through the gap. I situated myself, prepared for the throw and executed perferctly… well, almost. The disc followed the line, but there was a small branch from the tree that extended down into the path, and my disc smacked it and then ricocheted into the small stream. I had to restraint the impulse to run in after it while others on the card took their turns (and seemingly their sweet time as my disc was in desperate need of rescue!) You may ask, why would losing this disc be so tragic? A few weeks before I had a watched a few instructional videos on overhead shots and started practicing the thumber shot. I found the Nuke OS to be my best disc for such shots. The first time I employed the thumber shot in a tournament the shot worked perfectly and the disc went 240 feet and came to rest right under the basket! I knew I had found a new tool and fell in love with my Nuke OS (I certainly can’t throw such an overstable disc for max distance at this point, so now the disc became a lot more valuable to me.) All this was going on in my mind, so as soon as the last throw landed I was off to rescue my disc. I took off my socks and shoes to utilize the 3 minutes I had to find my disc. Another person in my group also threw his in the water. So, I went in and found a disc, the other person’s disc! I kept looking (with my feet, as the water was rather murky) and found another disc, not mine. Finally the members of my group told me it was time and the disc was declared lost. I had used my time to search and finished the rest of the hole and started the next hole without my socks or shoes on. At the end of the round I wanted to return to the site when someone told me that there was a man in waders out at the site collecting discs and selling them back to players or keeping some if he liked them. I rushed back to the stream and got back in desperately searching. I came up with nothing! Some guy came and recovered discs from disc golfers playing in a charity tourney! Seriously!?! My disc had my name and number on it as well, grrr. Luckily I was able to find more first run Nuke OS’s online at a normal price and not the “first run” price some stores charge. But I was worried that on my grad student budget I would not be able to afford to replace this disc I had fallen for, but in the end I was able to get a new one to rectify the tragedy, but I still want my disc back!!!
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Since my intoduction to the sport some 30 plus years ago, I have lost very few discs. They are like my children. I will do almost anything to retrieve or save them. All of my lost discs, were only lost for a period of time. All but 1 disc has been found and returned,(one, with a note written on the back from the finder) and I know where the one is. It could not be retrieved. I mourned it’s passing. I felt is was a donation that allowed me to loose less in the following years. One disc took 6 years to come back. (It must have flown round the world. several times)The disc that never came back was lost in 1986 at Mariners Museum Park in Newport News, Va. This was before there were any Disc Golf courses there. I would throw at the park every day. I had a very errant throw that went into a pond right at the museum building. I did not feel that it was safe to enter those waters to retrieve the disc for several reasons at the time. Somewhere along the line, I have lost that sensible thought process. One of the first rules of the game that I learned, was to mark my discs, and return those that were found with these markings if at all possible. I have returned about 70 discs over the years, and hope to return many more in the future.
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My favorite lost disc story isn’t actually my story but my brother in law’s. I videotaped the result. We went out for a round on the first weekend in February in the mountains of North Carolina. The air temp was feeling good at a nice 48 degrees. On the first hole we were looking at a 300ft drive over a pond with a hill on the left side. It was only 150ft or so to clear the pond so neither of us were really worried about it. My brother in law steps up and slips on his approach, sending the disc into a strong hyzer line right into the top of the hill. The disc stood up on edge and rolled down the hill, parrallel to the pond and right back towards us. It rolled a good 80+ feet right back in our direction, then turn right towards the bottom of the hill, going right to the water.
We ran over to the pond to see if we could even see it and much to our surprise we could faintly make it out, about 6 feet in from the side of the pond. We coudln’t find any sticks or anything to go retreive it so my brother in law begins to take of his layers, telling me, “NO DISC LEFT BEHIND!!!” It looked deceptively shallow but slightly murky so we couldn’t tell just how deep it was. He took off his shoes and jacket, pulled up the pant legs on his sweats, and took the first couple steps into the recently thawed pond. After two steps in, he realized a few things, 1. The water was probably close to freezing (I’m fairly sure there was still some ice at the other end of the pond), 2. It was much deeper than anticipated, and 3. The bottom was pure mud. With the visibility of the water quickly disappearing, he makes the quick decision to go for it. He duck dives under, and disappears for a full second or two, coming up victorious! He has the disc in hand! As he is frantically trying to get back out of the water, I notice his wallet floating away from him! I yelled out to him, requiring him to lunge back into the frigid depths to retrieve it as well. When he got out, he was so cold he could barely talk. We had no other clothes so he stripped down and staggered back to the car to get warm. I have actual video of this amazing rescue!
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I love custom dyeing some artwork on my discs. One of the first discs I ever dyed was a yellow TeeBird and I dyed a retro Ford Thunderbird logo on it. It was pretty cool to look at, but it was less cool when I watched it sail into a lake. Too far to retrieve, I left it up to the dg gods to bring it back to me (my home course is notoriously bad for guys not calling the number on any found discs).
Fast forward a year or so, and our league night is about to start. Everyone grabs a disc to flip to determine who’ll be in which group. I look down, and someone had flipped the same yellow TeeBird that I had lost all that time ago. I picked it up and said to the guy who flipped it, “I think I’m going to take this back, since I lost it last year.” He was a little upset that he was losing his tried-and-true fairway driver, but I doubt he was as upset as I was when I saw that he had crossed off my name from the back of the disc. Not cool, bro.
If anything, I hope this post inspires people to call numbers on discs. It’s just the right thing to do. If you don’t, and someone calls you on it, you’re pretty much branded a giant booger in the local dg community.
https://twitter.com/kevdking/status/214843363533398016/photo/1
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A bought a Star Vulcan that I thought would be a good anny disc for me (RHFH) but it would constantly flip over but I would keep on trusting it! After a really long day and another failed drive from Vulcan I chucked it in the deep woods thinking I would never have to see it again. Low and behold I got a call about an hour later and the guy gave me my disc back. Recently I threw an arrant throw with the Vulcan and didn’t look to hard and was once again not upset that I lost it but once again someone I knew found it and gave it back to me! GRRR the Vulcan haunts me! One day I plan on throwing it into the ocean and if someone finds it again I will for sure know it was meant to haunt me.
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My DX roc that I owe my second ace to is gone and no one ever called): I hit a tree really high and it disappeared into the bushes. I looked for almost two hours and never found it. The worse part about it was that I just simply love dx rocs. It is such a cheap disc but it had my favorite ace to date on it. It held a place in my heart</3
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I have lost over 30 discs over my four years of playing. Nearly all of them were drivers. The line we use around here is: “Throw big, miss big.” In the Northeast, wooded courses with water hazards are the norm. When I first started I would be so upset when I lost a disc, especially a new one. Now I only get upset if I lose a really OLD one. Not only do you get attched to discs that stick around for a while but premium plastics take so long to break in.
I’ve lost discs in gator and snake infested water in Florida. I’ve lost discs that were in full view on partially frozen ponds and lakes that were too dangerous to walk on. I’ve lost discs so far up trees that no combination of climbing and throwing stick/rocks could bring them down.
Those are cases in which the “finding” of the disc was not the issue. The rest were lost in wooded areas full of thorns, poison ivy, spider webs, and various types of low lying brush. I stopped buying green and tie-dye (aka Camo) discs years ago. Now I check to see if the new disc I want comes in fluorescent pink.
Losing 30+ discs may give the impression that I am pretty bad at disc golf. Not quite true. My brother likes to say that I throw with reckless abandon. That 450 foot drive could be right down the pipe…or never seen again.
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Well I’ve only lost one disc, per se. I’ve only been playing since January, a couple of months ago I was playing with some buddies and was going to attempt my very first Anhyzer… The basket was around a creek bend with trees lining the creek, I couldn’t see the basket but I knew where I wanted the disc to go. knowing where I wanted it to go and knowing how to get it there are two VERY different things, as soon as I let go of the disc it darted right, towards the tree lined creek never to be seen again.
Another disc I lost, was out of destruction. I threw a horrible drive so my next shot was surrounded by trees. I had a small window to throw to to get back to the fairway and was going to try to gun it. I cocked back and let the disc rip. FWAP! It slammed into a tree and in slow motion I witnessed it fold like a purple plastic taco, spinning in the air until it bounce down on the ground 2 ft. ahead of me. I am now a proud owner of a warped Wolf.
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I’ve probably lost around seven or eight discs. I know three of them were Z Nukes that were working well for me at the time, but either found their way into murky water or a parallel universe – most likely a parallel universe. My brief story is about an X Out Champion Leopard I purchased from Marshall Street this year. My neighborhood course is home to a hole three straight out of a nightmare. The fairway is tighter than a fat man’s Speedo.
After smacking a tree right off the tee I began emptying my small bag in a frustrated frenzy of hurls, which to my surprise made it down the freaking fairway. Unfortunately I couldn’t find my Leopard in the aftermath.
I’ve never received a call for a lost disc before and this Leopard is the only disc that I’ve lost since moving to Washington that had my name and number on it. So, I got excited when I heard the voice of a stranger leaving me a message about a disc he had found.
Oh how I couldn’t wait to find out where I could pick up my… green ESP Avenger SS???
Say what?
A few months ago a group of new players showed up to the course and two of their friends didn’t have any discs to throw with. They asked if they could buy some off me, so I ran to my truck and grabbed two beat Avengers that I wasn’t using anymore and just gave them away. He was thankful and insisted on giving me money, so out of the $10 bill and $5 bill clutched in his hand I just grabbed the $5 bill and told them to enjoy.
My Leopard is still out there somewhere, but now I have another disc to give away again sometime in the future.
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Two of the discs that I have lost are two that I had aced with previously. Yeah I know they should have been “retired” but new plastic is not always in the “budget”! One was lost in Flagstaff at “Snow Bowl” and the other was in Vegas ~ and what is lost in Vegas – STAYS IN VEGAS!!
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This is my 4th season of playing disc golf with baskets (although I’ve played “frisbee golf” for 4o+ years) I’ve only lost 3 discs golf discs. I will save my disc found stories for another blog. Of the 3 discs I’ve lost only 2 were while disc golf. I lost a focus putter while shopping for a new disc golf bag. One of my disc golf cohorts uses a soft-sided cooler for a disc golf bag. Very convenient since it also holds cold beverages. I wanted one of those. So I brought one of my 6 Focuses with me to test the extra pockets on soft-sided coolers. I found one that works and bought it. Unfortunately, I left the Focus in the pocket of a cooler I did not buy. By the time I noticed, that cooler had been sold. I wonder what the person who bought the cooler thought about the disc golf disc that came free with the cooler?
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Yup, I’ve certainly lost my share of discs over the years About 20 since 1997. I had 3 returned and returned 5 that I found. Over the ladt 6 months my strong arm and pinpoint accuracy landed ten discs in water hazards at the newest course in our area. Six of the the 18 holes at Estero Community Park have water hazards, and I’ve donated at least one disc to each. I think I better buy some floaters! One day while playing In Estero, just after Easter, I lost one disc trying to throw over the water on hlole 7. I was a little bummed, knowing I still had 3 more water holes to play. After I teed off on wooded hole 12 and approached my disc, I noticed a plastic, orange egg on the ground that must have been left over from an Easter Egg Hunt the week before. I have a habit of picking up trash on the course, so I picked it up, opened it, and low and behold there was a 10 dollar bill in it. I didn’t lose anymore that day, so I wound up even for change.
Yup, I’ve even managed to lose a few while practicing (Lord knows I need it!) in my own back yard. I practice on a gravel road in front of my house, surrounded by high grass and palmetto bushes ( real disc swallowers ). If you ever played in Florida, you know what I mean. Fortunately, I have a Labrador Retriever that’s a lot better at finding them than I am. Unfortunately, she occasional puts her teeth signature on them. There’s 3 discs out there right now for my Lab to retrieve, unless I find them 1st. Wish me luck!!
Oh, by the way, I buy factory seconds from the Innova Factory Store online, otherwise I’d be flat broke.
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When I started in 2008 I didn’t know what discs I should and should not be using so I bought discs with cool names. I would say I have lost maybe a dozen discs but I have also given away a dozen of user friendly discs to friends and little kids. I know that wasn’t part of this poll but I am not the greatest player in the world, but I have no problems getting a curious person in the this great sport.
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I have been playing disc golf for a year and a half now and with our average weeks of 70km winds and to water holes on the course, I have seen my fair share of plastic leave my bag for good. The water in our lake doesn’t have any dangerous creatures, but I’m pretty sure if you go into it enough times you will sprout a third arm. On one of theses days I pulled put my trusty buzzz and failed to account for the headwind and saw my disc turn out into the deeper part of the lake. Now on every turn of the park it says no swimming ( probably for mutation purposes) and so naturally I ran home to grab my swim trunks. I went in with my shoes on to prevent the attack of the leeches and went under in search of my disc after about 15 minutes I found it! Relief at last… Only for me to throw it into the lake a month later for it to never be found again, at least by me
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I have lost about 5 to 6 discs over the year. The most frustrating where the ones lost in high grass or thick woods. I have a RoadRunner that I’ve ALMOST lost 3 times in water. Had to jump in and get wet to get it…. one of my fav discs.
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