Month: October 2012

Words with Wysocki: Cliff jumping and playing strong in Ithaca

/ P.J. / 1 Comment

Sorry to start writing in the middle of the season, but I’m just glad to be part of the RattlingChains.com blog and website.

The first tournament I want to write about is the DiscIthaca Open in central New York. I came to Ithaca after playing in a tournament in Manchester, Connecticut. I drove to Ithaca and had the chance to stay with my buddy, Pat Govang, which was very cool.

For people who don’t know Pat, he’s the one who created the National Tour series. I really appreciate him and his work, since I’m always playing National Tour events and making my living playing tournaments he created.

Anyway, back to tournament preparation.

I usually always take Monday off and try and do something fun – Monday Fun Day. So, I didn’t practice Monday.

On Tuesday, I went to a set of waterfalls in Ithaca and went cliff jumping. We were lucky enough to meet up with locals and find the spots to jump from. We jumped off a 50-foot cliff into the water. We also had the chance to check out the 215-foot-tall Taughannock Falls in nearby Trumansburg. The Taughannock Falls are one of the largest set of falls east of the Rocky Mountain.

Cliff jumping was very exciting and thrilling. The hardest part about it was the first jump and just getting yourself to do it, and trying to avoid thinking about it too much. It’s one of those things where if you figure if you do it once, you won’t be so nervous to do it again. But it’s just as nerve-racking jumping the fifth time as it is the first time!

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Company Closeup: NutSac

/ P.J. / 2 Comments

By P.J. Harmer — Rattling Chains staff

It seems like a marketing ploy.

Get a bunch of guys playing a round of disc golf and walking along and one guy has a small satchel-style bag and says “It’s much more fun playing with your NutSac.”

Say what?

Sure, the name NutSac may get some giggles and laughs. But in the end, name withstanding, it’s a quality bag made for the everyday player who isn’t always concerned about carrying dozens of discs.

Founded in 2008, NutSac LLC is a one-man company (besides sewing contrators) who handles the aspects of the business, from marketing to shipping to everything in between.

The business was originally founded by two friends, but when it became evident that business was not going to be able to support two people for at least two years, Greg Kise took control of the business as the second partner (who still has a minor stake in the business) wanted to move on to other projects.

Kise said he had plenty of experience “bootstrapping small businesses,” so he was able to build.

And just like that NutSac, based in Corvallis, Oregon, started its journey.

One needs to back up a little before getting a grip on NutSac.

Why bags?

“Start with what you know,” said Kise, who also serves as a stay-at-home Dad. “I was playing a lot of disc golf and thought the trend toward larger and larger bags was kind of silly. Especially since most of the guys I played with used about three discs.”

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Poll 28: Buying discs

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We’re going to discuss buying discs for this week’s poll.

But, as per normal, we’ll get to that later on.

After all, we have some interesting things to discuss in regard to last week’s poll. Courses played … how many have you all done?

I had built myself up on this one to be shocked with the answers, but in the end it appears it was quite tame.

We had 113 people tally a vote in this poll. The top spot, which garnered 37 votes (33 percent) was the 10-24 range. That was followed by 1-9 (20 votes/18 percent) and a tie between 25-49 and 100-249, which each drew 17 votes (15 percent). Taking fifth was 50-99 (15 votes/13 percent), followed by 500 or more (four votes/four percent) and 250-499 (three votes/two percent).

I actually expected more votes toward the bigger amounts, but it doesn’t surprise me that reaching the big numbers — 250 or more — only accounted for seven votes.

That’s a lot of disc golf courses, after all.

Let’s see what some of the readers had to say.

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