Happy New Year! And the winners are …

2013

I hope everyone had a fun and safe New Year’s Eve.

Remember — lots of water will help you with many issues from a night like that!

giveawayAnd like that, 2012 is behind us. With 2013 now in the picture, may your year be full of birdies, aces and, of course, chains rattling. We’ll continue to grow as well and hopefully do it with all of you!

For about the past week, we’ve also been holding a series of large giveaways. The prize packages, I think, are truly awesome. We had many entries for each contest, which is always good to see.

We have more things to give away and plan on doing it soon.

For now, let me announce the winners. For those who won, please e-mail me (address is below) with your full name (if not used for the entries), and address so I can get this stuff sent out to you!

Let’s get to the winners!

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Celebrate the holidays with a Rattling Chains giveaway

I hope everyone had a great day yesterday and that the holidays are treating everybody well.

And despite the Rattling Chains staff being on vacation this week and giving the site a break, something needed to be done…

giveaway… such as a major giveaway!

Since before we officially launched this blog, we’ve had many people donate stuff to be used for giveaways. Therefore, the pile is growing. With that in mind, I thought it would be good to make some packages up and have a giveaway where we’d give more than one thing away.

There are three groups of items we are going to be giving away. For each, there are specific things you need to do. If you don’t do exactly what is required, your entry will not count without notification. Any entries that require you to post comments below need to be separate. In other words, if you are entering two of the contests and they each require a comment, you need to comment twice and do it as required.

So make sure you read this fully before just entering or your entry might not count!

Also, though you can (and I would encourage you to do so) enter each contest, you can win only one. It would be smart to enter each, though, giving yourself better odds to win something!

Read on to see what you have to do to enter each contest.

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The winner of the Lace is…

Last week, we ran our review of Vibram’s newest disc, the Lace.

The disc is the first long-distance driver released by the company.

And the winner of this disc is…?

In conjunction with the review, we also were giving away the disc used by P.J. Harmer — a 173 gram beauty.

Between the comments on the website and the re-tweets, we received more than 50 entries for this disc. That’s awesome, especially knowing somebody is going to be lucky enough to own this disc!

There were some great comments about Vibram and its line of discs on the original post, so I’d encourage you to go back and check out those. If you haven’t already, go check out our unbiased review. We give a different look than most reviews, offering an objective look from the eyes of two players of vastly different levels.

Anyway, enough of the blabbing.

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Product review (and contest): Vibram Lace

By P.J. Harmer and Jack Trageser — Rattling Chains staff

Vibram has taken its next step in the disc golf market.

After months of anticipation, the Lace — Vibram’s first long-distance driver — was released to the public Nov. 23, or Black Friday as many refer to the day after Thanksgiving in the United States.

Reviews from around the Internet seem to be extremely positive for the new disc, which Vibram says is a stable driver.

When you get to Jack Trageser’s part of this review, you’ll get a more in-depth feel about the disc and what it can do for somebody with a stronger arm and with more ability to do what he wants with the disc.

My part is going to talk about the disc from the vantage point of a light-armed thrower and one who doesn’t have a lot of control over a disc.

Allow me to note I’m a Vibram user. The Ibex is one of my best discs as I can actually  get it to (usually) do what I want. I also putt with a Summit and, in the past, I’ve carried and used a Trak, V.P. and Ascent. So it’s safe to say I like Vibram’s products.

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The winner of the autographed disc is…

For the past week, we’ve been running a contest in conjunction with Avery Jenkins.

His last story for Rattling Chains covered the story behind and creating his trick-shot video with ultimate star Brodie Smith.

The disc being given away.

The two, who are each leaders in their respective sports, came up with quite the video of incredible trick shots — inside and outside.

At the end of Jenkins’ story, a contest was held to give away an autographed disc — signed by Jenkins and Smith.

We tried to make it as easy as possible to enter — by commenting on the story, liking the post on the Rattling Chains Facebook page, liking the post on Avery’s Facebook page and re-tweeting.

In the end, we received nearly 170 entries!

The winner was picked via Random.org‘s list randomizer.

Now, let’s give that disc away!

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Trick-shot battle: The making of Avery Jenkins vs. Brodie Smith

(Note: At the end of this post is a giveaway for an autographed disc. See the details on how you can win!)

By Avery Jenkins — For Rattling Chains

I hope many of you have already watched “The Gods of Disc — Epic Trick Shot Battle 3” on YouTube. It features ultimate superstar Brodie Smith and myself performing outrageous throws into basketball hoops and disc golf baskets. If you haven’t, you need to watch this video before reading how it all came about.

This started last fall after I read a Twitter post from a good friend of mine, Jarrod Job, comparing Brodie Smith and myself in regard to our relevance in our respective sports. I responded, showing my appreciation for Smith’s Frisbee skills, but I questioned what he had for throwing distance shots — in hopes of eliciting a response from Smith.

For those who don’t know Smith, he’s a world-class ultimate player from Gainsville, Florida. He played for the two-time National Champion Florida Gators and is well-known for his outrageously entertaining Frisbee trick-shot videos on YouTube.

I’ve watched many of his trick-shot videos and I was thoroughly impressed by his never-ending energy and his amazing Frisbee skills. He also does a great job making these videos entertaining by calling out shots before making them and making funny comments to add to the entertainment value.

I remember the first time I watched one of Smith’s videos last year where he attempted — and completed — about 25 different throws into a plastic trash can from various heights and distances. He took multiple lines and made it all look very easy!

Being we are both extremely active on social networks, we communicated for several months and talked about the possibility of doing a trick-shot video together as I’m pretty good with a Frisbee, considering I have been throwing one since I was a kid. I also played ultimate at the University of Oregon for two years. Being we are both at the pinnacle of our respective sports, we knew we needed to make this happen, but he was in Florida and I was training in Santa Cruz for the winter. That made it difficult to make the connection. We decided to wait for a more convenient time so we could possibly meet up during the summer tour.

A few weeks later, he sent me his most recent video — a speed-boat trick shot he performed in Sydney, Australia. Smith threw a distance forehand shot off a bridge as a speedboat raced down the river. On the boat was an ultimate player, who did a full-extension dive, making the catch before landing in the water. I saw it on the first day it was released and it had about 250 views, so I made sure to post it all over Facebook in the hopes of getting him more views.

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A card for your collection? Let’s find out…

Who is the winner?

Last week, I shared a story about the Avery Jenkins card.

This card played a part in me getting interested in the sport. Though I imagine I would have found the game again without this card — but who knows when?

It’s funny how things like this happen. I’ve since talked to people who have tried to find these cards, only to not be able to get one in a pack. And though the base cards can be found on card collecting sites, there’s still the cool feeling of finding a card you want when you crack a box and few packs.

Some of the cards I’ve pulled from packs over the years (Cole Hamels jersey card; Torii Hunter bat card; Jim Thome jersey card) mean more to me than some of my favorite cards that I’ve had to scrounge through eBay auctions or card shows.

So, yes, it was cool to pull Avery’s card.

And it’s even cooler to give a few of these away knowing some people are going to really enjoy them. Especially that they are autographed. And, another cool point is he signed these for these giveaways.

Anyway, reading the comments on here and on Facebook showed that Avery is, indeed, a great ambassador of the sport and earned his spot on a card.

I know, you are all wanting me to announce some winners. But give me some slack here! I wanted to show a couple of people’s comments from the original story.

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The stories were great — now let’s give away the plastic!

Oh how sweet it is to win a shiny new disc, eh?

For the past two weeks, we’ve run a contest where disc golfers could share their favorite stories and have a chance to win a new disc.

I thought we’d gather more entries than we did. After all, free plastic is free plastic, eh?

Instead, we only received 16 entries, which is slightly disappointing. Especially when free plastic is involved.

Still, we received some good stories. And for the 16 who entered, it’s much easier to have a chance to win via the Random.org randomizer!

All of the stories were quite fun to read. They differed in tone and substance, which really shows the versatility of the game and how different things can happen.

Take for example, Luke. It seems our reader was playing in a not-so-nice neighborhood, loaned a disc to a shady character for some holes and… well, I’ll let Luke take it from here…

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.”

Yikes!

How about Kevin, who suffered a broken ankle and when he was on the mend, he went out for a round with some friends and his brother. He then decided — on a hole not known for aces — to call a skip ace.

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Plastic giveaway: What’s your best story?

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).

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So, who won the plastic?

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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