rattling chains announcement

And we’re back … we think

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By P.J. Harmer — Rattling Chains Staff

It seems like yesterday that we announced a summer break.

In reality, it was more than two and a half months ago. Crazy, right? But now we’re back and hopefully this break will have given us what we had hoped — a good break to recharge and push forward for the long haul.

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We’re not sure how that worked.

See, that break turned into something else — one where we were able to reflect on things a little bit. One where we found other things and such. And one where we put this blog into perspective.

So we’re back, but maybe not as crazy as we once were.

Our goal for this break was to re-charge, write some stories to have a stash and a few other things.

We have a few stories done, some others being worked on and a couple of new writers who should bring some interesting stuff to the table. But our grandeur thoughts kind of fizzled, once the reality of life continued to rear its head.

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The summer is arriving — time to step back and huck some plastic

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By Steve Hill — Rattling Chains staff

In the immortal words of Alice Cooper, “School’s out for summer.”

Substitute “disc golf website” for “school,” and you’ll see what we’re getting at here.

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The staff at Rattling Chains has decided to take a summer break, if you will, to recharge the batteries and make sure we are still bringing you the best disc golf content the Internet has to offer.

Truth is, we feel like we just finished final exams and need to blow off some steam.

With new employment opportunities, family commitments, and the desire to, you know, actually play disc golf, the day-to-day running of the site was turning into a bit of a grind. Since the handful of people behind this site are volunteers, and we all have things other than the site that take precedence, we felt it was important to take a step back, breathe, and get back to why we started things here in the first place.

The end result is, outside of our coverage of the PDGA National Tour, no new posts are scheduled to run starting this weekend until Labor Day.

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Wishing everybody a merry Christmas and a great holiday season

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As many of you already know, the staff of Rattling Chains is taking this week off to enjoy the season with family and friends.

And maybe even hucking a disc or two.

Therefore, there will be no true new content this week.

We’d also like to take the time to thank each and every one of you for taking the time to visit the site as often as you do. As much as we love the game, we truly do enjoy bring original and quality content to you each and every day.

With that being said, we’d like to wish everybody who celebrates a Merry Christmas and to everyone, a wonderful holiday season.

Please check back sometime Wednesday, however, as we’ll be having a massive giveaway in celebration of the holiday season. There are several prizes to win — and a few different ways to win them.

Thanks again and we’ll be back next week!

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

Wysocki to team up with Rattling Chains

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By P.J. Harmer — Rattling Chains staff

Disc golf has gone through quite an evolution.

Even to those of us who are newer to the sport, there’s a history to be celebrated. From the early days of Frisbee to discovering disc golf and “Steady” Ed Headrick, the history is much longer than one might think. There are tournaments and historic courses. Players such as “The Champ” Ken Climo are known for all they’ve done in the sport.

Saying the name Dave Dunipace to many will quickly help turn a disc golf conversation to Innova.

Then there’s the more current names in the game — players such as Dave Feldberg, Nate Doss, Eric McCabe and Avery Jenkins — all recent world champions.

Then there are the young guns.

These are the players who might make people take notice as the next group of fun and exciting professional disc golfers coming through the system.

When discussing that next bunch of players, the conversation often begins with Ricky Wysocki, a 19-year-old out of North Carolina who is a member of Innova’s Star team.

And for somebody who isn’t even old enough to legally purchase alcohol, Wysocki is already making a name for himself in the disc golf world. In fact, he’s won more than $20,000 playing the game this year as a full-time touring pro.

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State of the Chains Address

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I feel that with how slow things have been here recently, I owe our readers a bit of an explanation — hence the State of the Chains Address.

First, my apologies for no poll this week. I am skipping it this week and it will return this upcoming Monday. I’m low on ideas for polls and have received a few ideas, so I need to get them all ready to go.

As for how things have been…

One thing about this site — and the writers — is we came out of the gates without any pace. By that I mean we had many ideas and stories and we just kept putting them out day after day. We tried a few things and when they didn’t work too well, we scaled it back or replaced it. Things were good.

For those of you who write, you might see where this is going.

It’s one thing to blog, it’s another when it’s a niche topic. I have a personal blog on top of Rattling Chains. At times, it’s much easier for me to whip out stories there because it covers a variety of topics. Here, it’s disc golf.

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Two writers join Rattling Chains

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Rattling Chains is proud to announce the addition of Steve Hill and Jack Trageser as regular contributors to the writing staff.

Hill, who already debuted on the site with his account of being a plastic addict, started playing the game in early 2011 and has been hooked since. Writing since the age of five, Hill said he is happy to be able to combine is writing passion with disc golf.

A sixth-grade math, science and journalism teacher, Hill earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 2004 before relocating to Redlands, Calif., where he still lives.

Some of the items Hill will cover include noodle-arm reviews (for those who just don’t throw too far!), Southern California-based tournaments, adventures in the game, in-depth journalistic-style pieces and other topics as they arise.

“This is giving me an opportunity to scratch that journalism itch that never quite goes away, while helping bring a great sport to the masses,” Hill said. “I’m looking forward to the adventures ahead.”

Trageser (PDGA #9715) is bringing more than two decades of experience in disc golf to the site.

The owner of the School of Disc Golf, he is a professional player with multiple tournament wins on the PDGA tour. Trageser also coaches a team in the Santa Cruz County Interscholastic Disc Golf League.

He has experience in designing and installing courses and teaches a course on disc golf at Cabrillo College. Maintaining a strong passion for growing the sport, he is focused on helping players at all levels develop skills and have more fun with the game.

Trageser’s main focus will be bringing instructional posts to the site, with an emphasis on the mental component that makes golf and disc golf unique and compelling. He’ll also bring stories from two decades in the sport, the business side of the game and some product reviews.

“Rattling Chains aspires to be both the premier online destination for disc golf enthusiasts and a professionally designed, accurate window to the sport for the outside world,” Trageser said. “I’m excited to join a team that is committed to providing well-written, compelling content that spans all aspects of disc golf. Hopefully my focus on instructional posts will generate a healthy interactive dialogue that results in real improvements in our readers’ games.”

Trageser’s first post is slated to run Tuesday (March 27).

Rattling Chains is excited to have two writers with a journalism background join the site. We hope the readers enjoy the insights each have to offer.

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!