Disc Golf Days #1: The Crack at Juel

Dedicating posts to certain days out on the course is something I've wanted to try here for awhile, but I didn't want to bore people with Intermediate-level, throw-by-throw analysis crap. I didn't want to use the space to review courses either, because that has the potential to be its own interesting topic.

It wasn't until I heard a loud CRACK over my head that I realized what these posts should be about.

Disc Golf Days will focus on the strange and interesting things that happen while I'm out throwing plastic.

Working nights has its benefits. I'm able to sleep in for as long as my child will allow and I'm able to dedicate most of my day to fun activities like visiting parks, playing guitar, cooking food and of course throwing frisbees.

Once in a while I will leave for work early enough to allow some practice time out on the disc golf course at Juel Park in Redmond, WA. On Monday, May 13 I decided to throw because Mother Nature was whipping up something fierce. I love practicing in strong winds since I don't often get the chance to.

On the way to the park I was listening to the news on the radio. Apparently thunder was booming over Seattle and lighting strikes were putting on a show, but all I saw were large patches of dark clouds peppering the sunny blue sky.

A gentle breeze swept through the wide open park as I arrived. I was the only golfer there. As I stood on the tee pad of one and stretched I noticed the gentle breeze slowly transitioning, giving way to a more angry gust.

The sky darkened. I knew it was time to throw when my towel leaped from my bag.

Wind practice had begun.

On tee three I drove two discs. This hole would be a straight 300' shot if it wasn't for the trees lining the right side of the fairway at about 250'. Some of the looming branches reach out like giant hands blocking the straight path to the basket.

I usually try to hyzer flip something and have it fade to the right just beyond the green mess. My first shot was with a Discraft Stalker. It flipped up and headed in the direction I wanted. I thought I was going to card my first ace in Washington, but it dropped short and parked next to the pole.

My second shot was with a Lat. 64 Bolt that I've been wanting to try out. It's another under-stable disc and I figured I'd give it a rip before I moved on. That thing came out fast and flipped immediately. Instead of flipping over and going around the branches it headed straight for them. I watched it fight through and then ricochet off the thick trunk of a tree.

I tapped in my putt from the first throw and began the search for the Bolt. Deep in this wooded area grows a massive amount of greenery. Losing a disc in here is easy, especially when you lose sight of it in flight.

I was lifting the arms of a bright green fern when I heard a loud crack over my head. I dashed out of the woods hearing branches collapse under the weight of a heavy trunk. I thought for sure a mammoth tree was coming down on top of me.

When I hit the open field running I looked back to see if I could see the tree falling. I couldn't spot it.

So I stopped and searched the long line of trees. Only the tree tops where swaying in the wind. Everything seemed somewhat peaceful again. I have no idea where that tree fell, but I was glad it wasn't near me.

My heart slowed to a regular pace and I went back into the woods to find my disc. I was on the brink of giving up when I spotted it. As I bent down to grab it a loud explosion-type sound reverberated through the woods. I freaked out and ran for the open field again. This sound didn't come from the trees though. Something off in the distance blew up. I scanned the skyline for smoke. I couldn't see anything.

A few minutes went by and then I heard the faint wails of sirens from emergency vehicles. I decided I had enough wind practice and headed for the car. Things were getting too weird.

I searched the news later that evening in the hopes of finding an explanation to the sound I heard. I failed to find anything.

I guess it will remain a mystery.

Exploring the World of Disc Dyeing

Dyeing a disc is something I've been interested in trying for awhile. After reading a bunch of different dyeing threads on DGCR and watching a few videos I decided to finally do it.

I knew going in that RIT had changed its formula a while back and the new stuff wasn't supposed to work as well, but I found some liquid RIT at the closest store to my place so I just bought it to test it myself.

It didn't work.

After reading about this shaving cream dye technique I decided to try it, because it seemed so easy. After my first attempt failed I hopped online and ordered some iDye Poly, since that's the stuff everyone uses now.

I was extremely pleased with myself while washing off the shaving cream. My yellow Flex Avenger SS looks so cool now.

Dyeing is a lot of fun. I'll keep doing it and post the results.

If you've never tried this and are interested here's what I did:

1. I sprayed enough cheap shaving cream to fill a plate evenly into a big bowl.

2. I added a little water to make it creamy then mixed it by hand.

3. I filled the plate and smoothed out top to make it easy to put design on.

4. I mixed cold dye with a little bit of shaving cream in a small bowl.

5. I used an eye dropper to suck up dye mixture and then put lines of dye all over shaving cream bed.

6. I used an old art tool (you can use anything you want) to swirl the dye into a design I was happy with.

7. I placed disc carefully onto bed and didn't push down. I just gently set it on top and then put the plate somewhere nobody could mess with it.

8. After 24 hours I washed the disc and then stood amazed that it worked.

That's it. If you've never taken a stamp off of a disc just use some acetone. Not the nail polish stuff though.

AFT Update

The Treejectory AM Classic tournament was a damn good time and I'm glad I participated. I got to see a lot of people I haven't seen in a while, I got to meet new people, I got to throw a Seattle Rainmakers ultimate disc made by Innova and I got to play two tough rounds of golf in sporadic windy conditions.

I'm refusing to litter this post with excuses about my poor performance, so I won't go into detail about what could have, or should have, been. I just knew it was going to be business as usual when I watched my first drive of the day sail in a direction I haven't seen in a long time.

I thought to myself, "Here we go," while standing one over par on the second tee with muddy shoes. The fact is my first round was comical. I shot a 66 and sat in last place after the round.

While eating pizza during the break I thought about the comment left by Ryan in the last post. He gave me some great advice.

1. don't put too much pressure on yourself, disc golf is meant to be fun, keep that mindset...
2. don't look at those problem holes as problems, it will only bring in the negativity...look at those holes as a challenge to better your game, in a positive mindset...ahead of time, visualize your perfect drive...
3. whatever time you devote to practice putting, devote the same amount of time 'meditating' on putting...practice in your head making every, single 25-footer, watching in your mind's eye as they crash the chains every time...trust me, this works!
4. block out all the other players, if you can. play your game. don't let another player get in your head.

By the time the second round started I was in a positive mood and ready to have fun. I ended up shooting a 59. Even though it wasn't one of my better scores on that course I was extremely happy to shoot seven strokes better than my first round.

I still ended up near the bottom after all the scores came in, but I didn't care too much. If I would have played my normal division I would have tied for second place, which would have been fun because I could have participated in a playoff for the trophy. 

Going in to this I wanted to learn something. I found out that consistency is the only thing keeping me from competing in the Advanced division. I have the distance. I just hit more trees. I can scramble, but I can't sink as many putts. I'll be working on my putting a lot more in the coming months. I've been so obsessed with gaining distance I've weakened other shots in my bag.

So, next time I'll be back among the Intermediate folks, but I'll make sure it's not for too much longer.

In the last post I mentioned four problem areas I was worried about. Here they are:

1. The OB on fairway one.

2. The trees off the tee on three.

3. The low ceiling and narrow hallway tee shot on 11.

4. The possibility of a lost disc on fairway 18.

Here's what happened.

I kept my Surge SS in bounds on one during the first round, but hurled it OB during the second round. There was a slight tail wind and I didn't think about what the wind would do to my shot.

On the first round I smacked an early tree off of the tee on three. I made it through during the second round

I had low straight drives both rounds on 11, but I missed the putt to card a 4 in the first round.

I was relieved to hear there would be spotters on the fairway of 18. I threw a strong drive and landed close to the fairway during the first round, but sailed off into some trees during the second. Never lost a disc though.

Just in case you're interested here's a link to the scores:

Scores.

Another Freaking Tournament (AFT)

I registered into another freaking tournament.

The first Treejectory Classic tournament at the Terrace Creek disc golf course is slated for April 27. I'm excited and honestly a bit frightened, but I've been practicing as much as I can on the course and I feel the fear slowly subsiding.

Terrace Creek is technically my home course and I've played really well there in the past, so I decided to really torture myself and sign up in the Advanced division.

I've thrown among intermediates in all the tournaments I've played. I never learn anything. If I'm not going to place near the top of the pack then I better look for a way to get a lesson. Signing up as an advanced player should help with that.

I haven't posted about my distance progress lately, because I'm tired of guessing and Google mapping lengths of throws. I'm saving up for a laser range finder and when I acquire that I will post accurate distances.

I will say I know progress has been made.

Although with this progress a small issue with consistency and accuracy has plagued my regular play. I've discovered "timing" when driving off the tee and when my timing is off I can create advanced personal fairways if you know what I mean. Trees lose bark and squirrels scream for mommy.

This random inconsistency will have the back of my mind pulsing on every tee pad, but there are a few course features I will be worried about too. Here's a list:

1. The OB on fairway one.

2. The trees off the tee on three.

3. The low ceiling and narrow hallway tee shot on 11.

4. The possibility of a lost disc on fairway 18.

The tee shot off of tee one gives me nightmares. The distance to the basket is only 300 ft. or so, but it's slightly uphill the whole way. I've been told it plays more like 350' to 375'. That's not the problem though.

The problem is the busy road that hugs the left side of the fairway and the trees to the right near the basket. This situation creates a small gap to pierce in order to land in the circle.   

I'm a right hand/back hand thrower with a forearm only good for escaping tight spaces. I only have two options right now. I can either hyzer flip something without hitting the trees to the right, or fail to hyzer flip something and watch the disc hit a car.

Since starting this blog I've created a mental list of additional goals and one of them is to card a birdie on this dang hole.

Now tee three is like throwing a hail Mary. From the pad a disc golfer has to clear a ravine to reach the basket. It's not that far of a throw, but the trees in front of the tee pad mock you. They call you names. They stand only feet apart and dare you to clear the gap. If you fail you turn an easy bird into an exhausting bogey... or worse.

Throwing off of tee 11 hasn't been too much of a problem for me lately, but it's still a hole I think about. Your drive doesn't have a lot of room to play in the air.

Lastly, during casual rounds I've been in groups that took well over three minutes to search for a disc off the fairway of 18. Some of the time it's been my disc that we're looking for. This hole is a 500 ft. hallway shot with decent elevation. I've read roughly 70ft. Right handed throwers tend to fade out early and dive into a thicket of trees and blackberry bushes. If you turn one over to the right too much you lose site of the disc and end up in a jail of head-high reeds of some sort. Also, that area is flooded this time of year.

This tourney should be interesting. I have a few more days of practice coming up, so hopefully I can get myself ready for competitive play, or at the very least an enjoyable and informative couple of rounds of disc golf.

Wish me luck.

DGCR Achievements: Stat Addict

http://dgcoursereview.com

Disc Golf Course Review is an outstanding Web site for the flying plastic obsessed people of the world. The site has accumulated detailed information, including photos and reviews, of disc golf courses from all over the world. It also hosts a ridiculously packed forum full with topics that practically cover every aspect ever thought of regarding the sport – and then there are duplicate, triplicate and quadruplicate threads for many topics to lose yourself in. What comes after quadruplicate? Because there are those too.

There are thousands of people registered, there is a market place to buy related and non-related items, there are numbered bag (travel) tags and there is a feature that allows players to keep track of their scores. 

DGCR has pages of other features, but the one feature I wanted to highlight in this post is the achievement page.

To be more specific, the "stat addict" achievement.

These stats have multiple levels of achievement. The levels are bronze, silver, gold and diamond. When a player reaches each level they are awarded an icon on their DGCR profile page. 

When the bronze level of "Shutterbug" (100 photos uploaded) is reached then this icon will appear for profile visitors to see:

Here's silver for "Disc Collector" (150 discs in personal organizer):

Gold for "Aces" (10 aces):

Diamond for "Wordsmith" (250 written reviews):

I'm on a journey to 400 feet, but that doesn't mean I can't have smaller goals as well. I'm interested in collecting as many of these achievements as i can. In the nearly 5 years of disc golf play I have accumulated a silver in the Ace department, a bronze in Workout, a bronze in Disc Collector and a silver in Stat Addict.

After a few beers the other night I decided to play with math and figure out how long it would take me to reach the diamond level Stat Addict achievement. 

Here's what I came up with:

The goal: 50,000 holes

Current number of holes played: 6,125

Holes needed: 43,875

18 holes a round equals 2,437.5 rounds to reach goal

Realistic rounds in a week for me: 5

Rounds per year: 260 

9.375 years to accomplish goal

Nine years. Wow. That's a long time. My daughter will be 11. I will be 45. The year will be 2022.

I wonder if I can accomplish the achievement sooner. I wonder if I'll be throwing 400 ft. by then.

How long would it take you?

The "I'm Back" blog post

It seems to always happen.

Consistently rolling a blog along smoothly is like choosing to lose 30 pounds at the beginning of a new year. A few weeks later you're looking at yourself in a mirror wondering why you just inhaled a triple meat, triple bacon behemoth cheese burger and large fries.

What happened to losing 30 pounds?

Well, there's always next year. Right?

Not keeping up with this blog was only part weakness on my part though. My other excuse is life. That last tournament messed with my head enough to keep me from the field and course for a while, but then I ended up landing a second job.

All of a sudden I was working 12 to 14 hour days during the week and all I wanted to do on the weekends was rest.

I'm happy to write that the horrible schedule of 8 a.m. to 10p.m. is no longer a reality. I finally have my days back. I'm also ready to work toward achieving my goal.

I'm 400 bound once again.

Sudoku Showdown II at SeaTac DGC

Disc golf tournaments mess with my mind. The days leading up to an event are filled with mental preparation and practice on the course. I tell myself things like, "just relax," "play like it is any other day," "have fun," "kick the course's grassy ass." 

I run through this routine because in my first tournament I found out that I either suffer from performance anxiety or that I simply suck at playing disc golf. So, each time I enter a tournament I'm out to prove to myself that I can overcome my mental issues and also to prove to myself that I don't suck at throwing things in the air. 

I have yet to accomplish either of those things.

On June 30 a free PDGA sanctioned tournament was held at SeaTac DGC. It was a fundraising tourney called the Sudoku Showdown where everyone was forced to play with discs weighing 159.9 grams or less. All I had to do was show up, make a donation if I felt like it and write a short pledge about something positive I will contribute to disc golf this year.

I've only played SeaTac a few times. It's not an easy course, but I figured I might be able to bump my player rating up a bit from a stagnant 901.

I had been throwing four light weight discs for about a week or so in the hopes I would get used to them. I bagged a Blizzard Destroyer, 150 DX Teebird, 150 Aviar and a 150 R-Pro Roc. At the tournament I bought a Blizzard Wraith.

When tourney day arrived I felt confident and the plan was to show up bright and early with an attitude fitting of a disc golfer that expects to win, which was something new for me. I usually show up to a tournament with the attitude fitting of someone about to take a hike in the woods hoping not to be mauled by a bear or a giant kitty cat... or a pack of drunken transients.

Check in was planned for 9 a.m. and I was standing on hole one a little after 8 a.m. After stretching out I decided to play the holes leading up to tourney central, which was located near holes eight and nine.

My first drive came out fast and on a perfect line for the trees off to the right of the fairway. I shrugged it off and remembered I was having problems with these discs ripping out later. I just needed to adjust. My second drive hit the same spot. "Not a problem," I said to myself. Nobody was around so I just ran out and grabbed the discs and came back to try again.

After my next drive went straight into the ground I got pissed. "Why is this happening," I silently screamed. I clutched the second disc and hurled it with passion. The flight was actually looking good until the disc hit a tree and bounced right into some tall grass and out of sight.

I spent the next 15 minutes looking for a lost disc.

Here we go again I thought. New tourney same unconfident play. I found the disc and continued to play on with some horrible outcomes. Deeper in to the course I realized there were mosquitos out to feed. I wasn't prepared for this and I spent a lot of practice time setting up for a shot, smacking my leg, setting up, smacking my arm, setting up, throwing and then smacking my leg again. By the time I arrived at tourney central I was an itchy guy taking a hike in the woods hoping not to get mauled by a bear, a giant kitty cat... or a pack of drunk transients.

When the first round began I felt a bit of confidence build up. I figured there was a chance I worked out all the bad play during my practice and I lucked out with a great group of disc golfers. One of them even offered to share their skeeter spray. Unfortunately, reality hit three holes in when I was sitting six over par and bleeding from my knee.

I drove home later that day thankful that I had met some cool local players, but a little depressed that I couldn't get my game together. I didn't place last, but that's not what I really cared about. I went in thinking this would be a quick way to raise my player rating, but instead it will probably drop it.

I couldn't wait to get those light discs out of my bag. Now everything is back to normal and I'm back at it practicing my mental game and my drives. One day I'll hit that 400 mark and one day I'll actually play a tournament like someone that knows how to.