Infinite Discs Blog

Top Discs–Early 2016

April 11, 2016 Jace Smellie Leave a comment

In this article we will be looking back on our top selling discs from the first quarter of 2016 (January-March). This first quarter is what I like to call the season “disc golf fever.” Disc golfers are anxious to get out and play, so to compensate, they stock up on their favorite discs in anticipation for the warm weather and new season to start. For the most part, we find many familiar names in the top charts, but there are a few surprises in each category, including a new overall number 2!

The biggest surprise we found as we ran the numbers was the Innova TeeBird coming in as the second most sold disc of the last three months. Last Quarter it was number 5 overall. This jump may have been caused in part by the new Avery Jenkins stamps on the star plastic TeeBirds. The former number 2 (the Discraft Buzzz) also shocked us by falling five slots down to number 7. New releases always cause some shake up near the top of these lists, but the Innova Colossus and the Legacy Outlaw really shined by jumping all the way into numbers 4 and 5 respectively. Only time will tell if these discs will be able to maintain such high sales numbers.

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Top 10 Overall

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Just like the last quarter of 2015, Innova dominated the Distance Driver category by claiming 8 of the top 10 spots. There was a lot of hype around the release of Innova’s first 14 speed driver, the Colossus, and it will be interesting to see if it will maintain high numbers in the upcoming months. The first run Pinnacle Outlaws or “Pinlaws” can be thanked for the Outlaw taking the number 3 slot. The second run Pinlaws released today, so we may see the Outlaw near the top next quarter as well.

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Top Distance Drivers

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The Control Driver top 10 saw some movement as well with two new discs making it into the charts, the Axiom Crave and the Discmania FD Jackal. The Crave had a popular release in new Plasma plastic help it break the top 10, and the FD isn’t a stranger to the top 10 as it was featured two quarters ago. Last quarter the Leopard3 held the number 2 slot after its release, and we were very curious to see how it would fare in the following months. It dropped, but I’m sure nobody at Innova can complain about a number 8 for the Leopard3.

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Top Control/Fairway Drivers

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The Discraft Buzzz may have dropped in the overall charts, but it maintained its dominance of the Midrange category. The top 3 discs stayed the same, but a brand new disc jumped the charts to the number 4 spot–the Latitude 64 Compass. Again, is the hype of a new release to blame? Or will the Compass prove to be a popular midrange as time goes on? One thing’s for sure–a name like Ricky Wysocki on every stamp can’t hurt!

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Top Midrange Discs

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Last Quarter the Dynamic Discs Judge took the top spot from the Gateway Wizard for the first time, and it held its ground. The top 3 here also stayed the same, but the Dynamic Discs Warden jumped from 7 to 4 this Quarter. Also there was a big mix up at the bottom half of the chart with the bottom four discs all not featured in last Quarter’s top 10. This is also the most diverse category in terms of brands, with 9 different manufacturers represented.

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Top Putt and Approach Discs

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So there they are! The top discs of 2016 Q1. Any surprises you see here that we didn’t comment on? What really stands out to you? Are there any discs you were expecting to find but didn’t? Feel free to comment with your thoughts!

General

The State of Disc Golf – Social vs. Solitary Play (Part 1)

April 7, 2016 Todd Durrant One comment

In the 2016 “State of Disc Golf” survey, some interesting statistics demonstrate how our social lives interact with our game of disc golf. Participants answered the simple question, “Who do you play disc golf with?”

Only 7% of those surveyed confessed that they “almost always” play alone. Another 30% of those surveyed said that they “regularly” play alone. However, the 52% majority responded that they only “occasionally” play alone and another 11% that they “never” play alone. So, if you like to get together with friends for a round of disc golf, then you are among the 63% that represent the more social crowd. If you prefer solitude, then you are among the 37% minority.

For those who are playing the game with other people, there is some interesting data that shows with whom you are most likely playing. Considering the lopsided balance between male and female players surveyed (95.7% male vs. 4.3% female) it should be no surprise to discover that 88% either “never” play with a spouse or significant other, or only “occasionally” play with a spouse or significant other. The remaining 12% ranges from “regularly” to “almost always”. Obviously, if you’re one of those players who finds himself (yes…most likely male) playing often with your significant other, then you are among the rare and the blessed. It would appear that finding a romantic relationship that can extend onto the disc golf course is an uphill battle. Or perhaps, as a friend of mine once claimed during a disc golf outing, “I play disc golf to get away from my wife and kids—I would never want her here with me! This is my time!” I suppose if that makes you feel better…

If the majority of us are social, but not playing with our significant other, then who are we playing with? The same general pattern emerges when asked about playing with family members. The majority of 80% responded that they either “never” or only “occasionally” play with family members. The other 20% either “regularly” or “almost always” play with family members. Thus playing with family is only slightly more popular than with significant others.

As we move away from family ties, the pendulum swings. We found that almost everybody who plays socially is choosing to play with close friends. Only 6% of those surveyed confessed that they never play with close friends.

The other interesting statistic tied to this friendship factor is that a lot of those people we play with are folks that we met through the game of disc golf. Only 15% say that they “never” play with people met through disc golf. 37% of those surveyed responded “occasionally”, while the other 48% a replied that they either “regularly” or “almost always” play with friends met through disc golf.

Those statistics would seem to suggest that the socially inclined players are very likely to meet new friends on the course with whom they will at least occasionally play. However, you should probably not expect that those new relationships will develop into a “significant other” or “spouse” status. Whether that is a good thing or an unfortunate thing is up to your interpretation, but it may shed some light on why this little video clip was so popular within the disc golf community, as it apparently borders upon pure fantasy:

In the near future, we’ll take a look at how the social and solitary players measure up in terms of other statistics, like disc ownership, personal evaluation of disc golf skills, competitive nature, etc.

Ricky Wysocki Upshot Tips

April 4, 2016 Alan Leave a comment

Having a good upshot game can reduce putting stress and shave strokes off your round. In this clinic, Professional disc golfer Ricky Wysocki provides a few tips to help you improve your upshots.

Ricky says that these tips are pretty basic, but that it’s the basics that people fail to execute that causes most of the problems. Here are four of his tips for more accurate consistent approach shots:

1. Line up properly. Line your shoulders up with your feet so that all body parts are going the same direction.
2. Keep your legs in an athletic position, pointing where you want to throw about shoulder length apart.
3. Lock your wrist in position and keep it there the entire time. (Whether you’re throwing a hyzer, anhyzer, or tomahawk throw)
4. Eliminate the variables so that your disc only has one thing to do — go in the right direction.

Disc Golf Tips

The Cost of Disc Golf

March 31, 2016 Dylan Durrant 10 comments

Disc Golf is often praised as a low cost sport- all you have to do is buy some discs and you’re good to go! Most disc golf courses are free to play, where as in “Ball” Golf you have to pay per round, and often for a cart as well. However, Disc Golf isn’t always “free” for a lot of players. We wanted to take a look and see how much people spend on Disc Golf outside of disc purchases. Once you’ve purchased your first set, what is the game going to cost?

Most additional costs will come from joining and playing in a weekly league. Some people will play skins, or other money related games with their friends while they play. Pay to Play courses are slowly gaining popularity as well- and what will that cost per round? Let’s look at some stats on Disc Golf related costs.

First we’ll look at how much people spend on joining a league.

Right away we see that the highest bar on the graph is the $0 response. While I haven’t been in a “free to join” league myself, I could see how that might be an easy going and fun approach. However, I can see club funds being low or even nonexistent. The local club near Infinite Discs costs $10 to join, and that gets you a Bag Tag which adds some (usually) friendly competition to the league rounds. It also allows you to play for a CTP prize each week, which is paid for from the Club Funds.

The next highest response was the $16-$20 answer, with most other clubs just above or below that price range. These fees are usually once per year, which makes them very affordable. If you’re not part of a league, it is a fun experience to have! The costs do go up, though. Let’s take a look on weekly club costs.

How much do people spend at league on a weekly basis?

Most people pay between $4-$6 a week to play with their club. At our local club, the cost is $5 with an optional Ace Pot and an optional Cash CTP. This makes the cost $7 a week if you’re all in. Of course, if you play well you can win some of this money back, if not more. To some, this may be affordable and fun, to others, they may prefer to play with their buddies for free.

Pay to Play courses are popping up more around the country as well. These courses are usually well groomed, quality 18 hole courses (often built on ball golf courses) that you pay a small fee to play each time. In the survey we asked, “What is the most you are willing to pay to play a round of 18 holes at a quality disc golf course?” Here are the results:

While some people said that they wouldn’t pay to play disc golf, the overall response was positive towards paying to play. $4-5 and $9-10 peaked together, with the other price ranges getting a good amount of votes as well. Based on this data, we can predict that pay to play courses may continue to become more popular. People are willing to pay to have a good experience on the course!

Other costs to Disc Golf include becoming a PDGA member for $50/year, as well as the costs of registering to play in tournaments. These costs allow the player to be more competitive by obtaining a PDGA number and rating, and competing against others to raise their rating.

In summary, we see that there are costs associated with Disc Golf aside from the purchasing of discs. However, they aren’t required costs, and that is what makes the sport so appealing to such a variety of people. You have the option to grab some discs and play for free on your local course as often as you want. For those that are wanting to get deeper into the game and culture, there are loads of options available to pay a little extra and play more competitively. Altogether, Disc Golf can put a dent in your pocketbook, but compared to many other “mainstream” sports, the cost is still relatively low.

More Demographics – Who played the most courses?

March 29, 2016 Alan 3 comments

In this blog we will continue to look at who is the average disc golfer. Married? Educated? Club member? Travel to play? It’s fun to look at the statistical average numbers and see how many of the categories we and our buddies belong to. In future blogs we’ll build on these and other statistics to examine certain aspects of our sport (such as, tournaments, attitudes about DG, etc.)

Average Joe

According to the survey results we are married, Intermediate disc golfers, have a Bachelor’s Degree, belong to a club but not the PDGA, are employed for wages, and play a lot of disc golf! Here is a breakdown of the data:

I Do

According to several sources, the marriage rate among all adults in the U.S. hovers around 50%, so these numbers show that we are close to the national average.

We’ve got skills

With majority of us self-identifying as Intermediate golfers, it’s important to point out that the requirements for divisions are not uniform across the sport. Locally, most people who sign up for a tournament play in higher divisions than at major tournaments. For example, if someone’s PDGA rating approaches 900, they usually play in the Advanced division, and as their rating climbs past 900, there is a good chance they’ll play in the Open (Pro) division. I see that happen a lot. Using the PDGA standard for ratings, the same person could play in Intermediate all the way up to a 935 rating.

This isn’t a commentary about which division people should sign up for with certain PDGA rating, it is just a possible explanation for the survey results. One other statistic that may shed light on the number of Intermediate players is the fact that less than half of us indicated that our PDGA membership is either current, or will be for 2016. That means more than half of us simply believe that our skill level is in the Intermediate range, without the benefit of having an official rating.

Degree or Not Degree

Keeping in mind that approximately 8% of us aren’t old enough to have finished college, our degree achievement numbers are slightly higher than the national average. For example, nationally (in the U.S.) 32% of the population over 25 has a Bachelor’s Degree. In the disc golf community, 36% of us have a Bachelor’s. (I deducted the approximate number of respondents who are under 25).

In Da Club

To me, one of the big benefits of playing disc golf is the social aspect of the sport. Being part of a club helps me realize those benefits. Apparently, most of us enjoy the camaraderie that comes with being part of a group, because well over half of us currently belong to a club. More of us belong to a club than belong to the PDGA. We’ll explore some of the reasons why people do, or do not, belong to the PDGA in another post.

Club

Off to Work We Go

Things are looking good for disc golfers on the employment front. Only a tiny percent of us are looking for work. The rest of us are employed, retired, and either can’t or don’t need to work. Shout out to our military brothers and sisters who share our sport! Infinite Discs has shipped product the people overseas in the service. We’re glad to help keep you huckin’!

Where Do You Play?

A fun part of this sport is playing a variety of courses. Over half of us have between 1-3 courses within a 10-mile radius of our house. A small group of us have to travel more than 10 miles to get to the closest one. An even smaller group (171), but much luckier, has 10+ courses within 10 miles! However, I think this number might be slightly off. When I first looked at that survey result, I wanted to find out where these places are that have so many courses. I figured there would be a couple of locations in Michigan, Texas, and a few other states that were flush with places to play. After cross referencing the question with the location of the participant, I found that there are 25 states and one other country that allegedly have that wonderful disc golf density. I’m skeptical as to that number, too, since one of the states is Utah. I live in Utah and I know for a fact there aren’t ANY points that have 10 or more permanent courses within 10 miles. Perhaps people’s distance estimating skills are to blame?

I’d like to see people comment about specific locations that really have 10+ courses in a 10-mile radius. You don’t have to list the courses, just the location. Let’s see how many there really are.

Also, a little more than a fourth of us saw at least one new course installed within 10 miles.

Hittin’ the Road

Since nearly all of us (95%) live in places that have 9 or fewer courses within a 10-mile radius, it is apparent by our responses that we like to travel to play other courses. Over half of us played 10 or more different courses last year. The largest group was the 10-15 range, with nearly a third of us falling into that category. Happily, everyone who responded to the survey played at least one course last year!

One adventurous soul indicated he played 200+ courses last year. Curious and insanely jealous, I had to investigate this number to learn more about his other responses. The follow-up questions asked about how often we played during certain times of the year and his responses to these questions led me to believe the 200+ answer was a mistake. Or maybe a fantasy. Still, eight people indicated they played between 100-200 courses. Even if they are all on the low end of that scale, it sure sounds awesome!

For the next blog we’ll look at our responses to questions about tournaments.

What is a Disc Golfer?

March 28, 2016 Dylan Durrant 3 comments

What is a Disc Golfer?

Disc golf has become a huge part of many peoples’ lives, and will continue to do so as the years progress- but what does this mean? Many of us closely identify ourselves with the sport, maybe writing about disc golf in our social media bios, or talking about our incredible putts at work. Do these things make you a disc golfer? Like everything in life, the question of how to classify somebody is not as simple or binary as “yes, you’re a real disc golfer because you’ve collected over a thousand discs” or “no, I’m sorry, you are not a true disc golfer because you didn’t buy the new DGWT DUDE hoodie”. Most likely this kind of conversation concerning being a disc golfer will never end with a simple definition.

As the snow melts around the country, and the days get longer, you might be so fortunate as to find yourself on the course more often. Whether you took some time off during the winter months, or you managed to keep your driving distance up all season (props to you!), hopefully you had a chance to reflect on 2015, and thought about what you wanted to do in 2016. I know I did, and right on top of my goals for the year is “give my good friend Dylan a run for his money at the Trilogy Challenge this year.” (On a side note, who else is super excited for the new Trilogy Challenge discs: the Falchion, Marshal, and Sling?) Whether your aspirations for the year included disc golf or not, you probably did get the chance to think about things you wanted to do.

What do your plans or other commitments say about you though? My personal goals range from disc golf to a biology research project. In this community we have a huge variety of people, from vastly different walks of life. We are fathers, mothers, daughters, brothers, and grandparents. We are accountants, web developers, machinists, drifters, and potters. It is this variety that ultimately defines the sport, at least for me. I don’t think of the group as a bunch of disc golfers, but rather, a huge ecosystem of diverse and amazing people who all enjoy throwing plastic and rubber at metal baskets.

Again, these are just my thoughts concerning this topic. What really makes it a conversation is the sharing of thoughts. Asking others involved in the sport about what they thought it meant to be a disc golfer wrought responses like “one word: friendships” from twitter user @TheWiffle24 and “camaraderie amongst generations” from Robert Lair. Please let us know what you think it means to be a disc golfer, so that we can keep growing the discussion. Thank you for being you, it really is our diverse set of perspectives that makes this sport so awesome to be a part of.

General

New Discmania Discs

March 16, 2016 Jace Smellie Leave a comment

Last week, we announced on Facebook that our disc of the week was the very popular Discmania FD. As part of our giveaway, we asked our Facebook family to tell us their favorite Discmania molds. As the responses came in, we were surprised by how many people said that they haven’t thrown any Discmania yet. Discmania is the primary sponsor of the Disc Golf World Tour that kicked off last weekend in La Mirada, California, and they have been doing a lot over the years to help grow the sport.

Also last week, we got in a huge Discmania restock featuring a handful of discs in new plastics that we have not had available before. We wanted to provide for everyone a list of all the new Discmania discs in new plastics that we just got in. If you haven’t tried out Discmania before, now would be a great time. We have a huge selection available, with a lot of different colors and weights. Here are all the discs that are now available in new plastic types.

All new Discmania Discs:

G-Line MD3

G-Line PD2

G-Line P2–Crush LOVE Series

General

New Disc Golf Bags of Early 2016

March 14, 2016 Spencer Perry Leave a comment

It is only March and disc golf season is in full swing, or shall I say flight? Recently a series of bag releases has us excited around the office. New innovative bag offerings from both Dynamic Discs, Innova, and Prodigy are poised to add many new options to the already rapidly growing disc golf bag scene.

Dynamic Discs Ranger H2O

Dynamic Discs released their Ranger H2.0 and Sniper Backpacks two weeks ago, and after a few test rounds with each we are extremely impressed with these new designs. The Ranger H2.0’s disc notches in the bottom of the heavy duty weather ready bag are truly very nice innovations, as discs stay anchored in their spots as the wearer moves around to their lie. New features like this combined with things like the rain hood and water proof material making up the bottom of the bag definitely come together into a backpack loaded with value, without adding much of any weight to the original Ranger Backpack.

Dynamic Discs Sniper Backpack

The new line of Sniper Backpacks from Dynamic are no less impressive, coming in at a $69.99 price point without sacrificing the comfort that is a huge selling point of larger backpack bags. The Sniper is still tall enough that it does not look like a child’s backpack, like some other low-cost backpacks seem to. With a capacity of 16 discs in the main compartment the user has plenty of options while on the course. The Sniper keeps to Dynamic’s tradition of bags that hold plenty of discs within a comfortable and non-encumbering profile.

Innova Heropack

Much like the Dynamic Discs Sniper Backpack, the Innova Heropack comes in at a low price point, right at $89.99. The Heropack is a wider backpack that can hold 25 discs in the main compartment, and it features two easy to access putter pockets as well. Notably, the Heropack comes in a very wide variety of colors and patterns, the fan favorite so far being the green plaid option. The Heropack is a great option for anyone looking for a high-capacity low-cost backpack.

Prodigy Pro BP-1

Prodigy’s Pro BP-1 has just been revamped in time for the Spring 2016 season, featuring new colors and a rain cover for the early season rain. Keeping with the idea of bags to keep you prepared, Prodigy also released their Practice Bag, a large duffel-like bag that holds 45 drivers or 30 putters. This bag is perfect for carrying around large quantities of discs for field throwing or just casual practice rounds.

Dynamic Discs Commander Backpack

Most recently, Dynamic officially released their newest member to their growing family of high-quality bags, the Commander Backpack. Coming in at a price point right between the Ranger H2.0 and the Sniper, the Commander is a wider backpack that can hold 20 discs in its main disc compartment, and comes with all of the convenient pockets and putter holders. For $119.99, this bag is the ultimate combination of quality and affordability.

These are all great options if you are looking to upgrade your bag as the season picks up. You can stick with your current bag manufacturer, or try something new out. All that really matters is that you go play!

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