Infinite Discs Blog

Introducing Above Ground Level Discs

January 13, 2021 Ted Hegemann 132 comments

Disc Golf Manufacturer Spotlight

Infinite Discs carries a large selection of brands and we wanted to introduce you to some of the brands and molds that you might not be as familiar with. Each week we will spotlight a different company and tell you a little more about them. We’ll start with a California brand, Above Ground Level Discs. And we will give you a chance to win some AGL stuff!

AGL Discs

Above Ground Level discs (AGL) is a family run California-based disc golf company that currently operates in San Jose. According to their website, the name comes from the company’s policy of viewing the sport from “the 10,000 foot level”. The company formed in 2011 by Josh Jones and Sam Cooper, and has been operating under the name Above Ground Level since 2016. Sam also started the disc golf apparel company, ChainBang Disc Golf.

Filling Disc Golf Needs

From the beginning, the people at AGL have worked hard to design discs that fill the needs of disc golfers. Using modeling and testing, they have created an ever growing list of molds to cover the range of shots and conditions faced by users. AGL also works to provide the most durable plastics possible, giving a longer life to its molds. Early on, AGL adopted the policy of naming molds after trees, and also including a corresponding seed with every disc purchased. That policy and practice continues today.

The Cypress, AGL’s First Disc

The inaugural mold for AGL is the now-discontinued high speed driver, the Cypress. The name honors disc golf enthusiast and course designer, Stancil Johnson, and the course he designed in Seaside, California. The initial design of the mold was a very overstable disc. It was later retooled to make the mold more usable for a variety of skill levels. In early 2020, the Cedar was released, with flight numbers similar to the Cypress.

After the Cypress, two putters were released, the Madrone and Manzanita. The Madrone, with a flight similar to the new Infinite Alpaca, along with the overstable midrange, the Magnolia, continue to be the most popular discs they sell. As for which mold holds the number one spot, that title changes frequently between the two molds. The Sycamore, a fairly straight control driver, was approved in 2019. It has a flight similar to a TL.

Also released last year is the speed 9 control driver, the Locust. The new mold received great reviews from testers and early buyers. AGL has plans for a high speed driver that has some understability to it. After that release, they will look at increasing their offering of additional understable discs.

In addition to the Locust and the Cedar, two additional putters were approved in 2020, the Baobab and the Ponderosa. The Baobab is a beadless, overstable putter that would be great for headwind shots and big arms. The Ponderosa is a little slower than the Baobab, and slightly flippy. Great for tailwinds or hyzer-flip shots.

AGL Plastics

Their most popular plastic is the Hemp blend, which is both grippy and environmentally friendly. Nearly as popular as Hemp plastic is their premium Alpine plastic. It is reminiscent of the old CE plastic that is popular due to its durability and feel. AGL also offers Woodland Blend, a base plastic that has a variety of firmness.

Supporting the Pros and Disc Golf

Above Ground Level is proud to sponsor dozens of players round the world, up to and including professionals. On the FPO side, they sponsor Amy Lewis and Marissa Kula. Their men’s pros include Michael Henson and Hayden Kujala. A search of these players on YouTube will show a number of tournaments with some of their pro players. AGL also helped to sponsor a couple courses.

One of the exciting parts of the sport for AGL is the growth that disc golf is currently seeing. With the increased exposure from companies like CBS sports and many professionally produces YouTube videos, our accessible touring pros, and courses popping up all around the world, it’s a great time to be involved in disc golf.

Growing Disc Golf for Women and Youth

Two areas of growth that are of high importance to AGL is additional focus on the women and the youth side of disc golf. In addition to sponsoring female players, AGL sponsors female-focused events and will be sponsoring the 2021 USWDGC. It helps that one of the owners has an 8-year-old daughter who plays and looks up to the female players she gets to watch. She also helps out in the business! Their plan for the youth and new players is to work with schools to help them install baskets and teach disc golf fundamentals.

AGL and the Environment

Disc golf isn’t the only thing that the folks at Above Ground Level Discs care about. They also like to take care of the environment. In addition to naming all of their molds after tree, AGL also includes a tree seed with every disc purchased from them. The seed corresponds with the name of the mold. Order a Sycamore in Alpine plastic from them, you’ll get a Sycamore seed with your purchase. Some of their customers have sprouted their seeds into saplings and planted them on their local courses.

Top Selling Discs for Above Ground Level Discs

Taking a look at the sales of Above Ground Level Discs at Infinite, it looks like the Ponderosa is the top selling AGL disc of 2020. The Ponderosa is a straight to understable putter that is currently available in Woodland and Woodland Hemp Blend plastics. The Ponderosa accounted for nearly 18% of all AGL molds that Infinite sells. It just edged out the next four molds, the Baobab, Locust, Cedar, and Sycamore. Those four molds made up around 15% each of sales. All things considered, that’s a pretty even amount of sales for the top mold.

Win some AGL Swag!

To promote AGL, Infinite Discs would like to give some swag to some random people who answer the question below. Head to Infinite (link below) and check out our listing of AGL molds. Then let us know: Which AGL mold would you be the most interested in trying? Want something beefy, like the Cedar? Or maybe a straight putter, like the Madrone. Comment below to be entered in the drawing.

We’ll select a few random responses and ship out some AGL merch. Check back in a week when we post the next disc golf manufacturer, and we’ll list the winners.

See Infinite’s selection of AGL discs here:

https://infinitediscs.com/category/Above-Ground-Level

Check out AGL’s website here:

https://www.agldiscs.com/

Here is a link to ChanBang Disc Golf

https://www.chainbangofficial.com/

General

New Night Round Accessories

January 13, 2021 Keith Barker Leave a comment

We have recently added some new Night Round Accessories onto our site. The majority of these items are coming from Vibe Disc Golf. This is a newer company, aiming to bring some good quality gear that you can use out on the course. The initial gear revolves mainly around glow round necessities.

Flash Lights

Vibe DP1X

This is a dual purpose flashlight that comes with a rechargeable battery. You can use the UV light to recharge your glow discs and you can use the normal light to help you navigate the course. By holding the button you change the brightness of the white light to match your needs. This is available now on our website for $28.49, get yours at this link.

Vibe BK2X

Vibe provides a multifunctional flashlight to help light up the disc catchers. This has two lights on it, an LED white light and a red/white bar light. It also features a magnetic end. Enabling you to stick it to the basket and chose the light you want to use to make the basket visible. This flash light is also rechargeable. You can purchase this light for $26.49 by clicking here.

Vibe UV1X

This UV light has an adjustable brightness to it, increasing the strength of the light and the speed to which you can charge your glow discs. This powerful light comes equipped with a mini usb port for recharging. It will also fit nicely in your hand. You can purchase the UV light for $23.99 by clicking here.

Infinite Discs Mini UV Light

This mini UV light is a great little light to take on your night rounds to charge your glow discs and to find them in the fairway. This will fit into most bags. Making it easy to bring along on those night rounds. This requires 3 AAA batteries to operate it, batteries are included. This is available for $7.99 by clicking here.

Mini Markers

Vibe Resin Minis

Vibe Disc Golf also has released some resin minis. They’re hand made of a clear resin material, with a unique blend of colors injected or formed inside it. Giving each mini a different swirl, pattern, or burst of color. These are durable and meant to be used during your game as your mini. You can purchase glow mini for $13.99 here, or a non-glow mini for $12.99 here.

Infinite Discs Rescue Retriever

January 12, 2021 Keith Barker 3 comments

The Infinite Discs branded Rescue Retriever is the newest retriever to enter the market. This pole boasts a telescoping pole that can extend to 16 feet and retract to a little under 2 feet long. You will be able to securely grab your runaway discs with this dual claw head. This hook works well at grabbing the outer rim as well as the inner rim the disc. The rescue retriever also features a foam grip. Which enables a nice and comfortable grip, all the while allowing for good control over the pole.

These are available now on InfiniteDiscs.com/Products/Retrievers/18209/Infinite-Discs-Rescue-Retriever. For the release of these retrievers, they are on sale for the week. You can grab yourself one for $24.99, regular price is $27.99.

TOP TWENTY TUESDAY – JANUARY 12TH 2021

January 12, 2021 Todd Durrant 27 comments

Welcome to the first Top 20 Tuesday chart! Every week we take a look at the twenty top-selling discs on the Infinite Discs website, broken down by plastic type as well. So these are the top sellers for the last seven days in order:

Top Twenty Tuesday for January 12th 2021

#1 – Gummy C-Blend EMPEROR
#2 – I-Blend Centurion
#3 – S-Blend Centurion
#4 – Swirly S-Blend X-Out EMPEROR
#5 – Egg Shell TYRANNOSAURUS REX
#6 – Signature Swirly S-Blend EMPEROR
#7 – I-Blend SPHINX
#8 – Base Grip P MODEL S
#9 – D-Blend ALPACA
#10 – Signature Swirly S-Blend SPHINX
#11 – Star X-Out DESTROYER
#12 – I-Blend X-Out SPHINX
#13 – BaseGrip P MODEL US
#14 – Star X-Out MAKO3
#15 – Z Line UNDERTAKER
#16 – Lucid X Chameleon GETAWAY
#17 – Star X-Out WRAITH
#18 – X-Blend ALPACA
#19 – Star WRAITH
#20 – Swirly S-Blend PHARAOH

This week’s chart is only the 2nd of 2021, and once again it is a bizarre one due to the lack of inventory coming from the major brands. Infinite Discs models dominated the charts, since it is what we have in stock, while Discraft dropped down to one model on the chart, and Innova dropped to four. A couple of the Prodigy Ace Line putters made the top 20 this week. The Tyrannosaurus Rex took the number 5 spot, as almost any of the ultra lightweight Dino Disc models that comes in stock sells rapidly.

Here is a look at how many times the different brands appeared in this week’s chart:

–> Each week we’ll invite you to leave a prediction for a certain chart position on next week’s TOP TWENTY TUESDAY report. The person to predict that chart position correctly in the comments will win a $10 gift card for the Infinite Discs website.

WINNER – The number 5 spot this week was taken by the Tyrannosaurus Rex, which was a pretty random and unexpected restock, so nobody predicted that disc for the week. Try again for next week’s chart!

NEXT WEEK: Guess the #6 spot for next week. The first person to get it right (include the disc model and plastic type) will win!

THANKS FOR READING AND WATCHING EACH WEEK!

2021 State of Disc Golf Survey

January 8, 2021 Alan 34 comments

The Covid 19 pandemic caused havoc for disc golf during 2020. Its effects strained the supply chain, disrupted tournaments, and even closed many courses. But the effects of the pandemic also caused unprecedented growth for the sport.

With disc golf growing at an unprecedented pace, your input matters more than ever. The results this survey provides are beneficial for sponsors, tournament directors, disc golf companies, and parks departments considering adding disc golf.

This survey takes about 15-30 minutes to complete and will close on January 31st.

To review topics covered in past State of Disc Golf surveys, click the “State of Disc Golf” category in the sidebar for any appropriate year, or just click this link here.

Prizes

Disc golf related prizes of all types will be given to random winners who fill out the survey. Past years prizes have included discs, bags, and portable disc golf baskets.

Please share the survey with your disc golf friends and disc golf social media groups. The results to this survey are valuable to disc golfers everywhere, and everyone’s input matters.

If you have trouble scrolling through the format of the survey within this blog post, click this link https://forms.gle/FxYv3w5zDfL9pC9R8 to open the survey in a new tab.

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State of Disc Golf

Focus Friday Puzzle Edition & Giveaway

January 8, 2021 Keith Barker One comment

Happy Friday all! This week will be a little different than others, as we’ll focus on all puzzles. To make it even more interesting, we’ll do a giveaway to accompany this Focus Friday.

The Giveaway

The entry for this giveaway begins today and will continue till January 31. There will be five winners who will receive a $15 gift card. To enter this, you will simply need to share a picture of you doing the Hye8Dye 500 Piece puzzle on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter with the #InfiniteDiscsPuzzle. Have fun with this, and show us your puzzle skills!

The Discount Code

While it is too cold to play outside all day long, use the promo code to get yourself a disc golf puzzle. A puzzle also makes for a great gift for those who love disc golf. It’ll be almost as good as playing golf outside. The discount code FOCUSPUZZLE will give you 20% off all puzzles. Make sure to get the Hye8Dye puzzle so that you can get a chance to win a $15 gift card.

You can select the Hye8Dye 500 piece puzzle by clicking here and the Infinite Discs 500 piece puzzle here. Once everything you want is in your cart, you can apply the discount code FOCUSPUZZLE and get 20% off all puzzles in your cart.

Note: After placing your discs in the shopping cart and before checking out, click on the “Discount Code” box under the shopping cart and enter that code. Then proceed to checkout.

TOP TWENTY TUESDAY – JANUARY 5th 2021

January 5, 2021 Todd Durrant 35 comments

Welcome to the first Top 20 Tuesday chart of 2021, looking back and charting the sales for the last two weeks this time, as we took a break between Christmas and New Year. It should be a very interesting chart, since our inventory levels have dropped to the lowest point in several years due to a lack of inventory at the manufacturers. Many of the most popular discs simply aren’t available until those manufacturers get caught up again. We look forward to that!

Top Twenty Tuesday for January 5th 2021

#1 – D-Blend ALPACA
#2 – Champion MAKO3
#3 – I-Blend SPHINX
#4 – Discraft Prototype Putter Blend FIERCE
#5 – Prime Burst JUDGE
#6 – Discraft Special Blend LUNA
#7 – Signature Swirly S-Blend SPHINX
#8 – Star MAKO3
#9 – Star WRAITH
#10 – Star VALKYRIE
#11 – Base Grip P MODEL S
#12 – Pro X-Out WRAITH
#13 – C-Line FD
#14 – Neutron CRAVE
#15 – Cosmic Neutron TRACE
#16 – Super Stupid Soft WIZARD
#17 – VIP UNDERWORLD
#18 – Opto DIAMOND
#19 – Big Z UNDERTAKER
#20 – Swirly S-Blend PHARAOH

You’ll notice more of a brand variety on this chart than we’ve seen in a while. As the most popular discs from the dominant brands have run out, folks are snapping up the smaller brands, which make some great discs as well. The D-Blend ALPACA putter by Infinite Discs hit the #1 spot. The MAKO3 took two spots on the chart as a popular midrange. Other putters like the JUDGE, FIERCE, LUNA, WIZARD and P MODEL S are selling well while supplies last (and I can tell you that the supplies are not going to last). Hopefully more inventory starts to show up soon!

Here is a look at how many times the different brands showed up on the chart:

WINNER – There was no guessing for this week’s chart, since we took a week off. But you can place your guess for next week for a chance to win.

NOTE: Guess the #5 spot for next week. The first person to get it right (include the disc model and plastic type) will win!

THANKS FOR READING AND WATCHING EACH WEEK!

Trying To Find The Discs You Want in 2021

January 4, 2021 Alan 3 comments

My time playing disc golf has been defined by things that have changed. Course basket locations change, my form as a player has gone through many changes, and even the discs themselves have physically changed when I slam them into trees off the tee-box.

Although some of the changes we have seen during 2020 have been awful, there have been many positives for disc golf. PDGA memberships, discs sold, and interest in the sport are at an all-time high. The PDGA reports that memberships are up above 15% from the previous year and tour events are up over 15% worldwide (with a 12.91% increase in the USA, and at least a 20% growth in Europe, Canada, Africa/Asia, and Latin America). And I’ve been told that not everyone in that 15% growth is a former Ultimate Frisbee player, despite what you may be hearing out there.

Unfortunately, some of the changes haven’t been great for disc golfers. Higher interest in the sport means courses are seeing more traffic, tournaments are seeing larger waitlists, and it has become tougher to find new discs due to production and stock issues.

On the topic of finding new discs, it feels like this could be an easier problem to solve. The PDGA has strict technical standards for all disc manufacturers, so there are only a finite number of possible combinations in making discs.

If there are only a limited number of configurations allowed, then there must be discs that I would love out there that I haven’t tried to throw yet. It also means, there should be multiple options to replace my favorite lost, out of stock, or out of production disc.

In disc golf, sometimes great results happen due to skill, and sometimes they happen due to sheer luck. I need all the luck I can out on the course, so I will defer to the data in answering this question.

Using data from the Infinite Blog, I wanted to see what brands/discs were popular, and what other discs could be considered.

Let’s first look at what disc types make the Top 20 most often from the past 3 months.

Interesting to note that Control Drivers make the list the fewest number of times. Though I don’t have much arm speed or skill in general, I noticed that I also bag more distance drivers than control drivers.

Now let’s see which brands show up the most in the Top 20 data.

The big brands make up most sales, but we see some other great, smaller brands too. Now let’s see which individual discs appear most on the Top 20 data we are examining.

So, given today’s out of stock issues and the rise of some great new brands, I wanted to identify which discs are just as worth throwing as the most popular discs using disc dimensions provided by the PDGA, flight numbers provided by manufacturers, and all other data I could find.

It was eye opening to see how many similar options were out there from both big and small brands. The below table shows some of my findings.

	Disc	Similar Alternative 1	Similar Alternative 2	Similar Alternative 3
Distance Driver	Destroyer	Discraft Surge	Axiom Discs Defy	MVP Photon
Control Driver	Sphinx	Discraft Heat	Westside Discs Underworld	Legacy Mongoose
Control Driver	FD	Latitude 64 River	Gateway Assassin	Kastaplast Falk
Mid Range	Buzzz	Innova Colt	Axiom Theory	DGA Squall
Putt & Approach	Zone	Dynamic Discs Suspect	MVP Entropy	Infinite Discs Ruin
Putt & Approach	Aviar	Discmania Link	Yikun Discs Claws	Infinite Discs Alpaca

If you’re interested in seeing alternatives for other discs, I’ve compiled this research into a web tool. This is a great tool to help you find discs golf discs similar to your favorites when they are sold out. Check it out here: www.TryDiscs.com

The quest to find my perfect disc is still ongoing. I may never get there but the journey of throwing and trying new discs is most of the fun.

This is a guest post submitted by Hasan Iqbal

Author Bio:

Hasan grew up in Georgia and has become obsessed with disc golf since he started playing in 2018. Hasan attended Georgia State University and the University of Delaware and is now working as a data scientist. In his spare time, Hasan has been working on Try Discs to help disc golfers find their next favorite disc. He can regularly be found on the wonderful courses around metro Atlanta with his dog, Scooby.

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