Three New Releases from VIKING DISCS

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Viking Discs from Finland entered the scene with a fun, diverse disc lineup in 2017 and now they’ve added three new discs to that lineup for the 2018 spring and summer disc golf season. These three discs add very nicely to their existing arsenal, providing some flight characteristics that were not yet present with their brand. Let’s take a look at those three new discs from VIKING DISCS.

VALHALLA – Distance Driver

The newest distance driver that Viking has added to the mix is the VALHALLA which is available in their base plastic blend, Ground, as well as in their premium blends, Storm and Armor.  Without the maxed-out rim width of the Thunder God Thor, this new driver falls more into the realm of usefulness to a wider group of players. While still overstable with a consistent fade, that fade is not overly exaggerated or premature when thrown at a speed that most intermediate and experienced players can manage. It is more likely to take the position as the workhorse distance driver fro the Viking Discs selection so far with their previous distance drivers falling more into the category of “utility discs” with the exception of the very manageable Ragnarok.  As with other Viking Discs, if you plan to throw this with any power, it’s worth paying for the premium plastics because the Ground plastic will not stand up to many collisions with trees (or the ground) without eventual damage.

BARBARIAN – Control Driver

The Barbarian was introduced in base Ground plastic as well as in Storm and Armor. It also came out in “Fire” plastic which is technically Storm plastic with an attached LED light to the center bottom of the flight plate for night play. This is a solid, dependable control driver with consistent fade and manageable speed. It is stable enough to throw with higher power and still stay in control. I would be comparable to an Innova TeeBird and is better suited to intermediate and advanced play than the previously released Cosmos control driver which is designed much more toward the beginning player.

LOKI – Mid-Range

It has been difficult to find very overstable mid-range discs for a while, with the Dynamic Discs Justice pretty much standing alone as a very overstable utility disc for short shots. The Loki can now claim a spot among those very few beefy, overstable mid-range discs. It was released in base Ground plastic as well as in Storm and Armor. Whether thrown forehand or backhand, this disc will fade hard once it loses velocity, and at a “speed 4” it will not go far before it loses that velocity. So, expect a sharp, dumping fade at end-of-flight and know that this disc is designed for specific use as an overstable utility disc.

We look forward to seeing more discs added to the Viking Discs linup in coming months and years!

 

 

State of Disc Golf – What Brands Do You Know and Throw?

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In the 2018 State of Disc Golf Survey we asked some questions that we love to ask every year– we want to know which brands are most recognized and loved, plus how many players bag discs by those brands. Sometimes we see an imbalance between brand awareness and loyalty vs. what is actually inside a player’s bag. For example, last year we discovered that while more people claimed that Dynamic Discs and Latitude 64 were their favorite brands, there were actually more people who had Discraft in their bags than those who bagged Dynamic Discs or Latitude 64. Let’s take a look at how those results panned out in this year’s survey.

BRAND AWARENESS VS IN YOUR BAG

First of all, this chart excludes any brands that were under 1% of survey participants claiming to bag the brand. The “Regularly Follow the Brand” data is made up of those participants who said that they regularly follow the brand as apposed to “not aware of them,” “heard of them,” “I know some things about them,” etc. In other words, we only included the data where players ranked the brand the highest in terms of awareness.

Innova has taken the top spot again in terms of high brand awareness with Dynamic Discs, Latitude 64, and Westside (all Trilogy brands) following behind. When it comes to bagging the brand, Discraft has now fallen right behind Dynamic Discs, but is still in front of Latitude 64. That is still a big disparity between people who regularly follow Discraft and those who bag Discraft — while they don’t follow the brand, they do have Discraft discs in their bag. It’s probably safe to assume that the extremely popular Buzzz mid-range has a lot to do with that.

Discmania is also making great headway in terms of the number of players who bag their discs, and their brand awareness is also growing rapidly. MVP and Axiom have picked up in the number of players bagging their discs. The awareness of those brands has also pulled up the awareness of their newer spin-off brand, Streamline, though not as many people bag that brand yet (at the time of this survey there were only two Streamline molds).

The rising of other smaller brands in awareness and disc use, like RPM, Mint Discs, Kastaplast, Hyzer Bomb, etc. is encouraging in showing that more players are becoming aware of newer or smaller brands, and are more likely now to add their discs to bags when compared to previous years.

FAVORITE MANUFACTURER

 

We also asked survey participants this question: If you could throw discs made by only one manufacturer, which would it be?

The “Innova Made” brands took the lead with 46.4% and that includes brands like Discmania, Hyzer Bomb, and Millenium, which are all manufactured by Innova.

Trilogy came in a strong second with 32.9% and that includes the brands Dynamic Discs, Latitude 64, and Westside.

MVP also manufactures Axiom and Streamline Discs, and they now take up third place with 9.3%. Though quite a bit behind the two leaders, they are a fast-growing part of the disc golf market. They passed Discraft this year to take that third place spot.

Another ironic move in this year’s survey is that Vibram jumped into sixth place where they didn’t even hit the top eight last year. But since the survey they have opted to exit the disc golf business.

CHANGING BRAND LOYALTIES

Finally, we asked if survey participants had changed their favorite brand during the last year. The majority 74.5% said that they did not change favorite brands, while the other 25.5% said that they did. So, a quarter of disc golfers changed brand loyalties last year, showing that the market is still fluid when it comes to branding.

 

New Disc Alert: Prodigy H5

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The Prodigy H5 is the newest disc in Prodigy’s Hybrid series. This is the most understable Hybrid Driver so far, making it a great disc for beginners to use for extra distance. We’re excited to see what comes next from Prodigy!

Will Schusterick says, “It’s a really, really good disc. It’s really exciting. Even if you don’t throw hard, you can throw it straight, or flex it a little bit.”

See them here: http://bit.ly/ProdigyH5

Our Course Preferences and Courses Played

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This week we’re going to look at what types of Disc Golf Courses we like by examining our vegetation density and course length preferences.

We will first take a look at the vegetation density, broken down by skill level.

 

 

Right away we see that Beginners like moderately wooded courses just a tad more than lightly wooded courses, but they are almost equal. However, Intermediate players vastly prefer moderately wooded courses. My speculation is that Intermediate players want more of a challenge, and they enjoy taking their game to the next level by having more trees to throw through.

Once players reach the Advanced and Professional levels though, the lightly wooded courses take a step back up to nearly 25% of preferences. Moderately wooded courses still reign supreme, while thickly wooded and wide open courses remain a minority. This could be because Advanced and Professional players are competing more, and courses with too many trees could add in some unlucky tree hits and kicks, hurting players scores. Yet, these players still prefer moderately/lightly wooded courses because it adds far more technique and skill than a wide open course.

Now we take a look broken down by gender:

 

 

We don’t see any vast differences between Male and Female disc golfers’ course preferences. The only noticeable difference is that males seem to prefer moderately wooded courses a bit more.

Now, taking a look at length of course preferred by survey participants. Here is a break down of the course distances broken down by the survey.

Short Courses: Less than 4500 feet

Moderate Courses: 4500 – 6000 feet

Longer Courses: 6000 – 7500 feet

Pro Level Courses: 7500+ feet

 

This is what you would likely expect in course length preferences, broken down by skill level. Beginners mostly want the moderate length courses. Intermediate players like the same, but with a growing percentage of people enjoying the longer courses. Advanced players have a larger percentage who enjoy pro level courses and longer courses, while moderate still reigns supreme. Professionals (with good reason) prefer pro level courses more than others, but still enjoy an equal mix of moderate and long courses. Short course preferences are all but lost among the higher skill levels.

I’m led to conclude that as your skill level goes up, the more likely you are to enjoy a longer course. This is what I predicted before examining the data, and you probably did too.

Here is the breakdown by gender, in case you were curious. These results are also to be expected:

 

 

Let’s take a look at our summary of course preferences of every player. These results show that the most preferred course type is Moderately Wooded with Moderate Length. This is followed by Lightly Wooded and Longer Courses.

 

 

Lastly we’ll take a quick look at how many courses we played in 2017, by skill level.

 

The results are also to be expected. As skill level rises, the average number of courses played last year rises. However, in every skill level, the most common answer was 10-15 courses played last year. It was the 2nd and 3rd most common answered that varied by skill level, slightly rising with each division.

In conclusion: We love Disc Golf, and as we get better at it, we want to play harder courses and we want to play more courses. This is to be expected! The only response that was not linearly effected by skill level, was the intermediate players preference to course vegetation density. It dramatically increased from beginners, and then dropped back down with advanced skill level.

 

New Golf Discs for 2018

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new discs

***Post Updated August 27,2018***

This post will help keep you up to date with all the latest discs that have been, or will soon be introduced in 2018.

Axiom

Axiom is releasing their first ultra wide rimmed drivers the Excite and Tantrum. The disc Tantrum was made  available on March 23rd while the Excite will be released on April 20th.

  • Tantrum – The Axiom Tantrum is a straight stable with a sharp end of flight fade and a 24.5cm rim. This new distance driver goes very far.
  • Excite – The Axiom Excite is very similar to the Tantrum with a thick 24.5cm rim. The Excite is said to be slightly more understable than the Tantrum.

Discmania

Discmania hasn’t yet released any new discs in 2018, but there are a few known discs we are expecting. The PDGA has approved a retool of the FD2 and the MD5 was PDGA approved at the end of march.:

  • PDX – The Discmania PDX is a power driver that was released as a fundraising disc for the Disc Golf World Tour. It was finally released in a stock stamp at the beginning of 2018. 11/4/0/3
  • MD5 – The Discmania MD5 is a new midrange disc coming soon!

Discraft

Discraft released the Vulture as part of player packs for the 2018 Memorial Challenge. The 2017 Ace Race disc has also been given a name as the Sting. These will be released to retailers sometime in the near future.

  • Vulture – The Vulture is described as less overstable Predator with more glide. This new disc should be available soon.
  • Sting – Discraft gives the Sting a Stability rating of 0. At our Ace Race, most players found it to be quite understable with a significant high speed turn.

DGA

DGA recently had an overstable fairway driver, the Banzai PDGA approved.

  • Banzai – The DGA Banzai is a very overstable control driver. It’s described as a more OS Pipeline. 8/4/0/3
  • Tempest – The DGA Tempest is a high speed understable driver that is supposed to provide max distance for intermediate players. Flight ratings 13//5/-3/2

Dynamic Discs

Dynamic Discs has at least four discs in the works. The Maverick, Getaway, and Captain will all be available in early Spring. The Patrol will initially be released as part of the Trilogy Challenge. The Dynamic Discs Maverik and Captain have a scheduled release date of March 30th.

New 2018 Dynamic Discs:

  • Patrol – The Patrol is a beginner friendly ultra understable midrange. This disc was released as part of the Trilogy Challenge and will be available for retailers sometime this fall. 5/5/-3/1
  • Maverick – The DD Maverick is a controllable speed fairway driver designed for woods and low ceiling shots. 7/4/-1.5-2
  • Getaway – The Getaway is another fairway driver that is said to be the big brother of the popular Escape. 9/5/-0.5/3
  • Captain – The Captain is an all purpose Distance Driver that can provide massive distance for experienced players, but isn’t so overstable as to be unusable by the average Joe. 13/5/-2/2

Full Turn

Full turn has two new drivers the Cruise and the Voyage.

  • Cruise – The Cruise is a high speed driver with a 2.3cm rim width. 13/5/-2/3
  • Voyage – The Voyage is another high speed direr with a feel similar to the Cruise. In terms of flight, the Voyage has a little more high speed stability than the cruise. 13/5/0/3

Gateway

Gateway has already released a new midrange, the Prophecy. As always, they continue to release the popular Wizard putter in new exciting plastic blends.

  • Prophecy – Slightly overstable Midrange. 5/5/0/2

Hyzerbomb

The Hyzerbomb Sabot is an overstable midrange very similar to the Infinite Discs Slab but with a more domey top.

Infinite Discs

Well the big news for Infinite Discs in 2018 is that we’ve partnered with Innova to introduce our own disc line. This line consists of modified existing Innova molds, expired molds, and new plastic blends. We’ve wasted no time getting our brand of discs out there and currently have eight discs released or in production. All eight of our new molds should be available by the beginning of summer.

  • Exodus – The Exodus is a stable flying fairway driver with the flight of a beat in TeeBird. 7/5/-0.5/2
  • Chariot – The Chariot is a stable midrange. It is very similar to the Mako3, but has a small microbead that makes it substantially more stable. 5/5/0/1
  • Pharaoh – The Pharaoh is a distance bomber. This disc has the height of the Destroyer but a slightly thicker rim and a flight path more similar to the Discmania DDx. Stock run Pharaoh’s will be available by the end of March. 13/6/-1/2
  • Myth – The Myth combines the elements of our top selling putters. It’s top is similar to the Discmania P2 but it has a bead on the edge of the rim which makes it more similar to the Gateway Wizard or Dynamic Discs Judge. The Myth will be available in April.
  • Sphinx – The Sphinx is an understable fairway driver that glides for days. We had this driver manufactured specifically for beginners. This is the first disc that will be featured in our new “Infinite” I-Blend plastic. This is an affordable blend that maintains the great feel of soft star plastic but at a more affordable price. The stock run of the Sphinx will be available in April.
  • Tomb – The Tomb is a flat top, low profile putt and approach disc. The bottom mold is very similar to the Innova Colt while the top is completely flat. This disc is surprising straight flying, but is stable enough that it is still great for forehand approach shots. The Tomb should be available in May.
  • Slab – The Slab brings home the beef. This thing is ridiculously overstable. It is similar to Innova’s Max mold, but has an almost completely flat top. The Slab should be available in June.
  • Anubis – This is a straight flying slightly understable midrange that is very similar to the Innova Coyote. This last disc in our new line should be available by early summer.

Innova

Innova has been pretty quiet about the new releases thus far this year. At the Las Vegas Challenge they released the Rat and from their product catalog we know a disc called the Caiman is in the works.

  • Rat – The Rat is a stable flat top approach disc that is supposed to be similar to the Westside Harp or Discraft Zone. The Rat will be available for retail sales on March 14th. 4/2/0/3
  • Caiman – A new very overstable midrange beadless midrange similar to the Hyzerbomb Mortar. 5.5/2/0/4

Latitude 64

Latitude 64 has already released a driver, midrange, and putter this year. They continue to pump out lots of new molds in Sweden and there will surely be many more to come in 2017.

  • Ballista Pro – The Ballista Pro is said to have a great combination of speed, stability and glide; perfect for all kinds of distance shots. 14/4/0/3
  • Explorer – The Explorer fairway driver is Ricky Wysocki’s new signature disc. This is the classic stable control driver that with TeeBird flight ratings that Trilogy fans have been asking for for years. 7/5/0/2
  • Fuji – The Latitude 64 Fuji is the fourth double mold disc in Latitude’s line. It was PDGA appproved on January 29th and became available in early spring. Rumor has it that Latitued will no longer be running their overmold discs, so if you like them, you may want to get a few backups now.

Soon to Come:

  • Saxon – The Saxon is a fairway driver, and according to the Dynamic Discs product catalog, was supposed to be Latitude 64’s contribution to the Trilogy Challenge.
  • Musket – This is a fairway driver that was  part of this years Trilogy Challenge. We don’t know anything else about it, but it will likely be released in Lucid plastic and will be a pretty neutral driver.

Legacy

The crew at Legacy discs has come up with a very overstable midrange called the Pursuit. This mid will fight the wind and always finish with a dumping fade.

Soon to Come:

We aren’t sure when they will actually come, but Legacy has had PDGA approved too other midrange discs; the Recluse (4/3/0/4) and the Vandal (4/5/0/2). These new mids may not actually be available until 2019.

MVP

As always, MVP is sure to have a large assortment of new plastic types and limited edition stamps to feed the collector frenzy. For actual new disc molds, the Deflector is currently the only disc we know of that is currently in the works.

  • Deflector – The MVP Deflector is a thin rimmed fairway driver. This is an overstable utility disc way more overstable than the Matrix, but we really don’t have any official word on this disc yet.
  • Entropy – The MVP entropy is a disc rumored to be a very overstable putter.

Ozone

Ozone discs has a new distance driver, the Hyperion.

  • Hyperion – This is a very overstable utility driver. 11/3/0/4

Prodigy

Prodigy is releasing new versions of their “H” series discs. They have already released their H3 V2 which has been very popular. Unlike the last H series, this version is supposed to be more traditional discs molds with rim widths between the F series and the X series. We expect to receive the new H5, an understable hybrid driver with a moderate rim. Look for special Utah Open additions of Toothese new Prodigy molds coming soon.

  • H1 V2 – This retooled version of the super overstable H1 has a sharper rim which provides more speed, glide, and distance. The Prodigy H1 V2 will be available March 29th.
  • H3 V2 – The second version of the H3 is a straight flying moderate rimmed distance driver. 11/5/-1/2
  • H5 – The new Prodigy H5 is supposed to be an understable easy to fly driver.

Streamline

Too much excitement, Streamline Discs has released two new affordable golf discs this year.

  • Drift – The drift is a glidey straight flying fairway driver that is an excellent bag addition to players of all skill level.
  • Runway – Streamline released the ultra overstable midrange the Runway. This disc is similar to the MVP Deflector in flight.

Vibram

While Vibram won’t be making any new discs, they have made the disc golf news by declaring that they will cease disc golf operations in 2018. If you’re a Vibram fan, let not your heart be troubled as we still have a healthy stock of all the most popular Vibram molds and will be getting a large shipment from their last run.

Viking Discs

Viking Discs has three new discs that will be in stock at Infinite by the end of March. They include:

  • Valhalla – The Valhalla is a stable distance driver that supposedly provides more distance with less effort. 12/5/0/2
  • Barbarian – The Barbarian is looks to be the standard workhorse fairway driver. 7/5/0/2
  • Loki – The Loki is a VERY overstable midrange that is pretty similar to the Dynamic Discs Justice. 4/2/0/4

Westside

Westside will soon release three new discs:

  • Anvil– The Anvil is a super overstable utility midrange that should be similar to the DD Justice. This Westside Anvil will be available on May 25th. 4/4/0/4
  • Maiden – The Westside maiden is a low profile putt and approach disc that was  released during the Trilogy Challenge. It will be available this fall. Flight ratings 3/4/0/1
  • Warhorse – The Warhorse was designed as a high speed driver to handle strong winds. The Westside Warhourse will be available for retail sale on May 25th.  13/4/0/4

Yikun

Yikun has a new midrange the Kui, a Distance Driver the Lu, and a new triple mold disc the “Twin Swords”. It looks like Yikun is taking a new approach to try and actually do something new.

  • Kui – Overstable midrange 5/5/0/2.5
  • Lu – High Speed Overstable driver 14/5 -1/3
  • Twin Swords – This unique “triple mold” disc is a stable flying distance driver with a unique rim. 12/5/-1/2.5

Do you know of other new discs that aren’t yet included in this post? Please let us know about them in the comment section below and we will add them to our list.

The Race is On for 2018 Best-Selling Discs

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When it comes to best-selling discs, we’re going to keep you posted as the 2018 year progresses. It is still early in the year, at this point, with only the winter months in play. However, we can already see which discs are taking a significant lead. We expect sales at Infinite Discs to speed up dramatically with the coming of spring, and that may shake up the sales figures. Upcoming new disc releases will also play into the ongoing tally.

THE TOP FIVE BEST-SELLING DISCS SO FAR…

#1 – Discmania P2

The P2 Putter picked up a lot of momentum throughout 2017 and that has continued into the new 2018 sales year. So far, Infinite Discs has been able to better keep up with the high demand as Discmania has beefed-up production for the P2. Plus, the 2018 tour support edition of the C-Line P2 for Simon Lizotte (called the “Sky God”) gave the sales an extra boost.

We expect to see the momentum with the P2 continue through the spring as many players begin stocking up on their favorite putters for the new, warmer disc golf season. After all, when it is time to start perfecting your putting skills, it helps to have more than just one or two.

#2 – Innova DESTROYER

The Destroyer distance driver has held the top spot for a long time when it comes to sales at Infinite Discs. But at the moment, it has fallen to 2nd place behind the P2. The top two discs are still in a close sprint, but well ahead of the next discs in line. As the tournament season accelerates, we fully expect to see the release of some signature editions that will increase the Destroyer sales even more. Last year there were a couple of very popular signature editions, including the Swirly Star Philo Brathwaite edition and the Splatter Star Steve Brinster edition. Regardless of what editions come out, we fully expect the Destroyer to keep a strong foothold in the top three or four all year long.

#3 – Innova AVIAR

The Aviar is the most popular Innova brand putter, by far. So far in 2018 it is taking up third place in the best-seller race. But just to clarify how far ahead the top two discs are, the Aviar has sold 1/3 the number of discs as the 2nd place Destroyer. So, there is a large void between those two leaders and all the discs that are chasing.

If 2018 is anything like 2017 then the sales for the Aviar will take a huge jump once this year’s McPro edition is released. Everybody is waiting to see what this year’s Paul McBeth tour support edition will look like, and it will likely become the best-selling edition of the Aviar once it hits the market.

#4 – Innova SHRYKE

The Shryke is the most popular newcomer when it comes to Innova drivers. It quickly sprang into popularity as a high-speed distance driver that can be handled by a wide range of players, from relatively new players to experienced players. With a little bit of understability upon release, the Shryke can fly in great s-curves, plus it has high glide for optimum distance results. For players who have trouble handling the often overstable flight of the Destroyer, a Shryke can fill the spot as a go-to for distance. This is a disc that has the potential to gain momentum as more and more players discover it and try it out, so we expect to see the Shryke stay within the top ten throughout 2018, even with a possible wave of new distance drivers hitting the market this year.

#5 – Infinite Discs EXODUS

The Exodus is the initial disc released in the new Infinite Discs line. Manufactured by Innova, the Infinite Disc branded discs will have a familiar feel while adding some quality molds to the market. It was perhaps expected that the Exodus would jump to the top of disc sales at Infinite Discs because the initial launch of the entire brand is only available through the Infinite Discs store. The max weight discs sold out within a couple of weeks of the first run release, leaving only low weights in the inventory until a second run is released (we do not yet know when that 2nd run will become available). So, as supply diminishes, the sales numbers will likely drop. With the very positive response to the flight characteristics of the Exodus, we expect to see the sales figures spike once another run is available to order. As a fairway driver that can handle torque, it is a great disc that fits a crossover position, straddling the line between control driver and distance driver. It is another disc that can find a solid place in the bag of players at all levels.

Nate Sexton Disc Golf Clinic – Sidearm 2018

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We met with Nate Sexton at the 2018 Las Vegas Challenge and asked if he could teach about the Sidearm throw. Nate is one of the the best disc golfers in the world, and has one of the most accurate and powerful Sidearm throws. He most often uses his sidearm throw with a Nate Sexton Firebird (aka SexyBird). In Vegas, he made a short video with us explaining how he grips the disc, his run-up, angle, and release. Hope you enjoy! Leave a comment if you learned something that will help your game!

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