2016 State of Disc Golf Survey

January 15, 2016 Jace Smellie

It’s that time of year again! Time to reflect on the past year and add your contribution to the biggest survey in disc golf. This survey is extremely valuable to us and everyone involved in disc golf. The results will provide beneficial data for disc golf manufacturers, tournament directors, promoters, and parks departments that need evidence of the growth and potential of disc golf. This is your opportunity to make your voice heard.

This survey takes about 15-30 minutes to complete and will close the last day of January.

Prizes

Over $1,000 of prizes given away to those who fill out this year’s survey. Prizes include discs, backpack bags, and a brand new disc golf practice basket. Last year we had over 9,000 responses, and we hope that number will continue to grow this year. Please share this survey with all of your disc golf friends and social media disc golf groups. Again, the results to this survey are invaluable to disc golfers everywhere, and everyone’s input matters.

If you have trouble scrolling through the format of the survey on mobile devices. Click this link to go directly to the survey.

Loading…

General

Top Discs of Fall/Winter 2015

January 13, 2016 Jace Smellie

In this article we will be looking back on our top selling discs from the final quarter of 2015 (October-December). Generally Q4 is when we start to see a lot of holiday shopping, so often the sales from this period are a good indicator of which discs were on disc golfers’ holiday wish lists. For the most part, we find many familiar names in the top charts, but there are a few surprises in each category, including a break in the overall top 3!

The big news here is the Dynamic Discs Judge jumping above the Gateway Wizard for the number three spot overall, and the number one putter spot. Last year the Judge was only the number nine disc overall for Q4. Innova maintains its dominance by holding half of the top ten, including the newly released Leopard3. There has been a lot of hype around the Leopard3, and only time will tell if this disc will hold its ground at the top of the sales charts.

[box type=”bio”]

Top 10 Overall

[/box]

Innova continued its command over the Distance driver category. It seems fitting that the Innova Destroyer would finish the year at the top after Paul McBeth finished the year with another world championship and his first grand slam. It also would be hard to believe that these two are not related in some way. The MVP Inertia held its ground at number five, but the MVP Photon dropped out of the top 10, making room for one more Innova disc (Firebird).

[box type=”bio”]

Top Distance Drivers

[/box]

The Control Driver category got a pretty good shake up from the previous quarter, with four new discs jumping into the top ten (Leopard3, Diamond, Escape, and Trident). The Dynamic Discs Escape had one of its best sales quarters ever jumping into the nine spot. Perhaps the most interesting discovery here however is seeing the Latitude 64 Trident which was recently announced to be on its way out of production at number ten. Initially, it makes sense to chalk this up as Trident throwers stocking up on the disc while they can. Yet, if we look back on our previous articles we can find that the Trident was actually the number ten selling control driver in Q2 of 2015 as well. It will be interesting to see how the removal of the Trident and other trilogy discs will affect the sales numbers in 2016.

[box type=”bio”]

Top Control/Fairway Drivers

[/box]

The Midrange category continues to be ruled over by the highly popular Discraft Buzzz. The Innova Roc managed to jump the Dynamic Discs Truth for the three spot. The rest of the list looks pretty similar to Q3, except with the Discraft Buzzz SS and Dynamic Discs Verdict sliding into the bottom two rankings.

[box type=”bio”]

Top Midrange Discs

[/box]

There is a new sheriff in the Putt and Approach town. We are excited to see if the Dynamic Discs Judge will hold that spot throughout 2016, or if the Gateway Wizard or another will step up to challenge the Judge. The names in the top half of this category were pretty consistent with the previous quarter, but there was some shake up at the bottom, including the Prodigy PA-3 getting back into the top ten and the Innova Nova making its first appearance.

[box type=”bio”]

Top Putt and Approach Discs

[/box]

The top three plastics stayed the same again showing the strength of Innova. Latitude 64 Opto Line jumped ahead of MVP Neutron for the four spot. The rest of the names on the list stayed close to the same other than Axiom Neutron falling off the chart making room for Westside VIP to take the number ten slot.

[box type=”bio”]

Top Selling Plastic Type

Innova Star
Innova Champion
Innova DX
Latitude 64 Opto
MVP Neutron
Latitude 64 Gold Line
Discraft Elite Z
Innova GStar
Dynamic Discs Lucid
Westside VIP

[/box]

General

2016 Utah Open Fundraiser Discs

January 6, 2016 Jace Smellie

The 2016 Utah Open will be held May 13-15 at Mulligan’s Golf Course (Avery Jenkins’ picture of Hole 18 was featured on this year’s Innova Disc Golf Calander), and is set to be the biggest disc golf event in Utah history! We at Infinite Discs are proud to announce that we will be sponsoring this stellar event. What does that mean for you?

That means you now have access to some of the sickest Innova discs that we have ever seen in the Infinite Discs warehouse. This includes color glow, swirly star, gummy champion, and more! Here is a full list of all the Utah Open discs. These will be gone so fast! So grab some while you can and support this awesome event!

****UPDATE: We just got in a new addition to the Utah Open family–The Champion Colossus! The Colossus is Innova’s first 14 speed driver, and the stock run is only available in GStar. Make sure to grab one while they last, because they won’t last long!

Champion Colossus

More info on the actual event can be found at http://utahopendg.com/

Metal Flake Champion Ape

Gummy Champion Aviar

Metal Flake Champion Aviar

Color Glow Champion Boss

Champion Destroyer

Color Glow Champion Destroyer

Metal Flake Champion Destroyer

Star Destroyer

XG (Xtra Gummy) Champion Destroyer

Color Glow Champion Firebird

Metal Flake Champion Firebird

Swirly Star Firebird

Metal Flake Champion Leopard

Color Glow Champion Leopard3

Metal Flake Champion Mako

Metal Flake Champion Roadrunner

Champion Roc3

Color Glow Champion Roc3

Swirly Star Roc3

Metal Flake Champion Sidewinder

Color Glow Champion TeeBird

Star TeeBird

Glow Champion TeeBird3

Metal Flake TeeDevil

Color Glow Champion Tern

Gummy Champion Tern

Metal Flake Champion Tern

Color Glow Champion Thunderbird

Metal Flake Champion Whippet

Star Wraith

Alcohol on the Disc Golf Course: Pack It In, Pack It Out

February 9, 2015 Jace Smellie

As we looked at the data from our State of Disc Golf 2014 Survey, one thing became very clear: Disc golfers like to drink. Alcohol use was by far the most used substance on the disc golf course in 2014. In fact, more disc golfers said they drank alcohol on the course than those who did not participate in the use of any substances on the disc golf course.

Unlike the use of marijuana that we discussed last week, a conversation on the legality of its use does not hold a lot of weight. Though it ought to be said, there are many public courses in public parks that post no alcohol signs, and a fair share of disc golf courses have faced the threat of removal due to these rules not being followed. Of course we encourage everyone to follow the rules and local laws that pertain to each course so that we can keep our precious courses and continue to grow the sport.

One might also be curious as to underage drinking on the disc golf course. We only had 83 people in the 18-21 age range say that they drank alcohol while playing disc golf, and it is not safe to assume that any of these individuals were or were not drinking legally. Again, we just encourage all to keep the rules and keep the game in a positive light. Here is a chart showing how many individuals in each age range said they drank alcohol on the course in 2014:

This chart really doesn’t hold any surprises, as each age reflects the total result–about half or just under of the total participants in each age tier.

So at all ages, drinking alcoholic beverages has become a popular activity. What does this mean for the sport? Is this a good thing? A bad thing? Neither or both?

Disc golf is not the only sport where alcohol has worked its way into the main scene. Casual rounds of ball golf and alcohol go together very often. Many golf courses sell alcoholic beverages at their clubhouses to accommodate their patrons.

So alcohol is a big part of ball golf, and ball golf is thriving as a mainstream sport. So naturally, disc golf can thrive with a can of beer in the bag right? Maybe, but there is a crutch that disc golf carries in many towns that drinkers and nondrinkers alike need to learn to leave behind if disc golf is to grow–littering.

It definitely would not be fair to blame those drinking alcohol on the course for the all the littering that occurs on disc golf courses around the world. Soda and energy drink cans sometimes are found just as frequently as alcohol cans and bottles. However in some cases (like on the course I learned to play) there is no questioning where most of the littering was coming from. I used to joke that I thought Twisted Tea was the official drink of disc golfers because of how many cans and bottles I saw strewn about the park. On more than one occasion I have walked up to a tee pad to find it covered in shattered glass from a beer bottle.

Again, pointing fingers does not do us any good, we just need to fix it. How do we fix it?

Really, it is just that simple isn’t it? Don’t litter, and if you see it happening, say something. We really are all in this together when it comes to the growth of disc golf. Lets all commit to stop the littering and keep our courses beautiful for casual and professional players alike.

Lastly, and probably most importantly, do NOT drink and drive. A friend of mine worked at a country club, and he told me about his horror as we would watch golfers get hammered on the course and then get in their cars to drive back home. Do NOT do it, and do NOT let your friends do it. Please drink responsibly. Keep yourself and all of us safe.

General

The State of Disc Golf: “Extracurricular Activities” on the Disc Golf Course–Marijuana

January 30, 2015 Jace Smellie

“I saw a drug deal when I was on a disc golf course with my nine year old boy.”

This was told to me by a disgruntled fellow player as we were making our way to our tee time at a PDGA event. He went on to express the sadness and disappointment he felt when he found out many of the local disc golfers that his son looked up to regularly smoked marijuana illegally during their rounds at the local course. This was not my first and it definitely has not been my last conversation like this. It seems that the use of drugs and other substances are intertwined with disc golf.

Just the Facts Please

In our 2015 State of Disc Golf Survey, we asked the following: In 2014, I have participated in the following on a disc golf course:

Drinking Alcohol
Vaping
Smoking Tobacco
Smoking Marijuana
None of the Above

We allowed participants to select more than one option. The results were as shown in the chart below:

(NOTE: Totals do not add up to 100% because participants could select more than one option.)

We found this data very interesting, and we would like to spread this topic across several articles to give each aspect of it the attention it deserves. This article will focus strictly on the use of Marijuana while playing disc golf.

Well, Isn’t it Pretty Much Legal?

Unlike the other three substances, Marijuana is the only one hazed by a variety of possession and usage laws (excluding local public smoking and drinking laws). The main question at hand is recreational use, which has only been legalized in 2 of 50 States (Washington and Colorado). How does this impact the way we should look at our data? Here is another interesting chart that looks at where the disc golfers who had smoked marijuana were from:

So is it safe to assume that 92.7% of the disc golfers who took our survey chose to smoke marijuana illegally? Not necessarily. A handful of states have legalized marijuana for medical purposes, and our survey did not not ask where the pot smoking took place. (Maybe all 92.7% went to Washington or Colorado whenever they smoked marijuana on the course?) Even with the benefit of the doubt, it is safe to assume that a good portion of the marijuana smoking that occurred on the disc golf course during 2014 was smoked illegally.

Marijuana and Disc Golf: Best Friends or Worst Enemies?

Now to the debate that rages like wildfire in the disc golf world: Does marijuana on the course harm the sport, and therefore need to be burned elsewhere so that disc golf can thrive? Or should we all just learn to get along and embrace the “counter-culture” as an inseparable part of disc golf forever?

Of course, to give these questions the proper attention, we need to answer another question. Where do we want to see our beloved disc golf in the future? Do we want to see Paul McBeth and Ricky Wysocki battle in a play-off for the World Championships on ESPN? Or do we want to keep disc golf to ourselves–free to play and low key?

Another question from our survey asked, “Would you like to see disc golf become a mainstream sport?” And this leads us to another chart:

And in case you were wondering how only those who smoked marijuana on the course answered this question:

And naturally everyone else’s chart would look like this:

So What Does This All Mean?

We’ll let everyone draw their own conclusions from this data, but there were a few things that caught our eye.

It would seem natural to assume that a greater majority of disc golfers who don’t smoke marijuana would want the sport to become mainstream, but this spread was only slight (a difference of only 7.9%). So, it seems safe to say, all disc golfers regardless of drug use, want to see the sport grow into the mainstream. This raises even more questions: Do we want to bring the pot with us? Should we? Can we wave the flag of “Grow the Sport” and keep our stash of weed in our back pockets?

Some have fought to make this type of scenario a reality (we all remember the Vibram Four20 release from early 2014), and with at least two more states making marijuana legal in 2015 (Oregon and Alaska), the possibility of a mainstream society embracing disc golf and marijuana together is looking more and more plausible.

Of course, this potential reality still faces a lot of friction (we all remember the Vibram Four20 discontinuation also from early 2014). There are many who have expressed a desire to keep disc golf drug free and “family friendly.” And the one huge barrier: Marijuana use is still illegal in most of the United States.

This brings us back to my friend and I on our way to the tee. He not only was upset about his boy witnessing a drug deal while playing a sport they both loved. He also shared with me an experience he had when attending a city council meeting where he was lobbying for the installation of a new disc golf course on public land. He was all but completely shut down when the city council informed him of the alarming rates of drug related crimes reported in the area surrounding their existing disc golf course. Naturally, they were more than hesitant to approve another disc golf course.

But as Bob Dylan once said, “The times they are a changin’.”

Will Disc Golf make it into the mainstream? We sure hope so (at least 75.8% of us). Will Mary Jane make it too? Well, at least some of us hope so (69.8% of 24.5% of us).

Only time will tell.

All 2015 Ledgestone Edition Discs Are (Really) Here!

January 23, 2015 Jace Smellie

********UPDATE********* More Ledgestone Insurance Open discs have been announced! In addition to these original 7, We now have in Titanium FLX plastic the Discraft Buzzz, Buzzz SS, and Drone. In Crystal FLX plastic we have the Discraft Crank. And in Crystal Sparkle we have the Discraft Mantis. Over the next few weeks we will be receiving more of these highly collectible discs and will add them to this page. So check back often!

********LATEST UPDATE******** Here are the discs from the latest batch of Ledgestone Insurance Open discs: CT (Crazy Tough) Challenger, Titanium FLX Meteor, Crystal FLX Predator, and Crystal Sparkle Surge.

*******LATEST UPDATE AGAIN!****** The latest batch of beautiful LIO Limited Edition discs: Titanium FLX Challenger, Nuke, Nuke OS; Crystal FLX Buzzz SS; ESP Wasp; and Glo FLX Buzzz OS.

*******FINAL UPDATE******* It is official: We (really) now have ALL of the 2015 Ledgestone Insurence Open Limited Edition Discs. Here are the final additions to the collection: Glo FLX Banger GT, Big Z FLX Buzzz, Titanium FLX Buzzz OS, Titanium Crank, Titanium FLX Force, ESP Glo Nuke, Crystal FLX Sparkle Ringer, Crystal FLX Tracker, and Titanium FLX Zone. A special note on the Trackers–This limited run of the Discraft Tracker came out of the factory super flat and crazy overstable. Discraft has given these a stability rating of +3!

It’s official! We now have all 31 of the Discraft Ledgestone Limited Edition discs! We again are so excited to be a part of the Ledgestone Insurance Open, and so excited to be able to bring these beautiful and highly collectible discs to you for a killer deal!

To add to the 4 Titanium molds we received last week (Flick, Banger GT, Comet, and Zone), we received 3 new FLX molds! And these aren’t your average Discraft FLX discs! We have the Force in beautiful Crystal FLX plastic. Also in Crystal FLX is the Zone.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Discraft Limited Edition release without a Buzzz! And this isn’t just any Buzzz, it’s the Discraft Buzzz in Glo FLX plastic. And this isn’t just any Glo FLX plastic, this limited edition Buzzz is available not just in standard Glo White, but Glo Blue, Glo Pink, and Glo Green as well!

The Ledgestone Edition discs are a must have for any disc collector, but also these special plastics are sure to find a home in any disc golfers bag. I personally am excited to throw one of the Titanium Flicks out on the course! So whether you want to hang them on the wall or try them out on your favorite course, grab yours while you can!

Each Ledgestone Edition Disc is available for just $19.99! (Crystal FLX $22.00, Glo $22.99)

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Glo FLX Banger GT

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Big Z FLX Buzzz

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Titanium FLX Buzzz OS

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Titanium Crank

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Titanium FLX Force

Discraft Ledgestone Edition ESP Glo Nuke

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Crystal FLX Sparkle Ringer

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Crystal FLX Tracker(+3)

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Titanium FLX Zone

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Titanium FLX Challenger

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Titanium FLX Nuke

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Titanium FLX Nuke OS

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Crystal FLX Buzzz SS

Discraft Ledgestone Edition ESP Wasp

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Glo FLX Buzzz OS

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Crazy Tough Challenger

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Titanium FLX Meteor

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Crystal FLX Predator

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Crystal Sparkle Surge

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Crystal FLX Crank

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Crystal FLX Mantis

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Titanium FLX Buzzz

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Titanium FLX Buzzz SS

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Titanium FLX Drone

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Titanium Flick

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Titanium Banger GT

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Titanium Comet

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Titanium Zone

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Crystal FLX Zone

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Crystal FLX Force

Discraft Ledgestone Edition Glo FLX Buzzz

General

Ledgestone Open Limited Edition Discraft Discs

January 15, 2015 Jace Smellie

You’ve probably heard a little bit about the 2015 Ledgestone Insurance Open presented by Discraft going down August 21-23 in the Greater Peoria Area, Illinois. Tournament Director Nate Heinold has already been quoted saying this tournament will have a minimum of $35,000 added cash. This would make the 2015 LIO the “richest” NT event in the history of disc golf. All this excitement, and registration doesn’t even open for another six weeks.

We here at Infinite Discs are thrilled about this event and all that it means the sport of disc golf. How are tournaments like LIO able to add this kind of cash? Sponsorship.

Today we are excited to announce Infinite Discs as an Elite Sponsor of the 2015 Ledgestone Insurance Open presented by Discraft. We are so happy to be able to play a small part in making this one of the best disc golf events ever. So what does this mean for you?

This sponsorship makes Infinite Discs an exclusive dealer of LIO tournament discs! Today we received hundreds of some of the sickest limited run Discraft discs we have ever seen. And there are more coming!

The first batch consists of Discraft’s Banger GT, Comet, Flick, and Zone.

What makes these discs so special? Can you say, “Titanium Plastic?” That’s right, all 4 disc molds have never been available in Titanium until now, and chances are that they will never be available in Titanium again. These collectible discs are available in Discrafts traditional bar stamp in a variety of popular foils including flag, jelly bean, and camo. Grab yours while they are still available, because these beauties are not going to last long!