Divergent Discs Portable Basket
$109.99
The Divergent Discs Portable Basket is your next go-to practice basket!&nb
The Innova Discatcher Traveler is the ideal light weight portable basket. This is the easiest of the portable baskets to set up and take down and weighs less than other portable baskets. This is the perfect choice for disc golfers who like a quick and easy basket to grab when they want to go camping or to the beach.
Our Price: |
$149.99 |
Its a great basket for the price, and is incredibly portable. I can set this up just about anywhere and get some good practice sessions in. My only 2 problems with it are the chains and the size of the tray. The chains are relatively light (in comparison to course baskets), and are fewer in number, so cut-throughs are somewhat common. The tray is also slightly larger than a regular metal course basket, so it grabs a little better in that respect. But that is only 2 small prices to pay for an awesome, durable, and easy to use portable basket.
This basket is absolutely perfect as what it was designed for: ultimate portability and easy practice sessions. The DISCatcher Traveler is super lightweight and extremely easy to set up (less than 20 seconds!). I would recommend this basket for someone looking to save space or easily transport their practice equipment out to a field/park area. The basket collapses into a large camping chair style bag (longer and slightly larger). This makes for easy storage and fits comfortably in a car trunk. The basket also comes with some stakes to help secure the feet to the ground, however I haven't felt the need to use them, even on slightly uneven ground. This basket would be a fun thing to take on a vacation trip or to family gatherings for fun in the yard.
Unlike your traditional basket, this one has a pentagonal design to it, which does create a little bit of a different feel to your practice sessions. With it being made mostly of fabric instead of metal it is good for preserving the life of your discs as they don’t take as many hard hits. That benefit does come the added concession that it is not perfectly representative to putting on a traditional basket. Putts can hit the "cage" and flip into the basket. Additionally, putts off the band more easily fall into the basket. If you are able to enter a session with the mindset that those putts would be misses on an actual course, this is a fun setup for quick and casual practice sessions. The single row of chains catch fairly well in my experience.
Great portable basket! However, don't buy this expecting it to feel like a normal metal course basket. The fabric rims catch discs way too easily. Makes you feel good during practice but a lot of those wouldn't drop in a round.
Knowing that going in, it is a wonderful travel basket for its portability, storage size, and setup ease. Folds up like a big camp chair in a bag with a handle, probably about the size of a small ball golf bag. I've never had to use the included stakes, but it isn't very windy where I live. I use mine at the beach and my front yard all the time for some quick practice or something to do while camping.
I got this basket as a birthday present, and I have been very pleased with it so far. As other reviews have already stated, there are certainly some limitations to this basket. By no means was it designed to be 100% comparable to a real basket, but by all means it can be a great tool for practice if you keep certain limitations in mind.
Pros: Quick and easy to set up/take down, inexpensive, portable, good quality build (at least an initial observation; we'll have to see how it holds up after a while...)
Cons: Soft top and flimsy basket 'rim' can be too forgiving
When it comes down to it, you just have to be realistic with yourself when you're practicing with this basket. As your disc drops in after hitting the bright orange/yellow/blue top head-on, just think of what your putt would do on a real basket... Same goes for catching a good flop off the 'rim.'
My putt is currently a sad little lob that halfway resembles a push putt (but is transforming into something more respectable after just a few practice sessions with this basket), so I cannot speak for routine splash-outs due to speed. I took a few faster putts from close range just for kicks and the chains did stop my disc. The open top doesn't bother me (again, just be realistic). Although the basket is super light, it seems to stay where you put it. I haven't had to use the stakes, but it's a great design to include them.
Overall, it does exactly what it's designed to do. You just have to be realistic with how your putts are responding to the different materials of this basket.
The Traveler is a divisive basket. Some people love it, some hate it. I think it is because of the shape and deepness of the basket. The basket is deeper than others and not round. It is a very light basket that sets up quickly and is easy to move around. The target area is slightly narrower than most practice baskets. It is priced on the low end of collapsible and portable baskets.
Pros: Lightweight, easy to set up/take down, inexpensive, deep basket.
Cons: Fabric and mesh.
Overall assessment: The extra-deep basket holds discs well and makes it possible to putt a large number of discs without having them interfere with the performance of the chains. On the other hand, I found myself lobbing putts at the basket because I knew they would stay in the deep basket. When I did putt at the chains, they did a decent job of grabbing the discs, about what you would expect with a collapsible basket. The fabric and mesh will not perform the same as a metal basket, but for practicing, that’s not a big deal. My recommendation for or against this basket would come down to what you are planning on using it for. If you’re looking for a light, inexpensive basket that you will be moving a lot, you could add the Traveler to your list of possible baskets. If you are going to have one mainly for use at your house, or one that you want to use at tournaments and leagues, I recommend a different basket. The low price makes the Traveler attractive as a second basket so you could have the best of both worlds.
The DISCatcher traveler is designed around complete portability and not around real world functionality. It is one of the fastest baskets to set up that I have ever seen. It looks like a camp chair when its broken down and in its bag. Great for keeping in the trunk of your car at all times for the impromptu practice sesh.
Its chain profile is very narrow and it only has one row of relatively light chains. Its basket is made of mesh that bounces discs every way imaginable. Sometimes you will hit the basket broadside short and the disc will just flop over the top of the mesh. Discs are able to fall in to the baskey through the top ring but most players would be able to realize that wouldnt happen in a tournament with real baskets.
I had quite a few spit outs and blow throughs when I used the traveler. I spin putt and I try and give the put a good fast run everytime. Sometimes the disc would just push the chains out of the way and keep on going. This basket will produce good results if your put is lofty and tends to "dunk" into the basket.
In my opinion this basket fills a similar niche as the Innova skillshot. Its not very realistic, but its not meant to be. It's meant to be a cheap target to get some throws in before a round, or to have some fun with your buddies at the park. People serious about their practice would be better suited by a more realistic basket like the Mach Lite or the DISCatcher sport
The DISCatcher Traveler is a very unique folding portable disc golf target. It has light weight chains and a huge umbrella-like catching base. This basket is really light weight, and assembles quickly. While the traveler is very light, it is actually relatively bulky and takes up more trunk space than the comparable DGA Mach Lite and the Innova Discatcher Sport.
While most of the players in my league dreaded the holes that had Discatcher Travelers and their flimsy chains, I openly embraced this target. For my floating lofty putt style, making putts on this target is even easier than normal. As long as I don't miss low, my putts are probably going in. Even if the putt is too high, but in line, and I hit the "chastity belt" or flag on top it will likely fall through the top area into the huge catching tray.
Because the catching tray is soo large, you can fit a fair amount of practice putters in without having to unload. While this is a very adequate portable basket for temporary course set up, I wouldn't recommend this as your primary practice basket because of the unrealistic catching experience. While I can make a higher percentage of putts on the Discatcher Traveler than other baskets, the overall putting experience is just not quite right.
The DISCatcher Traveler is a nice folding cloth basket. I was pleasantly surprised when using this basket for the first time. The chains are fairly light, but they catch discs rather well. The basket folds up easily, and is very light, making transportation easy.
The diameter of the chains seemed to be a little smaller than regulation, but it could have been the basket configuration that fooled me. I didn't necessarily like the use of cloth in this particular basket. It seemed a little less "solid" than a few other cloth baskets I have used. I believe there were also a few "made-misses" through the hole in the top of the basket.
Despite these few minor issues, I think this is a pretty good basket, especially for the price. I really enjoyed shooting at it, and it was catching discs very well. It did have a bit of a sweet spot, and the outer chains weren't super grabby. I do believe that the DGA Mach Lite is very similar, and surpasses the Traveler in some ways. I would encourage people to research their options a bit before choosing.
I received this basket as a birthday gift and love it. It's an easy convenient way to practice putting and has definitely improved my game.
Pros:
Lightweight and super portable - This basket is light enough that I can carry it in one hand. I generally don't even worry about folding it up when moving it from the house out to the yard.
Stable - The basket has never moved from where I put it. It's rare here in Virginia to get really strong winds so it may be necessary to use the included stakes but I haven't had to.
Neutral:
Chains - the chains on this basket do a fairly good job of catching discs, but I think that higher speed shots tend not to catch as well as a standard basket.
Cons:
Top - the fabric top with only a few "spokes" mean that 1) you can hit the top of the basket and get a soft drop in vs the bounce you would see from a metal basket and 2) shots that land on top of the basket drop in.
Conclusion - There are going to be trade offs for any basket choice. If you want something that is as true as possible to the baskets you will throw to on a course you need something that is all metal and has the same number of chains. For me I would rather have something that it still good practice while so easy to carry I'm happy to set it up and practice for 15 or 30 minutes, and then put back inside.