Discmania showcase at Disc Nation

On Saturday, Disc Nation hosted an all Discmania event and clinic.  It doesn’t take much excuse to convince me to head out to a field and start chucking plastic, so I hopped in the car and headed down.

It was a great setup.  They had a putting section with 5 different practice baskets set up, along with a huge box of Discmania putters to try out.  They also had an upshot station, with a basket set up about 200′ down a fairway and a box of mids.  But the real draw is the legendary Disc Nation driving range, with markers every hundred feet, and the multiple sets of the entire lineup of Discmania drivers ready to go, including the recently released FD3.

Many of you know that both Chase and I are pretty big Avery Jenkins and Simon Lizotte fans.  We both got a chance to hang around with them when they were in town (me in Austin and Chase in Houston), and they’re both really good dudes. (See grainy pictures below)

But if talented and/or likable pros were the main reason to buy discs, we’d all be throwing Prodigy (and maybe Thunderbirds, Roc3’s, and McPro Aviars) now that they’ve pretty much cornered the market on most of the great talent out there.

So the real test is to get the discs in hand, and see how they fly.  If you’re not familiar with my bag, I definitely lean towards Vibram, largely because I love the feel and durability of the discs.  I also enjoy the uniqueness of the look and I appreciate Vibram’s philosophy in disc golf, especially in regards to growing the sport and the spirit of the game.  But having said all of that, Vibram really doesn’t have a complete lineup, so in practice I run a relatively non-partisan bag.

One of my standby molds is the Discmania S-Line PD Freak.  So the first thing I wanted to do was put my hands on some of their PD’s and set the baseline.  They had an amazing, slightly gummy orange 159 S-PD that I was able to bomb 400’+ a few times.  In terms of distance power, I’d probably put myself on the upper end of most intermediate, and maybe some advanced players.  I can throw 380′ generally at will.  With the right disc and if I don’t get sloppy, I can generally push it out to 400′.  But my best throws tend to max out at around 425′.  (technically I’ve thrown my Lace 465′ before, but that was an exceptional throw)  I just wanted to establish a baseline for my power.

There were a couple of guys out there on Saturday who were throwing over 400′ on pretty much every throw, and sometimes hitting the grass that was about 475′ out.  The most popular molds for pure distance were the DD2 and the PD2.  In fact, later in the event, we had a distance competition where Adrian Zapata launched an S-DD2 about 470′.  Just behind him with a C-PD2 was Dylan Frye, with about a 465′ shot.  In some distance competitions, they don’t count the skip, and if that were the case Saturday, Dylan’s shot would have won because Adrian got a semi-generous skip on his throw.

 

Here are my thoughts on each of the Discmania drivers that I had a chance to throw:

• FD: (7,6,-1,1) The FD was and is a fantastic disc.  My guess is that, if I were to add any Discmania disc to my bag other than the PD, this would be it.  It holds a very straight Fairway line, takes power well, deceptively glidey, and in general looks to be the workhorse in the Discsmania lineup.  My understanding is that this is one of Simon’s go to discs, and I absolutely see why.  Not a pure distance disc, but very workable and sneaky long disc.
• FD2: (7,4,0,2) The FD2 was an interesting disc.  For my preference, I generally prefer a little more S-curve in a fairway, hence my preference for the Eagle or Arch over, for example, the Teebird.  The FD2 is Discmania’s response to the Teebird, but I found it to be a little less glidey and a little more beefy.  For some players this could be a plus, but for me it was a little bit of a negative.  Still, a solid disc.
• PD: (10,4,0,3) Still my favorite disc from Discmania.  I use it for low ceiling, mostly straight power lines.  Interestingly, in my experience the S-Line beats in and generally flies much better.  This held true on Saturday.  I find the C-Line to be too beefy and not nearly as glidey for my liking.
• PD2: (12,4,0,4) I’d never thrown a PD2 before Saturday, and honestly I have to say I don’t feel ready for the PD2.  It takes a lot of power to get the flight you want, and it flies a lot like a beefy Destroyer.  Having said that, Adrian Zapata and Dylan Frye were able to crush the PD2, so players with a bigger arm will probabaly love this one.  (of course, I’m sure you can flex this one out for big distance if that’s your thing)
• TD: (10,5,-2,1) The TD’s were another disc that fit right inside my wheelhouse.  Understable speed 10 drivers equal easy distance.  I probably threw this one less than I normally would have, mainly because I felt like I already knew this disc.
• TD2: (10,5,-4,1) I only remember seeing a single TD2 in the box, and I only threw it twice.  But both times, it resulted in a huge hyzerflip bomb.  I generally shy away from massively understable distance drivers because I worry about them becoming a flippy roller.  But the TD2, while turning over quite a bit, never actually flipped on me.
• DD: (11,5,0,2) Another solid addition to the lineup, this one felt a lot like a Wraith to me, and I mean that in a good way.  I think the Wraith is one of the most underrated drivers in disc golf, especially since it appears to be overshadowed by the slightly faster Destroyer.  I had some very long, very good throws with the DD.  The glide is fantastic and it doesn’t just dump out on you.
• DD2: (13,5,-2,2) The DD2 was probably my favorite, non-PD distance driver.  Unlike the beefier PD2, the DD was a relatively straight flier.  It will turn over on a distance line, but has plenty of fade to come back.  I feel like I’m not quite there to really get the full potential out of this disc, but if I had to choose a disc for pure distance out of the lineup, this would be it.
• And Finally, the FD3: (9, 4, 0, 3)  One of the cool benefits of getting to try out the entire Discmania lineup is that it also included the recently released FD3.  Not many people have had the chance to throw this mold, since it was just released in July, so I was excited to get my hands on one.  It’s no secret that the FD3 is meant to be a potential replacement for the industry standard, the Firebird.  But with the FD3, they flipped the script a bit and gave it a touch more glide and a little less fade.  I got some video of myself, Adrian, and Dylan all throwing the FD3, but unfortunately my main camera had run out of batteries, and I had to resort to using my phone.  The bad news there is that my phone was unable to keep up with the discs at the distances we were throwing them, so I don’t have any meaningful video to show.  But the good news is that the FD3 appears to be legit.  Discmania lovers can rejoice, your Firebird has arrived!  We only threw the C-Line, but it definitely has plenty of beef, and an impressive amount of controllable glide, and control is what you want in that slot.  We didn’t get a chance to work with some extreme headwind, but as a disc golfer in central Texas, dealing with headwind is a fact of life, and this mold fits that bill perfectly.

So all in all, here’s how I would break down my disc recommendations according to skill level:

• Beginner/Rec:  FD, FD2, TD2, PD
• Intermediate: FD, FD2, TD, PD, DD
• Advanced/Open: FD, FD2, FD3, PD, PD2, DD, DD2

 

One final note about my experience at Disc Nation.   As part of the event, they entered all participants into a drawing to win a gorgeous, one of a kind Lizotte stamped S-Line FD3.  Everyone who RSVP’ed for the event was eligible to win.  Each of us stood around as Shannon Mullan, wife of Sean Mullan and co-owner of Disc Nation, started pulling names from a Jack-O-Lantern.  Since the entries were based on reservations, 8 names were called before someone was actually present at the time of the drawing.  And lo and behold, that name was mine.  🙂

 

Thanks once again to Disc Nation for hosting a fantastic event!  A lot of people came out and enjoyed the festivities.  I personally got to work with a slightly older couple who were new to disc golf and excited to learn anything they could.  Everyone there was enthusiastic about helping each other and trying out new things.  And of course, it’s always great to come out and support a locally owned and operated business.  I picked up a couple new discs for myself, and I know many others did as well.

A couple of big events are coming up that are near and dear to my heart.  Vibram is finally releasing the production molds of the Arch and the Notch this week, and the Disc Golf Underground club will be hosting it’s annual Labor Day tournament down in Houston.  I’m also planning on doing a one disc round of my own, although I haven’t decided what to use yet.  Stay tuned!