Wet feet. There are few things that are more miserable. Even if you just step in a puddle on the way home from the grocery store, it feels awful to have your shoes and socks soaked through.
When one has to walk anywhere from three to twelve kilometres in a day of disc golfing, not to mention all the footwork involved in throwing, it’s not hard to consider how important it is to spend the day with dry feet. But water proof shoes are expensive, and even more so when you factor in how many different pairs of shoes you might need for different courses and seasons. On top of the cost factor, many water proof shoes are closer to water resistant, or they let water seep in over the top of the shoe.
That’s where the GoreTex sock comes in.
Before I started playing disc golf, I owned virtually no outdoor gear. My outside shoes were a pair of blue suede converse all stars. My sweaters were all cotton Roots hoodies. My athletic socks were of the white addidas variety (they did double duty between badminton and other activities)
I once bought a disc because it was pretty.
I know, I know, that’s not how one is supposed to pick out one’s plastic, but sometimes you just have to take a chance.
Now, I’ll admit, it wasn’t a total stab in the dark. I’d owned (and lost) a couple of Valkyries already, but they’d all been DX plastic.
So here comes this pretty little number. Clear Champ plastic, with a pink, yellow, and blue star tie-dye pattern. Silver foil, 165. Mmmm.
Have you ever seen such a lovely disc?
There are a lot of drivers out there; faster, more glide, better in the wind, heavier and thus able to (for an experienced player) go farther, plain ol’ easier to find… all sorts of factors that indicate this is not the best disc. Not just overall, but for me specifically.
And yet.
This baby does what I tell it to do. Tilt my hand just this way, and it gives me a nice, long S-curve. Tilt the other, and I’ll get a gentle a predictable hyzer. The most perfect throw of my life has been with this disc. (A long throw over a valley of trees, into a strong head/cross wind.)
Of course, I’ve made some mis-steps with this disc too. Poor baby’s hit many a tree, been lost for days, and been run over by a car (in winter no less). I will actually cry when this disc bids be adieu.
I test-drive new discs as they come out. I even have some duplicates for my trusty ol’ Valkyrie.
But nothing can replace the original.
So you’ve decided to play disc golf. Maybe some friends took you out, maybe you were lucky enough to have it as part of your school curriculum. However you found your love for this game, you’re hooked, and now you want some discs of your very own. If only you knew where to start.
Experienced players will throw all sorts of recommendations at you. But if you’re just starting out, you probably don’t know the difference between the hundreds of different kinds of discs out there. On top of that, a lot of experienced players fall into the trap of giving recommendations based on how they themselves throw a disc.
So you go to the internet. Surely, there is a good beginner’s guide to choosing discs out there. How complicated could it be?
When discgolfers meet, one of the early questions is nearly always “so how did you start playing”?
I think we ask each other this because disc golf is such a weird little fringe sport, that for now there’s usually a good story behind aquiring The Affliction.
Me? I received a facebook invite to Dancin’ Dave’s Birthday Disc Golf Tournament.
I got the invite from a very new friend, and I didn’t know anyone else on the list. But I’ll try almost anything once, so I accepted.
About thirteen of us showed up to play a round at Camp Fortune. I’d never been there, though I’d been warned very sternly that I was in for a very tough day. Long sleeves, good shoes, pants, a hat, bug spray… all things I was advised to wear or bring, with the caveat that they shouldn’t be too nice because I would probably ruin them.
Great. I didn’t own any sort of outdoor gear. So I wore the only pair of pants I could possibly spare, an old pair of corduoroys; a pair of converse skate shoes, and a threadless t-shirt.
Did you know that Camp Fortune is a ski hill? I didn’t at the time.
Two or three holes after re-starting, the sun came out in full force, which meant it got very humid.
Being my first time out, I didn’t know the first thing about throwing, so my borrowed discs hit a lot of trees and found their way into a lot of brush.
Basically, I spent a day in heavy , wet cotton clothes, with wet feet, sweaty, tromping around probably the most difficult disc golf terrain in the Province.
And I loved every second of it.
discgolfholly 
