One Grand Disc Golf Tour

01-27-10

Spent a good portion of the day (sort of like a job) working on a disc golf project in S FL.  But we have prospects and projects all over the state right now.  We got a verbal agreement to submit a final proposal to Camp Kulaqua in High Springs.  So, the plan is to replace the refurbed Tri-States with shiny new DisCatchers within the month.  We’ll leave the short tee carpets and frame-n-pour the long tees, which will turn this course into a course that I think Gainesville players will enjoy visiting…and playing.  We had hoped they’d go for an extra pin position per hole but not at this time.

I cut out around 4:30 and headed to Turkey Lake. Monday’s cloudless 3/4 moon lit up the course.  Tonight the moon was at around 7/8 full and not a cloud in sight.  Our Wednesday night Flights gang had been threatening to play T2 from the reds on the brightest Wednesday of the monthly lunar cycle…and this looked to be it.  And so it was.  To be honest, it was almost too bright to see the glow discs.

Unlike Monday’s dark meet, we don’t divvy into A & B pools.  It’s true random draw.
Jaime made the drive down from Daytona and, by luck of the disc-flip, we partnered up.   A visitor from Minnesota named “Va” stuck around for the round and played with James.  Bill played with Brandon.

The new hole #1 on T2, as I’ve said more than once, is a far more aggressive hole than I’d like to start this course, but I think in another 6 months (and at least one organized work-day) we should have it clean enough to reward skillful shots.  But, in the dark, a par-4 required some scrambling.

Jaime punched in a 40 footer on #5 for an eagle (but not really for a blue level player throwing from the reds) 3.  And I managed a 35-foot follow-up on 6 for a deuce with the moldy 71.  We had some pretty good simpatico going and carded a –14/46, which, if I’m not mistaken, seems to be the new (only) night golf record for T2 (reds) and the singles tourney record (red) and the singles tourney record from the blues (even though the blues are over 1,000 feet longer)

Jaime & Hos      -14/46
James & Va        -10/50
Bill & Brandon    -6/54

Tomorrow:  more work on course projects.  We may not be getting ahead, but we seem to be making headway.

01-24-10

Chad Greer, my WCDGD partner, and I were pleasantly encouraged when we took a run out to the Mount Dora course yesterday just to be certain it was ready for today’s event.  Over the span of the 3 hours we spent out there, we saw no less than 7 groups playing the course.  Some local, some from other parts of Florida, checking it out for the 1st time.

We asked a little kid, who had to be 8, if he wanted to throw with us.  He did.  I handed him my most beat O-Roc.  He lined up, did a little golf waggle and threw a bee-line about 100 feet!  It was no fluke.  He repeated the feat consistently!  In fact, he out-threw Fred, a 50ish gentleman who had accompanied Stan, a friend of mine who is Recreation Director for Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation.  Stan had mistakenly thought that the Grand Opening was on Saturday and made the drive up.  He missed the event but we had fun nonetheless.  And, he donated a box of marker minis for the event.

This AM, I arrived about an hour in advance, set up some temp baskets, my microphone and laid out some magazines, discs, and other info.  There were 50-70 people present as the Mayor of Mount Dora cut the ribbon and officially opened the course.  I had already given a brief introduction to the game and showed some of my “Frisbee Museum” to borrow a phrase from my buddy Gary Auerbach.

We moved the sound system to a more open part of the course and I gave a clinic on stretching and putting.  Afterward, the more accomplished players demonstrated a round of “Ring-of-fire” where everyone circles the basket and putts at the same time.  Those who make it advance while the others sit out.  We keep whittling it down until only ONE person makes it.  If no one makes it… EVERYONE is back in.

We held two games simultaneously.  One for the players and one for the newbees.
Prizes were handed out to the winners of each round… with exceptions in the players circle… because Climo would inevitably win almost every time.  Shirts, discs and stickers were doled out, courtesy of discgolfcenter.com.

The Champ then did his clinic, focusing on balance, foot work, grips, angles and various flight lines.

Jack Fahle and Chris Engle, two members of the Central Florida Disc Dog Club, also gave a fine K9 demonstration while I stepped aside and was interviewed by Benjamin Roode for his podcast as well as an article for the Daily Commercial newspaper in Leesburg.

I was approached by a parks guy from Leesburg who seemed a bit put out that we have not yet targeted his town for a course.  (This can be easily remedied)  We also spoke to a woman from Longwood who was equally interested in finding a way to get disc golf into the parks she oversees.

The clouds barked all day but did not bite, though they did drool on us a bit at this point, which thinned out the fairer-weather folks.  By consensus, Ken and I decided to forego the freestyle demonstration. So the two disc golf powerhouses (OK, one powerhouse and an outhouse) played a head-to-head round on the short but technical (kind of) course.  The course is across the street from a middle school and is designed for that demographic.

Hole 1 is 224’ that bends to the right at the end.  Both KC and I expected more headwind effects and overdrove the hole.  I bagged a return 50 footer and Ken drained his 45’
Hole 2 is 233’ with a split fairway. KC was about 8’ right of the pin. Again, I over drove by 35 and again, I drained it.
Hole 3 is 228’ with low oak branches and a basket between some goal posts.  Both slid in to within 20 and easily found the heart of the chains.
Hole 4 is a mere 136’ and screams for an ace run, which I tried.  The stout wind had its way with my hammer but dropped me less than 15’ from the pin.  KC’s laser to the pole may have been 3” off-line at one point, but hit the pole solidly.  Double deuce.
Hole 5 is 200’ with another split route.  Lower on the lefty line and wider on the righty lane.  My hyzer skip shot landed a tad late and went 25’ long directly behind a tree.  KC was within 12’.  My straddle putt struck solid bark for my first “par” 3.
Hole 6 is 180’ and offers few other options than a light anhyzer.  Both parked & putted.
Hole 7 is 156’ with a straight-on window.  Climo, now knowing that I had to “Ace” to catch him slid one up to the basket.  I followed suit easily, not going for the sucker-bet ace attempt.
Hole 8 is a blind 152’ hole with the basket hiding behind a tree.  Climo threw a hyzer lay-up as did I.  Though mine was unnecessarily wide, clipped moss and dropped 35 short.  My putter had apparently clocked out for the day and failed to make his appointment with the chains.
Hole 9 is a 290’ (considered par 4 at this design level) anhyzer.  KC’s Roc easily glided to within 15.  My CE Stingray easily glided into the first tree it could find and caromed 50’ right.  I got up and down, but mostly down, as Kenny proceeded to lay waste to my course record by shooting a perfect –9/18 on the 9 holer.

I’ve shot a –9 on 22 different 9 holers, many tougher than this one, but, thus far, I’ve not held it together well enough on LAPW to get past –7.  Good thing we weren’t playing for car titles (this time)

It was an excellent day on the course.  Thanks to all who made this such a great day!  Let’s do it again in YOUR town!!!

Tomorrow: The search for liability ins, follow-up phone calls to various parks folks and maybe a little night golf (dark meet)

01-16-10

Despite my lack-o-practice, my show went well.  Or so I was told.  The sound guy had the background music monitors so high that I couldn’t hear the audience reaction.  But the producer and the other acts assured me they were laughing.  The 2nd set had no music so I was able to hear them and could play a bit more.  And, you’ve gotta love a gig where you work a 10 minute set and another 5 minute set, and get paid BEFORE the show even starts.

Afterward, we all went to IHOP and told vaudeville, burlesque and Hollywood stories for a couple hours.  Fun night.

Today I caught up with the girl who sniffed ether in my 8th grade science class and the guy who had the longest, loudest and lowest belch I had ever heard and could play the star spangled banner with hand farts.
We were a colorful bunch.

Hope your weekend was as interesting as that.

Hostalavista Baby.

01-18-10
Our flyer for the upcoming grand opening of our 2nd “Have Course-Will Travel” Rent-a-course is done.
John, our MD contact, even went in to work on MLK day to print up a batch for me to distribute.  He’ll be handing out flyers to all of the local schools.    Hope y’all can make it by.

If you can’t read this flyer, go to discorlando.com for a downloadable version, plus more information about disc golf and other disc sports in the Orlando area.

I drove to Mount Dora and picked up the flyers just before 5 and took the back roads to our “Glow or Go Home” dark meet doubles.

We had 9 people on a gorgeous night.  I ended up being odd-man out.  (No partner, but I got one extra throw per hole)
But, if I wanted to be eligible for my invisible partner’s share, I had to pony up another fin.

I was tied with Jaime and Boo going into the 17th hole (#8 long tee) I left the drive short (may have hit a tree) and hit a 40 footer around a tree with my trusty Midnight Flyer 71 mold to go ahead by one, which held through the last hole.

Heather Grey posted this link on a Facebook thread.  I promise… after a page or so, you’ll wanna look through all of the photos.

Cool pics by Guido Daniele

http://www.guidodaniele.com/images/body_painting/muller/muller1.jpg

http://www.guidodaniele.com/index.htm

Tomorrow: more work on the grand opening, and another proposal for S. FL

01-11-10

This is Orlando’s 11th consecutive night with temps below 39 degrees F.  YYYyyyyyyeah…this is Florida we’re talking about.

I just got back from a round of “Down-Low-Night-Doubles”, or as I like to call it, “Dark Meet”.  It came down to the last putt. Between my throwing hand being too cold and the night putter not emulating how my day putter flies, I air-balled the 30 footer and settled for 2nd prize, which was exactly bupkis.

WCDGD has been working on flyers, schedules, press releases, proposals and a LOT of follow-up calls for upcoming projects. It’s like a REAL job without the $$.

I’ll post the flyer for our Jan 24th clinic in Mount Dora for the Grand Opening of our 2nd Have Course-Will Travel Rent-a-Course installation.  Climo has committed to coming out.  We’ll also have some K9rs and some give-aways.  We might even have the Mayor (or other local dignitary) do a ceremonial ribbon cutting.

Oh, and I had an Italian Jammer friend from Facebook asked me how I did the Monstroliver catch.  I tried to post a video on FB but I would have to allow pop-up adds to post a video.  I wouldn’t WANT to do that if I knew HOW to do that.  So, I’ll try to post the vid clip here instead.

I just picked up a show down in Port Charlotte, FL on Saturday from a man who organizes burlesque types of shows.  I did a show for him about 2 years ago and NAILED it.  So he had a fall out in Saturday’s show and I’m going to fill in.

01-04-10

Happy New Year Everybody!!  (To the 6 of you who still actually read this)

I’m sitting in a coffee shop in Sierra Madre, California nursing a giant designer caffeinated beverage enjoying the nicest weather in these entire United States of America.  (Even Florida has hit freezing temps this week.  Neener neener!!)

In anticipation of the huge talent pool migrating toward the 3rd installment of Jam Camp, a ‘pre-JC’ jam was coordinated for the Friday immediately preceding the official clinics.  Roughly a dozen jammers met at 1PM on a little green patch overlooking the beach known as Fraser Park in Santa Monica. Check out my Jam Camp photo album on Facebook here.

I was honored and excited to start my jam with Dave “the Chill man” Schiller, who, in 2005 FPA World Championships went drop-less in all 3 finals (pairs, coop & mixed) and consequently won titles in each one!  Shilz is amazing with either spin.

Jake Gauthier has an answer (and rarely one you’d expect) for almost any angle, spin or speed, and his reach is just downright UNFAIR.  No matter who you are, or how experienced a jammer you are, you WILL mistakenly deem one of Jake’s combos “dead” or “unreachable”, just before his long legs or arms extend just enough to breathe enough life into the disc to turn it over one more time and seal or pass to someone too stunned to react to the perfect set.

We played through a spectacular sunset and convened at the nearby John (Z) Weyand, aka: “Dreamer” residence for drinks, videos and stories.

Jam Camp was spectacular.  Teachers and campers from all over the US converged on Eagle Rock, CA to share the freestyle Frisbee experience.  Each camper signed a sheet that described their playing level and instructors took turns giving tidbits of their sage advice.  Jam Camp was also a venue for the disc doggers to “bone-up” on ways to spice up their routines.  I was to be involved with the K-9ers, but Mike Miller, a veteran disc-dogger aptly took that leash and ran with it.

The event was blessed by the presence of other freestyle veterans such as Amy (Bekken) Schiller, Carolyn (Yabe) Hubbard, Dan “Stork” Roddick, Dan “Dan” Cameronesi, Cindy Kruger, Lori Daniels, Dave Lewis and even a surprise visit by a legend of freestyle Frisbee, Krae Van Sickle.

Another surprise was came in the form of the gym being unceremoniously locked well before the contracted closing time before many jammers could get their belongings out.  This put a crimp in the time-table of our visit to a fantastic Asian restaurant but did not deter us.

Sunday’s activities culminated with a skill-level based teaming of groups of 4 jammers who were given 1.5 hours to choreograph a 3 minute routine.  K9 & human freestyle teams alternated, each trying to show off what they had learned.   This, as is tradition with any organized freestyle event, was followed by a massive mob-op, which ran until the lactic acid build up exceeded the recommended ibuprofen intake.

An informal post Jam Camp dinner was held at Beth Verish’s place, after which, I headed over to Mark Horn’s place where I sat in a hot tub, drinking a glass of Shiraz-Merlot overlooking the shimmering sprawl below.  It didn’t SUCK!

01-04-10
Originally, I had tickets to attend a taping of the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson for this afternoon but this was the only day that Tony Pellicane could get free to show me around the “Flying P” (which sounds like something I would do off of a high-dive after a keg party) disc golf course.

The # of acres eludes me at the moment, but it is ample for a full 18 of non-crossing fairways.  Though it is verrrry hilly and verry rocky, pretty much personifying a private “extreme” course.  Some very tricky elevation changes and a few demanding placement shots combined with precarious footing gives the 1st timer more than enough to think about.  I had taken a bit of time off from disc golf in prep for jam camp and literally had to drop by Innova for some fresh plastic prior to the trip down.  Erin Hart accompanied me on the trip.  Normally a mild mannered marathoner, her (still) broken foot relegated her to moderately interested spectator from a plateau with a buena vista.

My two O.B. drives left me two strokes shy of the course record of –1.

Another drive back north to drop off Ms. Hart and once again dropped my bags at the Horn residence to reprise my role as the sleazy hot tub-meister of Pasadena.

01-05-10
Erin’s child was sick yesterday, so I had been very lucky to have her along for the trip.  Luck, is often two-sided.  In this case, her company was muchly enjoyed, but (as it turns out) she also got sick and I may be following suit.  Should be perfect timing for the Late Late Show taping and my flight home tomorrow.

Re: LLS taping… I’m sitting in the CBS parking lot, blasting the A/C (yes, currently America’s BEST weather) catching up on the blah blah blah’g and preparing to line up in the studio audience que.

A few hours later…
The Late Late Show taping was excruciatingly tedious.

OK, OK, I only said that for the benefit of the two people who had intended to come along but couldn’t make it.  I hope that makes you feel better about missing it.

In fact, the entire experience, with the possible exception of the waiting, was quite a bit of fun.  My seat wasn’t great…all the way in the back and directly behind the camera,   So I couldn’t even see much more than his shoulder during the monologue.  Chunky, the warm-up-guy did a great job at getting the audience in the right mood.  So, I have no doubt that we were “possibly the best audience they’ve ever had” for the umteenth show in a row.

I did my best to shake off the jaded ex-comic persona and laugh, scream and clap along with the crowd. Though the woman next to me was a great crowd unto herself and took up any slack that I may have created.

I had hoped that I might get tickets for tomorrow since Ray Romano was on.  But, just like my routine these days, my timing is too slow.  A few years before “Everybody Loves Raymond” began to air, I worked with Ray twice in the same club.  The club owner booked us together the 2nd time because he liked the diversity of the show, because, well… Ray was funny.  I wrote Ray a note congratulating him on “Raymond’s” $yndication and condolences for his golf game.  It’s probably in the stage manager’s waste basket as I type.

I headed back to Z’s place on Santa Monica Beach for a beer and a sleeping pill.

Tomorrow: Orange County to Orange County in reverse.

01-06-10
Fully expecting a massive line at security, I was again quite early and again got through the gate and security line faster than pre-crotch bomber.
The first flight was uneventful save the attractive blonde falling asleep in the chair next to me and eventually drooping over onto my shoulder.

The flight connection in Houston to O-ville was delayed for mechanical reasons.  As I headed to the gate I met another juggler friend (2005? National Champ) who had been hit by a cab last year in Nassau, Bahamas.  I had heard that his whole left side had been pretty badly crushed.  I had inquired about him to some friends but hadn’t gotten much in the way of info.  Glad to see that he’s fairly healthy and doing shows on ships again.

This version of the ‘Screamin Baby Express’ also included copious bouncing in the seat directly ahead, which is connected to the tray on which I am trying to type.   This is why I’m pounding out mindless drivel instead of actually working on something productive.

Tomorrow: Realizing that I have way too much to catch up on.