For those of us who live in cold climates (Michigan here), Old Man Winter
presents a challenge. The average day of frisbee golf has a wind chill
factor below freezing and an accumulation of snow and/or ice to trudge
through and throw off of. Those are the average days. The nasty weather
days are much worse. So some players hibernate and bring their discs out
again in April. Others refuse to let the weather stop their game.
Over the years I have noticed that the players who play year round are the
ones who improve the most. The worse the weather, the more valuable the
training experience by playing in it. For example, the only way to learn to
play in big wind is to go out when it is really windy. You cannot go out in
calm conditions and just imagine it is windy. The same holds true for ice
storms and snow squalls. Unless you have practiced in it, you are just
guessing.
This Winter I have found two breakthroughs for dealing with the elements:
The first combats snow, the second combats ice.
The first is attaching a ribbon to a disc so that it can be found in the
snow. I was shocked how well this worked. My friend Bruce Brakel came out
to our Sunday league right after a storm with a fresh 10 inches of snow on
the ground. Bruce said he read about it on the Internet and had duct-taped a
3-4 foot length of thin "curling" ribbon to the bottom of a disc.
The ribbon makes it darn near impossible to lose a disc in the snow. It
doesn't seem to affect the flight much at all. The ribbon flutters in flight
so it probably takes a tiny bit off the distance of the drive (Editor's note:
it is important that you center the ribbon in the middle of the disc for best
flight performance. Make a small hole in the center of a two inch x two inch
piece of duct tape and insert the tip of your ribbon into it, then affix to the
bottom of the disc, centering it as best as possible.).
The ribbon takes care of the two most common problems in the snow: the
shanked drive and the good drive which lands in the walking path.
The shank is so far off the beaten trail that it is hard to estimate its
location. If you are not within a few feet of the disc you may not see that
entry mark in the snow. The bright ribbon shows up easily. It saves so much
time looking for discs.
Sometimes a good drive is lost in the snow. The drive flies to the center of
the fairway but happens to land in the walking path and skips under
undisturbed snow. You shuffle your feet in the area and hope to turn it up.
For all of us who have lost discs on good drives, the ribbon technique saves
time and plastic.
It has really caught on in Michigan. We have used it in tournaments without
problem, except of course for J-Bird.
J-Bird is a friend of the column and frisbee legend. If you own a tie-dyed
disc, it was probably tie-dyed by J-Bird. J-Bird Discs and all that. So
J-Bird was in my group at a recent Ice Bowl in Lansing. Hey, it was the
first round so there is no shame in that. We came up to the next-to-last
hole of the first round. J-Bird had had no breaks the whole round. Every
tree bounce went the wrong way. Even the Mach 3's were unfriendly. Which is
rare. Some days J-Bird is a putting God. Just ask him.
#16 was a 250' hyzer with a low ceiling. It normally was an easy skip shot
to the basket but with deep snow there was no skip to be had. J-Bird decided
to try the over-the-top anhyzer route. This was semi crazy. To hit the
anhyzer route you have to throw it a mile up over the trees then have it flip
at just the right angle and dodge through a maze of branches to get to the
basket. J-Bird cranked a huge anhyzer. It got over the top! It turned hard
and started gliding straight at the basket. Suddenly the disc jerked in
mid-flight then hung and dangled. Yep. The ribbon got caught on a branch
and the disc was swaying like a hanged criminal, 35 feet off the ground.
Thereafter, just to encourage players to use ribbons, we have authored the
J-Bird rule. There is no 2 meter rule penalty if your disc is hanging OB
solely by the ribbon. But, of course, we stroked J-Bird.
The other discovery combats ice. Ice is a big problem. Consider a tee pad
spotty with snow. Under each bit of snow might be ground or might be ice.
If you land on ice with your plant foot you may be rewarded with a terrible
drive and a face full of snow. If you fall ungracefully you might get hurt
(like you are good at falling gracefully!). Even if you do not slip on ice,
the fear of doing so can hurt your confidence and result in poor shots.
The solution is strap-on ice cleats. They strap on regular shoes or boots.
I found these at an R.E.I. store. The product is called Stabilicers ( you
can order them through www.rei.com). I paid $30 for mine. They are superb.
They seem to work well in all conditions (the product warns against polished
marble surfaces. Not a common danger on the courses in my area). You can
drive with sure footing on a frozen lake. They are no problem on dry grass.
I think they are worth a couple strokes a round in bad conditions. Did I
mention they are superb?
For those of you from warm weather climates who feel deprived of frolicking
in the frozen tundra, keep in mind that you may not be as safe as you think.
So there was the unsuspecting golfer playing a round in February. It was 70
degrees and sunny. He spilled his cooler on the ground. Then, being
oblivious, slipped on the ice cubes during his next shot. Tragedy, eh?
Send feedback to lizard@disclife.com.
Combating Old Man Freeze
