For the love of the sport. A place for DG enthusiasts to share their thoughts.

Posts tagged “Avery Jenkins

Kickstarting a DG Following

Posted by randomtiz


According to the “Disc Golf and PDGA Demographics” article on PDGA’s website, last year there were an estimated 500+ thousand regular disc golf players in the world. Disc golf is rapidly growing at a significant rate every year. And it can grow at an even more substantial rate with the help of the hundreds of thousands—if not millions—disc golfers all over the world. We, as a disc golf community, have to back and support our fellow disc golfers and companies looking to improve and expand the sport. Look how far disc golf has grown just in the past 10 years, for example. It is astonishing to me. Whether it’s a new type of disc technology, a new disc retriever, a rolling disc golf cart that houses everything but the kitchen sink, or even a new disc golf app that lets you—right from your living room couch—flick discs into those sweet chain sounds we’ve learned to love, there are numerous projects out there that can have an impact on disc golf.

One place I’ve found to help support and hopefully “kick start” a fellow disc golfer’s dream is Kickstarter.com. If you guys aren’t familiar with Kickstarter, check it out—it may have more appeal to you than one might think. Ok, so Kickstarter started back in 2009 and is a community of both big and small projects that are “brought to life through the direct support” of people like us. “Project creators set a funding goal and deadline. If people like a project, they can pledge money to make it happen. “ With over 52,000 projects listed since its launch in 2009, there have only been around 16—that I’ve found—to be disc golf related. Funding is all or nothing with these campaigns, soif the projects do not reach their goal, no funding is allocated. It is a really low risk form of investment for people looking to support creative projects, and the incentives that are created for Kickstarter backers are often very cool and can only be had by backing a project.

Lets take a moment and review a few of these. After recent research of the disc golf Kickstarter projects that I could find listed on the site, there were only a few that I felt were truly unique and worthy enough to mention. I will start by commenting on the very first disc golf project I could find, the “carbon disc” by Tyler Seamons. The “carbon disc” was a disc driver prototype made from Carbon Fiber with a heavy-duty polyurethane plastic protective edge. Sounded like it would have been pretty cool—something that sturdy and could take a beating—but I doubt it would have ever be approved by the PDGA. It raised over $4400 of its $7500 funding goal.

Then a few projects later there was “Chains the Movie: The First Disc Golf Documentary” launched by pro disc golfer Avery Jenkins back in 2011. “Chains” was to be the first definitive disc golf documentary featuring pros from all over the world in hopes of bringing the sport to the mainstream. Although nearly $20k short of the funding goal, it still raised over $6k. If I had known about this project and Kickstarter years ago, I would have for sure pledged some bucks their way! I’ve always been a fan of Avery’s—not to mention he’s a subscriber of our blog too.

There are several other neat ideas such as the Walkadisc and Six Shooter disc holsters, but I’m not sure how those would work with big spin drives. Then there’s a handful of “wtf” projects that leave you wondering if it was a joke or if these people were actually serious? Regardless, only 1 of these 16 disc golf Kickstarter projects was successful by meeting its funding goal.

Why weren’t more of these successful? Was the proposed budget goal too high? Is there not enough current support in the disc golf community? Does the disc golf community even know about these efforts? Or it could just be a flawed concept to begin with. I won’t get into that now—my sole intent here is to raise awareness to new disc golf initiatives and encourage this ever-growing disc golf community for their support. If you feel like these new projects, companies, and apps present a strong concept, please support them! Just think, what if a project that you actually helped fund, made it all the way to completion!

DiscGolfUnchained-Logo-Light

This leads me to my final topic. The latest disc golf project to hit Kickstarter that needs your help and support! The “Disc Golf Unchained” campaign by Local Route Labs is the latest disc golf video game app project. Check it out here on Kickstarter and on their website, Local Route Labs for more info.

I was excited to see the “Disc Golf Unchained” gameplay featured in the video above put out by Local Route Labs. The graphics and environment felt very realistic compared to any other disc golf game app that I have come across. It’s awesome to see the progress and where disc golf video gaming has come so far. After reading about the project on both their website and Kickstarter, I was itching to know more! I was able to get in touch with Local Route Labs’ co-founder, Tyler Krucas, to learn more about the project. Here’s what Tyler had to say:

“Local Route Labs is proud to introduce Disc Golf Unchained, the most realistic and engaging disc golf video game in development. Disc Golf Unchained is a video game by disc golfers for disc golfers. We want Disc Golf Unchained to satisfy both the casual and hardcore player, hopefully steering new people into disc golf. The game looks to capture the excitement and experience of throwing the perfect shot and bring it to the palm of your hand. We attempted to create realistic flight physics and course environments that, along with a complex player progression system, offer a fun and immersive game anyone can enjoy, just like actual disc golf.

The game is slated for release on Android and iOS sometime in 2014, and we have developed an extremely intuitive touch interface for the game on these platforms. Although we intend to initially release Disc Golf Unchained on mobile devices, advancements in human interface technology and online networks for next-gen consoles have us thinking about the full potential of disc golf in the virtual world. Imagine throwing a round with or against your friends at your beautiful local course, but from the comfort of your respective living rooms! The prospects for Disc Golf Unchained are very bright.”

This is where the guys at Local Route Labs and “Disc Golf Unchained” need your help. With ONLY 7 DAYS (ends Dec. 3rd) to go with their Kickstarter campaign, they have already raised over $5500 but still have a good ways to go. Please check out the campaign where you can read more on the project, watch their video, and if you like, pledge money! There are different pledge levels starting as low as donating $1. Each pledge level gets you more swag as the pledge amount increases. It’s pretty cool how it works!

I’m very excited about “Disc Golf Unchained” and can’t wait to hopefully see it in the App Store and Google Play Store soon! Even better, I hope it makes it to a gaming console in the near future. Lets put the “fun” in funding and go support your fellow disc golf community—I just did!

-jt


For more info on the “Disc Golf Unchained” project, check out the following links:
“Disc Golf Unchained” Kickstarter campaign
Local Route Labs
Local Route Labs on Facebook


New Post November!

Posted by randomtiz


We’ve got a few big things coming this November! We’ll kick it off today with Part II to our Denver Mancation Disc Golf trip, but first–a look at a few records we broke this past month.

In the year and half history of Dogleg Disc Golf, I’m pleased to announce we have broken a few of our personal records in blog stats this past month along with some other big achievements (for us)! Simply stated, October rocked!

  • BUSIEST DAY: – Tuesday, October 30, 2012
    Tuesday we set a new record in total blog views for a single day. We beat our previous record by ▲26+% set back in June 2011.
  • BUSIEST WEEK: – October 21-27, 2012
    This past week was our busiest/most viewed week to date! We were up nearly ▲163+% from our normal average.
  • BUSIEST MONTH: – October 2012
    We had 800+ views this past month which surpassed our previous record by ▲50+% that was set back in July of this year.
  • Our “Average Views Per Day” have nearly doubled any other month to date. 
  • We broke 7,000 blog views this week! 
  • Avery Jenkin’s and Dogleg
    This past week Avery Jenkin’s himself tweeted us back with “Great Post!” and started following our blog after the publish of my Dogleg Loves Flying Dog post!
  • Go Ham Disc Golf and Dogleg
    Also this week, Destin’s The Importance of a Fairway Driver post was featured on Go Ham Disc Golf’s YouTube Video. Around the 2:55 mark, Dogleg blog gets a plug! To catch a glimpse of the video review, click here! Dogleg getting exposure, yay!

We, here at Dogleg, greatly appreciate all of your positive feedback and support from our fans, family, friends and visitors that frequent our blog regularly. We look forward to an exciting month ahead and will continue to bring you guys quality material, reviews, pics and more only at DoglegDiscGolf.com!

Rattle those chains and “Blog the Dog”. We’re always looking for new contributors to the blog, young or old, newbie or pro. If you are interested, please shoot us an email at DoglegDG[at]gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @DoglegDiscGolf.

Here’s to a new chapter in the Dogleg book!
-jt


Dogleg Loves Flying Dog

Posted by randomtiz


What dog doesn’t like another dog?  Hey, we’re dog people.

Another side trip we made on our Denver Mancation this past Labor Day, was a trip to the Flying Dog Denver Tap Room. It was located down a site street a good ways from our hotel. I remember there being construction down that street which eclipsed the view of their signage out front. One of the bartenders must have seen us walk past the main street and came out to holler at us if we were looking for Flying Dog. How did he know? We were very welcomed from the get-go.

The Flying Dog Tap Room environment was very friendly, even dog friendly. It’s a small hole-in-the-wall type of venue, but pretty unique and a chill, laid-back vibe. The bartenders gave us the first round on the house for being out-of-staters, heck yea! They were very thorough in describing their list of available beers on tap and bottle selection.

I’ve always like Flying Dog beer and especially their weird, twisted artwork by famed artist/illustrator Ralph Steadman. You might have heard that name as he’s best known as the illustrator of the works of Hunter S. Thompson. Being an artist and illustrator myself, I can really appreciate the uniqueness and detail he put into all of these label designs. I’ve collected a good bit of these Flying Dog bottles over the years. Here’s a the label for the Gonzo Imperial Porter–that was originally released in Hunter S. Thompson’s honor (wikipedia). It was a great, full-bodied heavy porter that we sampled while we were there.

Then we noticed what looked to be a disc hanging on the wall next to the bar. A little weird I thought at first, so I walked up to catch a better glimpse. It was indeed a disc, an Innova Star Destroyer signed by Avery Jenkins. Whaaaat, awesome!

Just another good reason to stop by the Flying Dog Tap Room next time you’re in the downtown Denver area!

-jt


Great Putting Video ft/ Avery Jenkins

Posted by randomtiz


Thanks to our friends at @ATRDiscGolf on Twitter for recommending this Disc Mania putting video to us, featuring Pro Disc Golfer/ World Champ Avery Jenkins. Very high quality video as well as audio. A lot of disc golf videos I’ve seen out there have poor editing, graphics and camera angles in general. Not this video. Well worth the 7+ min watch. This is just the first episode in the series. Looking forward to watching many more. Check it out!

-jt


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