Hey Old Timers...

[bcr123psu]

Before the internet, it had to be a bitch to find stores that had discs or to find out about new discs. What were things like before the almighty Google? Where did you guys buy plastic back in the day? Were there many stores that carried discs? Did you have to get your discs through mail order? Were TDs or "that guy on the course" the main option for getting new discs?

Please, reminisce...

 

[shakatak]

In the mid 90s when I first started there was a guy who came to our local tournament and sold discs out of a white minivan. It was always exciting to see a ton of different plastic since you never got to see new discs back then unless you saw them in person. I have no idea when Millennium first started making discs but I do remember seeing my first Polaris LS and thinking it was the coolest disc ever.

Edit: Looks like Millennium started in 1995 so that would be about right. Those discs didn't look at all like the Lightning and Innova discs we were using.

 

[wake911]

I'm not that old. But my first few year or so (2001) I bought off a guy at the course, or the crappy selection at the local college convenience store that had some stuff. Then I found GGGT and that was awesome. I took off a couple years around 2003-2004, and then played till 2006, and then took off again until 2012 and man it is amazing how many options there are to buy now compared to back then. Maybe i just didn't care enough to really search, but it's easy to get what you want now. Not the case even in 2001.

 

[thugjitsu]

I know luckily my dad and the old timers here had Orbitirs Odysssey aka Discovering The World. Dan had everything.

 

[Toro71]

The ladscape has changed a lot even over the past couple of years.

Locally, the best selection has been for a while the local, er, "tobacco shop." They were strictly Innova forever, but since the worlds were here, they've been carrying a wide selection of the 3-5 major/newer manufacturers.

I still get a lot of stuff there, the funny part being that it can take a year or more for new discs to stop smelling like pachouli, especially Star plastic.

 

[DavidSauls]

In the mid-90s, around here, the local course pro's trunk whenever he showed up at the course. But, mainly, tournaments, where there would be hundreds of Innova discs to win or buy.

Bearing in mind that there were only about 3% as many models/plastic variations as there are now, and the "hot new disc" only showed up once or twice a year. The main reason for buying new discs was replacing your DX discs as they wore out.

 

[nohr]

Wanna say I bought my first disc from play it again. But like many others in the mid 90's I bought discs from peoples trunks. After I lost my first putter to the creek I somehow found a mail order place.

 

[shakatak]

Another thing that just popped into my head about buying discs back then was that it was difficult to know exactly what kind of disc you were getting as far as flight characteristics. Usually they were just described as "super stable driver" (Cyclone 2) or something vague like that. You couldn't go online to see what each disc did. It made it tougher to determine exactly what you needed. Of course, there were also way fewer choices so maybe it wasn't as difficult as I remember. Who knows, that seems like a lifetime ago to me now LOL.

 

[ohtobediscing]

When I first started playing in 2002, only the convienience store near Milo had discs in the PDX area. Now they're in any sporting goods store or PIAS-like business, including Next Adventure, the largest disc seller in Portland.
I also got a lot of my first discs at the course, pre-used.

 

[ru4por]

Things sure have changed. I think i speak for a lot of golfers from the mid eighties when I describe my path. Introduced to the game by a friend, here in Michigan we had several area courses then even. Started with my Frisbee Masters disc. Fell in love with the game and eventually ran across some guy tossing a golf disc. Then, it was a Phantom +, told us the local party store carried them. We of course started our life long disc buying obsession. Word of mouth on the course was the only way to find out about new discs. Of course, Discraft was here and that is what we threw. Players were great about tossing each others discs. Flight characteristics were all opinion and word of mouth as well. As you can imagine, what one big armed player claimed was not seen by noobs. Was a great time in course and disc development.

 

[Jay Dub]

In the late 80s we had a disc golf store here in town we could go to. Besides that it was club or tournament discs we bought. I found out about new discs at leagues and tournaments and through the few publications that came out. I remember seeing Greenwell throw a Phenix over a bank of trees and thought all I had to do was buy that disc and I could do it.
HA!

There were also no youtube videos to watch. Most of my tips came from playing with the top pros at tournaments....mostly during the first round. :\

The only way we knew if an out of town course was good or not was from Gregg Hosfelds "Front Nine: Back Nine" articles. The original disc golf course reviewer.

 

[AndyJB]

Luckily, we had two sporting goods stores in my hometown of Missoula, MT that carried Innova, Discraft and Lightning. Bob Wards and Sportsmans Warehouse (Sportsman's just had Innova, but they had tons...and C.E. when it first came out!)

There were also a few savvy guys on the course who ordered from Discovering The World. Back then you would send them a letter and they would send you a ctalog every quarter with an order form. The catalog had really good descriptions of the discs and what they were designed to do.

 

[RUSSELL]

In the late 80s we had a disc golf store here in town we could go to. Besides that it was club or tournament discs we bought. I found out about new discs at leagues and tournaments and through the few publications that came out. I remember seeing Greenwell throw a Phenix over a bank of trees and thought all I had to do was buy that disc and I could do it.
HA!

There were also no youtube videos to watch. Most of my tips came from playing with the top pros at tournaments....mostly during the first round. :\

The only way we knew if an out of town course was good or not was from Gregg Hosfelds "Front Nine: Back Nine" articles. The original disc golf course reviewer.

it was called Disc World and also sold albumns, and then later added skateboard equipment. where i bought my first disc: a Phantom Plus Prototype

 

[thrembo]

I got my first few golf discs from the "dude in the van" that hung out at West Park (Joliet IL) circa 1980. Eventualy a local store started selling discs. After I moved to Ann Arbor in 1987, we got an actual disc golf store, Inflight. I also used Discovering the Worlds awesome mail order catalog, and you could usualy buy discs at tournaments/league events.

 

[gwillim]

When I first started playing in 2002, only the convienience store near Milo had discs in the PDX area. Now they're in any sporting goods store or PIAS-like business, including Next Adventure, the largest disc seller in Portland.
I also got a lot of my first discs at the course, pre-used.

How does 2002 to 2013 equal 33 years of playing? Lol.

My art teacher in middle school used to sell discs out of the trunk of his car at Windsor Park in North Bend, Oregon. His name was Dennis Adams and he put me in detention a couple times for shenanigans I have since forgot.

 

[grodney]

In '93 I bought my first golf discs from Discovering The World over the phone. Don't know how I knew they existed. That's about when I got on the 'net, but doubt I heard of them through there. Funny thing is I first called them to replace my 141g Whamo that I broke, and they sent me catalog which of course contained golf discs.

Back in that time frame ('93-'95), it seems most of Iowa (where DG was HUGE compared to other parts of the country) was supplied by guys like Kim Steele and Brian Malone, largely out of their cars. Don't know where they got them or what their connections were, but they were REAL old-school.

Even as recently as when the (new) Eagle came out (when was that?? - '99), I recall getting it via the 'net and/or phone WAY before other players in the area. Guys were paying me a slight mark-up just to get their hands on one.

 

[SteezeOG]

In the mid 90's when I played the first time around I had two sometimes three options. Buy DX Innova discs at Walmart, buy discraft or innova at a local music shop that also sold hippie stuff and discs, or find a guy at the park who was from a local club and selling their stamped putters and mids for ten bucks. The only way I knew about new discs was listening to other players or hope you find one on the course with no name. I remember finding my first floating disc that way.

 

[grodney]

Oh, and in '89 I remember a guy coming to Vollrath in Sheboygan and laying a bunch of discs out on a picnic table. I was interested, but didn't buy a golf disc until 4 years after that, back in Des Moines.

 

[ZAMson]

I had always remembered buying golf discs as a kid in the early 90s at a PIAS in North Austin (the defunct Anderson Mill location, when 183 was just street-level Research). The store was on a route we hit twice a week, and I found that these discs made great snare heads for my homemade drums. After almost 20 years I found two of those discs while cleaning my parents' garage... they were OOP discraft discs, the model names don't even come to me they're so weird. Also I didn't realize that PIAS was a chain until I saw another one like 10 years later :thmbup:

Sundance Records was the nearest indie record store for my teenage years, been going there for 20 years, kid thru college. They've carried golf discs for a long time because of the course on campus, maybe 200 discs on average. You drive by the course on the only road into that side of town, therefore the entire population of my small hometown and the majority of that college town had seen disc golf in action for years, and Sundance was the only place in town to buy discs. Probably still the #1 source for that school.

I also remember seeing discs at kite shops / festivals.

 

[biscoe]

when i started in the mid-90's there was one store in richmond which had a pretty good selection. you could also buy some tournament winnings from then bagger hysell and disc golf world had a decent printed catalog they sent out.

by late 96 i had started two stroke so was just ordering them from the manufacturers and pimping them myself.