[Gateway] Gateway Wizard

[swhite]

I think you need to chill out.

Maybe try taking a walk in the woods and throwing some frisbees.

Chilling out is the last thing that disc manufacturers want from me. I have a passion for discs, and, I express that passion by purchasing lots of them.

My passion for Gateway Discs has chilled out, and because of this, I have moved on to other manufacturers. Mint Discs is happy to sell to me, as is Westside Discs, and Innova, and Kastaplast, to name a few. Gateway Discs has to compete with all of these companies that make great products. But, it's current business practices do not meet my standards.

I believe that there are readers here who would want to know of the experiences that some had when purchasing Wizards from Gateway, so that they can make informed decisions themselves. You, and Three Putt, and others have also shared your experiences. All are valid.
Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to take another look at those Sublime Alphas.:thmbup:

 

[Audible Vibration]

2 special blend 32.

What does SB32 feel like and what is the flexibility like?

 

[Three Putt]

Chilling out is the last thing that disc manufacturers want from me. I have a passion for discs, and, I express that passion by purchasing lots of them.

My passion for Gateway Discs has chilled out, and because of this, I have moved on to other manufacturers. Mint Discs is happy to sell to me, as is Westside Discs, and Innova, and Kastaplast, to name a few. Gateway Discs has to compete with all of these companies that make great products. But, it's current business practices do not meet my standards.

I believe that there are readers here who would want to know of the experiences that some had when purchasing Wizards from Gateway, so that they can make informed decisions themselves. You, and Three Putt, and others have also shared your experiences. All are valid.
Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to take another look at those Sublime Alphas.:thmbup:

It's just a loop, though. Gateway doesn't get huge because the business practices run off people like you that get upset by it. They stay around becasue of people like me that don't really care and like the putters, so they will be here to upset and run off the next generation of would-be Wizard throwers. While they are running them off, they will pick up a few more devoted Wizard throwers. And we will do it all over again.

I think the thing I've picked up on is that Gateway is OK with this. Not everybody at Gateway, I know and have known people who are/were very frustrated by working in a place that made the same mistakes over and over. Same as customers like you that it bothers. Those guys don't last working for Gateway, though. It's a different sort of place.

So I get where you are at and I get that it is frustrating to you to have a company look at your money and go "meh" and not respond to you, but that's Gateway. We can complain about them all day, but I don't think the place is ever going to change. So it comes down to "Do I want my Wizard/Warlock/Voodoo/Magics THAT badly?" I do, so the company doesn't bother me.

It used to. It used to bother me a lot. I used to bitch about them all the time. Then one day I ran into Dave at White Birch of all places. Dave was just the same as he had always been. Dave is never going to be who I think he should be or want him to be, he's just going to be Dave. It's a freaking miracle that GDS ever got off the ground, much less that they are still in business. It's actually kinda awesome that he pulled that off. Now I just laugh and wonder if they are going to throw in some Organics or Erasers with my next order.

 

[swhite]

What does SB32 feel like and what is the flexibility like?

I just dug them out, and see that the blend is SB 22, not SB 32. Sorry.
In case you are wondering though, I am feeling up all the discs that I listed right now. Here's my comparison of them:

Flex, from most flexible to least, along it's color and feel:
ssss, white, kind of rubbery
SB 30, white, also rather rubbery, somewhat puddle topped
SB 22, blue, a bit chalky
Eraser, blue, not chalky, like Pro D plastic with a little more grip
SB 18, red, feels like Innova Pro plastic with slightly more flex
Soft , pink, not quite as stiff as Lat 64 Zero Hard, more grippy than all the above blends
PWP , white, stiffness about the same as Zero Hard, with slight velvety feel


I like putters to be stiff, so of all of these, I say PWP for the win.
Or, get a BT Hard Shield; also a win.

 

[swhite]

I just dug them out, and see that the blend is SB 22, not SB 32. Sorry.
In case you are wondering though, I am feeling up all the discs that I listed right now. Here's my comparison of them:

Flex, from most flexible to least, along it's color and feel:
ssss, white, kind of rubbery
SB 30, white, also rather rubbery, somewhat puddle topped
SB 22, blue, a bit chalky
Eraser, blue, not chalky, like Pro D plastic with a little more grip
SB 18, red, feels like Innova Pro plastic with slightly more flex
Soft , pink, not quite as stiff as Lat 64 Zero Hard, more grippy than all the above blends
PWP , white, stiffness about the same as Zero Hard, with slight velvety feel


I like putters to be stiff, so of all of these, I say PWP for the win.
Or, get a BT Hard Shield; also a win.

I just remembered that I have some Reptilian Disc Golf Lizards hanging around. These are simply Wizards sold by RDG, of course.
In look and feel, I cannot distinguish the Lizards from the PWP Wizards. Perhaps they are the same mix?

 

[thechamp]

I always think of it as the Gateway bonus. If I order five I know something will get screwed up and I'll end up with at least seven for the same price. If I ordered five and got the the five I wanted in a timely manner, I'd be sad that I didn't get my two freebies. Hell, if I ordered five discs and nothing went wrong I'd complain. :|

That's just me, though.

I came home one day to find a box of twenty five Gateway discs on my front porch. At that time I hadn't ordered anything from Gateway in at least a year. Gateway sent me the correct shipping label and asked me to drop the box off at ups.

 

[Audible Vibration]

I just dug them out, and see that the blend is SB 22, not SB 32. Sorry.

Nice! That's what I putt with. It seems all SB 22's are the same shade of blue. Both of mine are that color.

Edit: I have a pwp and rdg wizard also, but my pwp feels more like and SB one than the rdg one.

 

[Yxebrew]

Does anyone have experience with evo wizards? How do they fly relative to s wizards?
I'm thinking more as a driving putter. How does the stability and durability compare?

 

[pickleprotector]

Does anyone have experience with evo wizards? How do they fly relative to s wizards?
I'm thinking more as a driving putter. How does the stability and durability compare?

There is a tremendous amount of variation in the Evolution plastic blend. Evo wizards can have all kinds of shapes, feels, and flights. Generally though, they are extremely durable and fly slightly more overstable than a fresh Soft Wizzy.

I currently have 3 different evo wizards.

My newest is a teal "Platinum Evolution" Wizard. The plastic feels similar to some of the newer Innova Pro plastic that innova is now making drivers in (pro katana, etc) which is essentially Super-Sticky "Star" plastic. This wizard has a low profile with a small amount of shoulder, so not quite the flattest wizard, but a really nice shape for gripping hard for backhand drives. Off the tee, it has less glide than a soft wizard so it drops down more quickly. It also pulls very gently onto hyzer at relatively high speed, but does not cut hard left or slide off like a Zone or Gator.

I have a ~2yr old orange traditional "Evolution" Wizard. It has a higher shoulder and dome than the platinum evo wizards. The plastic is stiffer and less grippy. I would compare it to a stiff, somewhat slick Star plastic. Flight is very similar to my platinum evo wizard, maybe a bit more push to hyzer and more dump at the end.

I also have a Translucent Evolution Wizard from a couple years ago that I think I got from phantomdiscs. It is translucent milky white, and comes in an extremely gummy champion type plastic. This one molded up very domey with a high shoulder. It feels very large and puffy in the hand, but is easy to grip and throw because of the more pliable plastic. It is my most overstable wizard for sure, but because of the massive amount of air volume within the disc, it gets tons of lift and floats like a Discraft Comet, even when pulling over on hyzer.

 

[rusch_bag]

What wizard should I buy if I am looking for one that is going to be pretty beefy and pretty durable with to drive with? I am not a fan of floppy discs either.

 

[ODRB]

What wizard should I buy if I am looking for one that is going to be pretty beefy and pretty durable with to drive with? I am not a fan of floppy discs either.

If you like premium plastics, I liked the platinum evo recent runs. A little soft, but not floppy by any means. Nicer profile (lower shoulder and flatter) than I have found on the diamond evos. If you can find an older opaque evo in a used bin somewhere, those are great too.

If you like baseline, get a Fossil Scale. And get a PW Wizard. The PW will start OS but season into a straight flyer pretty quickly. The Fossil Scale will stay in your OS Wizard spot for years. The one in my bag has ben there for 2 years. At his point, it is super HSS with only minimal fade as it slows. But it doesn't flip. To be fair, it isn't as long as a fresh wiz either.

You could just buy 5 PWs and be set for an OS Wiz for a couple years of rotation.

 

[art_vandelay]

What wizard should I buy if I am looking for one that is going to be pretty beefy and pretty durable with to drive with? I am not a fan of floppy discs either.

Consider glo or glo $$. Beefy wizards in my experience. I've been using the same glo wiz for about 9 months and it has stayed basically the same. I really dig their glo plastic...it's stiff yet still grippy. I horde glo wizards basically, I'll admit it. I just picked up a couple of glo $$ and they feel really sweet but I have not had a chance to throw either yet. I've been told that the $$ blend has extra "glo stuff" in it, but I'm not sure exactly how or if it changes flight characteristics.

 

[art_vandelay]

I'm going to have to try something from Reptilllian. I see them around but never owned one and I have a boatload of wizards.

 

[dysmike]

You could just buy 5 PWs and be set for an OS Wiz for a couple years of rotation.

I was going to say the same thing, 'cept in Fossil

 

[ODRB]

I'm going to have to try something from Reptilllian. I see them around but never owned one and I have a boatload of wizards.

When you throw that Scale, you're going to think it is too OS and glideless to be a Wizard. But give it a chance. It boggles me when Wizard throwers don't also like a seasoned Scale.

 

[ian.w]

...Nicer profile (lower shoulder and flatter) than I have found on the diamond evos. .

Yeah, I just picked up a diamond evo wizard, and am a bit disappointed in how bulky it feels compared to fossil and G9i. Hoping it's slightly over stable though. Baseline wizards tend to get pretty straight, pretty quickly. I hit lots of trees.

 

[ian.w]

Has anyone heard anything about evo diamond glow wizards? I read something. About a 2018 release, but can't find any actual info.

 

[Yxebrew]

I grabbed an rff chalky scale recently, feels amazing !
It flys like my rhyno (maybe a touch more speed and glide) but feels almost like my wizards in the hand. I'm into snow season here, so I don't think I'll see much break in until spring

 

[mmblink86]

It boggles me when Wizard throwers don't also like a seasoned Scale.

but feels almost like my wizards in the hand.

There's a pretty significant difference in hand-feel.

 

[Yxebrew]

There's a pretty significant difference in hand-feel.

The scale has a higher shoulder, and it has a thumb track. So fair point.
The bead is the same as a wizard and the top is similar to a rhyno. Given that I throw both it feels pretty similar