As Shroom said, Opto/400g/Champion/Z plastic will hold up even if you are plunking trees. That is why I throw those style plastics. If you go cheap, and get a dx or pro plastic from Innova, they will show dents after the first tree.
Look at the numbers and weight and go off of that. If a discs is 13/ 5/ -3/ 3 and 175 grams. All of those numbers factor into how the disc will fly. So 13 is very fast. It needs to be throw very hard to get it to perform or it will just fade and die. The 2nd number you can pretty much ignore. The third number is what the disc will do when thrown up to speed (when moving as fast as it needs to move to do its thing). If negative, it means it will turn the opposite way a Frisbee naturally turns when fading and falling to the ground. And the last number is how hard it will fade and die after it slows down. So, me throwing "right hand back hand" RHBH, a 13/5/-3/3 disc will turn right if I throw it hard enough and then fade back left once it slows down creating a S pattern.
Basically you want to stick to lighter weight discs or discs with slower speeds when you start out. So for distance driver, go for 10 or 11 speed. However, when I first started out, I could get a Boss up to speed if it weighed 135g. Boss are 13 speed but if light enough, anyone can throw one with time and practice. Now, go and try to throw a 175g Boss, and it will fade and die immediately. Essentially, the speed of the disc is how fast it has to be thrown for it to do what it is supposed to do. And if it is lighter, that will be easier. But also harder to throw straight because it being so light makes releasing it straight harder.
If you are RHBH, get a 155ish gram StarLite or blizzard champion Mamba. And chuck it hard. 155 is pretty light. But it is an 11 speed, which is semi fast. However, its high speed turn number is a -5, which means it will turn hard right. This will be good for a beginner as even if you throw it on a huge hyzer angle (like a Frisbee is thrown many times when the disc is thrown on an angle where the top of the disc is pointing away from the body) it still might straighten up and not fly 100 feet to the left because naturally the Mamba wants to go right (which is counter to what normal discs want to do) And most peoples big problem to start is not releasing a disc flat.
Once that Mamba starts to turn hard right for you, and not fade all the way back left, it is now flying like it is designed, and you now know you can handle a speed 11 disc that is more stable (i.e has a smaller high speed number). Or, you could get a heavier Mamba and work on getting that one to fly to the right.
Again, this is all based on if you throw RHBH
Also, try out a River, A Jade and a Diamond. Those are great beginner discs for distance. They are slower speed but float for days. The 2nd number is the floatiness of the discs and these actually do float like 5 and 6s and so the # does sort of mean something. Start with a diamond and once that starts to turn right for you (assuming you throw RHBH) then try a Jade.
a daredevil bigfoot. I am not an overly strong thrower and I need something durable as well. Thanks!
