I played many times in the late 90's/early 2000's with borrowed discs, but I started playing and collecting actively when I got a part time job at this bike shop to supplement my (lack of) income being self-employed. I got the job because I loved cycling and had really enjoyed my first job as a bike mechanic back in high school. Unfortunately a knee injury took me away from riding a few months after I started.
We also sold disc golf discs, so at lunch one day I grabbed this DX cobra that had been returned to lost and found and walked to the local 9 hole course. I met some random people to play with and had a blast. I got back to the shop and called the number on the cobra but it was disconnected. So I kept that and started basically buying every mold that sounded good to try it out.
A huge perk of all this was that as I made disc golf friends, I quickly built a customer base for our store. After we kept selling out of discs, my boss agreed to let me take over ordering and even go to Innova to get our orders each week. I would take custom orders and then get to spend hours in the warehouse scaling and searching for discs. I wish I could have kept that job forever, but unfortunately it doesn't pay more than about minimum wage.
I still have my old Cobra. It is so worn it can only do roller duty any more, so it stays in the closet, but I will hang it up some day. I also still have my second ever disc, an old pre-Barry Champ leopard. I lost it once and had to buy it back from the local raker, so that one was also relegated to the closet. I got my first two aces with it and have been swimming for it at least 5 times.