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There isn't another course within at least an hours drive of Stokesley, so that's good for a start, but it's also the first site to install our Castle basket which I'm rather excited about!
Lot's more of these coming in both UK and Europe. Tim is adding it to the DGCR listings and it's making me feel all proud
There isn't another course within at least an hours drive of Stokesley, so that's good for a start, but it's also the first site to install our Castle basket which I'm rather excited about!
Lot's more of these coming in both UK and Europe. Tim is adding it to the DGCR listings and it's making me feel all proud
First and foremost Mr. Hatton: thank you for very solidly representing the UK, your contributions to the game in the UK, and all your contribution on DGCR in general!
But...
You can't start a thread with titled "First course to install the Disc Golf UK Castle Basket has opened!" … and not provide a good photo of what the basket looks like.
What's different about this basket? … and can you provide any pics to illustrate?
First and foremost Mr. Hatton: thank you for very solidly representing the UK, your contributions to the game in the UK, and all your contribution on DGCR in general!
But...
You can't start a thread with titled "First course to install the Disc Golf UK Castle Basket has opened!" … and not provide a good photo of what the basket looks like.
What's different about this basket? … and can you provide any pics to illustrate?
Bit of background -first up baskets have been expensive over here because of shipping and a terrible exchange rate over the last few years, it's made it hard to persuade landowners to install. In order to get more courses in the ground quickly we needed to find a way to change this. Making our own basket was inevitable although a great shame as we have worked with some really great companies on courses so far, Latitude/Prodigy Europe and Prodiscus in recent years.
I loved the lat 64 pro basket we have used on a couple of courses but found the wirework to be a bit weak for our particular brand of exuberant youth (insert vandal/hooligan/swear word here)
Also absolutely loved the Prodigy T2's we installed on around 10 courses last year from a robustness point of view (good thick wirework and strength at the joins, plus great and easy assembly) but found a couple of the usual China manufacturing issues which have concerned me for the longevity (rusting at cuts, cuts done after galvanisation not before etc)
I've been working with China factories for 15 + years and the company I'm now 50/50 owners of the business with ship out a few containers a month from a range of different factories. We've both spent a lot of time in the factories over there and have a pretty good idea of the sort of shortcuts that are likely to occur in manufacture if you don't specify and control so we decided to make our own combining the best features of the things I've liked about the baskets we've used, my business partner went out to oversea the initial order, he's supposed to be out there again now but world events have stopped that trip!
The basket is big, for commercial reasons I decided to go for as large spec as we could so it is almost at the max of PDGA specs in all categories. The idea was to appeal to the casual player most likely to use the baskets and then most likely to want to install at their course because they had such a good catching experience on it. Whilst there's a drive to smaller baskets from some, I believe the majority want to have the feeling they can't miss near the baskets (this was feedback from the courses with the Latitudes which are also near top specs - ours are a bit wider in the chain assembly) The comment from everyone that used them at our first demo was "they're massive"
The wirework is thick and strong and built with the British vandal in mind.
We have gone double rings as the European version of the discatcher was only ever single ringed which led to lots of unfair feeling spit outs with heavier chains as a result of inner and outer chains all moving as one mass. We've got the inner ring slightly higher than other baskets have done, we found in experimentation that this helped to allow softer putts come through the outer chains but still stop the fast ones hitting center pole.
We've gone for quite a light chain so it is accepting of soft putts but also slows down the faster ones too before they hit the center pole. catching has so far been superb.
The main thing is despite IMO being better build quality than the competition and a great catching experience, they are cheap. They are by far the best priced in the market in the UK and it is allowing us to launch a pretty revolutionary scheme here this month to get more courses in the ground (effectively free courses to clubs)
Below's a video from the first demonstration held last week at the Midlands Open and British Nationals matchplay event, the ace was from the 2nd place finisher of Nationals, Angus Green. 50 meter uphill shot, we had two hit metal hits from there and both stuck for aces!
The Smaller basket is 100% an MVP basket Pro HD basket only looking like the bottom cage is made of thicker wire or even of thin steel bar similar to Rebar.
If I read him right, he's still using Chinese suppliers. He just feels that by working directly with the Chinese companies, he can better control quality. He and his partner have greater experience with manufacturing over there vs disc golf companies that don't have experience beyond plastic molding and apparel. Could be his exchange rate issues were euro to pound and not pound to yuan. At least that's my takeaway. Likely to be proven wrong tomorrow.
The Smaller basket is 100% an MVP basket Pro HD basket only looking like the bottom cage is made of thicker wire or even of thin steel bar similar to Rebar.
The Keep is a fair bit larger than the MVP black hole pro HD (even version 2.0) , in terms of catching/target area it is akin to a European Disccatcher (different to American Disccatchers) - 53 cms target height as opposed to a black hole 47 cms and also a bit wider. We've gone for a slightly shallower bucket and off the top of my head I can't remember why, might have been a weight consideration, we might make a deeper one for future, if we add 2.5 cms depth to the bucket the target can be used for PDGA standard level as opposed to basic level.
We've gone with stainless steel chain as well for longevity. looks smarter too.
The Keep is a fair bit larger than the MVP black hole pro HD (even version 2.0) , in terms of catching/target area it is akin to a European Disccatcher (different to American Disccatchers) - 53 cms target height as opposed to a black hole 47 cms and also a bit wider. We've gone for a slightly shallower bucket and off the top of my head I can't remember why, might have been a weight consideration, we might make a deeper one for future, if we add 2.5 cms depth to the bucket the target can be used for PDGA standard level as opposed to basic level.
We've gone with stainless steel chain as well for longevity. looks smarter too.
The European version is now a ParkSport or something like that made for Discmania by Innova unless the Innova Europe Discatcher model is still made.
Yeah I do like the fact a basket can be used for Standard over Basic as Standard means a PDGA B tier over a C tier event with basic. I did say a better MVP Black Hole HD.
This is the version of baskets Innova Europe, now Spin 18, have been making and selling in Europe for around 8 years or so now, interesting that they've only just got them approved late last year yet have run majors around the world on them for years....
The European ones are single ringed which makes a heavier chain unit leading to unfair feeling spit outs and are a fair bit smaller than the American made. I was always a big fan of the American made ones. Better build quality as well, although the European ones have improved over time.
Our Keeps as a temp basket are very close in size specs (slightly more height and slightly less width on the chain assembly catching area) to these but have the double ring for better catching, less chains though so I suppose some more chance of one going right through, although we've yet to witness that.
This is the version of baskets Innova Europe, now Spin 18, have been making and selling in Europe for around 8 years or so now, interesting that they've only just got them approved late last year yet have run majors around the world on them for years....
The European ones are single ringed which makes a heavier chain unit leading to unfair feeling spit outs and are a fair bit smaller than the American made. I was always a big fan of the American made ones. Better build quality as well, although the European ones have improved over time.
Our Keeps as a temp basket are very close in size specs (slightly more height and slightly less width on the chain assembly catching area) to these but have the double ring for better catching, less chains though so I suppose some more chance of one going right through, although we've yet to witness that.
Yep the DiscGolfPark, They have been making a very similar basket for Discmania Via Innova and using it for PDGA events since they did the World Tour. However those baskets have a double set of chains more like the old top of the line Discatcher.
