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May 14, 2008
The Safari
| Safari Golf: Is it the future of disc golf? I always wondered what I'd do if the City answered the hue and cry of the local environmental leaders and removed disc golf from Bidwell Park. I've been playing for 8 years, and while I've never achieved greatness at the recreation, I've certainly wasted enough energy to develop some level of skill. I've also been teaching my kid to play. At 7 he's finally got the focus, balance, and strength to throw a disc well. He can throw a golf disc better than a baseball. I may have done him a disservice since there's little chance of challenging and beautiful baseball fields being removed from the Chico recreation scene. But what is a disc golf course? Normally it is targets and concrete tee-pads to throw from. Normally there are 18 holes. But here in Chico we make do with whatever we can. The HWY 32 targets are unusual home made affairs and the tee pads don't exist. You can play without targets as well, it's called an object course. You just throw at specific objects like a dead tree, rock pile, deer, small children. The problem with not using targets is you lose the "putting" aspect of the game that requires much of the skill to play well. On the other hand, if you had low cost and light weight targets that were easy to set up, you could play virtually anywhere. You just need a few hardy souls to hike in and hike out with the targets. We're calling this Safari Golf, and had a trial run a couple of weeks ago. It went pretty well and we produced a short video of the experiment. (Note: I've got to pay a little homage to the Backforty Club here in Chico, some of that group were setting up temporary disc golf courses behind their houses for quite a while.) |
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 CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Dr. Tina H. I presume?. See comments below for the answer. |
Posted by Lon at May 14, 2008 08:43 AM
Comments
CIC "Lilo" from Lilo and Stich?
I want radio control disc golf. RC Hover discs that you can bang into tone poles by remote control. That way I can sit in a lawn chair and drink beer while enjoying the sport.
Posted by: Anthony at May 14, 2008 09:38 AM
Anthony,
Why not just go with the lawn chair and beer. That's an enjoyable sport on its own.
CIC not Lilo.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at May 14, 2008 10:17 AM
Hmm...CIC mogli and kaa from the jungle book?
I'm not sure I could ever get into safari golf. Ever since my friend had to remove a tick from my scalp, I am paranoid of getting a tick. But y'all feel free to exercise your constitutional right to get lyme's disease. I'll wait with Anthony at the lawn chairs.
Posted by: Tina at May 14, 2008 10:50 AM
Darn Tina I was going to say that, it looks like mowgli and kaa.
Posted by: Steve B. at May 14, 2008 10:57 AM
Guess what we did for reading comprehension this morning? We read the tree mitigation proposal you guys made in 2004 for 32. We tried to read the EIR, but it was slow going, explaining all those big words to the boy. And it was BO-ring!
Besides, your club's proposal is something a person should know how to do in order to participate in governing themselves.
It helped us understand what you've been doing up there. So, when is growing season? We're a menace. We try, cause we love trees and rocks and bugs and birds, but I tell you, sometimes the disc just seems to have a mind of it's own.
Maybe there should be a tree penalty, like it adds points to your game or something. We could call it a "Josephine Guardino" penalty. I have some fanatical friends who take those challenges seriously - they've already played the course into the ground, let's see them do it without hitting trees! At 5 Mile, there's an over hanging digger, it's branches are all de-nuded from being hit. Everybody in our party hit it, like it was trying to grab our discs! I alone navigated that tree, and even ended up in the general realm of the hole! Beginner's luck, that's for sure, but I did it. So now you better believe my kids are trying to outdo Mom on that hole, and they've gotten better about not hitting the tree.
Yeah, I'm still tired from Sunday, I have to sit down alot today. Yack yack yack. thanks for listening, mon frere. Hi Tom.
Posted by: juanita at May 14, 2008 10:58 AM
Tina,
If you wear a ski mask there's less chance of a tick digging in. If I can't find my ski mask I like to wear dark sunglasses and a Palestinian style keffiyeh.
Motorcycle helmets work as well.
Lon
CIC- yep, Jungle book boy and snake giving him a hug.
Posted by: Lon at May 14, 2008 11:11 AM
Lon -
Wouldn't moving targets be a lot funner? You can toss at cars that are driving by your house, or kids on bikes. You would never have to move, the targets will come to you.
Duke
Posted by: d.erickson at May 14, 2008 12:29 PM
Duke,
That's an excellent idea. I did mention deer and small children as examples of object course targets.
I hate to hit someone's car mostly because it's DriveChico! week. It would hardly be sporting of me to suggest that everyone get off their bikes and drive to work, and then I hit them with a disc.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at May 14, 2008 01:16 PM
Thanks for the mad "Backforty Club" props Lon. We apparently missed the 11 1/2 days of spring this year to play after work. Now it is too hot to play and keep our adult beverages cold. Possibly later in the summer we will return to have some fun in the channel and chase the bums out at the same time.
I am totally down for moving targets disc golf. What a good way to meet unique and interesting people by wacking them in the head with a hard plastic disc. . . .
JIM
Posted by: Jim Mellem at May 14, 2008 03:57 PM
Jim,
You need a solar powered refrigerator out on the channel. Don't let things like the seasons get in the way of your fun.
Your last comment and Tina's tick concern are the reasons I propose we enforce a voluntary helmet rule for disc golf. But I also want any helmets to be "viking" style with horns and what-not.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at May 15, 2008 08:42 AM
Yes, it is Tina H. but it's Nurse Tina, not doctor Tina. Wow, I can't believe I got the answer to a CIC. I'm just TICK-led about it. I told Mark I hoped he could handle living with a celebrity. (He can.)
Will pick up a keffiyeh asap.
Posted by: Tina H. at May 15, 2008 10:22 AM