š° Gotta Squatch 'em all
Bag copycats, Moving plastic, and The future of CCDG
Hello and welcome to week 6 of the off-season.
Weāre halfway through December, which means Simon Lizotteās halfway through his yearly vlogmas. Check it out if you havenāt, as every video is great content.
Another pro looking to get into the vlog game is Andrew Fish (half-joking). For the past year, heās been posting dozens of vlog ideas on twitter. Hereās his best one:
Iād do more than just watch that one.
Gotta Squatch āem all
Squatch Disc Golf is doing a good job of scooping up āb-listā pros and paying them to carry The Legend Backpack. If you havenāt heard of Squatch, then you must not be one of those self-obsessed golfers carrying around a Pound Disc Golf bag (Iām one of them ā).
The Legend Backpack looks nearly identical to the Octothorpe by Pound, typically described as the best disc golf bag money can buy (>$450). The Legend retails at $260 which puts it more in the range of the ever-popular Grip-EQ bags.
Long story short, the founders of Squatch decided the optimal disc golf bag design was the Octothorpe and outsourced the manufacturing to China. Using similar quality materials and all the right features, theyāve created a bag for the masses who donāt want to shell out.
If youāre in the market for a new bag, the reviews are promising so give it a shot.
Contracts Watch
NEW
Matt Bell - Two weeks ago, Bell announced his departure from DGA. Heās now sponsored by Thought Space Athletics for 2022. The sponsorship includes a signature disc and jersey designed by TSA.
Prior to fall 2019, TSA was mainly a disc distributor and artwork designer. Theyāve collaborated with a lot of the big names in the sport, including Lizotte and McMahon. Now that they have their own line of discs (manufactured by MVP), they are sponsoring players.
Bell will have an open bag with a focus on the TSA molds (currently 4). Theyāre following a very similar path as Infinite Discs.
Either way, itāll be exciting to see Bell bang outside the circle putts next year or this...
Scott Withers extends his contract with Discraft for another year. Hopefully weāll see more of this FH specialist on the full 2022 tour.
PREDICTIONS
Last weekend, Gannon Buhr shared a lengthy story on Instagram showing all the Prodigy discs heās putting up for sale. Buhr has been on the list of possible pros to switch sponsors since the off-season began. His social media posts have been a bit suspicious.
Coming off a recent DGPT āRookie of the Yearā award for 2021, heās definitely in a position to look for a new, juicy contract whether thatās with Prodigy or not.
Ricky Wysocki - Please announce something soon. Please say you have a new $1 million contract with someone. Please donāt just say āYeah.ā Check out previous weeksā speculations on Wysockiās potential move here.
ā° 2.5 WEEKS UNTIL THE 2022 SPONSORSHIP IMPLOSION (JANUARY 1ST)
MOVES MADE
Andrew Fish - Contract extension with Discraft (1 year)
Michael Johansen - Contract extension with Discraft (4 years)
Andrew Presnell - Contract extension with Discraft (1 year)
Cole Redalen - From Discraft to Infinite Discs (1 year)
Gregg Barsby - Contract extension with Innova (3 years)
Matt Orum - From Prodigy to Westside Discs (2 years)
Eric Oakley - From Dynamic Discs to Infinite Discs (1 year)
Gavin Rathbun - From Discmania to Dynamic Discs (2 years)
Kristin Tattar - Contract extension with Latitude 64 (4 years)
Drew Gibson - Contract extension with Infinite Discs (1 year & lifetime deal for signature line discs)
New Plastic
Last weekās release of Innovaās Dark Rebel (affectionately known as BigD) was quickly followed up by its second release in champion plastic. Of course that run sold out the same day. It just shows that Innova isnāt afraid to profit off of their separation from Discmania. Hopefully that means weāll be seeing more Discmania Originals released under Innovaās lineup.
Not wanting to leave Discraft out of the loop, Innova is having Calvin Heimburg test out yet another Zone imitation disc. Itās called the Toro, and it fell into the hands of a volunteer at the DGPT Championship.
Even though the disc has been PDGA approved since April of this year, there hasnāt been any media on it or wide public releases. Maybe after all these new putter releases, Innova finally hit the mark on an overstable putter that might move the needle away from the Zone.
But wait thereās moreā¦ Kastaplast has joined the Zone club with their latest PDGA approved disc, the JƤrn (translates to āIronā). Purely from the measurements in their approval, the JƤrn more closely resembles the Zone than other companiesā overstable putters.
Without a doubt, the mint hungry Kasta fanatics will scoop them up like candy. I canāt blame them though; that K1 plastic is tasty š¤.
Random Triples
Central Coast Disc Golfās own Ian Anderson spoke with Cory Murrell on the future of CCDG. The bottom line is he canāt compete with JomezPro. Their production value is so high, and they travel full-time during the season.
Anderson has a day job with Jack in the Box as an Industrial Engineer and doesnāt plan on leaving it. And why would he; in 2022 he plans to continue his commentary gig with DGN, and CCDG will film some A-Tiers (Champs vs. Chumps too).
The two longtime friends predict that everything will move towards one production company for consistencyās sakeā¦ You can pry Jomezās post-produced coverage from my cold, dead hands. Looking at you, DGN.
There seemed to be an uproar when the 2021 DGPT āRookies of the Yearā were announced this week. And it was only because Juliana Korver, 5-time World Champion, was given this award. Obviously, JK is a decorated disc golfer and even considered in the FPO GOAT conversation. But watch this clip from The Nick & Matt Show to understand why she does in fact deserve it.
(TL;DW : This is a common & normal occurrence in every major professional sport.)
If you havenāt already, WATCH Simon Lizotte beat the so-called furthest thrower in Massachusetts in a distance competition with a 708ft smash.
Meme of the Week
Thanks for reading today. Beat your friends this weekend!
- Charlie