Updates from January, 2013 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • ziggy

    ziggy 9:29 am on January 19, 2013 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
    Tags: , Deaf National Championships, , IL13   

    13th DNC – DEAF NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS in SPRINGFIELD, IL 

    As you may know – the 13th DNC is coming up this year. DNC? you ask. Deaf National Championship!! Hard to believe it’s been 13 years since Deaf dizzers nationwide have been formally competing against each other. Ever since inception at Austin, Texas, we have multiplied. In fact, at the 13th DNC coined “iL13″ for its location + year, we will be opening up bid for the 16th DNC that will occur in 2016 somewhere! If your organization is interested in getting a bunch of deaf disc golf yahoos to assemble somewhere in the nation at your home course, be at iL13 or be square.

    As a Team DGA’s member (Kent “Ziggy” Schafer), I will be showing Deaf disc golfers how the 13th DNC couldn’t have been done without DGA. Be sure to pick up a proline squall or a sparkle hurricane to thank DGA for all their extended efforts to go above and beyond promoting Deaf disc golf! I know I will.

    Someone asked me today about recognizing the former champs. So I took a couple minutes to fire up good ol’ google docs and transfer the information I collected from the years gone by. Behold, the history of our Deaf disc golf champions. If you ever come across some of these names on the courses or tournaments, be sure to congratulate them on total world domination!

    For the curious few, I have also dissemeniated SSA as well as Feet used for each and every National course in the past 12 years. Take a gander and see just how many of these courses have you challenged yourself on.

    This year, the first of many firsts will be occurring. New scheduled format, new layouts and many more will challenge our finest deaf disc golfers at Springfield, Illinois on June 26th-29th, 2013. Be sure to check out our website for more information.

    David Tomlinson, PDGA #21823 and DDGA #17, returns to try and secure his 4th National W in the Deaf dizz world. Will Justin Ashton, PDGA #23087 and DDGA #199, also has secured 3 national W’s and will be trying to beat DT to the 4th notch on their belt. Between the two of them and their rootin’ tootin’ Texas blood, it will be a contested battle to secure Win #7 out of 13 national Deaf titles. Or will a surprise lurker emerge victorious to claim win #1??

    Be sure to check out our sponsors and thank them. Without them, this wouldn’t have been possible. If you or your organization want to expose yourself to hundreds of deaf disc golfers, their grapevine, and oh yea – good ol’ fashioned social media – be sure to join the facebook group of this year’s IL13 Championships on social media

    Last but not least..

    Want to learn some disc golf sign language? The top pros in the nation are getting their game on!

     
  • ziggy

    ziggy 9:17 pm on June 19, 2012 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
    Tags: , , , nationals   

    Deaf Nationals, how did it start? 

    If there ever was a time to dare, it was the summer of 2001. Two guys set out to make a difference. Having been removed from their house due to termites and living out of their cars or the beds of their fellow friends to complete the last 4 weeks of their semester at the only Deaf university in the world – Gallaudet University at Washington, DC; it was time to roam the land and embark on something worth doing. Something was tugging on our heart but little did we know what was in store during the journey in the summer of 2001.

    We owed it to ourselves to dig deep and aspire to make a mark. The things worth disc golfing were not easy back then. We were equipped with a rand mcnally atlas and a textbook pdga directory of 200 pages. Seeking out the courses during our trip was a challenge. There were times when we wanted to quit. Instead, we pushed ourselves and learned by trying. With detours, we were able to tack on courses pre-DGCR style with the PDGA book. How many of you remember those old PDGA handbooks? Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas.

    It was in Colorado that we decided to tour. We played 30+ courses in June before discovering that Texas Deaf folks were proclaiming a “national deaf disc golf tournament” through the Deaf disc golf Yahoogroups. For those of you who are new the game, Texas Deaf Disc Golfers, specifically Austin, are in their own world of big challenges. There’s Austin deaf disc golfers and there’s everyone else. (To date, Austin has 7 of the last 11 male pro open deaf national champs)

    Kevin Harrer and Kent Schafer looked at each other and said let’s go find out what’s this all about. Game on. Armed with Kevin’s ford ranger, Fry-guy, a camping tent, jugs of water and determination. We marked out courses enroute to Texas to conquer.

    Memory evades me of all the courses we conquered but definitely remember this one. At one course somewhere in Texas (Georgetown?), we arrived in the dead of the night. Unable to find any baskets with our flashlights bobbing on our heads, we set up the tent to sleep a couple hours on the course. Much to our chagrin, Kevin woke up to an officer holding a gun ad immediately woke me up. (deaf people are harder to wake up) Turns out our tent was blocking a fairway and we were 50 feet from a basket. Man! We couldnt find a basket the night before and there we were literally a putt away. Lucky us, the officer knew sign language and we were able to talk our way out of the experience and back onto the course with nary a trip to the clink or a hole in our wallets.

    After a couple more courses, campsites, and hairball detours.. We arrived to Austin. 3 courses, deaf disc golfers, and competition awaited!

    During this competition.. Deaf Disc Golf Hall of Famer, Stevie Campbell, dropped an idea in Kevin’s mind. With determination and the right tools, we can do anything. It was there during the competition, camaderie and long discussions between Kent and Kevin, that the 2nd “national” deaf disc golf event was going to happen and it was going to happen in Colorado. Kevin, the braver soul, at that time made the pitch and earned the support of Austin Deaf disc golfers.

    Our 30+ course experience earlier that summer in Colorado set the tone and identified the best mountain experience for our visitors. Frisco or bust. The second Deaf nationals was coming. Sure enough, 100 visitors showed up and the Deaf Disc Golf Association was created with the idea of Nationals being our once a year tradition to get together, compete, and make more memories.

     

  • Ziggy 3:09 am on March 9, 2012 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
    Tags: , ,   

    REVIEW: DGA’s Sparkle Undertow 

    I have the sparkle undertow in hand.

    Today is the first day our snow melt.
    (two days of 50 degrees)
    unfortunately, we have 40mph winds and soon rain..

    Wonderful weather we are having – blah.. Wisconsin is beautiful June, July, Aug
    that it. The rest of the year, we adapt.

    Ok, I have four sparkle undertows.. Been throwing them and digging them out of snow for the last month or so..

    Right now, I rate them as a faster TL.
    Speed is about 9. Turn is about -1, Fade is about 1, Glide is about 5
    Keep in mind, this is with cold weather. Some wind. I am wondering if it will change when the temp gets warmer and When I finally dont deal with so much wind at WSD practice course.

    Have some nice roller potential. Definitely will need to find a place in my bag for it. I like it for the line it presents when I nail the throw or even a nice slow anhyzer fade when I can put it on the line.  Was looking at my silverback and trying to figure out where the undertow will go. I have 15 discs in my silverback at the moment waiting to break out for
    some disc golf rust from last year… Only played a total of 40 holes since january 1st (one sloshy byop event) I usually throw junk discs in the winter in case they end up in the snow and I cant find them. My first pdga tournament is March 31st. I am not ready but hell, I need the escape from homework (second master’s degree), schoolwork (school psych gig), and most of all…cabin fever.

    (More …)

     

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