A previous roommate of mine was an avid disc golfer but he also had many things in common with hippies not drugs or smoking but he liked drum circles (which can be cool), slack-lining, tie-dye shirts, man-capries made from pants with a pair of scissors, and a few other things that I won't bore you with, but you get the picture.
So I get to a disc golf course, which I was a little surprised even existed, only to see numerous people everywhere at this course. There was a small line to start playing, an most people I saw had form. Imagine a golfer getting ready to tee off. He lines up, makes sure his grip is good, sets his feet, takes a few practice swings, (accurate??) and then is ready to swing. I was, I dare say, flabbergasted. I thought to myself, "self, I know how to throw a frisbee, so whats the big deal, why don't these hippies just throw the thing already and get on with it?" I later concluded that most of them are much better than I and their approach to the game just may give them an edge on me. The course was actually quite scenic as we walked through trees and crossed a river that winds it way through and on the side of several fairways and pins. On the first outing I was fortunate not to have a disc land in the water, however, my friend was as fortunate. When water has a current its a good thing that the discs sink and sit in the water just about where they landed.
After a solid 18 holes or pins of disc golf I found that unbeknownst to me, I had enjoyed myself the entire time and I had not spent one cent unless you calculate the cost of fuel consumption into the cost of an activity. Still gas prices on the rise or not relatively free.
So my friend and I have been disc golfing a couple of times a week and everything seemed free to me until one day... I was standing on the tee of the 7th pin, to reach the fairway you have send your disc across the river; the path to the fairway is somewhat narrow due to trees that line the river. This isn't a big river, about 20 or 30 feet wide and about 3 feet deep. The last time we had played my friend hit a tree and his disc dropped to the river bottom, so he had to get a little wet, nothing bad. I stood there and realized that my friend was to throw first. I a jestful manner I advised him to miss the tree on his opening drive; which advise he took to heart and his disc landed safely on the fairway. I, overly confident in my frisbee skills, made threw my disc and watched it smack the very tree I advised my friend to avoid. I began to laugh at myself due to the obvious irony of the situation, when a bystander waiting at another nearby tee informed me that my disc had not sunk but landed flat in the water and was about to head through some rapids on the other side of a bridge. I didn't quite understand him until I saw my disc disappear into roar of white water never to be seen again. That is not to say I didn't look cause I did. Like an lady who doesn't want to get her pant legs wet while wading in shallow water I entered the edge of the fast moving water with my shorts hiked to an upper region of my sun lacking thighs and without success searched aimlessly in the water for a disc i shall never see again.
Since I lost that disc there have been a couple of close calls on other discs being whisked away in the river but we have been more attentive and acted a little faster and have been able to prevent other losses until a couple of days ago, my friend was throwing at the pin from about 50 feet, over shot the pin and lost another disc in the water.
Long story short, disc golf is free once you have your discs and as long as you don't loose your discs in water hazards or in deep weeds.
Now I really enjoy disc golf, I don't think I look as crazy as most of the people who play, but perhaps with time I too can let my inner hippie out.
