The season is now in full swing, we have played 3 tournaments thus far this year. Including a 7th Place at the Gentleman’s Club Challenge in Las Vagas, a 12th Place finish at The Memorial National Tour Event in Phoenix, AZ and a 2nd Place at the Aloha Sushi Classic in Walla Walla, Washington. I shot some amazing rounds, including a hot round to start the year off in Vegas and my career best round of 1088 the last round in Phoenix. I am just looking for more consistency during my rounds to put together some great tournaments as the tour is off to a great start.

So my sister Valarie flew out to Oregon for the past few weeks to hang out, play some tournaments and train for “Big D in the Desert VIII” which the biggest distance competition in the sport. The event is hosted by Disc Golf Values / Innova at this dry lake bed about an hour outside of Las Vegas in Primm, Nevada on the stateline of California. There are 40 competitors from all over the world with throwers from Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany and Japan. We will be throwing at approx. 3,000 ft elevation with wind conditions that on average range from 25-35 mph. These conditions are ideal to throw a disc a long way with these types of external factors. The current Men’s World Record is held by Christian Sandstrom of Sweden at 250 meters (820 ft) and the Women’s World Record is held by Jennifer Griffin of Virginia at 139 meters (456 ft).

I have been training a majority of the winter months this off-season for this event, I have been wanting to attend this competition for years but it just seem to work out this year in the tour schedule. The past couple of weeks Val and I have been some weight training and really working on our throwing technique. We have spent hours in the turf practice fields at the University of Oregon throwing hundreds of drives into nets and it also offers plenty of space to unleash some large throws. Val has a legitimate shot at breaking and setting a new Women’s World Record, this has been her motivation for the past couple of months as she was also doing lots of training over the winter. She is throwing over 400 ft at seas level which will equal throws of 475 – 500 in the desert. My personal goal is throw over 656 ft to join the 200 meter club and possibly blast a few to 214 meters (702 ft) which will place me in the top 10 of the longest throws ever recorded.

The competition takes place on April 5th and 6th, with April 7th being an all out World Record Breaking Distance challenge day. It will be World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) sanctioned which means that all distances will be officially measured and recorded to determine World Records. Innova is also offering a $10,000 bonus for anyone that breaks the current World Record.

It will be a blast, I have been looking forward to this for a long time, wish me luck.

Keep posted for future blogs throughout the 2008 Touring Season.

Next Tournament: Bowling Green Open National Tour Event – Bowling Green, KY

4/1/08