Summer time = Frisbee® fun time

Frisbee® Flying Discs – not just a day at the beach

Here in Ottawa flying disc related activities take up a big part of my summer. (I'm going to call them frisbees -- with apologies to Wham-O but seriously it really is generic; nobody knows what a flying disc is.) I play Ultimate two times a week and have been known to put in a round or two of disc golf. I've also managed to include it in my marketing efforts.

Some of you may remember my INTA mission to obtain frisbees as a souvenir. There was the trek to the University of Washington, the odyssey to Columbine, the clandestine hand off in DC, odd packages being delivered to my hotels in San Francisco and Amsterdam … Regrettably, I have not had the time at INTA to devote to this lately.

Back at the beginning of May, Hunt Law donated frisbees to a Big Brothers/Big Sisters disc golf event put on by the Ottawa Disc Golf Association. Next month, we are giving away a bar tab to an Ultimate Frisbee team.

Ultimate: a team sport played with a frisbee

The object of the game is to score points by passing the frisbee to a player in the opposing end zone. Two teams, usually of seven players, begin at opposite end zones and try to advance the frisbee to the other end zone. The playing field is about 120 yards long and 40 yards wide.  The frisbee may be moved only by passing, so the player holding the disc must not move and has 10 seconds to throw the frisbee. If a pass is incomplete, intercepted or caught out of bounds, the opposing team immediately gains possession and tries to move the frisbee in the other direction.  

Disc Golf: like golf only you throw little frisbees into a basket

A game in which individual players throw a frisbee at a target.  You  can go anywhere and just throw the frisbee at something or you can go to a proper course.  Here in Ottawa we have one where you walk up and down ski hills; it's exhausting. You can use a regular sized frisbee or use ones specially made for this game which are smaller in diameter, have different weights and different edges.  There are hundreds of varieties of disc golf frisbees each designed to fly differently.  Keen players have a bag of about 20 to play a round.  I use three -- an XL driver, my Deuce approach and a putter. 

Of course, nothing beats playing catch with a frisbee at the beach.  There's no better place to lay out.