My New Church

Since I was a kid I’ve had this weird phobia of Frisbees. I was seriously scared of Frisbees; like for reals, terrified! I got paranoid any time there was a flying disc around. My immediate reaction was to cover my forehead (eye brows mostly), duck and run. I don't even know why or what, if anything happened, you know happened in my past…that’s what people tend to ask is if I was tortured or hurt or what happened back in my day.

Sometimes I'd get this panic attack like something (this case being the Frisbee) was chasing me and I would yelp out a ridiculous scream. People thought it was hilarious, I however did not see the humor. It was like my neck phobia - I freaked the fuck out any time people would reach for my neck or so I thought they were. I hated blankets around my neck and chin as a child and would panic when people would try to fix my necklace.

Now, studying psychology for years, I still have not pinpointed the reason. I have even tried meditating on the idea and go back to see anything and nope, not a thing comes to mind. I had a great childhood, my parents would spank me if I deserved it and I learned from it. I don't know if there was any other type of "abuse." 

I was dating a guy back in 2008 and while we were visiting his family in Wisconsin he introduced me to this thing called disc golf. He thought it would help me and he loved to play and wanted his girlfriend to join him. The first time he showed me how to throw, I nailed it. He was so happy that I was a "natural." Never having an idea of the concept of disc golf let alone golf, I didn't really know what he was talking about. We played 18 holes and he laughed the whole time saying, "I gotta have you play with my friends!" Hmm ok, this is fun but they better not throw anything at me. We took on our game as we moved to Portland together. This was such a fun thing to do but I would play casually as I was still a little timid about other people not playing responsibly. 

The ex and I broke up but as I played I met all kinds of quirky people that were super serious about disc golf. It cracked me up because well, it was disc golf. I saw people with bags filled with discs and what I really thought was ridiculous was the chair, omg, the chair. People would have these tri-fold chairs attached to their bags and set up while people teed off and when they were on the fairway waiting for their friends to throw, like seriously, a chair. I would always play with men, and they would let me play par 4. I didn't really think anything of that or care. I ended up meeting a couple girls that played and they sort of got started the way I did and we loved to just dick around throw shit in the woods and chat it up. Once summer day, they got this crazy idea to play in a woman's disc golf tournament. There are disc golf tournaments LOL you gotta be kidding me, that is too hilarious, come on, it's disc golf people actually compete? Ooh you can win money? I'm in! 

I played my first Woman's Global tourney and it was fantastic. Like I said, I've always played with men only with the newest exception of meeting these 2 girls. It was so neat to play with people of my "size" and ability, it was like real competition. The guys would tell me I was good but I just thought they were being nice since I couldn't drive as far as they could but to actually see where I stood in a ladies division was just super. The first Woman's Global was a worldwide tournament with 700 entries and I placed 37th, not bad! I laughed and my ego grew bigger. I signed up for another tournament called The Chick Flick - I loved it. Besides the fact that I was the only single girl there without a caddy I held my head and ego high and ended up failing miserably. I didn't practice cause it's disc golf but it was eye opening to see that this is actually a sport, a fun sport and if I put a little oomph into it I could actually win some cool shit. 

After that I decided to play more and I got more people involved, I taught a couple people and it became my favorite hobby. It was free, it was fun, it was chill, and I was hooked. I thought when I decided to leave Portland I had to leave my hobby behind, I thought I had to say goodbye to my favorite activity and never find a course ever again - I thought it was just an Oregon hippie thing. So to my surprise when I drove into Bear Valley, the small community had one way in and one way out and the entrance/exit had an 18-hole disc golf course you could not avoid.

When I first drove in I was ecstatic to see the course and expressed my passion to a local. I was soon invited to join the Friday night bag tag game and found a new experience to playing disc golf. I was so impressed by the community how they gathered and came together to make food, eat and come to throw together, even with 30 people they would all play in one giant group. It took hours and fun hours of shit talking, advice and good times with beer sharing and many laughs. I definitely enjoyed the times I got to play in the Bear Valley disc golf course, I found my brothers, I found a family in that we could cheer each other on. They "religiously" met each Friday and Sunday for "mass." I cannot think of any other sport if that's what you want to call it where there is a small dose of competition but mostly just people getting together to do what they love.

I gotta say I enjoy and love the disc golf community. It's very communal. No matter where I've gone I find a course and can meet and play with anyone. I was thinking when I left Portland it was time to say goodbye for a while to my favorite hobby, as I would be traveling and living in an area not sure where they stand on the activity but even sine leaving Bear Valley I have found others with the same attitude in Lake Tahoe. It’s interesting playing with the rich locals now. They enjoy playing to escape and be genuine – not talk about work or the things of the week, we are in the moment, competitive, supportive, and throwing things in the woods, hiking and drinking beers. I think I have found my new church and church family. 

The Chick Flick tourney with Jesse

My first ace!

The student became the master.