Inside Lowell Shields white mini-van are brown, cardboard boxes filled with discs stacked on top of each other.
The discs come in red, yellow, indigo and neon colors. Some have Native American tribal designs, which he designed, covering them while others have pin-up girls etched onto their face. A sign resting on top of Shields’ van advertises his discs for sale while he stands proudly next to the open passenger door and smiles at nearby disc golf players that recognize him.
Shields is the president of the Seattle Disc Golf Association and has been playing for 40 years.
“I started before golf discs started in 1977,” he said. “I’m one of the fixtures.”
He credits becoming the president of the association to playing a lot of disc golf and becoming acquainted with most of the players.
Before parks were designed to accommodate disc golf players, such as Terrace Creek Park in Mountlake Terrace and Mineral Springs Park in Shoreline, Shields and his friends played disc golf at woodland parks. Instead of aiming at metal baskets attached to poles as players do today, they flung discs at trees that they marked with tape.
Shields purchases discs from companies that manufacture the gear and sells them out of his van for $6-16.
He recommends discs made by Quest Applied Technologies and Innova Disc Golf. The latter are “pioneers” who designed the popular bevel-edged disc.
“It went twice as far as Wham-O’s did, and it was that much better,” Shields said.
Mainstream, chain stores like Fred Meyer also sell disc golf discs.
“It’s kind of weird how some general stores started carrying discs and it helped make them grow,” Shields said. “At least I can tell them (customers) what I’m selling.”
Depending on the type of plastic, discs run between 21 and 24 centimeters in diameter. The discs used for disc golf are typically between 21 and 22.5 centimeters.
The length and rim width of the discs varies depending on the distance the disc needs to sail for a shot.
“Some of these are exotic for how they need to be thrown,” Shields said.
Putters have deeper rims and are best used for flinging discs at shorter distances. They don’t fly as fast as thinner discs, but putters tend to fly straighter and more accurately.
The smaller, thinner discs have a faster spin rate, making them fly faster and are recommended for further distances.
Shields suggests using a disc with smaller rims if you’re a beginner.
Disc golf attracts players who take the sport lightheartedly, while others are more serious competitors.
“There’s 80 or 90 percent are recreational but some are wildly competitive,” he said.
Shields has observed mostly younger guys are at parks on sunny afternoons dodging cars to retrieve their discs from the street. Yet, there is a “pretty hardcore” group of 30-50-year-old men that Shields knows of who play frequently.
Twenty-seven-year-old Aaron Bosse plays disc golf at the Terrace Creek Park on warm afternoons when he can get off work early. He’s been playing for six years and has made a few observations about the sport.
“There’s both light-hearted and competitive individuals in the game,” he said. “Some people in Bellingham take it pretty seriously.”
There are benefits to throwing a disc around compared to playing traditional sports like golf.
“It’s free,” Bosse said. “One you buy discs, your only cost is if you lose a disc.”
Another benefit, is Bosse can go out and play by himself or with a with a group of friends.
Although women participate in disc golf and can be seen trekking through the woods with groups of guys, the sport is male dominated.
“There are about 10 percent of women players,” Shields said. “More of them are casual players than tournament players.”
Shields considers himself more of a casual player. The cost of traveling to tournaments as far away as Spokane and time conflicts have kept him playing locally.
He’s looking forward to planning a disc golf tournament on Halloween. Competitors will be dressed in costumes and use discs that are lit by a green light.
Currently, he’s striving toward building a disc golf course in Shoreline after helping design the park in Arlington. There are two disc golf parks in Bellingham, but he’s not worried about the increasing popularity of the sport there.
“There’s a pretty good following up there,” he said. “But there’s a heck of a lot more players here.”
With three courses located close together, 10 times more players here than in Bellingham and the relative simplicity of the sport, Shields is confident the sport will continue to steadily grow.
“Nobody ever died from getting hit by a disc,” he said.
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