Interviews on Podcasts
Earlier this year I was interviewed for a couple of different podcasts. The first on is called “Trep Talks” which has a focus on helping out entrepreneurs. In this podcast I talk a lot about the operations and things I learned in starting and growing Infinite Discs.
Listen to this podcast here. https://treptalks.com/interviews/alan-barker-infinite-discs
The second podcast was by one of my former neighbors Clint Hoopes, who runs a podcast called the Unrivaled Man. The focus is on being well rounded, successful business people, fathers, and husbands. My interview on this podcast focuses more on the history of my businesses and how it intertwines with my personal and family life.
Listen to the Unrivaled Man podcast here.
Delaware Disc Golf Courses
On Sunday afternoon I had planned on a normal work week routine in Utah. Well, that all changed when we got a phone call telling us that there was a baby in Delaware ready for us to adopt. We scrambled to get some stuff together and headed on a red eye flight for the next plane to leave Salt Lake City.
Monday afternoon we signed the adoption paperwork, and met our newest angel Elizabeth Rose.
The bad news about the adoption rules is that we can’t leave Delaware until everything is finalized. The good news is that a brought a couple of discs, and as it turns out, there are some pretty sick disc golf courses in Delaware.
On Tuesday I headed out to Iron Hill, because it was the closest course to our hotel, not realizing that it was home to a National Tour event that was played a few weeks ago. Let me tell you that this course is pretty amazing. The trees and scenery and challenge of this course are fantastic. There are two sets of tee pads and two basket locations on each hole giving multiple combinations to play the same course on the same day. No matter which way you play it, this course is long. I played the short course to the Short baskets and still shot well over par. This course was full of 600+ foot holes through ultra tall thickly wooded trees. The nice thing about it is that even though I played in the midst of the afternoon, we were always covered with shade. Here are a few pictures from this amazing frisbee golf course. The DGA Mach baskets are the “shorter” baskets and the Innova Discatchers are the long pins. Both sets of baskets are in at the same time.
On Wednesday I hit up the next closest course, Greenridge in Brookhaven Park. Fortunately I did not take my new baby with me on this course because it was even longer than Ironwood, and you had to go through more rough terrain that had a lot of spider webs in the way. This course is obviously not played nearly as muchh as Iron Hill, but the property it is on has some amazing potential. It is better than anything we have in Utah. What I could do with a property like this in Cache Valley…. Here are a few photos from this amazing course.
On Thursday I was able to visit Brandywine Creek State Park. This course is very different than the other Delaware course’s I’ve been able to play on my trip which are primarily thickly wooded and mostly flat. On the contrary, Brandywine is mostly wide open with lots of elevation changes. I got a lot of steps in during y round at Brandywine. This course was my wife’s favorite because of the scenery.
On Saturday we went and visited Lums Pond State Park. This is another nice little Delaware State park that surrounds a lake. This course was much shorther than the others, but still thickly wooded and very fun to play. I was able to finish my round here in a little more than an hour, which is ideal when you have a family and other things you need to take care of besides disc golf all the time.
Monday I was back at it again, hitting up the Canby West disc golf course. Even though this course was not in a pay to enter state park, it was still a really amazing course with some really fun shots. I took more pictures here than any of the other Delaware disc golf courses which likely means it was the most photogenic. Or, it might just be that I remembered to pull out my camera a few more times.
The good news is that I still have courses White Clay Creek State Park, and Bellevue State park to test out. A good problem to have while taking advantage of the forced situation.
I Forgot About This Blog!
So I forgot completely about this blog. Perhaps I should post something. Here are a bunch of cool pictures from this summers activities.
Noodle Arm Disc Golf’s March Mold Mania!
A little fun for disc golf March Madness.
It’s that time of year again.
The birds are chirping, the sun is shining, and my knowledge of college basketball still remains at an all-time low. But, year in and year out, I pick a March Madness bracket anyway, because apparently I don’t like money.
Honestly, though, March Madness is one of my favorite times of the year, because it brings back memories of getting the gang together for a couple days of basketball and debauchery that is rivaled by few other sporting events. Beyond trying to actually cash in with a decent bracket showing, the trash talking, buzzer beaters and more trash talking make the investment worth the loss.
But as I’ve grown older and found less free time on my hands, watching NCAA hoops throughout the season hasn’t exactly been priority number one in life, so my bracket usually becomes a crap shoot. For the past couple seasons…
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Smithfield Utah Superheroes Powerful Enough to Defeat the Creeper
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‘Ready to play’: New disc golf course opens at Cache County Fairgrounds – The Herald Journal: Allaccess
Smithfield resident Alan Barker got into disc golf two years ago when he started playing at a Providence course. He now owns Infinite Discs, one of the biggest disc golf outlets in the nation and one of the primary sponsors of the Cache Valley Disc Golf Club. Barker said the fairground course is great because of the trees and shade, attributes that make it friendlier to disc golfers.
“It’s one of the best courses in Utah,” Barker said. “They are well-kept grounds, more like a ball golf course.”
Barker also lauded the sport itself, saying it can be played by all people.
“It gets people out,” Barker said. “It’s family fun or it can be competitive.”
Have a Nice’d Day! Disc Dye’n
Here’s a little article written up about Infinite Discs and Dying Discs:
Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when I began a hunt for the newly released Westside World…Over the past few months, I have been converting my entire bag to totally Trilogy plastic. (For those of you who don’t know, Trilogy is the conglomerate of Lat64, Westside Discs, and Dynamic Discs.) A quick search on El Goog led me straigt to Infinite Disc’s website, where they were stocking a few of these Westside Worlds. And with all of the stuff going on in this life of a new parent, I’m not sure how I remembered that Infinite Discs had contacted me many months prior, but nonetheless, I hit up Alan and BAM! He offered up a Shiny new Westside World free o’ charge in exchange for shameless plugs! We have a deal!
Now, I’m not partial to one specific DG retailer and I believe that there’s enough DG love to go around. With that being said, most of the time I’ll make the trip across town to the North side of Orlando to DiscGolfCenter, cause it’s always nice to feel the disc in your hands before making the purchase, and if you have a local store close enough and they have the selection of plastic you want, then by all means, support them. But sometimes, you’re in the hunt for a specific mold, color, or weight, and your local shop or retailer of choice just doesn’t have what you’re looking for, and if you ever find yourself in that situation, Infinite Discs might have you covered. Put them in your favorites, bookmark their website, like them on facebook, for Pete’s sake!
Thank you, Infinite Discs!
So I took this shiny, new Westisde World and I did the unthinkable! It had a beautiful gold foil stamp, and I just defaced the whole thing! I slaughtered the duck, and turned it into a smiley face! I was experiementing with a new dye technique, using iDye Poly mixed with acetone instead of water. In this way, you don’t have to let the dye set with nearly boiling hot water for long periods of time, basically it only takes a couple of seconds to set. I’ll go through the play-by-play after the break:
Read More Have a Nice’d Day! | Chuckin’ Plastic.
Review of the Prodigy D5
A few months ago Prodigy Disc announced that their future molds were going to be more “beginner friendly.” Now, I’m not a beginner, but I’m definitely not a professional disc golfer either. I consider myself an intermediate to advanced disc golfer, and would estimate that I can throw farther than 90% of the people that play disc golf.
So when a disc is designed to be beginner friendly, an intermediate player should be able to throw it right?
And I can throw this disc, just not as far as I can other discs like my Dynamic Discs Renegade and Westside King.
Anyways, here is the review I wrote of the D5 on InfiniteDiscs.com
I’m pretty disappointed in the D5. I’m no beginner, but I’m not exactly Mr. Power Arm either. So far I haven’t been able to handle any of the Prodigy Distance drivers. A few months ago when Prodigy said that their focus was moving away from professionals, to less experienced players, I got pretty excited for the new products they would be bringing out.
I thought this was going to be the fast understable driver that would provide easy beginner distance. I was hoping for something unLace like (which if you haven’t tried the unLace, you should, it’s the most amazingly understable driver ever).
My 174g D5 is nothing like the unLace. Infact, with my power I don’t even consider this disc understable. The heavier weight probably has something to do with it, but I’m thinking my disc isn’t exactly what Prodigy intended.
I’m able to get decent distance out of the D5, but my flight path slowly hooks left every time. For me to get max distance, my discs need to see some S curving high speed turn before the gradual end of flight fade. I’m not getting any turn with this disc, and most of my throws fail to reach 300 feet. My best field throw was 333,’ and it got that distance because I released it on a slight anhyzer angle. My flight path with the D5 is nothing like the inBounds path displayed above.
My D5 is stable enough that I’m even able to flick it, which I usually can’t successfull do with understable discs without them turning into rollers. Perhaps over time this disc will get more understable after I hit a few trees.
Due to my inability to get big straight flying distance out of the D5, I temporarily lost it in a pond on a big fading shot that was supposed to go straight. Thanks to Reuben’s willingness to go pond sludging, I got it back, and was able to take it out for some additional testing.
The first thing you’ll notice is that the D5 has a weird V-like canyon in the rim. It’s almost Monarch or Groove like. You’d think that Prodigy would learn from Innova’s mistakes, but apparently they thought it was a good idea.
If you’re looking for a really understable distance driver, this isn’t it. At least not in max weight. If you’re looking for a disc with a weird groove in the rim, then you’ll want to try the Prodigy D5.
New Blog, Just for Disc Golf
So I’ve used this blog, primarily for disc golf posts, but for other stuff as well. I decided to make a blog, just for disc golf though. It’s found here.
I’ll still plan to post the “good” disc golf stuff here once in a while, but for all my disc golf posts, you’ll want to check out my new and other site.
There are some exciting new disc golf adventures to happen this summer including my first “real” tournaments, disc golfing in Portland, and a bunch of reviews.
Alan's Wordpress Blog 