If at any time over the last 20 years you would have told us a trip to Europe was in the cards where people would willingly ask us to share our experiences with them I am not sure any of us would have fully believed it. Obviously we would have been thrilled to think that what we were doing would resonate with anyone but it's not often we allow our dreams to get this big. Yet, here we are in the spring of 2023 packing our bags for a disc golf excursion to Northern Ireland and Scotland.
This trip has come together because of a handful of lucky bounces into the fairway of life. First off, the humbling and beautiful documentary, 'Throw Canada' helped share the word about the wonderful things our team had be able to accomplish in Atlantic Canada. Second, our friendship and partnership wit Zoe Andyke, Dustin Keegan, CanDisc, and Uplay allowed us to create some high quality content that has helped to establish a baseline for coaching standards. Third, our history of running events and building courses has put us in a unique position to help areas that are growing. The UK is in almost the exact same position that the Maritimes were in prior to 2015. As Canadians our default position is to want to help people so when one of our great friends from Northern Ireland asked if we would be interested in teaching some of the things we knew to interested groups there we jumped headfirst into the opportunity.
To be completely honest the entire prospect of heading to a new country to help guide the growth is a completely humbling endeavour. Preparing for this trip helped to put into perspective how lucky we are in Atlantic Canada, and really Canada as a whole. The game is firmly rooted here with many passionate people leading the way. It is amazing to think that Flickline has be in a position to do so many wonderful things. Depending on what metric you use (PDGA or UDisc) we have been able to build between 5%-8% of all the courses in Canada. We have run 75 PDGA events including 3 record breaking Canadian Nationals, 5 A tiers, 6 B tiers, and have taught over 19,000 students the game of disc golf. None of those numbers are what motivates us. The true reason we keep going is because we understand that disc golf has the power to change peoples lives for the better. Some day when we are on the back 9 of our lives maybe we will write a book about the individuals who have shared with us amazing stories of transformation because of disc golf. For now we use those stories as the motivation to keep going.
As for exactly the place we are going let's start off with Coleraine in Northern Ireland. From our new friend Chris, 'With regards to information about the area. The course is one of the top rated in the British Isles on UDisc. Coleraine is one of the earliest sites of human habitation in the whole of Ireland. We're served by great rail and bus links. The North Coast is well known for it's food and drink offering and has a great foodie vibe with small producers and amazing local ingredients. We're neighbours with the Giants Causeway, one of the wonders of the world and a UNESCO world heritage site. You're coming on St. Patricks weekend- the craic will be ninety, as we would say- everyone is Irish for the weekend!! The coast here is second to none, and the sea is refreshing! The Irish welcome is legendary and if you don't go home with a new friend, something has gone wrong.'
Now if that doesn't get you excited about the place check you pulse because you might be dead. What Flickline is bringing to contribute to the whole is our passion for the game and the lessons we have learned from all over the world. We are bringing with us some sweet players packs and some genuine ideas on how to make our players experiences second to none. It doesn't hurt that we will be presenting all of this awesomeness with our great friends and amazing pros Dustin and Zoe!
During our first week we will be hosting two workshops in Coleraine, the first is 'The Art of Course Building' and the second is "Level 1 Community Coaching". Then on St Patricks weekend we will be hosting the Flickline Battle of the Bann (registration is open here). This two day event will be the official start of the 2023 Flickline tour series and will kick off our most exciting season yet! We have special prizes, players packs, and at least 1 amazing give away to share with all the players who wish to make the trip or spend some of their weekend with us.
After that we pack up our discs and head to Glasgow, Scotland, the birthplace of golf and another dream destination for us. We will be hosting both workshops again, first up on Monday night will be the front 9 portion of our course building workshop, then the following day we will host the back 9 portion of our workshop where we actually get out to the course and work through some of the ideas.
While we are away we are hoping to lay the ground work for a return visit in 2024 to help with some course building, level 2 workshops, and maybe even help with some of Europes biggest events. Mostly we are just thankful to share some of the gifts we have be given in a beautiful part of the word.
For more information on any of the events or workshops please feel free to email
laughingbenjamin@gmail.com
If you want to read more about our style of course building check out this piece.
