It’s been a wet spring. And the start of the summer has brought more of that liquid sunshine. This week in the blog I want to talk about how to get out there and enjoy a round in the rain.
I’m reminded of the Norwegian saying “There is no bad weather, only bad clothes.” And while I mostly agree with that, some people love the rain.
Here’s some people who felt so strongly about the weather that they wrote amazing songs about it. Here’s my list of top rain songs.
- Purple Rain - Prince
- November Rain - Guns N’ Roses
- Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head - B.J Thomas
- No Rain - Blind Melon
- Have You Ever Seen The Rain? - C.C.R
- Fool In The Rain - Led Zeppelin
- Blue Eyes Cryin’ In The Rain - Willie Nelson
- Fire And Rain - James Taylor
- Who’ll Stop The Rain - C.C.R
- Set Fire To The Rain - Adele
- It Never Rains in Southern California - Albert Hammond
- Rain Is A Good Thing - Luke Bryan
- It’s Raining Men - The Weather Girls
- It’s Raining Tacos - Parry Gripp
- Rain - Creed
Yeah, that’s definitely a tangent. But I love the rain, and who doesn’t love a good, highly specific playlist? Especially one where you can argue about the placement of a song in the comments.
So here’s my tips for the best ways to prepare for, play in, and get dry after the rain.
Preparing For A Wet Round
If there’s even a little rain you’re going to find 3 Innova Dewfly towels in my bag. If it’s going to rain the whole round you’ll find 6-9 in my bag. Once your discs and fingers get to a certain point of wetness you can’t do much about it. But you can keep them both dry-ish for a single round.
If you play in a tournament you have to be prepared for this. What I do is keep my dry towels in a plastic Ziploc bag on one side of my Grip bag and as they get wet I move them to the other pocket. A dry towel has that comforting feeling. If you pack a bunch of towels but they’re wet before you even get to them it feels bad. This is a trick I picked up after playing lots of soccer in the rain and I was sick of having all of my clothes wet for after the game, so I put them in a trash bag.
2. Wear your good socks to go play disc golf.
Those socks you wear hiking, shoveling, in your boots to go sledding, those wool socks are going to keep your feet warm. They’re designed to be good in wet conditions. If gripping your disc wasn’t so important, I think wearing good warm socks would be the best advice I could give. That’s also just great advice in general. There are no shoes out there that are always going to keep your feet dry and be comfortable to play in. Unless you like wearing muck boots when you play disc golf, then you’re in luck.
3. Put DX Plastic in your bag.
Get that baseline stuff out of the garage and into your bag. It grips extra well compared to other discs when it’s wet. And it’s a little flippier anyway so if you do throw a little slower you’ll get a longer flight. I love Champion blend plastic, but it gets slippery quickly on a rainy day. You won’t see my making a lot of big throws with it because I’ll throw it hard and not accurately. Put those DX Mids and maybe a fairway or two in the bag. I promise you’ll be glad you have that DX Roc for upshots when it rains.
4. What rain jacket inhibits movement the least?
This has been something I’ve struggled with for a long time. If it’s a warm rain I wear an athletic shirt and just commit to being soaked by the end of the round. As for rain jackets, I think you go with the lightest one you can find.
I got a baseball warmup jacket as a gift a year or two ago and it is my go to. I think maybe because players wear it and still throw baseballs it works? The downside is it’s not super warm against a cold rain, and you don’t have a hood so you get drips down the back of your neck when you putt. But it’s still the best thing I’ve found that allows me free movement while keeping my arms covered.
Playing In The Rain
1. Pick your course wisely.
If you’re playing at Sabattus here’s how I would pick what I’m playing in the rain.
Falcon, Owl, Hawk, Eagle.
The Falcon is the most wooded course we have, it’s short so if everyone isn’t having a good time it’s not too long to play, it’s not crowded, and you don’t need to rip any shots as hard as you can on that course.
The Owl is perfect for playing in the rain. You only need a couple discs. It’s easy to burn through. Since it’s bad weather most of the newer players probably won’t be there. You can get through it a bunch of times in a relatively short time.
The Hawk has 6 pretty wide open holes so you’re gonna get wet. But it’s still a chance to play the course without any backups.
The Eagle has mostly woods but a few open holes. It’s going to be the least crowded, always. But with the rain it’s definitely making an already difficult course harder.
2. Don’t use chalk bags.
They get wet and useless pretty quickly. I love them on dry days to get the sweat off my hands. But for wet days just a towel dry in between shots is often enough. They sell chalk bags in plastic bags to keep the moisture out, it really does a number on your chalk bag if you get it soaked.
If you want something like Max Wax that works well in the rain compared to chalk.
3. Having a hot drink in a thermos is clutch.
Whether you’re a tea person, coffee person, or hot chocolate person. I think having something that keeps you warm on the inside is wicked important. My big Stanley thermos is too big to carry in my Grip bag pockets, so I leave that at home. But I have a nice Yeti travel mug and an insulated canteen that work for me.
After the round.
1. Have a pair of dry socks and shoes in your car for going home.
As someone who hates wet socks, you’re always going to find a couple of spare pairs of socks in my car. I also have a pair of crocs to let my feet dry while I drive.
Disc golf in the rain can be challenging and fun, but we all know that post round letdown where you have to go back to mundane everyday life. Make that trip home in a semi dry state. If you want some good socks to keep your feet dry, check out our collection of wicked cool disc golf socks.
Some of my favorite rounds and memories in disc golf have come in inclement weather. My first 49 on a course was in heavy downpour. I hit an ace in the rain. And I still bring up when someone threw a drive 30 feet backwards in a driving rain.
Of course, we all have bad rounds in the rain too. But that’s disc golf.
Thank you very much to Natalie for suggesting this blog topic to me. As always, feel free to drop a comment on what you’d like to see me write about. I hope to see more of you out in the rain with me soon.
May your discs miss all the trees,
Andrew Streeter #70397