Asking the Pros: Do you remember reaching 400'?

While sitting around thinking of new material for the blog I began to wonder if the pros had the same goal way back when, or was it like reaching 300' for a lot of us – one day it just happens. There's no real celebration. It just absorbs into our game and helps us card more birds.

I decided I was going to log on to Facebook and throw the question out to as many pros as I could and hope that some of them would respond. The following responses are in the order in which I received them.

"Honestly John it has been so long since I reached that. I cant remember too much about it.... I will say this that just being able to throw that far is nothing without control. You have to learn the precision that it takes to be successful. Good luck with your quest!"

– Nate Doss 


"Honestly I cant remember the disc it was, maybe an eagle. I know i wanted to reach 400 before my 14th birthday. I out-threw Garrett Gurthie in a Distance contest @ am worlds 2002! Post that up! yeah he was like 12 years old... so what! GG bombs. I think I threw it like 407'. This is memorable.. because i don't think i'll out throw GG again!"


– Gregg Barsby


"I have been playing this game for over 26 years and can't remember the day or even how old I was when I broke 400' or what disc I threw. I was not so concerned with how far it was, I just knew that I wanted to throw even further.

This probably took place in my backyard at my parents house in Ohio, I would throw drives all day long crushing them into the back woods behind the house and past the field.

But I can tell you the day that I threw 800'....

All the Best!!"

– Avery Jenkins


Hey John,
 Ya dude that's an awesome topic. It really is a milestone in disc golf to control a disc to fly 400' plus.

I remember fairly well when that happened. Ive been playing since 2001 or so. Really consistently since 2004-05. Candy plastic was new in disc golf, at least it was to me. I had been playing with cyclones and roc's. Really slow or under stable for a big arm. When the CE Valkyrie and tee birds came out that's when i hit that mark. Id say maybe 2002 or 3??


I was at oak grove in Pasadena on the field warming up and a local had a new Valkrie. I had never thrown anything that stable before. It was an awesome feeling to really see the disc glide. Early in my disc golf career I didn't have much control. But as the disc became more stable and predictable, throwing 400 feet is less a challenge than before. If you have the ability, technique and arm speed.
Thanks for thinking of me for your blog!


– Philo Brathwaite

I'm still waiting to hear back from more people, but I decided to post what I have so far because I've been sitting on this entry for a while now. If I'm lucky enough to receive more responses I will post a follow-up.

Thank you for responding Nate, Gregg, Avery and Philo!