Everybody following the Disc Golf scene closely has surely taken notion of a new rising star on the US Tour this year. We are naturally talking about the Discmania Sky Team member Simon Lizotte, originally from Bremen, Germany, who's spent the best part of the year touring USA in our famous "Maniac" motorhome. Besides his awesome Disc Golf skills and fearless play tactics, Simon is known for his huge arm. A little less than a month ago Simon took his 2nd consecutive US Distance champion title at USDGC, leaving the 2nd finisher in competition 90ft behind with his astonishing 681 foot winning toss.
This weekend Simon will have a chance to attempt to break the World Distance record in an event called Fall Desert Wind Open, in Primm, NV, just outside Las Vegas. This event gathers around 15-20 of the world's biggest arms together for an WFDF officially recognised opportunity to break the current distance World Record set by Team Innova's David Wiggins Jr. on 2012. The current record is 255 metres (836 feet), so breaking the record will not be an easy task.
Going for the distance
"In all honesty I don't have a lot of experience in pure distance throws in this type of setting, but I still feel that I have a solid chance of breaking the record", says Simon, who's farthest throw in practise last week in El Mirage measured at jaw-dropping 750ft/229m. The truly incredible part of the 750-foot throw was that it was thrown in calm conditions with very little to no help from wind carry. "I'm excited about this event, since it's an all new proving ground for me. In many cases I don't have much trouble throwing further than my competition in Disc Golf events, but throwing distance in a desert setting is completely different ball game", Simon continues.
See a video of Simon practising for the Fall Desert Wind Open here!
For his record breaking attempts, Simon will use Innova's Blizzard Champion Bosses, the very same disc model that David Wiggins Jr. used for his record throw 2 years ago. "I feel that the Blizzard Boss is a disc that has the best carry in the desert wind, when really going for a pure distance shot." says Simon. "We discussed which disc I should use with Jussi (Discmania CEO), and he wanted me to use the disc I felt had the best chance of winning this type of contest. Since Discmania discs are manufactured by Innova and the 2 companies work very closely together, there's really no problem for me using an Innova disc in a special event like this one", Simon continues.
CONTEST: Guess Simon's farthest throws & Win sweet plastic!
We are running a contest on our Facebook page, where you can guess Simon's longest drives for each day of the 3-day competition. Each day we'll raffle one Lizotte Disc Golf disc with Simon's autograph to one lucky person who has the closest guess for the day's longest drive. You can take part in this contest by submitting your guess as a comment to our picture post each day. The guess must be in feet and in case there are several correct answers, we'll raffle the winner among those who guessed correctly. In case there are no correct answers, we'll award the person who's guess was closest. The winners of all three rounds will be announced and contacted on Monday, October 27th.
Day One contest - ENDED - result: 724.7ft
Day Two contest - ENDED - result: 863.5ft
Day Three contest - ENDED - result: 771.6ft
If you're more accustomed in making your guess in meters, use this calculator for easy conversion.
Follow the action trough Simon's Instagram feed
Since the Fall Desert Wind Open is a somewhat exclusive event mainly targeted for the select few players that have the arm for this type of competition, information about the tournament is pretty scarce. The best way to follow updates from the field is by giving Simon's instagram feed a follow, which you can do right here. There will also be occasional status updates from Primm at the Lizotte Disc Golf Facebook page and we'll try to do our best gathering some information also to the Discmania Facebook page.