March 6, 2013 by Charlie Eisenhood in Livewire, Opinion
In the wake of the MLU’s announcement about using the Innova Pulsar, here’s some historical perspective from a reader about how ultimate players started using the Ultrastar instead of the Wham-O:
[quote]It might be worth noting how the Discraft Ultrastar became the “standard” Ultimate disc. Waaaaay back in the Ultimate stone ages, the standard disc was the Wham-O 165g “80-E” mold.[/quote]
[quote]It had great flight characteristics and supple plastic, but tended to not stand up as well in stiffer winds. In the late 1980s, folks started using the 175g Discraft instead, alongside the Wham-O (and sometimes arguing about it in pre-game captain’s meetings).
And then, Disc-mageddon! Around 1989, Wham-O dropped their standard 80-E mold for the new 82-E mold disc. And, frankly, it sucked. It came off the mold much more “concave,” which gave it serious instability and control problems, even with no wind. So everyone shifted to Discraft, almost overnight, because the Wham-Os were completely unplayable. And that’s how Discraft took over the sport.[/quote]
