Cloud Pemble

It has been way too long since I updated this posting. So here it goes. Lots of things have happened in the Monterey disc golf scene.
Ryan Ranch remains the main focus of the Monterey Stinging Jellies. It has been up and running for the last 6 months. It has felt a bit like the "Field of Dreams" movie, you know "Build it and they will come". Just the other day Anthony De Mers and I were playing an early morning round on a Tuesday morning. We were the first ones to the course and opened the gate, but during our round we ran into 2 CSUMB guys that we had never met before, and 2 other guys from Oakland that had drove down for the day to play Ryan Ranch for their second time. The really exciting news is that we will hold our first sanctioned tourney (the 2nd Jelly Jam) this spring. The folks from the Nor Cal series are gonna come down to meet with us, and to see what Monterey has to offer as far as disc golf is concerned. The deal is is that they want us to host the Nor Cal Championship fall. We are days away from laying out our first 27 hole layout. It is ridiculous how much space we have to work with. The trick is finding a good flow for the course without sacrificing the greatness of some of the holes.
Don Dahvee has been kind of an exercise in futility. The coastal oaks we have here are not as thick skinned as most oak trees you might think of, and easily get chopped up by the harder flying plastic.The city arborist has made us change the course a lot because of the oak damage. We have even had tree protection for some of these holes, but nothing seems to satisfy. We've half seriously joked about having gummy mando holes. Don Dahvee was never the most inspired disc golf course to begin with. The park is too small and has had many regulations to abide by. So Don Dahvee disc golf course has been basically neutered and hamstrung into a shadow of it's former self. It's been a bummer, but there is a pretty good solution in the works, that will be revealed at a later date.
On a personal note, my girlfriend just got a dream job working in Nepal, so I will be headed that way as soon as I can. I will probably be in Nepal for 4 or 5 months and then I'll be be back to the States, but possibly not Monterey. I'm either going back to school, or headed back to Hollywood. It really is a time of a lot of change, and I think for the better.

-Cloud Pemble-.