From Guide to Fuse

In August 2009 I designed the Guide… The thinking behind this disc was to make an understable midrange that could hold and glide on an anhyzer line. It should be quite easy to throw and fit most players. Based on that, I made the first design and we ordered the mold. The first test of the prototype discs was done on a road outside my old workplace (a print shop). It looked and felt great but it didn’t fly like I wanted it to. It was too understable and instead of having a slow turning flight it had a fast turn which ended up in cut rollers… So it was back to the drawing board.

I made some small changes on the wing which you can still see on the lower part of the rim. There is a visible “fold” on the rim and that was made during the retool.

A couple of weeks later we had the new retooled samples and we were ready to go out and test it again. This test was probably the first time Johannes Högberg was with us for a test session. It was me, Svante (co-owner), Johan (co-owner) and Johannes (team player at the time) who went out to an old loading dock for trains. Why? Well it was still early spring (meaning snow up at Lat64°) and that big asphalt space had some dry spots we could use for good footing. Svante and I threw the disc and it flew beautifully for us, but Johannes had some problems. In a slight headwind he managed to make them crash and burn.

Me and Svante looked at each other, “What is this, why can’t you throw them flat and achieve that smooth turnover?” He was throwing at the same speed and distance but he had big problems with the flight of it, especially in that slight headwind. We realized that it must be how we grip and release the disc, even though me and Svante is completely different. He with a “power grip” and me with a “fork grip”. I can’t remember how Johannes was holding the disc and how his form looked back then, but something was odd. Anyway, me and Svante was happy with the disc and we decided to go forward and put it into production.