ARIA Takes Flight

On April 7, 2017, the ARIA disc made its public debut at the ARIA Game of the Year. A few players and fans managed to get their feedback across over the wind and rain, and we’re happy to announce that we’re not the only people who think the ARIA disc is cool!

ARIA was a work in progress for so long - years of testing, countless changes and improvements, hours and days of detailing and reassessing and planning - that to finish the process, to actually hold the disc and have it be real, seems, well, not real. But in a good way.

And then you realize that now it’s time to release your fledgling disc into the wild, where there are things like wolves and people who like to play with ultimate discs on the pavement. It’s like raising a baby bird and then letting it go into a hurricane. Incidentally, that was the best description of the weather the day we set ARIA free at the Game of the Year. So, of course, there were some concerns: how would it go? Would people like the disc? Would it work? Were people going to judge its effectiveness poorly due to the terrible conditions? Was anyone going to throw our baby bird on the pavement? Do Seattle parks have wolves in them?

But we let it go anyway, and were fortunate enough to release it into the best possible hands. The participants in the Game of the Year were thirty-ish of the best of the best that Ultimate has to offer; top players from top teams with a shockingly impressive group resume (and a few hardy spectators who deserved their own commendations for withstanding the deluge). If anyone could fairly judge our new disc, this was the expert panel to do it. They delivered. Here are a few of the things we learned:

1. The disc stood up to the technical test.

"I could huck it upwind really far!...I hear there's some physics in there."

Rena Kawabata - Traffic, Vancouver BC

“It's very responsive and holds its edge upwind... it reacts how you would expect."

Morgan Hibbert - Vancouver Riptide/Canadian National Team, Vancouver BC

“...especially with regards to conditions like this.”

Morgan Hibbert - Vancouver Riptide/Canadian National Team, Vancouver BC

"Any disc that can get me a completion in this wind has got to be a good disc."

Luke Jesperson - Birdfruit/University of Puget Sound, Seattle WA

"The one-for-one concept is very important to me."

Dave - Spectator, ARIA Game of the Year 2017

4. And if we ever need something described for us, we’re going to ask these folks to do it.

"[The disc feels] as good as eating waffles on a Sunday morning after a long sleep with no alarm."

Molly McKeon - Riot, Seattle WA

"It's rainy and it's windy and I'm wearing gloves. So far it feels like a frisbee."

Dylan Freechild - Dallas Roughnecks/Rhino, Portland OR

"This is a prime spiking disc, due to the durability."

Jesse Shofner - Nashville Nightwatch/Scandal, Nashville TN

So there you have it: the advance reviews of the ARIA disc. As Ultimate players ourselves, we like the disc a whole lot...but it’s possible that we might be ever so slightly biased. To hear reviews from people we admire (and got to hang out with at the game! - total fan moment), and moreover to have them be nice reviews, is crazy - especially when you think about how long ARIA has been in the works. Today our disc is in the hands of a top player; tomorrow it’s in your hands. We’re stoked that they like it. We think you will, too.

Want to see the ARIA flight for yourself? See why Molly Mckeon refers to the disc as "...as good as eating waffles on a Sunday morning after a long sleep with no alarm" with our new online store.