Michael Johansen | Discraft Icon Team

[Music] i've always leaned on my turnover shots and my flipped turnovers and it's not a lot of people that do that anymore come from the old school golf you didn't have that many discs choose from so you had to make them all fly a bunch of different ways that's kind of fun to see [Music] my name is michael johansen pdj number is 20 hundred well i've thrown frisbee since i was a little kid dad would hand us a frisbee so i've known about it since i was probably eight nine i always liked the shot shaping ability of frisbees you'd see people throwing at object golf course at that time so they'd be throwing at trees and like what are those guys doing but i didn't start playing disc golf until after high school and bands and stuff i grew up classically trained musician playing clarinet bass clarinet stuff like that learned to play guitar and bass but when this last band kind of burned out and fell apart in early 2000s i was like all right i'm done i need a break let's go find something else to do and that's when i really just kind of fully jumped into disc golf [Music] growing up in charlotte disco i always helped with the club early on i kept up with hornet's nest for probably 10 12 years in the early 2000s they had work days putting in t-pads i'll show up do all that stuff yeah cool i have no problem doing it you need people that are local to your course that play that course and are invested in it we just had a good scene locally playing against like stan mcdaniel and by the time i started playing he was you know mid-40s he had no knees left you know barely through but he'd kick your ass they've been playing since the 70s and 80s you know they just know what they're doing they know how to play golf [Music] when i started playing tournaments i thought it was local just like oh something cool it's kind of around the area at first i didn't really know there was that much i mean you could still show up to an event and sign up day of [Music] it was hard to play a lot of events you had to travel i don't know how the guys did it early on to me it really didn't start growing and really becoming bigger until we started getting stuff with youtube and that platform and then when pro tour started that's really when we bumped to the next level nowadays you can actually make a career out of it and nowadays it's it's possible and it's cool to see it's amazing to finally see it happen you know when i first started you had four or five guys that might travel year round and play all the events there's probably 40 50 people it'll tour this year i mean that's a lot that's a lot of growth i mean it's crazy [Music] describing my style in the game and how i would do it would be more of definitely old-school shot shaper because you came as a frisbee background the older stuff is still a lot of i have to make it start with a hyzer and roll late late late then turn you know it's not something flippy turn or drop a sidearm in there shot shaping to me is the ability to control your disc on multiple flight planes during its flight controlling your spin rates and your power rates at different things and be able to dial back and throw at 50 60 70 percent of time you know i learned from a lot of guys you would never think would be like you learn from that guy really can't throw more than 250 feet out of shadow nobody had good angle control you can learn something from everybody that's the fun thing about the sport [Music] i started with this craft talking to them at the end of 2007 going to 2008 and we talked for a little while like sure i felt more at home there after i got swapped over it still feels more the culture that i am used to they've been very supportive of me over the years even with my weird travel schedule and not really touring and whatnot i stuck with them through all the thick and thin when everybody left and things happened over the years now they're like family honestly welcome to backup land but it has all the has all the varieties of years of comments that i like that i kept still have some early runs from like when i started doing tour stamp disks old cam todd challenger wall of cranks still got my bangers from the ones i kept the last run i made you want some of the old original z bangers 2008 or nine maybe i'm gonna need a d reaper i don't remember what these were these might have been the heat actually yeah that's the heat got a head dose that's a well used comet from 10 15 years ago those are the test machetes you know there's old flex nukes and stuff that you don't see much anymore old esp comments and all sorts of stuff mostly comets [Music] thankfully schwebby coined the phrase the purple banger that hung out in my bag for god had to been in the bag for 10 years it spent a year in the pond at maple hill it came back to me and then spent another five or six years in my bag before i put it in the pond at walder mill and it is just gone really how i fell in love with the comet was after becoming sponsored by diss craft and one of my buddies mark mirren who's an old ultimate player he really liked the comment he called me he's like can you order me some comments sure i heard some comments what the heck sure i'll take a couple myself and got a few went out the harness nest and ended up playing a whole round with just comments and i kind of giggled my way around the course because i forgot how much i liked it you know and how much it really just fits how i throw and if you throw well and can control it it will reward you so much it's hysterical [Music] or else 2012 what an interesting year i got there pulled in the park and was like holy crap it's full like full full i knew all the courses very well obviously i knew i was going to need two hot rounds probably to win it two really hot rounds but then i came out in our second round and shoot 17 down at bradford and so sleeping on a lead in your hometown that was definitely interesting i hadn't been wearing tie-dyed shirts for a while but i wore a tie-dye shirt for that one it's like all right for my fans i'm out here doing stuff then i'm not going to win but i'm going to put on a show coming back in that next year i was going to try to tour some do some more touring in 2013. dad wasn't feeling that great so he went and found out they thought was just a knotted intestines and he was supposed to go in to get surgery while i was playing carolina clash that year so he'd been in surgery for four or six hours well get a text message on like whole four or five just come out with stage four colon cancer they gave him two months to live so i pretty much cracked dad was the one that he didn't like what i was doing at first he didn't understand it you know i don't know what the hell you're doing disc golf really but after a while he would come down and watch me at usdc he followed me around he's like huh you're pretty good at this all these people actually like you too i was the first local that finished high there after that he's like cool i appreciate what you do it's pretty damn good that's impressive i don't know how you're going to make a living out of it but we'll support you he was there for 2012 worlds that final so he watched all that dad died at the end of may 2015 just after he had turned 70. [Music] honestly at hall of fame that year i was in such a daze so going into that event i had no expectations i think we played the hedrick course first round and then two rounds on jackson i knew we were flip-flopping all around the last round it slowly started getting less and less people really in it and kind of more pollen on that playoff was surreal i was just holding on to the little turtle i have that's dad's in my pocket sean all right one for dad hopefully i think paul made a mistake first and then i was able to go for it get a little closer a little tap in all i could do was sit down such an emotional spot it was a good battle and it was fun and it was it was just for dad it's all it was [Music] you know a lot of it growing the sport is just being when you're out there playing is approached being approachable being nice to someone when they ask you a question during a round or after a round that could be something that makes them want to come back into the sport that may may teach their kid how to play the sport so that's a healthy sport is when you have kids growing up in it and wanting to play it it's not just a bunch of 30 year olds 40 year olds playing it that's a dying sport to me i'd love to see it just to keep a steady growth don't shoot the moon and try something crazy i'd love to see it not strive to just be exactly what ball golf is understand we are a different sport and learn to embrace the fun of the sport and where it's come from and i'd like to be able to show that and see that growth aspect of the sport versus just getting into crushing golf [Music] for this year they're moving me to what's called the icon team and to be considered an icon at discraft that's pretty damn good for me honestly you know random kid from middle of nowhere north carolina i mean they called me and they're like you are one of our big pieces that we want to make sure you're taken care of they respect that i've been there this long and my career has been pretty solid i became known when everyone left it was just me and nate on this craft and we stuck around they've really tooled back up and they're they've been incredibly supportive of me i appreciate that amazingly and now after all these years it's 15 seasons later still with this craft and hopefully we have many more to come legacy wise i'd like to just be known as a good golfer who's a good competitor handled himself well and was a professional about it i love the sport and i love the game and i enjoy throwing frisbees [Music] foreign

Channel: Discraft Disc Sports

Views: 12,228

Keywords: Discraft, Disc Golf, Michael Johansen, Discraft Comet, Discraft Icon Team

Id: LlT92-xZY0M

Length: 11min 31sec (691 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 14 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/RiverBuzzz]

Great video. I would love for them to do a special run of mj comets soon

[u/fistymcbuttpuncher]

His point about 'growing the sport' is important.

[u/wesxninja]

I would love to dig through that closet of discs and listen to the history of everything in there.

[u/Justin_Heras]

Really good production value here. Would love to see these kind of videos on more players.

MJ is an awesome, humble and hugely talented guy. Love watching him dissect wooded courses.

[u/Number1DadinWorld]

Thanks, comet king

[u/Buenosnoches]

Just got an mj banger and couldn’t be happier. What a role model and awesome dude. Pleasure to watch as well, definitely one of the most slept on putters on tour.

[u/water_with_lemons]

MJ is the man. One of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Super cool too.

https://i.imgur.com/mB04oLo.jpg

[u/theNightblade]

MJ is a class act and a special golfer too. I'm happy to see that both he and Discraft are both willing to continue their partnership. Looking forward to the first Icon series Comets!

[u/TheBammBoozlerr]

Love supporting this guy! I’ve purchased his tour series comets every year I think. One year I got them directly from him on Facebook and asked him to sign: “cool guys don’t look at explosions” on the back. That one has been in my bag for years.