How the Yellow UltraStar Became the Official Beach Disc at WCBU 2017

In March 2017, the World Championships of Beach Ultimate (WCBU) announced the official game discs for its international beach ultimate competition in France would require a fluorescent yellow UltraStar. Here's the backstory of how the bright yellow disc was adopted for beach ultimate play.

BULA
Sludge made an inquiry to BULA boss Patrick van der Valk and he referred me to Mike Palmer (previously of ulti.tv).

Patrick warned: 

"I hope you are not expecting a research paper :)"

Patrick explained that Mike Palmer, from Australia, did a very basic heat absorption test by putting a white, yellow and pink disc in the Aussie sun for 10 mins. Pink was most floppy then white and surprisingly yellow was most firm! Good enough for us because it is still a Discraft. Filming test (done by Mike as well) showed that the yellow looked much better on camera. IMHO the WCBU proved that last point. I didn’t hear any complaints yet from players so that is a positive data point.


Discraft
I was curious about the 10-minute Aussie sun/heat test of Discraft ultimate discs, so I contacted the disc manufacturer.

When I asked Discraft directly, they replied: "No hard data for you, but just as the white of the arctic reflects light & heat vs bare dark tundra, so goes a white disc vs a dark."

No hard data for you, but just as the white of the arctic reflects light & heat vs bare dark tundra, so goes a white disc vs a dark

— Discraft Ultimate (@DiscraftULT) June 20, 2017

According to the Ulti Show (Ep 1), the Discraft representative spoke to why a different colored disc was being used at WCBU.  "Beach Committee contacted Discraft in fall 2016 asking their expert opinion about a different colored disc for filming that might show up better.  Yellow, orange, and pink discs were all tested as well as white. And yellow ended up being the most...(pause)...easiest to find in the sand. Yellow Discraft UltraStars were then experimented with at the Australia Beach Championships."

Caz Malone then asked about an incident when the yellow disc in the first WCBU 2017 match "got bent out of shape."

Pad Timmons (Discraft) explained: Someone fell on the disc. But the heat...it's really, really warm here. Heat absorbs with color.  The more color you add, the higher the temperature the disc actually is.

Interview with Mike Palmer
I was now more interested in the absorption test, so I contacted the person responsible for conducting the heat tests in Australia.

SLUDGE: What kind of ground were the discs on when your test was performed?
Mike: On grass.

SLUDGE: What was the temperature during the 10-minute test?
Mike: Temp 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) in full sun.

SLUDGE: What was done first: watching the colored discs on video or the heat absorption test?
Mike: The absorption test was conducted at Aussie Mixed Nats in October 2016 in Sydney before the film test.

SLUDGE: Were you surprised at the final "floppy-ness" results?
Mike: I handled the disc and I was surprised the yellow was less floppy that the white. I had someone else feel them as well to confirm.

SLUDGE: What else should I know about the disc absorption test?
Mike: It was not very scientific but it is a fair test!

My thoughts
I support the effort to discover a different ultimate disc to better the ultimate game on sand - for players and spectators.

1. Future experiments of sun effects on discs should be conducted in the environment of the disc use - on the beach/in the sand.
2. For spectating, the yellow disc blends into light tan colored sand, rather than standout for visibility.

Yellow disc (circled) barely visible on the sand.

Example:  This pass at the 12-second mark gets completely lost.

In flight yellow disc completely lost during up field pass.

3. Beach tournament directors should consider:
    1) Storing game discs in a shaded or in a cooler and not on/in the sand to reduce sun effects on the           plastic disc.
    2) Introducing a new game disc at the start of the 2nd half.