Join us as we talk about the origin story of ElevateUT!
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Welcome to the Elevate Utah podcast, where passion means purposein the world of disc golf. Brought to you by Elevate Utah,a nonprofit dedicated to growing the sport, building communityand making disc golf accessible for all. Whether you're a seasoned proor just discovering the game, we're here to share stories, insights, andthe latest updates for courses in Utah. So grab your discs, hit the course,and let's elevate the game together. Welcome in to the Elevate Utah podcast. I am Nick. I'm Scott and we are super excited to be bringingyou guys this podcast. You know, ElevateUtah has put in a lot of work in the disc golf community here in Utah,and we want to bring it all of thateffort to you and to, to kind of showcase what elevate has been able to do,and kind of the journey along the way.
Really,we're just tired of doing all ourselves. And we figure that if we recordand tell people what we're doing and how we're doing it,maybe they'll hop in and join and, you know, figure out a way that theycan they can help the cause. Yeah, absolutely. I know for me, like, I was big in the ultimate Frisbeecommunity for a lot of years and, like, very involved, coached for several yearsat the high school and the college level. And then I heard my back, andI had no community for like 6 or 7 years. And when my brother in law told me,you know, asked me if I wanted to try disc golf.
I kind of got hooked and I was hungryto be a part of that community again. And it was just kind of sheer dumb luckthat I got hooked up with this guy. Yeah. Well,let me tell you that story. No. So, I was I was driving to the shop to the to the another roundshop, and I had just connectedwith, bad throws. Good bros. Bros, I guess. And, like, they enlistedme to do their their intro music for them,to kind of create their, their intro and I so I listen to the podcast and I likegot to the shop and the episode ended. I walked into the shop,started talking to Ben, and I said, you know, CreeksideOpen was just around the corner.
I said, you know, hey, Ben, you know,do you need any help with anything? Like,I'm really looking to get involved more. I'm really looking to, you know, to be a part of the communityin a in a bigger way. And he's like, well,I don't need any help right now, but you should reach out to my buddyScott. And I had never met you at that point. It was this, this last summer. Yeah. This is like August. Okay? Yeah. Like, it was like two weeks before the altitude seriesstarted, down to the river bottoms. And so I get on at the shop buyingwhatever I got. I don't remember at the time, but, I hopped back in my car,started the very next episode, and that was the episodewhere you were on the the bad throws.
Good Birds, Good Bro's podcast.Talking about everything. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I took that as kind of a signthat I needed to reach out to you. So as soon as I got home,I looked you up on Facebook and I messaged you saying, hey,do you need help with anything? Like, I really want to get more involved? And you basically replied with, like,you could not have reached out at a better time. Oh, that that was crazy. I was actually driving up to the wonder. To to startgetting ready for the wonderment, and I was just feelingvery overwhelmed with everything that I've been working onand all the things that I've been doing.
And, and then to have someonesuch as yourself, with your background in ultimateand your background in, in event managementand, and organization and stuff. Reach out and say I'd love to help it. It seriously gave me a like a dopaminehit, like an immediate dopamine hit. But then also, it definitely put wind inmy sales for the next like 3 or 4 weeks. It got me through,you know. Wonderful. Because. Because then I kept thinking,all right, maybe in wonderment, you know, someone will be there to help me outand and do something, you know? So, thank you.
Thank you for reachingout. Yeah. It's a it's been it's been it's been a really funand long journey, you know. You know, we're not here to help. We're just. I feel like I'm just listening. No, we can talk about it. Because at the same point, the fact thatNick story was about him finding you. But I kind of feel like you ended upapproaching me. Oh, yeah. First man. Yeah. I needed someone to do. Do things. I was. Like, sure. I need to find a doer of things.But it wasn't. I mean, if we can retractjust a little bit, we were talking about the communityof disc golf.
Like growing up in Massachusetts. Like I used to play with the same friends,like every Sunday, same course, that type of situation. I really didn't know like youdisc existed. I used to Google, like disc golf courses on Google Mapsto find them and stuff like that. But then since moving to Utah, like showing, I remember likethe first time I ever played Creekside, the first time I ever played roots,like it was just other guys talking about, you know, Sunday schoolor like dubs at Creekside, this and that. And it was like, oh, wow,these guys are organized out here. There was more of a community out herethan than I was like, or maybe I wasn't just looking for itback in Massachusetts as well, but it was it was, Creekside dubs that I was just, you know, rolling up to figure outwho I was playing with that round.
And then you showed up. I didn't know who you were. And then it was just like, hey, I'm Scott, I heard you build things. Help me with this. I need. I need people to build things. And then just the conversation startedrolling and I was like, what? And you were like, I'm going to tryto build disc golf courses to do this. I I'm right. I'm absolutely. And let's do this. Yeah. And then we've been successful. You know, we've we've we built some, some,some awesome projects, you know, like we've this thing is only,just over a year old, this nonprofit, we. I know it seems so much like.Is it really that recent?
Yeah, we built it. We I incorporated itin the beginning of 2023. No, it. So two years new 20. And up 23. It was like just I want to say we've. Gone through two tax seasons. It was a surprise of your. First like this. It must be that looked at this. We don't even know. We're too busy buildingdisc golf courses to. I want to say it's like two years. I don't I couldn't give you an exact. I know it was kind of like somewhat in the spring becausewe were rolling into a few of them, like, just like, we're going to do this,we're going to do this. I almost want to say it was 2022.
Like when we started. Like no, 2022, I started theI started the Elevate Utah LLC. Just to just to get the wonderpush through. And then it was 2023 that I started thethe nonprofit. Yeah. I, I've always wantedto, to run this thing through a nonprofit. And I remembertalking about this back in 2021 because a little bit about about meand my backstory is, I grew up in Utah, back in the 80s. I was born in Holy Cross Hospitaland then moved to, South Jordan in the early 80sright over by Beam Creek, essentially. And, I moved to Minneapolis in 2020 or 2016and then stayed there until 2020.
And if anybody knows anythingabout disc golf in Minneapolis, you know that it's it's huge. It's top. Notch. Yeah. So when did. You pick up disc golf? I picked up disc golf. It must have been 20 2014. I moved there in 2007. So moving in 27, picked it up in 2014 and played there for six yearsbefore I moved home. And I remember coming and visitingwhile I was gone and then going going to Creekside. Welcome to the Elevate Utah podcast,where passion meets purpose in the world of disc golf, brought to youby Elevate Utah, a nonprofit dedicated to growing the sport, building communityand making disc golf accessible for all.
Whether you're a seasoned proor just discovering the game, we're here to share stories, insights, andthe latest updates for courses in Utah, so grab your discs, hit the course,and let's elevate the game together. Welcome into the Elevate Utah podcast. I am Nick. And I'm Dustin and I'm Sean. I'm Scott and we are super excitedto be bringing you guys this podcast. You know ElevateUtah has put in a lot of work in the disc golf community here in Utah,and we want to bring it all of thateffort to you and to, to kind of showcase what elevate has been able to do,and kind of the journey along the way.
Really, we're just tired of doing itall ourselves. And we figure that if we record and tell people what we're doingand how we're doing it, maybe they'll hop in and join and and,you know, figure out a way that they can they can help the cause. Yeah, absolutely. I know for me, like, I was big in the ultimate Frisbeecommunity for a lot of years and like, very involved, coached for several yearsat the high school and the college level. And then I heard my back and I hadno community for like six, seven years. And when my brother in law told me,you know, asked me if I wanted to try disc golf, I kind of got hooked and I was hungryto be a part of that community again.
And it was just kind of sheer dumb luckthat I got hooked up with this guy. Yeah. Well,let me tell you that story. No. So, I was I was driving to the shop to the to the another roundshop, and I had just connectedwith, bad throws. Good bros, bros, I guess. And, like, they enlisted me to do their,their intro music for them,to kind of create their, their intro and I so I listen to the podcast andI got to the shop and the episode ended. I walked into the shop,started talking to Ben, and I said, you know, CreeksideOpen was just around the corner. I said, you know, hey, Ben, you know,do you need any help with anything?
Like,I'm really looking to get involved more. I'm really looking to, you know, to bea part of the community in a bigger way. And he's like, well,I don't need any help right now, but you should reach out to my buddyScott. And I had never met you at that point. Was this this last summer? Yeah. This is like August. Okay. Yeah. Like, it was like two weeks before the altitude seriesstarted, down at the river bottoms. And so I get down at the shop buyingwhatever I got. I don't remember at the time, but, I hop back in my car,started the very next episode, and that was the episode where you were on the bad throws,good burgers, Good Bros podcast.
Talking about everything. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I took that as kind of a signthat I needed to reach out to you. So as soon as I got home,I looked you up on Facebook and I messaged you saying, hey,do you need help with anything? Like, I really want to get more involved? And you basically replied with, like, you could not have reached outat a better time. Oh, that that was crazy.I was actually driving up to the wonder, to tostart getting ready for the wonderment. And I was just feelingvery overwhelmed with everything that I've been working onand all the things that I've been doing. And, and then to have someonesuch as yourself, with your background in ultimate and your backgroundin, in event management and, and organization and stuff,reach out and say I'd love to help it.
It seriously gave me a like a dopaminehit, like an immediate dopamine hit. But then also, it definitely put wind inmy sails for the next like 3 or 4 weeks. It got me through, you know. Wonderful. Because because then I kept thinking,all right, maybe in wonderment, you know, someone will be there to help me outand and and do something, you know? So, thank you. Thank you for reachingout. Yeah. It's a it's been it's been it's been a really funand long journey, you know. No, we're not here to help it. We're just. I feel like I'm just listening.
You know, we could talk about itbecause at the same point, the fact that Nick's story was himfinding you. But I kind of feel like you ended upapproaching me. Oh, yeah? Yeah, yeah, I needed someone to do. Do things. I was like,sure, he. He's a doer of things. But it wasn't. I mean, if we can retractjust a little bit, we were talking about the communityof disc golf. Like growing up in Massachusetts. Like I used to play with the same friends,like every Sunday, same course. That type of situation I really didn'tknow, like you disc existed. I used to Google, like, disc golf courses on Google Mapsto find them and stuff like that.
But then since moving to Utah, like showing, I remember likethe first time I ever played Creekside, the first time I ever played roots,like it was just other guys talking about, you know, Sunday schoolor like dubs at Creekside, this and that. And it was like, oh, wow,these guys are organized out here. There was more of a communityout here than than I was like, or maybe I wasn't just looking for itback in Massachusetts as well. But it was it was, Creekside dubs. But I was just, you know, rolling up to figure outwho I was playing with that round. And then you showed up.
I didn't know who you were. And then it was just like, hey, I'm Scott, I heard you build things. Help me with. This help I need. I need people to build things. And then just the conversation startedrolling and I was like, what? And you were like, I'm going to tryto build disc golf courses to do this. And it was really cool. I mean, right, I'm absolutely in this. Let's do this. Yeah.And then we've been successful. You know, we've we've we built some, some,some awesome projects, you know, like we've this thing is only,just over a year old, this nonprofit, we. And, it seems so much like.Is it really that recent?
Yeah, we built it. We I incorporated itin the beginning of 2023. No, it. So two years new 20. And up 23. It was like this I want to say we've. Gone through two tax seasons. It was a surprise of your. Artists like this. It must be that. Look at this. We don't even know. We're too busy buildingdisc golf courses to. I want to say it's like two years. I don't I couldn't give you an exact. I know it was kind of like, somewhat in the spring becausewe were rolling into a few of them, like, just like, we're going to do this,we're going to do this. I almost want to say it's it was 2022.
Like when we started. Like no, 2022, I started theI started the Elevate Utah LLC. Just to just to get thethe wonder push through and then it was 20, 23 that I started the,the nonprofit. Yeah. I, I've always wantedto, to run this thing through a nonprofit. And I remembertalking about this back in 2021 because a little bit about about meand my backstory is, I grew up in Utah, back in the 80s. I was born in Holy Cross Hospitaland then moved to, South Jordan in the early 80s,right over by Bingham Creek, essentially. And, I moved to Minneapolis in 2020 or 2016and then stayed there until 2020.
And if anybody knows anythingabout disc golf in Minneapolis, you know that it's it'shuge. It's top. Notch. Yeah. Well, so when did. You pick up disc golf? I picked up disc golf. It must have been 20 2014 and I moved there in 2007. So I'm 27, picked it up in 2014 and played there for six yearsbefore I moved home. And I remember coming and visitingwhile I was gone and then going going to Creeksideand seeing the broken city pads and going to roots and seeing, see,with tiny tee pads and, and, you know, gone, gone to Art die and seeing the,you know, back then it was different than it is now,you know, and just thinking like, is anybody doing anything here.
Yeah. I mean they are it's just it's just theyhaven't ever done it with municipal help. They've never, you know, they've. It's always been a, a groupjust going out and cleaning the bushes. Yeah. Right. Which, which, which.Thank you. Thank you for doing that. That's awesome. But if the city can just dump a couplehundred thousand dollars into it and hire some contractors and get the work done.Yeah. Then, you know,we can spend our time enjoying the park. It's kind of like what we have atArt die now. Yeah. It's really nice. Yeah. Yeah yeah.
So so I when I moved back I just kind of, I kind of made it my missionand I remember telling my friend Jeff and in Minneapolisthat, that I'm, I'm going to change it, you know, I'm going to go there, I'mgoing to change it. And, and he looked at me and he said,they're not ready for you. They're they're not ready for you. You're going to bulldoze everybody. And here I am bulldozing people. And then, you know, I,I got home and and I was and I was talking to my good,good high school friend Ezra. And I told him I was,you know, I'm I'm depressed. I like, there'sno there's no courses around there.
And the courses are here. They're garbage. They said, oh, well,you know what? You've got a mountain bike. Why don't we. Why don't we get you outof a mountain bike? Let's find a new hobby. And I looked at him and I said, no, I'm just going to fix it. And so here we are now. It's good, though, because, I mean, there's not a disc golfR out there that walks. Of course, that was like, oh, this, this hole would be betterby doing this or this. This thing would be so much better if we just, you know, shaped itthis way or whatever. Put a tee pad up on this hillor this and everyone.
I feel like every time I play,we're always talking about the courses. Yeah. And that's that's a skill though. Yeah. Like, not a lot of people have to be ableto, to look at a piece of property as it is currently constitutedand be able to see something beyond what it is right now. You know,I think that's pretty incredible. Yeah. And I don't think I have it. River Bottom is great. Yeah. But that's that'sJohn Kelly and Nick Lopez. That's not me. Oh okay. You know it's like I, I feel likeI can formulate the idea of a plan and but then like, like right now, I've,I've got all this grant money that I, that I need to put into the wonder.
But I'm strugglingtrying to figure out where to spend it and, and how to design these fairways and,and and where do we put, the mulch andand where exactly do we build a terrace? You know, it's like that's why that'swhy people like Sean are involved. Because he's much better at thatthan I am. And and figuring outhow those pieces put together, I feel like I'm, I'm really good at communicatingcomplex ideas to people. And, getting getting those those ideas, formulated in a waythat, that are digestible, so that they can coalesce in people'sminds. You provide the canvas,then the painters go to work.
Yeah. As every painting needs a canvas. Yeah. But it's I feel like that's kind of. But I wouldn't say you don't have it. Like, for the most part, you usuallypretty much have a vision of, like, know, you know,what you want to do with a property or something like that, or placeswe look at like, you see opportunity, you know, you have a clear vision of likethis is going to be great here, or you just kind of like,let's stay away from this. Let's do like so there is aI wouldn't say you don't have it. I would say it's justyou have more of like a broad spectrum. We're like you knowgoing back into designing and stuff.
It's like yeah I'll go whole the whole, you know,but you have like the bigger vision. But at the same point too,you've also had the brain to, you know, we gotta bring in this,we gotta, we got to you know, figure out like,how to enter the course, how to leave the course,where most of the time, it's like once you kind of like, you know,paint that small picture, or let's just say you outline the picture, we go inwith color and start bringing it to life. So yeah. Yeah. And like the forethought behinda lot of the stuff that you've been able to do has been pretty incredible.
Like, for example, I was moving basketsat the river bottoms for the first time, and I noticed that all of the the basketswhere the lot goes, it points to where the next pador like the path to the next pad. And I was just I was so impressed by thatbecause every basket has a little sign, like with a directionsaying next to this way, and I didn't have to do a damn thingwith those, you know, I just had to move the basket,lock it back in place, and the course was set upthe way that it was intended to be. And I think that, again,that level of forethought is impressive. Well, it'swhere we started talking about standards.
Yeah. Like with every coursethat we've been talking about or like working on and stuff like that,like we want to do establish like a set of standardswhere like we want pro-level pads, you know, we want the six by eight pads,we want these baskets. We want, you know, information. You know, we want the kioskat the front of the course. But those little details, like the arrowto the basket, like all that stuff, you know, makes sense. And it should be. It should be standard. It should be, but it's not.It's not. Yeah. You know that.
And there's a there's that. When you get to a disc golf course you spend a lot of timeworking in your life, you know,and then when you want to go out and play, you want to go out and just lose yourselfand enjoy yourself. And disc golf is one of those sports thatthat lets you just unplug and go away. And the biggest joythat we can give to our players is by letting them go to the courseand not have to think about anything, and not to think aboutwhere the next hole is. Or. Or am I at the right pad. You know, and and if you can thinkof all the things that could stop someone from, from enjoying their, their timebecause they're lost or they're confused.
You know, that's that's that'swhat we need to fix. And if you want a lesson onhow not to do it, go, go to the wonder. Because you'll see. You'll see my first. Hey, man,everyone's got to start somewhere, right? Everyone's going to start somewherefun. Cause the wonder is super fun. But I think you were thinking of hangouts that you were playinga little too much on Hangouts. No. The hangouts. No, no, no, honestly, you know, it's it. So what would. You change about wonder then? Well, it's so hard to say that because. Because looking back on it, it's hard to envision itin any other way that it is currently.
And so it's really hardto think about that. And I've thought about it. I wouldI would have cut fewer trees, for one. Okay. I would have letthe natural order of things, I would have I wouldhave not done it on a shoestring budget. I would have raised capitaland raised funds to go out to install that thingthe right way for the beginning. Because now. Because now we're essentially putting putting money into it to fixa lot of the things that we caused, like, the trail systemthat's there, you know, if, if you, if you build a coursethinking about trail systems from the very beginningand really think it through from every angleand then spend your money, then you're going to spendless money overall because you're because the initial product that you're going tobuild is so much better.
I think I think honestly,we did a little bit of a disservice to the land up thereby doing what we did. And I think we needto be more mindful of our, environmentalimpact when we put these things in. And so a lot of the,a lot of the funding that we've raised for that course is going to go into fixinga lot of those errors that we made, making, you know, introducing hard, hardpacked surfaces around the tee pads to prevent soil compaction down there, finding the best pathsthrough the woods and and getting hard, hard pack materialthrough through there, like, whole, like whole a whole seven,if you're familiar with with that one, that's the one that's by the campgroundthat plays out to the to the big downhill bomber.
That one has a pretty nice trailalready established that was there before we got there with just some, road basethat's down there. Yeah, I'm. I'm picturing we put a lot of that down in certain places where ruts have establishedjust so that we can have, better walking surfacesand throughout the course. But as far as the layout goes,I think I think it was okay. The only big confusing part is that giant walkfrom hole forward to hole five. And then of course, we crossfairways from, you know, walking the whole to hole five essentially, soor from 15 to 16. Yeah.
So there's,there's some things that I change there. But overall I'm really happy with the wayit turned out. And, and the relationship that I have with Washington Mountain StatePark is fantastic. You know, because they basically get a part time employeethat that helps take care of their park. And they love the disc golf community,because we get up there and we work and we put in community hours. Yeah. When it all said and done it,we had 2300 community hours. Go and go into the building of that.That's wild. Now we didwe did include, counting, doubles rounds that we were running up there when we were building the coursebecause that's all test play.
Yeah. You know, and that's legit feedbackthat that I took and iterated on. But yeah, we can definitelysave the wonder for a future episode because I think we're planningon, on, releasing an episode for each of our courses that we'veinstalled in kind of chronological order. And those. Yeah, we're going to do a deep diveon each of those. Starting with Tetonsactually is going to be our first one. But before we get too much further,we've kind of heard how I met Scott and how Sean met Scott and how Scott metScott and kind of got got going. Dustin, how did you meet Scottand get involved in elevating, It just play in tournaments.
I think you invited me to wonder and, yeah, that was it. Pretty much. We just play together. Just hanging out,having fun. Yeah, just a friend. Yeah, just a friend. Just just just just golf community. Just friend. Just a friend. Sorry,but we're just friends. Friends? Yeah. Permanent friends. I'm used to the time. So Scott kind of walk us through what? What it took to get the nonprofit upand running. Like, what? What does that all entail? Sure. So I, I spent $1,200 on a lawyer. Is really what it entails because, and that that's an investmentthat I made personally because I didn't want to learnand learn the ins and outs of it, because I wanted it stood up immediately so that I could start working iton some projects.
So I did a,I did a time to cost analysis versus my time versus the cost ofjust hiring a lawyer or figuring out how to do all this and determinedthat I'm just going to hire a lawyer. Well,so what is a lawyer? But what's the point? The purpose of a lawyerthen. At that point? So they they just they did everything for me to, to getthey basically said, here's your tax ID and if you have any questions, you know,this is what you do. Now here's your tax ID. I've, I've filled out all your paperwork. You're good with the government. You signed all the right documents.
Congratulations. You're a nonprofit guy. And, Oh,by the way, you need to assemble a board. So I so the board members are, myself as the executive director. We've got Sean Kelly over thereas the the, I don't think the boots on the ground,guy who's going to do things, we've got my my friend from high school,Jesse. Sam, Chuck. And he's a, marketing genius. Doesn't play disc golf, which is great. Yes, he is a person to the tee. He's actually a great asset. Yeah, because no matter, he's not a playerand he can play. He has no sway.
He has no sway. But he's, you know, his logicand just is perfect. Yeah. And he seeks to understand. So yeah. So he's he's intimate with the sport nowand knows knows a lot about it. Right. But doesn't play. Doesn't want to play. Actually he told mehe'd, he'd like to get out. But I'm sureI'd like to throw a disc at one point. He lives right by the river bottoms. Oh, man. Like right there. Yeah. And then my wife, Kimmy. So that's that's the four of us. This game we play,she likes to, she's she she says that she would like to playmore, but I always ditch her. Which is true because.
Because, like, I want to go play at 3:00,and she's still working, you know, especially this time of year whereit's like, it's freaking dark by five. So yeah, that's what I did. I, I, I hired a lawyer and I, I did itthe easy way. And I guess I have to do, we have to do like every six month board meetings. Yeah. Which we're do on that. We got to do one of those and thenI need to file taxes and stuff like that. But the benefits of, of being a nonprofitare significant. Number one,you don't have to pay any taxes. And that's great becausebecause now we've got this league software which actually brings in revenue and the, the, the amount of revenue that,that we bring in on that league software would not be very muchif we were paying taxes on it.
So that's nice. We also are a pretty good, opportunityfor people to get tax write offs. So that's pretty nice too. In fact, just today I was writinga new feature for the league software. The emails, everybody,a receipt of their course fund additions and their contributions. Yeah. So so so you can probably expect, a PDF receipt in your email for 4 or $5 to a nonprofit. Is but you got to start somewhere, you know,and and if you get these emails out into people's email boxesand then they're like, oh, I love. But Utah is a nonprofit. Cool. Maybe, if, you know, maybe I'll start,like doing a little like half a percent of my payrollto them or something.
Join the Patreon. Join the Patreon. Yeah. So there's there's there's ampleopportunity to get involved in the nonprofit,even if you don't have time. If you have money. Well, I gladly accept itbecause we've got lots of projects that we're workingon, that that need money. You know, it. All goes towards this gulf. I love it, it really does. You know, like thethe way that the way that our, our state government is set up and the waythat the federal government is set up is that nonprofits can do things. The for profit companies cannot, for instance, receivegrant funding from the state of Utah.
The state of Utah has a programcalled the the the Utah Outdoor RecreationGrant program. And every year they have 20 to $22 millionsitting in a honey pot for municipalities and for nonprofitsto requisition for projects. It's surprisinghow much money is out there. Yeah, well, in the first few meetingswe used to go to and then, like, just the amount of money, I'm just like,oh my God, like, they're going to give us all this moneyto go build it this golf course. See that this is, is thatis that mountain mountain biking. They, they're filled with,professional people who go out and mountain bike because mountain bikesare 5000 to $10,000 rigs for sure.
So you have to have money to do that. And God bless the this golf community. But we are not the mountainbike community. We're not the climbing community. We're not thethe downhill skiing community. You know, we're the very upby the bootstrap, low cost of entry. We're the blue collar of of fringe sports. We're not like pickleball. And so that's the difference hereis, is that we haven't had business oriented peoplethinking about how to requisition state funding to improveand to build our disc golf courses. Oh, and another thing too, is that discgolf is so much fun that we're all so busyplaying the damn game.
Ross yeah, oh free time. We just go play disc golf. Yeah, it's exactly right. So. But it's also not on the minds of, like, the people on the other side of the tablein these meetings that people who work for, like other park departmentsor recreational departments, because there's been meetingsyou walk into and there's like a few guysyou're talking to and they're like, oh, yeah, thatI think I've heard of this game. You like, you throw it, you throwyour disc and then yeah, I've heard of it. But they don't know,like they don't actually know how many people playlike in their community and how many like, and then not even just building a discgolf course, but throwing money into a coursethat exists that could just be like, oh, we're just going to revamp this new typeas new baskets, that type of thing.
So it's also bringing a lightto those people that like, hey, you have a thriving community here. Yeah. So like and we'll touch on thatwhen we, when we talk about Creekside because that's howthat's how that whole thing got started. Yeah. We'll have, we'll, we'll have a guestcome in and we'll, we'll just recounthow that whole thing happened. And. Yeah. And that's part of, that's partof what we're planning on doing with this podcast is really we're tryingto basically create a knowledge base of what has been accomplished,what we're accomplishing, and what we hope to accomplish,in the future. And yeah,I think this is going to be a good thing.
No, I think it's great. And like I said,the more people that know about it and know people, the more the people knowwhat we're doing and working on volunteer time, or just getting involved. You want to, you know, somebody who can provide benches, signs, you know, just a little cutouts of,the little arrows to the next pad. Yeah. Mandatory signs like. Boots or slippers, all. Those things. I mean, the walk of Life plays disc golf. There's everyone from every corner of lifethat plays that sport. So, like, they're all out thereand it's just a matter of like, you know, spreading the word.
How can you get involved, like reach out,say something, send an email. Yeah. And I think that's part of the problem,right. Is that nobody knows how to get involved. They don't know like a lot of peopledon't have the initiative that you have, Scott, to be able to just say,well, screw it, I'm going to go take a chainsaw to WasatchMountain State Park and create a course. Right? Like not a lot of people have the stonesto be able to just go do that. Right. And so I think it's a thing. I definitely don't. Yeah, I don't either. Like I didn't knowfrom the beginning either.
The fact that Elevate Utah now exists for people to be able toto come along for the ride. Right. And and to, to be able to, to. To help. Grow a sport that is quite addicting. If I, if I do say so myself. Like it is one of the sportsthat just like sucks people in and like you can't ever leavebecause it's just, it's so enjoyable. It's such a I don't know, for me, I use it as like, a mental release from the, from the day. Right? Like I'll workand then I'll go play around and I will, like,have no worries at the end of my disc golf round, you know,and it just invites people to do that.
Well, depending on how you play too. Well that's true. That's still there. And I might be more upsetwith the, with nature and the, the trees or whatever course I'm playing. But, yeah, usually it usually it's, it'smy fault, not theirs. Yeah, yeah. I was actually havinga pretty nice conversation, over Facebook Messenger with with a guy named KyleHunter up in, Davis. And we were county today,you know, Kyle Rideout. So he, he, he installed the cold watersprings course. Have you played it familiar? Yeah, we played it there. Havewhat do you think? It's fine.
Like it?It's a nine hole, like fun course. Where's that one? Oh. North. Oh. North ish. Yep. I don't know, I think I rode thereor someone else. Yeah. So, Kyle. So Kyle reached out to me yesterdayor today, and I mean, we've we've talked to it in the past,but he, he basically just said I want to build things, I wantI want to help, but I don't know what to do and Idon't know how to go and where do I start? And so I told me about this podcastand that and that we're just going to be kind of chronicling what,what we've done and, and what we're doing. And, and,you know, the thought came to me that, that maybe, maybe it would be goodfor Albert, Utah, to have chapters where where we have different zonesthat are represented by someone.
Yeah, every county have its own chapter. Type of thing or zone, so to speak. You know, because we've got 6 or 7really good zones that I can think of. And with this explorer actthat, we'll be talking about in a future episode,I think it's going to be really important to to have an organizational unitat the statewide level, because that explorer act, that just that just gotsigned into law is a total game changer for all of America for disc golf. Can you explain more? I don't know what it is.I'm not familiar. Sure. So the Explorer Actwas just passed into law.
It passed the House earlierin the spring of 2024. Okay. And then it unanimously. And then it passed the Senate unanimouslyand then got signed into law by, President Biden. On Christmas Eve of this year. And, what the Explorer Actdoes, it's a it's a pretty large document. It's probably around right around70 pages, but it's essentially what Eisenhower did for the United Stateswith freeways and the accessibility and interconnectedness of thatwith outdoor recreation on federal lands. So that's the BLM and the Washingtonand the national forest lands. And each of those,each of those land management.
Do you do you know anything about the BLMand National Forest lands or anything? What's our baseline? I like I stayed and BLM cabin once okay. That's my baseline okay. So you. Know the Bureau of Land. Management. All right. So that's he's been camping. Yeah. He's been had to find a bathroom. All right. So, there's there's two major divisions of of offices that govern, the, our federal lands. Okay. One of them is the BLM, which standsfor the Bureau of Land Management. And the other one is the National ForestService. Now, the BLM lands.
And each of thesehave offices in certain zones, and they have acreagethat they are responsible for. And they're they're tasks. And so they have to follow, lawsthat are established at the federal levelto manage these lands. And what what this law did is it creates a mandate for these agencies and these offices,these localized offices, to examine their landand examine their area. And then inside of their area, examine what recreation offeringsthey're providing to people, and do a full auditand a full assessment and determine which which amenitiesthey're they're not representing.
And based off of the facts of how many people use those amenities in those zonesand then immediately seek to address themby creating high quality, offerings. So it essentially made itso that these off limits places that we couldn'tput disc golf courses into have flipped the script completely and said,we want you to put this golf courses here. So these these state agencies,these offices are mandated by law to entertain projects and plans by the publicto install these things. So if we go to themwith, the idea of a disc golf course, that would be awesomein the Capitol Reef area, that's not.
Yeah, that's on federal land. They're mandated by law to do their due diligence to determineif people would come play it and if it would get used,and if they have any disc golf courses and if the answer to thosethings is is yes, people will play it. No, we don't have any. Boom. They go get federal money and they hirenon-profits to build these things. Hello. Yeah. Okay. We're ready. We're we're ready. So that's absolutely huge. And so that brings us back to chapters,right. Like if, if,if we all know that this is a possibility. Obviously there's peoplethere's people in price that are going to be much more familiarwith the, with that area than I am.
There's going to be people up in vernalthat are going to be way more familiar with, with the Flaming Gorge area wherewe could put three different courses.
Welcome to the Elevate Utah podcast, where passion means purposein the world of disc golf. Brought to you by Elevate Utah,a nonprofit dedicated to growing the sport, building communityand making disc golf accessible for all. Whether you're a seasoned proor just discovering the game, we're here to share stories, insights, andthe latest updates for courses in Utah. So grab your discs, hit the course,and let's elevate the game together. Welcome in to the Elevate Utah podcast. I am Nick. I'm Scott and we are super excited to be bringingyou guys this podcast. You know, ElevateUtah has put in a lot of work in the disc golf community here in Utah,and we want to bring it all of thateffort to you and to, to kind of showcase what elevate has been able to do,and kind of the journey along the way.
Really,we're just tired of doing all ourselves. And we figure that if we recordand tell people what we're doing and how we're doing it,maybe they'll hop in and join and, you know, figure out a way that theycan they can help the cause. Yeah, absolutely. I know for me, like, I was big in the ultimate Frisbeecommunity for a lot of years and, like, very involved, coached for several yearsat the high school and the college level. And then I heard my back, andI had no community for like 6 or 7 years. And when my brother in law told me,you know, asked me if I wanted to try disc golf.
I kind of got hooked and I was hungryto be a part of that community again. And it was just kind of sheer dumb luckthat I got hooked up with this guy. Yeah. Well,let me tell you that story. No. So, I was I was driving to the shop to the to the another roundshop, and I had just connectedwith, bad throws. Good bros. Bros, I guess. And, like, they enlistedme to do their their intro music for them,to kind of create their, their intro and I so I listen to the podcast and I likegot to the shop and the episode ended. I walked into the shop,started talking to Ben, and I said, you know, CreeksideOpen was just around the corner.
I said, you know, hey, Ben, you know,do you need any help with anything? Like,I'm really looking to get involved more. I'm really looking to, you know, to be a part of the communityin a in a bigger way. And he's like, well,I don't need any help right now, but you should reach out to my buddyScott. And I had never met you at that point. It was this, this last summer. Yeah. This is like August. Okay? Yeah. Like, it was like two weeks before the altitude seriesstarted, down to the river bottoms. And so I get on at the shop buyingwhatever I got. I don't remember at the time, but, I hopped back in my car,started the very next episode, and that was the episodewhere you were on the the bad throws.
Good Birds, Good Bro's podcast.Talking about everything. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I took that as kind of a signthat I needed to reach out to you. So as soon as I got home,I looked you up on Facebook and I messaged you saying, hey,do you need help with anything? Like, I really want to get more involved? And you basically replied with, like,you could not have reached out at a better time. Oh, that that was crazy. I was actually driving up to the wonder. To to startgetting ready for the wonderment, and I was just feelingvery overwhelmed with everything that I've been working onand all the things that I've been doing.
And, and then to have someonesuch as yourself, with your background in ultimateand your background in, in event managementand, and organization and stuff. Reach out and say I'd love to help it. It seriously gave me a like a dopaminehit, like an immediate dopamine hit. But then also, it definitely put wind inmy sales for the next like 3 or 4 weeks. It got me through,you know. Wonderful. Because. Because then I kept thinking,all right, maybe in wonderment, you know, someone will be there to help me outand and do something, you know? So, thank you.
Thank you for reachingout. Yeah. It's a it's been it's been it's been a really funand long journey, you know. You know, we're not here to help. We're just. I feel like I'm just listening. No, we can talk about it. Because at the same point, the fact thatNick story was about him finding you. But I kind of feel like you ended upapproaching me. Oh, yeah. First man. Yeah. I needed someone to do. Do things. I was. Like, sure. I need to find a doer of things.But it wasn't. I mean, if we can retractjust a little bit, we were talking about the communityof disc golf.
Like growing up in Massachusetts. Like I used to play with the same friends,like every Sunday, same course, that type of situation. I really didn't know like youdisc existed. I used to Google, like disc golf courses on Google Mapsto find them and stuff like that. But then since moving to Utah, like showing, I remember likethe first time I ever played Creekside, the first time I ever played roots,like it was just other guys talking about, you know, Sunday schoolor like dubs at Creekside, this and that. And it was like, oh, wow,these guys are organized out here. There was more of a community out herethan than I was like, or maybe I wasn't just looking for itback in Massachusetts as well, but it was it was, Creekside dubs that I was just, you know, rolling up to figure outwho I was playing with that round.
And then you showed up. I didn't know who you were. And then it was just like, hey, I'm Scott, I heard you build things. Help me with this. I need. I need people to build things. And then just the conversation startedrolling and I was like, what? And you were like, I'm going to tryto build disc golf courses to do this. I I'm right. I'm absolutely. And let's do this. Yeah. And then we've been successful. You know, we've we've we built some, some,some awesome projects, you know, like we've this thing is only,just over a year old, this nonprofit, we. I know it seems so much like.Is it really that recent?
Yeah, we built it. We I incorporated itin the beginning of 2023. No, it. So two years new 20. And up 23. It was like just I want to say we've. Gone through two tax seasons. It was a surprise of your. First like this. It must be that looked at this. We don't even know. We're too busy buildingdisc golf courses to. I want to say it's like two years. I don't I couldn't give you an exact. I know it was kind of like somewhat in the spring becausewe were rolling into a few of them, like, just like, we're going to do this,we're going to do this. I almost want to say it was 2022.
Like when we started. Like no, 2022, I started theI started the Elevate Utah LLC. Just to just to get the wonderpush through. And then it was 2023 that I started thethe nonprofit. Yeah. I, I've always wantedto, to run this thing through a nonprofit. And I remembertalking about this back in 2021 because a little bit about about meand my backstory is, I grew up in Utah, back in the 80s. I was born in Holy Cross Hospitaland then moved to, South Jordan in the early 80sright over by Beam Creek, essentially. And, I moved to Minneapolis in 2020 or 2016and then stayed there until 2020.
And if anybody knows anythingabout disc golf in Minneapolis, you know that it's it's huge. It's top. Notch. Yeah. So when did. You pick up disc golf? I picked up disc golf. It must have been 20 2014. I moved there in 2007. So moving in 27, picked it up in 2014 and played there for six yearsbefore I moved home. And I remember coming and visitingwhile I was gone and then going going to Creekside. Welcome to the Elevate Utah podcast,where passion meets purpose in the world of disc golf, brought to youby Elevate Utah, a nonprofit dedicated to growing the sport, building communityand making disc golf accessible for all.
Whether you're a seasoned proor just discovering the game, we're here to share stories, insights, andthe latest updates for courses in Utah, so grab your discs, hit the course,and let's elevate the game together. Welcome into the Elevate Utah podcast. I am Nick. And I'm Dustin and I'm Sean. I'm Scott and we are super excitedto be bringing you guys this podcast. You know ElevateUtah has put in a lot of work in the disc golf community here in Utah,and we want to bring it all of thateffort to you and to, to kind of showcase what elevate has been able to do,and kind of the journey along the way.
Really, we're just tired of doing itall ourselves. And we figure that if we record and tell people what we're doingand how we're doing it, maybe they'll hop in and join and and,you know, figure out a way that they can they can help the cause. Yeah, absolutely. I know for me, like, I was big in the ultimate Frisbeecommunity for a lot of years and like, very involved, coached for several yearsat the high school and the college level. And then I heard my back and I hadno community for like six, seven years. And when my brother in law told me,you know, asked me if I wanted to try disc golf, I kind of got hooked and I was hungryto be a part of that community again.
And it was just kind of sheer dumb luckthat I got hooked up with this guy. Yeah. Well,let me tell you that story. No. So, I was I was driving to the shop to the to the another roundshop, and I had just connectedwith, bad throws. Good bros, bros, I guess. And, like, they enlisted me to do their,their intro music for them,to kind of create their, their intro and I so I listen to the podcast andI got to the shop and the episode ended. I walked into the shop,started talking to Ben, and I said, you know, CreeksideOpen was just around the corner. I said, you know, hey, Ben, you know,do you need any help with anything?
Like,I'm really looking to get involved more. I'm really looking to, you know, to bea part of the community in a bigger way. And he's like, well,I don't need any help right now, but you should reach out to my buddyScott. And I had never met you at that point. Was this this last summer? Yeah. This is like August. Okay. Yeah. Like, it was like two weeks before the altitude seriesstarted, down at the river bottoms. And so I get down at the shop buyingwhatever I got. I don't remember at the time, but, I hop back in my car,started the very next episode, and that was the episode where you were on the bad throws,good burgers, Good Bros podcast.
Talking about everything. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I took that as kind of a signthat I needed to reach out to you. So as soon as I got home,I looked you up on Facebook and I messaged you saying, hey,do you need help with anything? Like, I really want to get more involved? And you basically replied with, like, you could not have reached outat a better time. Oh, that that was crazy.I was actually driving up to the wonder, to tostart getting ready for the wonderment. And I was just feelingvery overwhelmed with everything that I've been working onand all the things that I've been doing. And, and then to have someonesuch as yourself, with your background in ultimate and your backgroundin, in event management and, and organization and stuff,reach out and say I'd love to help it.
It seriously gave me a like a dopaminehit, like an immediate dopamine hit. But then also, it definitely put wind inmy sails for the next like 3 or 4 weeks. It got me through, you know. Wonderful. Because because then I kept thinking,all right, maybe in wonderment, you know, someone will be there to help me outand and and do something, you know? So, thank you. Thank you for reachingout. Yeah. It's a it's been it's been it's been a really funand long journey, you know. No, we're not here to help it. We're just. I feel like I'm just listening.
You know, we could talk about itbecause at the same point, the fact that Nick's story was himfinding you. But I kind of feel like you ended upapproaching me. Oh, yeah? Yeah, yeah, I needed someone to do. Do things. I was like,sure, he. He's a doer of things. But it wasn't. I mean, if we can retractjust a little bit, we were talking about the communityof disc golf. Like growing up in Massachusetts. Like I used to play with the same friends,like every Sunday, same course. That type of situation I really didn'tknow, like you disc existed. I used to Google, like, disc golf courses on Google Mapsto find them and stuff like that.
But then since moving to Utah, like showing, I remember likethe first time I ever played Creekside, the first time I ever played roots,like it was just other guys talking about, you know, Sunday schoolor like dubs at Creekside, this and that. And it was like, oh, wow,these guys are organized out here. There was more of a communityout here than than I was like, or maybe I wasn't just looking for itback in Massachusetts as well. But it was it was, Creekside dubs. But I was just, you know, rolling up to figure outwho I was playing with that round. And then you showed up.
I didn't know who you were. And then it was just like, hey, I'm Scott, I heard you build things. Help me with. This help I need. I need people to build things. And then just the conversation startedrolling and I was like, what? And you were like, I'm going to tryto build disc golf courses to do this. And it was really cool. I mean, right, I'm absolutely in this. Let's do this. Yeah.And then we've been successful. You know, we've we've we built some, some,some awesome projects, you know, like we've this thing is only,just over a year old, this nonprofit, we. And, it seems so much like.Is it really that recent?
Yeah, we built it. We I incorporated itin the beginning of 2023. No, it. So two years new 20. And up 23. It was like this I want to say we've. Gone through two tax seasons. It was a surprise of your. Artists like this. It must be that. Look at this. We don't even know. We're too busy buildingdisc golf courses to. I want to say it's like two years. I don't I couldn't give you an exact. I know it was kind of like, somewhat in the spring becausewe were rolling into a few of them, like, just like, we're going to do this,we're going to do this. I almost want to say it's it was 2022.
Like when we started. Like no, 2022, I started theI started the Elevate Utah LLC. Just to just to get thethe wonder push through and then it was 20, 23 that I started the,the nonprofit. Yeah. I, I've always wantedto, to run this thing through a nonprofit. And I remembertalking about this back in 2021 because a little bit about about meand my backstory is, I grew up in Utah, back in the 80s. I was born in Holy Cross Hospitaland then moved to, South Jordan in the early 80s,right over by Bingham Creek, essentially. And, I moved to Minneapolis in 2020 or 2016and then stayed there until 2020.
And if anybody knows anythingabout disc golf in Minneapolis, you know that it's it'shuge. It's top. Notch. Yeah. Well, so when did. You pick up disc golf? I picked up disc golf. It must have been 20 2014 and I moved there in 2007. So I'm 27, picked it up in 2014 and played there for six yearsbefore I moved home. And I remember coming and visitingwhile I was gone and then going going to Creeksideand seeing the broken city pads and going to roots and seeing, see,with tiny tee pads and, and, you know, gone, gone to Art die and seeing the,you know, back then it was different than it is now,you know, and just thinking like, is anybody doing anything here.
Yeah. I mean they are it's just it's just theyhaven't ever done it with municipal help. They've never, you know, they've. It's always been a, a groupjust going out and cleaning the bushes. Yeah. Right. Which, which, which.Thank you. Thank you for doing that. That's awesome. But if the city can just dump a couplehundred thousand dollars into it and hire some contractors and get the work done.Yeah. Then, you know,we can spend our time enjoying the park. It's kind of like what we have atArt die now. Yeah. It's really nice. Yeah. Yeah yeah.
So so I when I moved back I just kind of, I kind of made it my missionand I remember telling my friend Jeff and in Minneapolisthat, that I'm, I'm going to change it, you know, I'm going to go there, I'mgoing to change it. And, and he looked at me and he said,they're not ready for you. They're they're not ready for you. You're going to bulldoze everybody. And here I am bulldozing people. And then, you know, I,I got home and and I was and I was talking to my good,good high school friend Ezra. And I told him I was,you know, I'm I'm depressed. I like, there'sno there's no courses around there.
And the courses are here. They're garbage. They said, oh, well,you know what? You've got a mountain bike. Why don't we. Why don't we get you outof a mountain bike? Let's find a new hobby. And I looked at him and I said, no, I'm just going to fix it. And so here we are now. It's good, though, because, I mean, there's not a disc golfR out there that walks. Of course, that was like, oh, this, this hole would be betterby doing this or this. This thing would be so much better if we just, you know, shaped itthis way or whatever. Put a tee pad up on this hillor this and everyone.
I feel like every time I play,we're always talking about the courses. Yeah. And that's that's a skill though. Yeah. Like, not a lot of people have to be ableto, to look at a piece of property as it is currently constitutedand be able to see something beyond what it is right now. You know,I think that's pretty incredible. Yeah. And I don't think I have it. River Bottom is great. Yeah. But that's that'sJohn Kelly and Nick Lopez. That's not me. Oh okay. You know it's like I, I feel likeI can formulate the idea of a plan and but then like, like right now, I've,I've got all this grant money that I, that I need to put into the wonder.
But I'm strugglingtrying to figure out where to spend it and, and how to design these fairways and,and and where do we put, the mulch andand where exactly do we build a terrace? You know, it's like that's why that'swhy people like Sean are involved. Because he's much better at thatthan I am. And and figuring outhow those pieces put together, I feel like I'm, I'm really good at communicatingcomplex ideas to people. And, getting getting those those ideas, formulated in a waythat, that are digestible, so that they can coalesce in people'sminds. You provide the canvas,then the painters go to work.
Yeah. As every painting needs a canvas. Yeah. But it's I feel like that's kind of. But I wouldn't say you don't have it. Like, for the most part, you usuallypretty much have a vision of, like, know, you know,what you want to do with a property or something like that, or placeswe look at like, you see opportunity, you know, you have a clear vision of likethis is going to be great here, or you just kind of like,let's stay away from this. Let's do like so there is aI wouldn't say you don't have it. I would say it's justyou have more of like a broad spectrum. We're like you knowgoing back into designing and stuff.
It's like yeah I'll go whole the whole, you know,but you have like the bigger vision. But at the same point too,you've also had the brain to, you know, we gotta bring in this,we gotta, we got to you know, figure out like,how to enter the course, how to leave the course,where most of the time, it's like once you kind of like, you know,paint that small picture, or let's just say you outline the picture, we go inwith color and start bringing it to life. So yeah. Yeah. And like the forethought behinda lot of the stuff that you've been able to do has been pretty incredible.
Like, for example, I was moving basketsat the river bottoms for the first time, and I noticed that all of the the basketswhere the lot goes, it points to where the next pador like the path to the next pad. And I was just I was so impressed by thatbecause every basket has a little sign, like with a directionsaying next to this way, and I didn't have to do a damn thingwith those, you know, I just had to move the basket,lock it back in place, and the course was set upthe way that it was intended to be. And I think that, again,that level of forethought is impressive. Well, it'swhere we started talking about standards.
Yeah. Like with every coursethat we've been talking about or like working on and stuff like that,like we want to do establish like a set of standardswhere like we want pro-level pads, you know, we want the six by eight pads,we want these baskets. We want, you know, information. You know, we want the kioskat the front of the course. But those little details, like the arrowto the basket, like all that stuff, you know, makes sense. And it should be. It should be standard. It should be, but it's not.It's not. Yeah. You know that.
And there's a there's that. When you get to a disc golf course you spend a lot of timeworking in your life, you know,and then when you want to go out and play, you want to go out and just lose yourselfand enjoy yourself. And disc golf is one of those sports thatthat lets you just unplug and go away. And the biggest joythat we can give to our players is by letting them go to the courseand not have to think about anything, and not to think aboutwhere the next hole is. Or. Or am I at the right pad. You know, and and if you can thinkof all the things that could stop someone from, from enjoying their, their timebecause they're lost or they're confused.
You know, that's that's that'swhat we need to fix. And if you want a lesson onhow not to do it, go, go to the wonder. Because you'll see. You'll see my first. Hey, man,everyone's got to start somewhere, right? Everyone's going to start somewherefun. Cause the wonder is super fun. But I think you were thinking of hangouts that you were playinga little too much on Hangouts. No. The hangouts. No, no, no, honestly, you know, it's it. So what would. You change about wonder then? Well, it's so hard to say that because. Because looking back on it, it's hard to envision itin any other way that it is currently.
And so it's really hardto think about that. And I've thought about it. I wouldI would have cut fewer trees, for one. Okay. I would have letthe natural order of things, I would have I wouldhave not done it on a shoestring budget. I would have raised capitaland raised funds to go out to install that thingthe right way for the beginning. Because now. Because now we're essentially putting putting money into it to fixa lot of the things that we caused, like, the trail systemthat's there, you know, if, if you, if you build a coursethinking about trail systems from the very beginningand really think it through from every angleand then spend your money, then you're going to spendless money overall because you're because the initial product that you're going tobuild is so much better.
I think I think honestly,we did a little bit of a disservice to the land up thereby doing what we did. And I think we needto be more mindful of our, environmentalimpact when we put these things in. And so a lot of the,a lot of the funding that we've raised for that course is going to go into fixinga lot of those errors that we made, making, you know, introducing hard, hardpacked surfaces around the tee pads to prevent soil compaction down there, finding the best pathsthrough the woods and and getting hard, hard pack materialthrough through there, like, whole, like whole a whole seven,if you're familiar with with that one, that's the one that's by the campgroundthat plays out to the to the big downhill bomber.
That one has a pretty nice trailalready established that was there before we got there with just some, road basethat's down there. Yeah, I'm. I'm picturing we put a lot of that down in certain places where ruts have establishedjust so that we can have, better walking surfacesand throughout the course. But as far as the layout goes,I think I think it was okay. The only big confusing part is that giant walkfrom hole forward to hole five. And then of course, we crossfairways from, you know, walking the whole to hole five essentially, soor from 15 to 16. Yeah.
So there's,there's some things that I change there. But overall I'm really happy with the wayit turned out. And, and the relationship that I have with Washington Mountain StatePark is fantastic. You know, because they basically get a part time employeethat that helps take care of their park. And they love the disc golf community,because we get up there and we work and we put in community hours. Yeah. When it all said and done it,we had 2300 community hours. Go and go into the building of that.That's wild. Now we didwe did include, counting, doubles rounds that we were running up there when we were building the coursebecause that's all test play.
Yeah. You know, and that's legit feedbackthat that I took and iterated on. But yeah, we can definitelysave the wonder for a future episode because I think we're planningon, on, releasing an episode for each of our courses that we'veinstalled in kind of chronological order. And those. Yeah, we're going to do a deep diveon each of those. Starting with Tetonsactually is going to be our first one. But before we get too much further,we've kind of heard how I met Scott and how Sean met Scott and how Scott metScott and kind of got got going. Dustin, how did you meet Scottand get involved in elevating, It just play in tournaments.
I think you invited me to wonder and, yeah, that was it. Pretty much. We just play together. Just hanging out,having fun. Yeah, just a friend. Yeah, just a friend. Just just just just golf community. Just friend. Just a friend. Sorry,but we're just friends. Friends? Yeah. Permanent friends. I'm used to the time. So Scott kind of walk us through what? What it took to get the nonprofit upand running. Like, what? What does that all entail? Sure. So I, I spent $1,200 on a lawyer. Is really what it entails because, and that that's an investmentthat I made personally because I didn't want to learnand learn the ins and outs of it, because I wanted it stood up immediately so that I could start working iton some projects.
So I did a,I did a time to cost analysis versus my time versus the cost ofjust hiring a lawyer or figuring out how to do all this and determinedthat I'm just going to hire a lawyer. Well,so what is a lawyer? But what's the point? The purpose of a lawyerthen. At that point? So they they just they did everything for me to, to getthey basically said, here's your tax ID and if you have any questions, you know,this is what you do. Now here's your tax ID. I've, I've filled out all your paperwork. You're good with the government. You signed all the right documents.
Congratulations. You're a nonprofit guy. And, Oh,by the way, you need to assemble a board. So I so the board members are, myself as the executive director. We've got Sean Kelly over thereas the the, I don't think the boots on the ground,guy who's going to do things, we've got my my friend from high school,Jesse. Sam, Chuck. And he's a, marketing genius. Doesn't play disc golf, which is great. Yes, he is a person to the tee. He's actually a great asset. Yeah, because no matter, he's not a playerand he can play. He has no sway.
He has no sway. But he's, you know, his logicand just is perfect. Yeah. And he seeks to understand. So yeah. So he's he's intimate with the sport nowand knows knows a lot about it. Right. But doesn't play. Doesn't want to play. Actually he told mehe'd, he'd like to get out. But I'm sureI'd like to throw a disc at one point. He lives right by the river bottoms. Oh, man. Like right there. Yeah. And then my wife, Kimmy. So that's that's the four of us. This game we play,she likes to, she's she she says that she would like to playmore, but I always ditch her. Which is true because.
Because, like, I want to go play at 3:00,and she's still working, you know, especially this time of year whereit's like, it's freaking dark by five. So yeah, that's what I did. I, I, I hired a lawyer and I, I did itthe easy way. And I guess I have to do, we have to do like every six month board meetings. Yeah. Which we're do on that. We got to do one of those and thenI need to file taxes and stuff like that. But the benefits of, of being a nonprofitare significant. Number one,you don't have to pay any taxes. And that's great becausebecause now we've got this league software which actually brings in revenue and the, the, the amount of revenue that,that we bring in on that league software would not be very muchif we were paying taxes on it.
So that's nice. We also are a pretty good, opportunityfor people to get tax write offs. So that's pretty nice too. In fact, just today I was writinga new feature for the league software. The emails, everybody,a receipt of their course fund additions and their contributions. Yeah. So so so you can probably expect, a PDF receipt in your email for 4 or $5 to a nonprofit. Is but you got to start somewhere, you know,and and if you get these emails out into people's email boxesand then they're like, oh, I love. But Utah is a nonprofit. Cool. Maybe, if, you know, maybe I'll start,like doing a little like half a percent of my payrollto them or something.
Join the Patreon. Join the Patreon. Yeah. So there's there's there's ampleopportunity to get involved in the nonprofit,even if you don't have time. If you have money. Well, I gladly accept itbecause we've got lots of projects that we're workingon, that that need money. You know, it. All goes towards this gulf. I love it, it really does. You know, like thethe way that the way that our, our state government is set up and the waythat the federal government is set up is that nonprofits can do things. The for profit companies cannot, for instance, receivegrant funding from the state of Utah.
The state of Utah has a programcalled the the the Utah Outdoor RecreationGrant program. And every year they have 20 to $22 millionsitting in a honey pot for municipalities and for nonprofitsto requisition for projects. It's surprisinghow much money is out there. Yeah, well, in the first few meetingswe used to go to and then, like, just the amount of money, I'm just like,oh my God, like, they're going to give us all this moneyto go build it this golf course. See that this is, is thatis that mountain mountain biking. They, they're filled with,professional people who go out and mountain bike because mountain bikesare 5000 to $10,000 rigs for sure.
So you have to have money to do that. And God bless the this golf community. But we are not the mountainbike community. We're not the climbing community. We're not thethe downhill skiing community. You know, we're the very upby the bootstrap, low cost of entry. We're the blue collar of of fringe sports. We're not like pickleball. And so that's the difference hereis, is that we haven't had business oriented peoplethinking about how to requisition state funding to improveand to build our disc golf courses. Oh, and another thing too, is that discgolf is so much fun that we're all so busyplaying the damn game.
Ross yeah, oh free time. We just go play disc golf. Yeah, it's exactly right. So. But it's also not on the minds of, like, the people on the other side of the tablein these meetings that people who work for, like other park departmentsor recreational departments, because there's been meetingsyou walk into and there's like a few guysyou're talking to and they're like, oh, yeah, thatI think I've heard of this game. You like, you throw it, you throwyour disc and then yeah, I've heard of it. But they don't know,like they don't actually know how many people playlike in their community and how many like, and then not even just building a discgolf course, but throwing money into a coursethat exists that could just be like, oh, we're just going to revamp this new typeas new baskets, that type of thing.
So it's also bringing a lightto those people that like, hey, you have a thriving community here. Yeah. So like and we'll touch on thatwhen we, when we talk about Creekside because that's howthat's how that whole thing got started. Yeah. We'll have, we'll, we'll have a guestcome in and we'll, we'll just recounthow that whole thing happened. And. Yeah. And that's part of, that's partof what we're planning on doing with this podcast is really we're tryingto basically create a knowledge base of what has been accomplished,what we're accomplishing, and what we hope to accomplish,in the future. And yeah,I think this is going to be a good thing.
No, I think it's great. And like I said,the more people that know about it and know people, the more the people knowwhat we're doing and working on volunteer time, or just getting involved. You want to, you know, somebody who can provide benches, signs, you know, just a little cutouts of,the little arrows to the next pad. Yeah. Mandatory signs like. Boots or slippers, all. Those things. I mean, the walk of Life plays disc golf. There's everyone from every corner of lifethat plays that sport. So, like, they're all out thereand it's just a matter of like, you know, spreading the word.
How can you get involved, like reach out,say something, send an email. Yeah. And I think that's part of the problem,right. Is that nobody knows how to get involved. They don't know like a lot of peopledon't have the initiative that you have, Scott, to be able to just say,well, screw it, I'm going to go take a chainsaw to WasatchMountain State Park and create a course. Right? Like not a lot of people have the stonesto be able to just go do that. Right. And so I think it's a thing. I definitely don't. Yeah, I don't either. Like I didn't knowfrom the beginning either.
The fact that Elevate Utah now exists for people to be able toto come along for the ride. Right. And and to, to be able to, to. To help. Grow a sport that is quite addicting. If I, if I do say so myself. Like it is one of the sportsthat just like sucks people in and like you can't ever leavebecause it's just, it's so enjoyable. It's such a I don't know, for me, I use it as like, a mental release from the, from the day. Right? Like I'll workand then I'll go play around and I will, like,have no worries at the end of my disc golf round, you know,and it just invites people to do that.
Well, depending on how you play too. Well that's true. That's still there. And I might be more upsetwith the, with nature and the, the trees or whatever course I'm playing. But, yeah, usually it usually it's, it'smy fault, not theirs. Yeah, yeah. I was actually havinga pretty nice conversation, over Facebook Messenger with with a guy named KyleHunter up in, Davis. And we were county today,you know, Kyle Rideout. So he, he, he installed the cold watersprings course. Have you played it familiar? Yeah, we played it there. Havewhat do you think? It's fine.
Like it?It's a nine hole, like fun course. Where's that one? Oh. North. Oh. North ish. Yep. I don't know, I think I rode thereor someone else. Yeah. So, Kyle. So Kyle reached out to me yesterdayor today, and I mean, we've we've talked to it in the past,but he, he basically just said I want to build things, I wantI want to help, but I don't know what to do and Idon't know how to go and where do I start? And so I told me about this podcastand that and that we're just going to be kind of chronicling what,what we've done and, and what we're doing. And, and,you know, the thought came to me that, that maybe, maybe it would be goodfor Albert, Utah, to have chapters where where we have different zonesthat are represented by someone.
Yeah, every county have its own chapter. Type of thing or zone, so to speak. You know, because we've got 6 or 7really good zones that I can think of. And with this explorer actthat, we'll be talking about in a future episode,I think it's going to be really important to to have an organizational unitat the statewide level, because that explorer act, that just that just gotsigned into law is a total game changer for all of America for disc golf. Can you explain more? I don't know what it is.I'm not familiar. Sure. So the Explorer Actwas just passed into law.
It passed the House earlierin the spring of 2024. Okay. And then it unanimously. And then it passed the Senate unanimouslyand then got signed into law by, President Biden. On Christmas Eve of this year. And, what the Explorer Actdoes, it's a it's a pretty large document. It's probably around right around70 pages, but it's essentially what Eisenhower did for the United Stateswith freeways and the accessibility and interconnectedness of thatwith outdoor recreation on federal lands. So that's the BLM and the Washingtonand the national forest lands. And each of those,each of those land management.
Do you do you know anything about the BLMand National Forest lands or anything? What's our baseline? I like I stayed and BLM cabin once okay. That's my baseline okay. So you. Know the Bureau of Land. Management. All right. So that's he's been camping. Yeah. He's been had to find a bathroom. All right. So, there's there's two major divisions of of offices that govern, the, our federal lands. Okay. One of them is the BLM, which standsfor the Bureau of Land Management. And the other one is the National ForestService. Now, the BLM lands.
And each of thesehave offices in certain zones, and they have acreagethat they are responsible for. And they're they're tasks. And so they have to follow, lawsthat are established at the federal levelto manage these lands. And what what this law did is it creates a mandate for these agencies and these offices,these localized offices, to examine their landand examine their area. And then inside of their area, examine what recreation offeringsthey're providing to people, and do a full auditand a full assessment and determine which which amenitiesthey're they're not representing.
And based off of the facts of how many people use those amenities in those zonesand then immediately seek to address themby creating high quality, offerings. So it essentially made itso that these off limits places that we couldn'tput disc golf courses into have flipped the script completely and said,we want you to put this golf courses here. So these these state agencies,these offices are mandated by law to entertain projects and plans by the publicto install these things. So if we go to themwith, the idea of a disc golf course, that would be awesomein the Capitol Reef area, that's not.
Yeah, that's on federal land. They're mandated by law to do their due diligence to determineif people would come play it and if it would get used,and if they have any disc golf courses and if the answer to thosethings is is yes, people will play it. No, we don't have any. Boom. They go get federal money and they hirenon-profits to build these things. Hello. Yeah. Okay. We're ready. We're we're ready. So that's absolutely huge. And so that brings us back to chapters,right. Like if, if,if we all know that this is a possibility. Obviously there's peoplethere's people in price that are going to be much more familiarwith the, with that area than I am.
There's going to be people up in vernalthat are going to be way more familiar with, with the Flaming Gorge area wherewe could put three different courses.
