Faces of disc golf - Mikko Kempas

facesofdiscgolf -

Faces of disc golf - Mikko Kempas

Who are you?
Mikko Kempas, skateboarder, graphic designer, photographer, snowboarder and so on. Also I might consider myself disc golfer, even my disc golf “career” is only about 4 years old. I work a lot for skateboard/snowboard industry and media in Finland, like Hang Up Magazine, Happy Hour Skateboards and it’s sister company/my side project called Lifetime Deal. 
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What’s disc golf to you?
Taking couple hours of not thinking anything else but the game. Relaxing time by myself, with friends or with my son. We started playing same time and it’s been fun watch him to grow from short tempered kid getting meltdowns from tee tree hit or putting problems to little by little learn to calm down and enjoy the game (most of the time). And It’s totally understandable, disc golf can be really annoying also with wrong attitude and it took couple years from me also to learn to live with first tree hits from the tee pad. 
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Forehand or Backhand?
Hmm, that a tough one.  I was forehand guy first, it felt really natural from the start because of my badminton background. Wrist movement and snap are pretty similar. I also came obsessed to learn backhand drives. I really enjoy dead straight backhand hyzerflip tunnel shot, it’s really satisfying, but overall my backhand still needs a lot of work. But maybe I have to go with forehand, especially slow turning S-flex shots because it’s such a unique throw that can only been thrown with a  disc golf disc and also makes you understand differences between different discs very well. I play most of my approach shot with forehand and love to think how to shape fore throws to fit all kind of tree tunnels. 
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Favorite disc golf course?
Right now it’s Herunen DGP, close to our summer cottage. It’s just a right amount of challenge for us right now and there are really good mix of different holes from uphill, downhill, short ones but also couple longer ones, where you can really crush distance to slight downhill. Also shoutout to Tali and Meikku, I love the cultural heritage and feeling that I get when playing them, but Tali is little bit too difficult for me yet to get any good results – Under +10 still has to been done, OB’s really makes it challenging. Also shout out to Sibbe, I have only played it once but that was really good, might be in top of my list… 
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Favorite item in your bag?
I carry almost nothing but discs and water bottle, so I have to choose from the discs. Must be my Envy’s. One the first disc I bought after the starting set and still is my “If I have to choose one mould” disc. Backhand, forehand, putts…anything goes with Envy’s. I can throw those as long as my midranges, so it’s really versatile disc for me. 
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Shoutouts?
First Flying Plate and you Tono for playing with us and asking me to do interview. Then all the friends I have played with, especially Stinde, old friend who I know from skateboarding and now we have been playing disc golf almost weekly. Also shoutout to Ripe @lehtisenristo (who is also interviewed it this series), also old skateboard friend of mine from the same Espoo Lippulaiva locals crew – He has been giving us hints with our forms online, we haven’t played together yet, but hopefully that will also happen some day. 

Link to IG video


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