San Fernando brothers launch disc golf manufacturing company

SAN FERNANDO, Calif. (KABC) -- The competitive world of disc golf isn't just unfamiliar to the average person; it's unfamiliar to the average sports fan. But for brothers Steve and Bamba Rico, from San Fernando, it's the center of their universe. After years as competitors in the sport, the brothers launched the disc golf manufacturing company Legacy Disks.

"Disc golf's been going on for 45 to 50 years now. The scoring system is the same as your traditional golf with pars and birdies and bogeys. We also tee off from a tee pad, and we have a hole that we have to finish out in, which is a disk golf basket, said Bamba Rico. "In like 1983-4 is when we very first went up to Sylmar Disk Golf Course. Once we got up there and we decided to play around with them, immediately we're hooked."

Steve Rico was once the No. 2 ranked disc golfer in the U.S.

"Early on when I was young, I was one of the few Latinos that was playing this sport, you know, now there is, the sport now is in Mexico as well," he said.

Although they had experience in a family business, a concrete and masonry company, the science and engineering involved in the production of these highly specialized discs came with a significant learning curve, as well as a bit of trial and error.

"We started off in my garage and now we have three warehouses that we're working out of. The plastics that were involved were absolutely like nothing we've ever dealt with before. You know, coming from a concrete construction company to now having to deal with the chemistry of plastics. Some weights are allowed to be at a heavier weight based on the diameter size of it. We have to conform to these rules. These are high tech with aerodynamics and weights to them. These are made to fly further and more accurate," said Bamba Rico. "When we got into this, we thought, 'OK, let's leave construction and let's go into disc golf. You know, we're going to be around a sport that we've loved all our lives, it's going to be easy.' It's far from easy. I'm here before the sun comes up, we're here when the sun goes down. But you know, there's nothing else we'd rather do."

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