Monday, July 16, 2018

Testing Hero Disc USA's Super Stars Vs. SuperAeros


I recently received a pack of Super Star discs from Hero Disc USA for some testing and I thought I would not only test the discs, but put them up against my favorite discs, Super Aeros. Super Aero discs are my preferred dog disc because they can stand the test of time against my hard biting dog, who nominally can destroy a fastback disc within a day or two.

This review is more for the new disc dogger because I suspect that some of what I'll be saying will be old news to seasoned disc doggers.

With that said...


I took my nine Super Stars and several other discs out to the park to play around with them and see how they work in comparison. My SuperAero's and Fastbacks all weigh around 110-114g, while the silver Super Stars weighed 131g and the orange Super Stars weighed 141g.


The bottom line: The heavier Super Stars were more predictable and stable compared to the lighter Super Aero discs and fastbacks in any appreciable wind.

Heavier discs traveled around 10-20% farther, and when it came to floating down to the ground at the end of a long toss, they didn't spend as much time floating downward as the lighter Super Aero's and Fastbacks did. That can be good, or bad, depending on what you need at the moment.

In a 60-second simulated Toss & Fetch round, that float time can feel like forever with lighter discs or it could be the difference between a 4 or 5 toss round.

Even with hand stunts (fidgets) the heavier discs worked the air better. Lighter discs like flying away in gusty winds when you're doing fidgets.

My problem is that my dogs mostly prefer the lighter discs. I have one dog that even prefers the softer Super Aeros and won't even play with harder Fastbacks. When I tried her on the heavier Super Stars she caught it, looked at me, dropped it, and walked off the field on me.

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Below is some of my more detailed notes when I was testing the Hero Disc USA discs:

It was around 65 degrees out, winds around 5mph.

-My first set of test throws had a 5pmh tail wind, and with an easy throw, my own collective od discs travelled ~80 feet, while the Super Star traveled about 100 feet or roughly 20% farther.

When I turned around and threw into the 5pmh winds, I saw a similar results.

-When I turned with the wind and powered the discs down field for some distance tests with the breeze, the Super Stars traveled 145 feet while my lighter Super Aeros's traveled on average around 135 feet.

In another, similar test, the average distance my Super Stars went 145 feet, the Super Aeros went 140 feet.

-My next tests consisted of what's called fidgets. Fidgets are just little gimmicks, spins and twirls you do with the disc. Sometimes fidgets can be tough in winds, but this first day, the winds were negligible and the performance of the discs were on par with each other in the light wind.

I suspect that in heavier winds, the Super Stars would be more stable, considering what I've seen in my various tests.

After the distance tests, I tried some accuracy tests, where I was shooting for a 6x6 square from 90 feet away, throwing with the wind. The wind had picked up a bit, with slight gusts up to 10mph.

I had more luck keeping the Super Stars in line with what I wanted versus the Super Aeros. The Super Stars turned or hooked as expected, while the Super Aero's were a little more a victim of the winds.

The curious observation was that the Super Aeros went much straighter despite my efforts to hyzer the crap out of them. They REALLY want to go straight unless you release with extreme angles.

But into the wind, all the discs performed as desired.

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A week after the first set of tests it was a 70 degree day, 10mph winds.

I threw long throws into the wind and found when I threw to a moderate height, 10-20 feet up, my Super Aero's would float down but get pushed back a bit in the direction they came from. The Super Stars would float down a bit faster, and did it straight down but no reversal of direction.

In distance tests with the wind direction, the average distances looked like this:

Grey Super Stars - 150 ft.
SuperAeros - 160 ft,
Orange Super Stars - 185ft.

Into the wind,

Super Aeros and grey Super Stars went about 120 ft. The Super Stars were not as susceptible to floating in the wind when landing.

The Orange Super Star went 140 ft.

The light Super Aeros were much easier to 'air skip.' Which is obvious, considering they react to wind much more than the heavier discs.

When I executed easy tosses the orange discs went the shortest, then the silver, while my fastbacks went the farthest, with a difference of about 15 feet. The orange Super Stars sank the soonest. To me this meant that you can't casually throw these discs, you need intent. But that's usually how we throw our shots, right?

But tossing into the wind, distance differences were negligible, while, again, my lighter disks floated longer.

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Overall I have a preference towards my Super Aero discs only because they last a ton longer than other discs with my hard biters. But rudimentary bite tests seem to show that the Super Stars are heavier, but just as sturdy as the Super Aero discs.