John Luetzow & I Fling Plastic

It started as a phrase for shirts, and has become a name well known in AFRICA DISC GOLF and beyond!! 

The name – I Fling Plastic – was just a phrase on the front of shirts that were used to advertise for the Rock River Disc Club and promote disc golf awareness through the local community. It worked. The phrase was printed onto shirts that I wore around the area shopping, and it started conversations! 

People would see the name and ask “what does that mean?” and we would start talking about disc golf.

After a few years I started using this as my business name with the bank (under the parent company of GT Designs and Apparel) and created an entity that is known now for disc golf promotions around the world!

Back in 2015 I met Yohannes Desalegn through FB posts and befriended him and what he was doing there in Ethiopia to promote disc golf and trying to teach the youth at refugee camps and local schools! I took it upon myself to promote for him and fundraise for him to help create more awareness for what he was doing, and our friendship grew to much more than friends!

In 2017, we discussed hosting the very first PDGA sanctioned event in Africa right there in his hometown of Assosa, Ethiopia! After months of planning and working with the University of Assosa to create baskets and a full 18 hole course, the event was planned! In Feb of 2018, I traveled to Africa for my very first time and met Yohannes in person, and we finalized the details and hosted the very first sanctioned disc golf tournament in Africa! We did this for the next 2 years, also – 2019 and 2020. Then the pandemic hit and Ethiopia suffered insider turmoil and the tournament operations were halted there. That did not mean Yohannes was done with disc golf tho! He traversed on, as did myself and I Fling Plastic.

A new connection was made in 2022 with Kevin Becker and the announcement of Project 2,4 Nairobi through the Paul McBeth Foundation. After months of discussion and planning with Kevin, I traveled to Kenya to help him host the very first tournament ever in Kenya for disc golf – the Kenya Open 2023! It was truly an honor to become a Tournament Director for the first event ever in Ethiopia and now Kenya! Later in September of 2023, I also was blessed to travel with Eagles Wings and assist as Tournament Director for the first event tournament in the country of Montenegro, as a follow up to the Paul McBeth Foundation project 2.1 Montenegro!

It is our passion here at I Fling Plastic to spread the love of the flight of a disc around the world.

We have helped start programs in Ethiopia, Kenya, Philippines, Rwanda and more countries!

We are always looking to bring smiles to more faces and teach the youth about the flight of a disc and the love of a new game that is for ALL to enjoy!

As a founding member of Africa Disc Golf United, it is my goal, my passion and my love to be able to bring a smile to so many people and to represent my friends who are also spreading the love across a continent!