k another question....i know ill prolly sound stupid but ive never asked and never played with a roc until now, but what is the difference in dx, rancho, ontario, san marino, kc, etc.....are they all a different type of plastic???? or is it a different mold?
Roc history 101, professor Three Putt shall be teaching this subject...
The original disc that was called a Roc was a 21.2 cm diameter disc that came out in '87. It was essentially an Aviar XD with a big bead. It was for sale for a short time and discontinued, replaced with a 21.7 cm diameter disc that was also called a Roc. In 1995, the original 21.2 cm disc was re-released under the name "Classic Roc." So the small diameter disc has the word "Roc" in the name, but that is not what we are talking about when we say "Roc."
When we say "Roc" we mean the 21.7 cm diameter disc that came out in '88ish. When this first Roc was tooled, Innova did not have a plant and outsourced all the injection molding. They had a P.O. Box in San Marino, CA, so the disc said "San Marino" in the tooling on the underside of the disc.
This "San Marino" Roc (which was never called that at the time) was a great disc. At the time it was one of the longest discs on the market. It would start out a bit overstable but soon beat into a long, straight disc with a slight predictable fade that didn't usually turn over into a headwind. Just a great disc. Back in the early 90's, they were ubiquitous. Everybody threw one. It was just the best disc around.
In the early 90's Innova established a plant in Ontario, CA and started doing all the injection molding in house. Around '94 the Roc mold was shot. You can't have a lot of control over the conditions a mold is used in when you outsource, and the Roc was so popular that they made a lot of runs of it. That mold became distorted and the discs did not come out right, so a new Roc mold was made. Since the plant was in Ontario, CA at that time, the new Roc said "Ontario" in the tooling.
The Ontario Roc was the disc that ruined the Roc. Stable out of the box, it could not handle the torque that the San Marino could and tended to flip. Throwing one into the wind was close to a religious experience, as it involved a lot of praying. It was really more like a longer Shark than the San Marino Roc.
At the same time that the Ontario mold came out, Innova released some really cruddy cheap plastic. Pretty much all of the disc would warp or deform in some way. When you bought discs at this time, you could tell the serious players becasue they would flip through the whole stack of discs hoping to find an old run in the stack. The combination of the bad Ontario Roc mold and the bad plastic resulted in a lot of people throwing Discraft. Other people horded San Marino Rocs, making it one of the early valuable discs.
Innova soon got back on their A game and improved their plastic. They also closed the Ontario plant and moved to Rancho Cucamonga, CA. In '97 they again changed the Roc mold, but this time they got it right. The new disc was the current "Rancho" Roc, so called becasue it says "Rancho Cucamonga" in the underside tooling.
The Rancho Roc is the most overstable of the three 21.7 cm diameter Rocs. You can torque the Hell out of one and not flip it. It is great into the wind. It has a more pronounced fade than a San Marino, but all in all it is a very dependable, predictable disc. It's still the king of the mid-range discs.
None of the various plastic lines or full-color stamps came around until
AFTER the Rancho Roc was in production. As a result, all KC Pro Rocs are made from the Rancho mold. All of the Ching Rocs are made from the Rancho mold. All of the Super Rocs and SE Rocs are made from the Racho mold. All of the USDGC Rocs up until a few years ago were Rancho Rocs. They are all the same mold with different plastics
Now, here is where it gets a bit confusing. The Ontario Roc is a good disc in combination with a San Marino or Rancho Roc, it's just not stable enough to use on it's own. After awhile people started looking for Ontarios to use as a turnover mid, and ebay started burning up with $50 Ontario Rocs. San Marino Rocs had been selling for that much for a long time.
New technology makes it easier to re-create a mold now that it was in '94, so Innova just re-created the Ontario mold in '07 and re-released Ontario Rocs in the CFR program. Then last year they re-created the San Marino mold and re-released it in the CFR program. So now if you really need and Ontario or San Marino you can get one and the extra money goes to a tournament purse, not some disc collectors pocket. They have also run some of the collector USDGC Rocs in the Ontario and San Marino mold.
However, the Rocs that you are going to find in general release-the stock stamped DX Roc and KC Rocs-are all still Rancho Rocs.
