Paul McBeth's ATHENA Somehow Got Better?!?

welcome back to Bonanza disc golf today we're going to be taking a look at a new disc that's kind of new that I've kind of already reviewed but I kind of haven't because I heard that it's a little bit different than the one that I already reviewed and that is going to be the new first run disccraft Athena these are finally a little bit more affordable closer to that 21-22 price range but they got Paul mcbeth's name on them so even though they're ESP they're still running that high I have heard that they fly a little bit different to the protos which I already reviewed and unfortunately don't have because I gave it away in a dance battle that I lost but instead when I reviewed that disc I found that this Ricky wysocki explorer was basically the exact same thing like they literally flew exactly the same so I have the Explorer today that I'm going to put up against the Athena as well as one more disc that I've recently reviewed and I think is actually going to make my bag which is the birdie disc golf supply strike now the reason I brought this along is because for one of my projects with 100 videos I was explaining snap in disc golf and I threw this disc first time I ever threw it 430 feet um really like that so I want to bring the strike out because if this disc is significantly better then why I like the strike this might be one that has to go in my bag but we're gonna play six holes with just these three discs to see if this new first one Athena should make your bag because I'm sure with this crap this is going to fly pretty similarly to the next runs but on top of that with all bagger Bennetts which this kind of is a bag of bit if I can't beat par with the Athena I'm gonna have to give it away so let's get on to Hole number one which is only 220 feet but very tightly wooded because I want to see how they forehead how they backhand how they hold lines how far they go and on hole one we'll get a profile view I will say just right off the bat this Athena does feel a little bit less stiff than the prototypes if I'm remembering that correctly it's 173 174 the highest weight that I would be able to get I really like the full stamp but that's just kind of inside the point profile wise it's not very dummy it's pretty flat it's kind of like if you've ever thrown a Grace or arrived they're like not domey but they have like a little bit of dome but they're also kind of stiff and this plastic which I'm pretty sure is discraft's ESP feels a little bit slick for some esps that I've thrown but putting it up here putting it up here against the strike they honestly have very very similar the strikes Dome is a little bit more especially as it slopes down toward towards the edge whereas this gets a little bit blunter probably more t-bird-like and the Explorer actually is a little bit blunter than the Athena as well so and the Explorer is much domeier but these chameleon explorers Ricky wysocki signature discs are a little bit beefier than normal explorers and they fit just in line with where this Athena was when I first tested it so first pull right here is only 220 feet but it's a straight Gap here and this is perfect for a forehand Ferry driver at the 7502 flight path should turn a little bit and come back because the forehand will have some more torque I'm not nervous at all we're definitely going to throw the Explorer first the Athena second and the strike third that way I can warm up once at least with this disc which has a little bit less riding on it than the Athena I do want to see if the Athena or strike wins but if we can't beat par with the Athena it's going to one of you guys with any giveaway so let's go ahead I'm not nervous I'm not nervous I'm not nervous that's gonna be a tough up and down that Explorer is pretty stable that's what the Athena flew like for me originally but I think that this one is slightly less stable based on literally just one throw that I've had so I imagine this will do what I wanted oh yeah much Glide here a little bit lower too a decent skip got pretty far up the Fairway though the strike I have not forehanded much but I like this disc a lot I'm just gonna rethrow that real fast that came out well but I just threw it way more right than I did the other two there we go oh yeah yeah I really like that disc that strike a lot we're gonna disregard the first thing you can yell at me in the comments but my my channel my rules Explorer nice I'll tell you what I really hope that Athena doesn't apply like that Explorer does because if it does I'm not making my bag you're not even coming close gotta Putt and we are going to be putting with Putters actually because it is Fairway drivers not mids or putters oh we should have two birdie looks here okay Athena's right here looks like we're just outside the circle foreign where the heck did it go oh that's such a bad putt I think that one deserves par so we're gonna call it par-par bogey move on to Hole number two hopefully get a birdie with this guy but I do think this is closer to the strike than it is the Explorer but if you've ever thrown like a recycled Explorer not opto not optox glimmer whatever chameleon whatever the heck that one is I think it's probably closer to a recycled Explorer maybe slightly more stable because the Recycled I could just like hyzer flip from like a pretty steep hyzer I don't think I'm able to do that with the strike and I don't think I'd be able to do that with Athena which in my mind makes it more workable because I want it to be not super understable but also glidy also I forgot about a couple holes so I think we're gonna end up playing eight holes and honestly get that started here with a pretty similar shot shape except this one needs to have a little bit more Flex going through there's no T sign but I think we're closer to 290 feet so it's pretty solid forehand shot we could flip one up through this Gap but I think everything is going to dump a little bit too fast because it's Fairway drivers these are the types of holes I want to be very confident walking up to with this type of shot but there's one tree that I'm a little worried about down the Fairway foreign that's the tree that's definitely not the Explorer that is way flippier which is good that's more similar to a 7502 because it's not flippy it's stable you have like stable over stable and understable I would say that as long as well as a strike are stable where if I power them up they're going to turn a bit because I'm throwing them faster than a seven speed when I throw them at that seven speed man that's a really nice flight I like that a lot here's the strike oh baby and those are just gliding for days I because it was I knew it was more stable I overpowered it a little bit but it even already started to come back before it hit that tree I wish I was a robot I could throw everything exactly the same but I am glad that I brought that strike out because it is much more similar to the Athena is than the Explorer so now I need to find what the differences are because I don't really see right now a reason why the Athena should not be people's go-to Fairway drivers because honestly I like it now more than I liked it before just your classic Explorer upshot yeah I think it's so much more stable that's a putt though that's 20 feet 25 feet all right that's the one tree to beat honestly it's kind of close to an a-line if it was gonna Flex out of that oh man I'm liking metal today strike strike is taking the Box kind of ish if we don't count the first tree so you can't see hole number three from the t-pad here but it's up this Gap and finishing straight and left which is exactly why I like these 7502 the seven speed ferry drivers because the nine speed is just a little too fast it's gonna dump a little too much in a mid-range I can get here it's only 2.95 but I have to throw the perfect shot and power up on it which is going to increase the variability of where it's going to end up so I really want to just throw a spare wave flat through this let it turn slightly but since we're going uphill it's not going to turn too much and then go back be under the basket strike is up first come on we got the Athena we're gonna throw I think honestly I could probably throw it flat and just aim better that's the shot yep that's going to be parked yeah that's a good disc because this one I'm gonna throw I'm gonna try to throw the same and it's going to be so much more overstable wow sneaky Gap I did eat today too like this isn't even because I haven't eaten this is just throwing bad shots wow this disc is holding up pretty good I've hit some trees pretty hard with it and nothing yes let's go not quite left enough but that feels good to hit a fairway oh that felt like a good line but I've never made a skip shot so this is why we like this because this is literally the Athena so far this new Athena the first run is just not the same all right this all scares me a little bit because we got all the cars over there the dog park over here oh and someone driving right up to the park they're moving we should be good never mind that car that was parked next to the dog park Lily just parked in the island where the basket is we're right in front of the sign that says you can't park here because there's this gulf people are so silly well it stinks I'm gonna do my best to make sure that this all looks good in post but this is the one hole I was excited for with these discs because it's 380 feet hopefully you can see the basket down there and it's the perfect way to test these because we have a slight headwind this is the type of distance that I probably especially being open rather just take a straight hyzer with a distance driver but I can reach this especially going slightly downhill with these Fairways I'm not sure about this Explorer because honestly in the seven speed category I don't like having something this overstable but Athena has the box then birdie then explore and we're gonna see if we can just put it close I can't even see the basket leave it a little left a little Hazard hopefully another pretty good shot the one thing I will say is there's a lot of tooling inside of the rim here and I hate having that when I grip it I just gripped it again yep they have just the regular Discraft tooling the Athena tooling and then the Paul Macbeth tooling and I don't like grabbing any of those places so foreign oh yeah wow that's gonna be a little bit left but not by much and that is down there so strike next I think that might be more stable than the strike is nope there's somewhere I thought the strike was less stable and that strike is forever left yeah those discs are very very similar oh if I would have thrown the exact same line that would have been perfect there we go it's still going to be more left than Athena oh not by much that almost crashed into the basket well when you throw a bad shot because you think it's something different than what it is that's pretty sad I think we can make this too far left pretty chill Athena man that thing kind of bombs this might go slightly farther maybe slightly gladier than that strike good pot no oh sit down sit down sit down sit down sit down sit down sit oh that was scary okay wait that's the strike that's not the one I need to throw that's better and so far I'm really really happy with how that Athena flies like very happy especially compared to the Proto but I don't know if it's anything crazy special it just is what a 7502 disc wants to be it's way freaking better than a T-Bird I hate T-Birds because they're just so inconsistent and if they all come out like this and I've heard a lot of other people say that theirs are less stable and more glidy than the first protos so these can be a consistent what you actually want a T-Bird to be similar to how this is exactly what I want that teapot's thought to be and it's just like it's the perfect Fairway that's what you want a fair way to be straight up the hill you can probably barely see it because it Blends into the fence Athena still has the Box should have been another birdie yeah the one thing I hate is just how much tooling there is because I grab it and I just grabbed it again and I grabbed it it's still more okay finally found it there's like one spot that doesn't have tooling because like underneath here you can just probably see there's Paul McBeth then there's more that is the this craft then it says Athena and then there's like made in America so if you don't like that you have to like find the one spot that doesn't have it and I really don't like doing that because I'd rather just pick it up and throw it but that's my only complaint it's not that bad foreign but decent no tooling to worry about yeah skip in great shot not for the Explorer before my camera gets run over much better oh that's solid hey Arya oh no way great to see you here can I give you guys some minis yeah brother appreciate it for sure of course have a good one never mind not gonna get run over I love when I get to see you guys out on the course and I always have minis I actually just ordered some more The Minis that I have aren't really for sale I just give them away to people at the courses so if you've ever seen me and I ask you if you want a mini never worry about paying for it so hopefully make some pots because the strike in the Explorer were great just through the Athena a little too low oh looks like we're not playing one hole because there are cars on the football field or baseball field whatever kind of field that is hey Too Short dang it Anthony probably has to be the skip shot you know I always say that I never it worked check that one off the list I guess that was cool I like the strike too because it's the same weight but for some reason it just feels it doesn't feel lighter something about the plastic for me I might have some link down below because birdie sent them out to me and they might be sending me some more of them because this actually like even after sewing against this they're similar enough that if I was a Discraft guy 100 get this and if I didn't see the strike before this would probably be going in my bag but I want to diversify my bag personally to have as many different companies that I possibly can and I really like the strike for that slot and the way that it feels not having tooling on the other side and being able to really just get my thumb into it I really like the gumminess it's not like too gummy it's still pretty stiff but it's like it's like pliable enough all right so this is the best vantage point because we're going from that t-pad 250 feet into that little Enclave over there where that basket sits and the best shot in my opinion is a skip shot there's also like a backhand flex line with a mid-range or maybe an overstable putter but I think the skip shot is probably the best slime SO waiting to see how it's very different than this strike though because I mean the profile is a little bit different the hand feel this one honestly feels a little bit shallower narrower the strike and this one feels like if this is a seven speed which I don't know how they that all correlates if this is seven this maybe feel like a 7.5 not quite an eight speed yeah the strike feels a little bit shallower than both the Explorer and the no the Athena's a little bit more than the Explorer strike is up first it's gonna be straight to hyzer not a lot of skip a little too high so next we're gonna go explore foreign kind of truncating my stop oh that's gonna be pretty parked though that's much better much lower much more driven get a skip oh that's terrible that was a better shot that's pretty cool the more I review the more I realize so many discs are almost exactly the same maybe with just slight differences that maybe affect them a little bit but for the most part I've just come down to feel comfortability with the plastic and the companies because if you really like Paul you're probably going to throw that disc better than someone who doesn't really like Paul I like Paul Macbeth he's awesome but I'm not like a Paul Stan so that just doesn't really have a lot of extra cachet for me being his disc if I was on team disccraft which I don't plan to be that's the disc that I would probably throw in the slot because I really like it but for me what's more important is throwing different molds from different companies which is why I like the strike because they're like the same they're like very similar discs I just personally would rather throw something that's slightly cheaper I like it slightly more because it doesn't have the tooling but the flight is exactly what I want out of a fairway driver and that Athena is that I really really like the flight explore great shot terrible putt but it's in Athena bad kick because that was probably gonna be parked if it didn't just kick off of that but gotta look nice Putt and now the strike I can't a little putter fit through here almost not but almost is not not oh let's go that's incredible I didn't think I was gonna be able to do that I don't know if like Paul had more of a say in these runs or if you want to just got things ironed out and I don't even necessarily know if my feedback would have originally been to make the new Athena's slightly less stable but I'm very glad that they did because I think this is going to fit way more people's bags and even probably some of the top throwers like a Paul it might start out a little flippy but he might just have like 15 Proto runs that he wants for that overstable slot and they might make these in different Plastics eventually so I really like where this disc fits right now but if you're looking for something very similar that doesn't have the tooling or you want to try a new company I would definitely check out these strikes I have some Linked In the description that you can go check out but I'm glad that they went away from it being an overstable Explorer into being a more true 7502 because I think that now it absolutely is those numbers if you want to see my review of the Proto version of this disc check it out right over here all my other disk reviews and everything are going to be right down here subscribe please if you want to tell me what disk that I have to review my third tier patrons get to do that so I have a lot of those up on the channel as well and I'm filming plenty plenty more but other than that I'll see you guys in the next one I appreciate you Paul McBeth if you're watching this uh good job with this disc I don't know why you would literally watch my video to the very end that would be that'd be awesome but it didn't happen so I'm talking to nobody right now but peace love you bye