Sometimes you are looking for something to do outdoors with your kids or friends that is fun, unique and not to expensive. A place I stumbled across in Santa Cruz is the DeLaveaga Disc Golf Course.

Disc Golf? What is that you ask.
Well if you have ever played or seen golf, disc (Frisbee) golf follows the same premise where there is a course with a certain amount of “pole” holes with various pars for the holes. DeLaveaga has 27 pole holes.
Each player uses, at a minimum, 3 discs, a driver, which can be thrown far, a mid-range for playing the fairway, and a putter for the “green”. The pole hole consists of a pole with a basket in the air with chains to stop the disc when thrown in. It is very easy to learn and kids can even play and have fun.

DeLaveaga is beautiful as it sits in the forested hills overlooking Santa Cruz. Throughout the course are benches to sit on and enjoy the scenery or have lunch. I would highly recommend bringing lunch to the course. If you want to find some food nearby down the road there is a snack stand at the real golf course where you can get hot dogs, nachos, and such.

As far as equipment, I would recommend stopping by your local REI, Sports Basement, or online at Amazon and picking up a basic three disc set which runs around $20-$29. You can get various levels of discs, new or used, sometimes at the course from a vendor who shows up most of the time. The course itself doesn’t cost anything, but there are donation boxes. The funds are used to maintain the course.
One last comment is that the other players you will run into on the course will range from professional, amateurs and folks from all walks of life and ages. Everyone is super friendly and are supportive in letting better players pass them up on the course.

I would recommend you take your kids, family, or friends on a nice sunny day and go play some disc golf.