Westside Discs Sampo Review

The Quick and Dirty on the Westside Discs Sampo

Some of you wrote to tell us that our disc reviews were a little long. While we aren’t going to change that (we’re a little anal and like to be detail oriented), we are going to add a quick and dirty summary to the top of all of our reviews. This way you can get in, get out, and get on with your life!

The Sampo is a pretty solid all around driver. If you are looking to slim down your bag to only one driver mold, the Sampo could definitely do that for you. It does a lot of things pretty well.

It’s best at going straight. It will hold a hyzer. It will hold an anhyzer with modest flex at the end. It’s a very workable driver. It’s got a very nice combination of minimal high speed turn and low speed fade.

It’s got some pretty solid glide which gives it surprising distance potential for a smaller rimmed speed 10 disc.

If you are a fan of the Escape, but would like something that won’t have as much turn, you’ll like the Sampo.

Oh, and it’s got kind of a dumb stamp.

If you’d like to try one out, you can get them at the Dynamic Discs site here, or on Infinite Discs here.

Now on to the full review…

Good Disc, Bad Stamp

One of the things I think is pretty cool about Westside Discs is that they name all of the discs after characters or things from the Finnish epic poem, the Kalevala. I really dig most of their disc names and stamps. I have a lot fun researching the mythical heritage of each disc’s name and stamp.

Here’s how Wikipedia describes the Sampo:

In Finnish mythology, the Sampo or Sammas was a magical artifact of indeterminate type constructed by Ilmarinen that brought good fortune to its holder. When the Sampo was stolen, it is said that Ilmarinen’s homeland fell upon hard times and he sent an expedition to retrieve it, but in the ensuing battle it was smashed and lost at sea.

OK, the Sampo is a magical artifact, I can get down with that. So why is there a picture of the broken down furnace from Freddy Krueger’s basement on the front of the disc?! Are we completely out of inspiring images for hot stamps? It’s a picture of something most people hide in their basements or equipment closets. I’m pretty sure that when you show people around your house, you don’t take them to your boiler and say, “Hey, check out our really cool piece of HVAC equipment!”.

Honestly, I’m not sure why it bugs me so much, but it’s got to be one of the top ten dumbest things I’ve seen stamped on a disc.

Before anyone writes me hate mail pointing out that the stamp has nothing to do with anything… I get that. It’s my own personal opinion and it probably doesn’t belong in a review that’s designed to help you decide if you want to buy one or not. But a furnace? Really?

Anyway, let’s get to the important stuff and talk about the disc itself and how it flies.

The Sampo turns out to be a pretty solid all around disc. It falls in what many people are calling the “tweener” category. It’s not quite a super long distance driver, yet it’s got more D than your typical fairway plastic.

For me, I was very impressed with its straight line performance. I could crank on it pretty hard and it just went straight. When I got up to about 90%-95% power, it would show a little turn. That turn basically kept it airborne longer, it did not make the disc go right in any meaningful amount.

It also held a hyzer line well. Even when thrown into a modest headwind, it resisted sitting up flat and/or turning over. I would call this a very stable disc. When thrown flat, it just went straight with a kind of settling fade at the end of its flight. At lower speeds, the fade was more pronounced, but never out of hand.

One of the unique characteristics of this disc is that it has the least amount of fade of any disc I’ve thrown with this much high speed stability (resistance to turn). Any other disc I can think of that resists turn like the Sampo has a much more pronounced fade.

As far as how it feels, I’m undecided. It does have a flatter top, which I like. But it has kind of a thicker rounded shoulder that took some getting used to. The rim is a medium size and should be manageable for most.

Now For the Details

Westside Discs Describes the Sampo…

“The fairway driver that you have been looking for and the one that will instantly find a spot in your bag. The Sampo gets great distance with minimal effort due to how smoothly it comes out of the hand and it’s great glide. The flight path is very neutral which makes it great for long, straight, low shots. Pick up the Sampo today and pick up strokes on your competition tomorrow.”

Speed: 10
Glide: 5
Turn: 0
Fade: 2

InBounds Flight Chart

Agree or Disagree?

I’m not sure I totally agree with the chart or with Westside’s numbers. The speed rating of 10 is pretty spot on. The glide is at least a 5. The high speed turn is where I differ the most. If you are getting it out to the almost 400′ the chart above shows, it definitely turns more than indicated. Not a lot, maybe a -.5 on a really strong pull, but some. I’d also put the fade at 1.5. As I stated above, I was most impressed with the combination of very low turn combined with only a little fade.

If you changed the distance thrown to the 300′-350′ range, then Westside’s numbers are spot on. You’ll get no turn at that power level and the fade will be slightly more pronounced.

Physical Description

The Sampo is a flat topped disc with a rounded shoulder. Bigger hands will feel more of the flatness. Smaller hands will feel more of the rounded rim. It’s got the rim width of a fairway driver. It also has a barely noticeable micro bead. Based on what I know about disc design, this is a big part of what gives it its stability. I’m not a fan of beaded discs, but I honestly don’t feel the bead when gripping it for a throw. Here’s some images to help…

How does it fly?

Hyzer

As you would imagine with a disc that doesn’t really turn, it holds a hyzer nicely. On a really good rip, I could get it to flip up to flat, but it mostly just wanted to hold its hyzer line for the whole flight. The limited fade of the Sampo also meant it didn’t dump off at the end. It just kind of held the left hand turn all the way to the ground.

Flat

For me, this is where this disc shines. Throw it flat and it goes straight and glides for days. The fade doesn’t kick in until late in its flight. Throwing this in the woods was fun because of this combination of a straight flight and lots of glide. It didn’t need a ton of height under it to get some very nice straight line distance in low ceiling situations. The lack of high speed turn also meant that I could really jump on it and not worry about it heading right into the trees when thrown in tight corridors.

Anhyzer

While the Sampo will hold an anny, it does not turn any more than whatever line you put on it. It will start to fight back to flat late in its flight. It’s a very workable disc. If you weren’t carrying anything understable, you could definitely get away with using this for moderate right turns.

Headwind

The Sampo can hold its own in light to medium winds. I didn’t get the chance to throw it in high wind, but being that it’s almost winter here in Chicago, I did get to test it in some decent gusts. A headwind did tend to push it right just a tic, but nothing too terrible. The low speed fade all but disappeared when thrown into the wind.

Tailwind

In a tailwind, the Sampo still liked to go straight. It’s fade would kick in a little earlier and it seemed to decrease in glide some, but it was reliable and didn’t turn into something overstable like many discs do in this condition.

Distance

On a pull that was fast enough to get the Sampo to show some turn, it was breaking the 360′ mark with little problem. It’s definitely longer than most fairway drivers but doesn’t quite get out there with the big dog distance discs.

How’s your arm?

You have a cannon and your drives are 450′ plus…

You will see a nice, slight turn on a flat throw. You’ll also be able to get the Sampo to flip up to flat and go straight for a long flight. You’ll like the Sampo because it will not turn over where other discs normally do. If you are used to carrying discs that fade more than you’d like just because that’s what you need to carry to eliminate high speed turn, you should like the Sampo a lot.

You have a gun, but not a cannon, and you can drive 325′ – 400’…

This will be a great straight driver with a minimal fade at the end. You’ll be able to get nice flights out of the Sampo on pretty much any line you throw it on. It won’t punish you for a little off axis torque and is a relatively forgiving disc at your arm speed. You should find it to be very consistent.

You have more of a BB gun than a cannon for an arm and your drives are under 300’…

You will find all the same flight characteristics as described for people throwing 325′-400′. You will just have less distance. Because the Sampo doesn’t want to fade a lot in the first place, you shouldn’t see a huge increase in fade at lower power. The Sampo would be a good disc for you as it will perform well now and will grow with you as your arm speed increases. You won’t suddenly find it flipping on you one day when you start throwing further.

What’s it similar to?

In the distance category, the Sampo is unique. I wouldn’t say that any “distance” disc has the combination of resistance to turn and minimal low speed fade that the Sampo does. If we turn to fairway drivers, there are a few discs that come to mind that will have a very similar flight lines, but none have the distance potential that the Sampo does. Those fairway discs are the Innova TL, Legacy Rival, and the Westside Stag.

Summary

As I mentioned a few times, the thing that sets the Sampo apart is its combination of very low high speed turn and minimal fade. That’s a desirable combo and it comes in handy a lot out on the course. The biggest benefit will be to those of you who don’t carry a lot of discs. If you were to have to play with only one driver, you could make a very, very good case for that driver being the Sampo. It’s long enough to cover distance duties. It’s controllable enough to cover fairway duties. It’s good in the woods and it’s good out in the open. It reliable and forgiving. It’s a very nice all around disc.

So that leaves the question of does it make my bag? The answer to that is “kind of”. Honestly, for my full time, full assortment bag… It’s not going to go in. While the Sampo is very good at a lot of things, I’ve found other discs that are great at their specialties. That works because I typically am not trying to limit myself to one driver.

For my winter time bag, on the other hand, it’s definitely in. First, I limit myself to about 6 discs in the winter. I carry a Fluid Enforcer, an Elasto World, a Frost Claymore, a gummy BioFuzion Verdict, and a Gold Line Pure. That leaves one slot for a control driver. With only one slot open, the Sampo is a shoe in. Second, the Sampo comes in Westside’s Elasto plastic. I started playing with the softer plastics last winter and really enjoyed the added grip and pliability they brought to cold weather play.

The interesting thing will be seeing if after playing with the Sampo all winter, will it find it’s way into my regular season bag? Only time will tell. I’m looking forward to getting to know it better in the next few months and I’ll keep you all posted.

Win this disc!!!

Do you want to win our review sample of the Westside Sampo shown in all the pictures? Make sure to subscribe to the blog and you’ll not only be entered to win the Sampo, but you’ll automatically be entered every time we do a review in the future! Subscribe now and we’ll pick a winner on Thanksgiving Thursday, 2015!!! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for the announcement of the winner.

 

[wysija_form id=”1″]

LHBH / RHFH Version:

LHBH/RHFH Version of the Review…

The Quick and Dirty on the Westside Discs Sampo

Some of you wrote to tell us that our disc reviews were a little long. While we aren’t going to change that (we’re a little anal and like to be detail oriented), we are going to add a quick and dirty summary to the top of all of our reviews. This way you can get in, get out, and get on with your life!

The Sampo is a pretty solid all around driver. If you are looking to slim down your bag to only one driver mold, the Sampo could definitely do that for you. It does a lot of things pretty well.

It’s best at going straight. It will hold a hyzer. It will hold an anhyzer with modest flex at the end. It’s a very workable driver. It’s got a very nice combination of minimal high speed turn and low speed fade.

It’s got some pretty solid glide which gives it surprising distance potential for a smaller rimmed speed 10 disc.

If you are a fan of the Escape, but would like something that won’t have as much turn, you’ll like the Sampo.

Oh, and it’s got kind of a dumb stamp.

If you’d like to try one out, you can get them at the Dynamic Discs site here, or on Infinite Discs here.

Now on to the full review…

Good Disc, Bad Stamp

One of the things I think is pretty cool about Westside Discs is that they name all of the discs after characters or things from the Finnish epic poem, the Kalevala. I really dig most of their disc names and stamps. I have a lot fun researching the mythical heritage of each disc’s name and stamp.

Here’s how Wikipedia describes the Sampo:

In Finnish mythology, the Sampo or Sammas was a magical artifact of indeterminate type constructed by Ilmarinen that brought good fortune to its holder. When the Sampo was stolen, it is said that Ilmarinen’s homeland fell upon hard times and he sent an expedition to retrieve it, but in the ensuing battle it was smashed and lost at sea.

OK, the Sampo is a magical artifact, I can get down with that. So why is there a picture of the broken down furnace from Freddy Krueger’s basement on the front of the disc?! Are we completely out of inspiring images for hot stamps? It’s a picture of something most people hide in their basements or equipment closets. I’m pretty sure that when you show people around your house, you don’t take them to your boiler and say, “Hey, check out our really cool piece of HVAC equipment!”.

Honestly, I’m not sure why it bugs me so much, but it’s got to be one of the top ten dumbest things I’ve seen stamped on a disc.

Before anyone writes me hate mail pointing out that the stamp has nothing to do with anything… I get that. It’s my own personal opinion and it probably doesn’t belong in a review that’s designed to help you decide if you want to buy one or not. But a furnace? Really?

Anyway, let’s get to the important stuff and talk about the disc itself and how it flies.

The Sampo turns out to be a pretty solid all around disc. It falls in what many people are calling the “tweener” category. It’s not quite a super long distance driver, yet it’s got more D than your typical fairway plastic.

For me, I was very impressed with its straight line performance. I could crank on it pretty hard and it just went straight. When I got up to about 90%-95% power, it would show a little turn. That turn basically kept it airborne longer, it did not make the disc go left in any meaningful amount.

It also held a hyzer line well. Even when thrown into a modest headwind, it resisted sitting up flat and/or turning over. I would call this a very stable disc. When thrown flat, it just went straight with a kind of settling fade at the end of its flight. At lower speeds, the fade was more pronounced, but never out of hand.

One of the unique characteristics of this disc is that it has the least amount of fade of any disc I’ve thrown with this much high speed stability (resistance to turn). Any other disc I can think of that resists turn like the Sampo has a much more pronounced fade.

As far as how it feels, I’m undecided. It does have a flatter top, which I like. But it has kind of a thicker rounded shoulder that took some getting used to. The rim is a medium size and should be manageable for most.

Now For the Details

Westside Discs Describes the Sampo…

“The fairway driver that you have been looking for and the one that will instantly find a spot in your bag. The Sampo gets great distance with minimal effort due to how smoothly it comes out of the hand and it’s great glide. The flight path is very neutral which makes it great for long, straight, low shots. Pick up the Sampo today and pick up strokes on your competition tomorrow.”

Speed: 10
Glide: 5
Turn: 0
Fade: 2

InBounds Flight Chart

Agree or Disagree?

I’m not sure I totally agree with the chart or with Westside’s numbers. The speed rating of 10 is pretty spot on. The glide is at least a 5. The high speed turn is where I differ the most. If you are getting it out to the almost 400′ the chart above shows, it definitely turns more than indicated. Not a lot, maybe a -.5 on a really strong pull, but some. I’d also put the fade at 1.5. As I stated above, I was most impressed with the combination of very low turn combined with only a little fade.

If you changed the distance thrown to the 300′-350′ range, then Westside’s numbers are spot on. You’ll get no turn at that power level and the fade will be slightly more pronounced.

Physical Description

The Sampo is a flat topped disc with a rounded shoulder. Bigger hands will feel more of the flatness. Smaller hands will feel more of the rounded rim. It’s got the rim width of a fairway driver. It also has a barely noticeable micro bead. Based on what I know about disc design, this is a big part of what gives it its stability. I’m not a fan of beaded discs, but I honestly don’t feel the bead when gripping it for a throw. Here’s some images to help…

How does it fly?

Hyzer

As you would imagine with a disc that doesn’t really turn, it holds a hyzer nicely. On a really good rip, I could get it to flip up to flat, but it mostly just wanted to hold its hyzer line for the whole flight. The limited fade of the Sampo also meant it didn’t dump off at the end. It just kind of held the right hand turn all the way to the ground.

Flat

For me, this is where this disc shines. Throw it flat and it goes straight and glides for days. The fade doesn’t kick in until late in its flight. Throwing this in the woods was fun because of this combination of a straight flight and lots of glide. It didn’t need a ton of height under it to get some very nice straight line distance in low ceiling situations. The lack of high speed turn also meant that I could really jump on it and not worry about it heading left into the trees when thrown in tight corridors.

Anhyzer

While the Sampo will hold an anny, it does not turn any more than whatever line you put on it. It will start to fight back to flat late in its flight. It’s a very workable disc. If you weren’t carrying anything understable, you could definitely get away with using this for moderate left turns.

Headwind

The Sampo can hold its own in light to medium winds. I didn’t get the chance to throw it in high wind, but being that it’s almost winter here in Chicago, I did get to test it in some decent gusts. A headwind did tend to push it left just a tic, but nothing too terrible. The low speed fade all but disappeared when thrown into the wind.

Tailwind

In a tailwind, the Sampo still liked to go straight. It’s fade would kick in a little earlier and it seemed to decrease in glide some, but it was reliable and didn’t turn into something overstable like many discs do in this condition.

Distance

On a pull that was fast enough to get the Sampo to show some turn, it was breaking the 360′ mark with little problem. It’s definitely longer than most fairway drivers but doesn’t quite get out there with the big dog distance discs.

How’s your arm?

You have a cannon and your drives are 450′ plus…

You will see a nice, slight turn on a flat throw. You’ll also be able to get the Sampo to flip up to flat and go straight for a long flight. You’ll like the Sampo because it will not turn over where other discs normally do. If you are used to carrying discs that fade more than you’d like just because that’s what you need to carry to eliminate high speed turn, you should like the Sampo a lot.

You have a gun, but not a cannon, and you can drive 325′ – 400’…

This will be a great straight driver with a minimal fade at the end. You’ll be able to get nice flights out of the Sampo on pretty much any line you throw it on. It won’t punish you for a little off axis torque and is a relatively forgiving disc at your arm speed. You should find it to be very consistent.

You have more of a BB gun than a cannon for an arm and your drives are under 300’…

You will find all the same flight characteristics as described for people throwing 325′-400′. You will just have less distance. Because the Sampo doesn’t want to fade a lot in the first place, you shouldn’t see a huge increase in fade at lower power. The Sampo would be a good disc for you as it will perform well now and will grow with you as your arm speed increases. You won’t suddenly find it flipping on you one day when you start throwing further.

What’s it similar to?

In the distance category, the Sampo is unique. I wouldn’t say that any “distance” disc has the combination of resistance to turn and minimal low speed fade that the Sampo does. If we turn to fairway drivers, there are a few discs that come to mind that will have a very similar flight lines, but none have the distance potential that the Sampo does. Those fairway discs are the Innova TL, Legacy Rival, and the Westside Stag.

Summary

As I mentioned a few times, the thing that sets the Sampo apart is its combination of very low high speed turn and minimal fade. That’s a desirable combo and it comes in handy a lot out on the course. The biggest benefit will be to those of you who don’t carry a lot of discs. If you were to have to play with only one driver, you could make a very, very good case for that driver being the Sampo. It’s long enough to cover distance duties. It’s controllable enough to cover fairway duties. It’s good in the woods and it’s good out in the open. It reliable and forgiving. It’s a very nice all around disc.

So that leaves the question of does it make my bag? The answer to that is “kind of”. Honestly, for my full time, full assortment bag… It’s not going to go in. While the Sampo is very good at a lot of things, I’ve found other discs that are great at their specialties. That works because I typically am not trying to limit myself to one driver.

For my winter time bag, on the other hand, it’s definitely in. First, I limit myself to about 6 discs in the winter. I carry a Fluid Enforcer, an Elasto World, a Frost Claymore, a gummy BioFuzion Verdict, and a Gold Line Pure. That leaves one slot for a control driver. With only one slot open, the Sampo is a shoe in. Second, the Sampo comes in Westside’s Elasto plastic. I started playing with the softer plastics last winter and really enjoyed the added grip and pliability they brought to cold weather play.

The interesting thing will be seeing if after playing with the Sampo all winter, will it find it’s way into my regular season bag? Only time will tell. I’m looking forward to getting to know it better in the next few months and I’ll keep you all posted.

Win this disc!!!

Do you want to win our review sample of the Westside Sampo shown in all the pictures? Make sure to subscribe to the blog and you’ll not only be entered to win the Sampo, but you’ll automatically be entered every time we do a review in the future! Subscribe now and we’ll pick a winner on Thanksgiving Thursday, 2015!!! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for the announcement of the winner.

[wysija_form id=”1″]

 

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”