#TheMachineVsTheBear
For better or worse, social media has certainly changed society. It has made the world a much smaller place and allowed like-minded people to find each other to share their passions. There are plenty of negatives too, but that’s for another blog. Disc golf lives on every social media platform, and my opinions vary greatly depending on which platform is being discussed, but I want to focus on disc golf on Twitter. Specifically, the daily posts challenging professional comedian and recreational disc golfer Bert Kreischer to a heads up duel with Jesse ‘Bear’ Coffia.
Bear hails from Mobile, Alabama and will be turning 30 this month. Like so many of us, he discovered disc golf through a friend. He says, “Back in 2011 my best friend Kev Dog had some discs in his car, and we threw them in my yard in Northeast Alabama.” In short order they outgrew the back yard and headed to their first course. He describes his playing style as, “Aggressive. Very Aggressive. If I can get it to the basket my only thought is to make it. I could be better if I wasn't so aggressive, but where is the fun in that.?” It is this aggressive attacking style that put Bear on the map, thanks to several YouTube viral videos. In fact, his videos have gained over 50 million views! The most famous being his tree ace video. Bear says of that video, “A few things happened in my mind. One is that I almost didn't see it because I knew the shot was terrible. I started to turn away, but then it hit that beautiful big nasty tree and it caught my full attention. I couldn't believe I finally aced hole 16 at Centennial Park in Port Charlotte, FL. I thought it was going to be a terrible video and no one would watch it. It went the most viral out of any of my ace videos. It made it on the Reddit homepage. Most of my viral videos are me throwing bad shots or the most okay shot.” His viral success has helped him build a presence on numerous platforms, with well over 10k followers on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. He’s not as active on Twitter, but that’s where I discovered Bear Bite Disc. He says, “Right now I am just building brand recognition. Eventually, I plan to make the Bear Bite Disc Golf Super Complex.” A lofty long term goal indeed, but he also has his eyes set on more immediate goals, like challenging Bert Kreischer to a round.
I asked Bear to explain how he came up with this idea and how he plans to make it happen. He had just signed a sponsorship deal with OTB Discs, and they asked him to come up with some cool promotional ideas and they would do what they can to manifest those ideas into reality.
Bear says, “I was heading to see Bert in Georgia and when I met him, he said ‘I know who you are!’ which is on video. After I left the concert, the light bulb went off. I should challenge Bert.” He ran it up the ladder at OTB and they loved the idea, and thus began the daily posts challenging Bert. At the time of writing this article, Bear has posted every day for 279 consecutive days. He says, “I just love Bert. Now I'm like a Bert encyclopedia because I've been doing my challenge for so long. I think it will be truly some of the greatest content ever made just because we are two people with huge personalities.” The official challenge is called #TheMachineVsTheBear. To date, Bert has yet to respond, but that hasn’t deterred Bear. He says because Bert is so busy, he’s open to playing him anywhere. He also says there would be no stakes on the line, but he’d like to use the event as an opportunity to raise funds for charity. As for the format, he says, “The way I have it laid out is Bert and I play the front 9 Head-to-Head. Then the back nine we draft a team of 2 or 3 Pros to just try and shoot some of the best scores ever.”
I offered to write this piece to help bring light to this challenge. Now I call on all of you to help as well, please use the hashtag #TheMachineVsTheBear to help raise awareness and make this a thing. If you know a way to reach Bert, then let us know! Who knows, maybe Gatekeeper Media will be there to film the whole thing. Who doesn’t want to see The Machine and The Bear challenge? It’s exactly the kind of content we need in the world. In closing, Bear had this to say, “I just want to say Thank You to everyone that has been supporting me. I love it so much and I truly appreciate it so if you ever see me, I'll always have time to talk a little disc golf.”
