Life & Work with Aaron Friedman of Centennial

Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Friedman

Hi Aaron, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I met Elisa in September 2021 at a Phish show at Dick’s soccer stadium in Commerce City. I was living in Colorado and she was living in Michigan, but we soon started visiting each other. I had been playing disc golf since the late 90s and became pretty serious about it during COVID. Elisa had played a few times, and she was totally on board with getting more into it. I gave her some dyed discs as gifts, and she commented something like “I bet we could do that.” Elisa was always very artistic. I was not. But I decided I was willing to give it a shot. We started almost as soon as she moved in with me in February 2022. We watched some YouTube videos and asked questions in the Disc Golf Dyers group on Facebook to get a basic understanding of various methods and how to do them successfully. We tried a few glue beds, and we were happy with the results, but unhappy with the time they took and the clean-up involved. So we switched to Floetrol (a paint additive) as the medium, and it quickly became our favorite method. I guess we started to get good at it, because at some point we showed some of our dyed discs to our local disc golf shop Fly Green, and they said that they were significantly better than the others they were seeing come into the shop. We formed a partnership with Fly Green, and we began to teach classes out of their Learning Lounge area and vend our dyed discs at their tournaments. We also vended at craft markets, in breweries. and in the lots at local Phish shows. Last year, we set up an LLC, had our friend Ben Fairley design a logo for us, and we vended at our first Pro Tour event, the Dynamic Discs Open in Emporia, KS. We’ve been able to get our dyed discs into the hands of several pros, including Ricky Wysocki, Gannon Buhr, Simon Lizotte, Ella Hansen, Aaron Gossage, and we were excited to see one of our discs in James Conrad’s 2024 In-The-Bag video, The growth of our business has been slow, but steady, and we’ve enjoyed every minute of it. This fall we’re getting married, and we continue to love playing disc golf together and develop our craft together.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Trying to find a way to turn a profit and grow the business in a bear market for disc golf in general since the end of the pandemic has been challenging. But we’ve taken it slow and haven’t exposed ourselves in terms of borrowing or investments. We both have day-jobs, so we are content to put in what time we feel like putting into the business and let the cards fall where they may. Gaining recognition outside of our local area has been a challenge too. There are a lot of talented disc dyers out there, and while we feel we stack up well against most of them, it is tough to get noticed in a saturated market.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I think what sets Circus of Flight apart from others is our use of vivid well-saturated colors and contrast, which makes our discs pop, and also our use of several dyeing methods on a single disc. We often do a stencil and hot dip, and a Floetrol cell bed, and lotion (or denatured alcohol) painting, and spin-dye techniques, all on the same disc, with some interesting and eye-popping results.

Regarding our actual careers, Elisa is a Lead Horticulturalist for a municipal parks department, and I am a Systems Engineer and Program Manager for a large federal contractor.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
Aaron: On my 11th birthday, I got a wild and crazy Siberian Husky. I had him until I was 25, and I’ve had huskies ever since.

Elisa: My favorite memory was all of the times that my dad would take me to various places for karaoke, to give me a place to sing in front of people. He gave me courage and because of him, I don’t get stage fright.

Pricing:

• Typically $30-50 per disc depending on the work involved and the results
• Contact us for quotes on dye workshops.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.circusofflight.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/circusofflight/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/circusofflight