Frequent Fliers : Frisbee Fanatics, the L.A. Iguanas Are Spinning Off to Another Match

He gave it a whirl, but he couldn’t toss it aside.

We’re talking Frisbee here--the game that has put a crazy spin on Rick Dinicola’s life for the past 11 years.

The Playa del Rey aviation company purchasing manager spends most of his free time perfecting his backhand flip, his downfield pass and his diving reception on a makeshift Frisbee field. And he spends up to $5,000 a year traveling to Frisbee matches around the country.

All that effort has paid off: Dinicola, 31, is a member of the L.A. Iguanas, a team that will represent the West Coast today and Saturday at a national Frisbee fest in Boston.

It’s a championship match designed to bring recognition to an activity most people equate with a casual afternoon at the park.

About 6,600 American athletes participate in organized Ultimate Frisbee, a football-like game said to have been invented 24 years ago in a New Jersey parking lot by a group of bored high school buddies.

In Los Angeles, the sport is popular with hundreds who play informal games in city parks and on college campuses. According to Dinicola, college is where he and most of the Iguanas first experienced the game.

It’s not a hard sport to learn. Seven players on a side toss the plastic disc from one to another in hopes of eventually sailing it into the hands of a teammate beyond the goal line at the end of the 70-yard-long field.

There is no tackling and no running with the Frisbee. Players have 10 seconds to throw it; the opposing team tries to block the shot without touching the opponent. There are no referees, either; players use the honor system and call fouls themselves.

It is a difficult sport to master, however. Interceptions are common unless a team has practiced its signals, its sneaky behind-the-back flips and its rocket-like overhand throws.

The Iguanas were formed three years ago when players from two lackluster men’s teams, the Los Angeles Polo Club and the San Diego Darkside, decided to consolidate. Despite the commute, five of the team’s 23 members travel from San Diego to practice in Long Beach.

The players, whose average age is 28, include a schoolteacher, a social worker, a rocket engineer, a waiter and a race car mechanic.

Team members pay their own way to tournaments, often staying at the homes of opponents or camping out near the out-of-town playing field to save money. The Boston tourney, which has $15,000 in prize money, is the first to offer cash prizes, players say.

“It’s a gentleman’s sport,” said player Randy Sanchez, a 32-year-old sales manager for Columbia Films who lives in Burbank. “When the game’s over, everybody’s friends. That way it’s never awkward going home to stay with a player you’ve just beat.”

The awkward part is spending so much time away from your family--and spending so much of the family’s finances, say some Iguanas.

“The amount of time you spend is tough. It becomes a big consideration,” said Dr. Tim Liddy, 30, a podiatrist who lives in Beverly Hills. “I just got married July 25, and my wife is kind of having a hard time dealing with it.”

Team captain Chip O’Connor said San Diego players stay at his Long Beach home Saturday nights when they come to weekend practices. He said the bunkhouse arrangement is less than a hit with his girlfriend, Maria Croucier.

“We’re engaged to be married in June. It’s a pretty sore subject, especially this time of year when I commit every weekend and work out every day,” said O’Connor, an electrical engineer with Northrop. “I’ve kind of told Maria this is my last year. This may be my last hurrah.”

Croucier, a Los Angeles clothing company sales administrator, laughed at that.

“He’s been saying this could be his ‘last year’ for three years now,” she said. Croucier was quick to add that she has learned to respect Frisbee because players have taught her “so much about fair play and teamwork.”

Dinicola said team members wish they could convince others that Frisbee is a tough and demanding sport, not just a beach-time diversion.

“The first thing most people say when you tell them you play Frisbee is, ‘Where’s your dog?’ ” he said. “People are absolutely shocked when you tell them you’re going to Boulder, Colo., or somewhere else to play in a tournament.”