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Three world-class Frisbee freestylists show off their love for the flying disc at Ventura Beach. Watch »

Juan Carlo / Star staff "Chipper Bro" Bell, 45, of Ventura, makes a Frisbee circle within his outstretched arms at Surfers Point.

In the Frisbee, "Chipper Bro" Bell found a sense of self, a lifestyle and a ticket to see the world.

Today, the Ventura resident carries the cool title of 13-time world Frisbee freestyle disc champion with the same moxie as he spins a Frisbee on his fingernail or, on its edge, with his teeth.

Back in the mid-1970s, Bell took up the Frisbee at what he termed the birth of alternative sports. He wasn't skilled in football or baseball and yearned to shine some way.

"I found that you could do something other than traditional sports and excel," Bell said. "It's helped me to define a lifestyle that was outdoors, passion and a grass-roots thing."

And how. Bell, 45, won his first world title in 1982 in Santa Cruz; the last of his 13 — bestowed by the Freestyle Players Association — came in 2003. The Frisbee has taken him to competitions and tours in China, Japan, Germany and Italy, and made him an opening act at Cheap Trick and Molly Hatchet rock concerts.

He was paid money to do this, the amazement at that still etched on a face now dabbed with gray whiskers.

On the beach near the Ventura Pier on Tuesday evening, Bell made no bones about it: Freestyle is Frisbee's "hot dog" sport. Ever the gregarious, hammy sort, Bell showed off a still-sharp repertoire of Frisbee moves — The Flamingo and The Bad Attitude among them.

Many involved behind-the-back moves, spins, leaps and catches between his legs or under them; Bell seemed part octopus, part pretzel going after the flat, circular piece of plastic. Danny Sullivan, one of his friends who joined him, playfully calls Bell "monkey boy."

Bell repeatedly batted the Frisbee in the air nonchalantly. He rolled it on edge from the fingertips of one hand all the way down the arm, across the upper part of his chest, and all the way down his other arm to the other fingertips.

He, along with the 49-year-old Sullivan and 46-year-old Dave Bailey, have all have been world champs at some Frisbee "discipline." They've been on ESPN and other shows.

Age is creeping in. But they still have some hops; they drew a crowd that watched from The Promenade above and cheered the particularly artistic moves.

Bell, who works as a brand ambassador at Patagonia, will be on this same stretch of sand Aug. 23-24, competing in the Aloha Beach Festival. It will include the always-popular Frisbee-dog contest, outrigger canoe races and other events.

Bell helped introduce the Reflyer, a Frisbee made from recycled materials. But he's not sure how long he'll keep going; he can see a type of sunset other than the Tuesday edition that fell gracefully beyond Surfers Point. Said Bell: "These young kids coming up are pushing the envelope of what we did."