![Photo credit: Louise Dyring Nielsen [www.photoz.dk]](/images/masthead_layout.jpg)
Christian, the founder of Ffindr just completed the addition of a new feature to the system: simple online registration and processing!
Players can register online and the TD will get a confirmation e-mail, plus a link to an ever up-to-date Excel file that reflects all submitted bids. TD's and bidders can edit the submitted bids as long as they are logged in.
Once the registration is closed and the TD makes the choice among the bids (TD's can move the bids around between the selected and waiting list by easy drag & drop), everything is ready to send out the invitations.
Sweet!
I just realized that we know very little about Korean Beach Ultimate. We found some pictures online and a contact that is working to get a Korean team to the Asian Championship Beach Ultimate :-)
But apart from that, what is going on there...?
In case you know more, leave us comment.
This blog entry is the last thing I am doing before I turn of my computer and head over to 6 days of pure fun on the beach. I will be in Meco (Portugal) where there is a bar and a beach and 144 Beach Ultimate players from 17 countries. No contact with the outside world. The world as I normally know it will no longer exist... In its place is that special spot called Bar do Peixe and with temperatures of 35 C (~94 F) it is going to be a hot one!
See you on the beach!
Disc magazines come and go. UltyLife magazine had a fairly short lifespan, and I know I have seen (and forgotten) others over the last 30 years.
Has finally the time come for one to survive? The Flying Disc Magazine is aimed at all disc sports so there is a larger audience. Multimedia and social networks can boost viewership.It has an online version (www.flyingdiscmagazine.com) as well as a print version.
I bought a copy of the print version (probably only available in the US) and really liked it. I am a 100% Beach Ultimate player, but it was great to read other stories. One story, about some great disc golf holes in Santa Cruz, made me want to huck that disc!
Give it a try. They have an RSS feed too.
We have talked about African Beach Ultimate before (Mozambique and Kenya Beach Ultimate in particular) but we overlooked a great nucleus of Beach Ultimate in Africa: CapeTown
The Clifton beach game every Sunday morning has generally had an excellent turn out. Now they have the new field marking kit, to make games look even more appealing to new players. Check them out at http://www.capetownultimate.co.za/?cat=39
At the World Championships in Brazil, the US Master's team had the King of Cheers in their midst. JR, as most people know him, is a unique person. Spirited to the bone and always full of great ideas. Here is his song, to the beat of Eminem:
Last month we launched the website for the Asian Championships Beach Ultimate www.acbu2009.org. All the information you need is on there.
For those of you that are fortunate to think about going there, you might be happy to know that we are currently in communication with the organizers of the Manila Spirits / AOUCC 2009 (Asia-Oceanic Ultimate Club Championships) to jointly promote the two championships. The AOUCC is 6-8 Nov 2009 in Manila, so we are looking into finding good ways for players to attend both championships. First a great warm up on the beach with lots of parties and Boracay spirit. Then a week later players strap on their cleats and play the qualification round for the WUCC in Prague in 2010!
2009 is going to be the breakthrough year for Asian (Beach) Ultimate. Wooohooo!
4-on-4 Beach Ultimate sometimes seems like an illegitimate child. It was started by Tim Finan in Florida with the hope that it would get mainstream TV interested. Shorter fields, a 6-second stall count, and a two-point score when the disc is thrown from endzone-to-endzone were to make this sport more spectacular. Jose Cuervo (a tequila brand) put some money into it, but it never took off.
It is still played in the US, mainly at one of the largest Beach Ultimate tournament in the world: WildWood. However it never really took off anywhere else. Traditional grass Ultimate players preferred larger fields, 'normal' stall-counts, and more a strategic game.
However, slowly but surely 4-on-4 Beach Ultimate it is taking root. There is now a 4-on-4 Beach Ultimate league (LBU44) in France. 11 teams played in this winter's phase with 3/4 of French Mediterranean players participating. LBU44 isn't only French: this summer two Spanish teams will participate too.
LBU44 in France became an association in April and they have been trying to get more cities to help and to get sponsoring and an assurance. They have contacted Beach Soccer and Beach Volley in France in the hope to do demonstrations during their competitions this summer in Marseille. Lastly on 4-5 July, they are organizing the 1st French Cup of Beach Ultimate 4-4 in Valence... So they are not sitting still :-)
Will 4-on-4 Beach Ultimate ever be a TV favorite? I don't know. I think it doesn't matter what format we play this game in, TV only sells to the masses and the masses we are not. We don't have referees and that is something that many people don't understand. Too bad, but that is reality. In the meantime, we just smile and think that people are missing out on something amazing that can be played by everyone: Beach Ultimate
The Texas Beach Ultimate Fest (TBUF), is back and bigger than ever. Come join them at Galveston’s RA RA Apffel Park (east beach) on Saturday May 30th for the longest running beach tournament in the WORLD. There is something for every skill level from beginners to world’s level ultimate players. Come help them show the rest of the country that Galveston is still on the map and stronger than ever! This year they will be supporting a fund raiser for the local Galveston Independent School District (GISD). See the tournament details at:http://houstonultimate.org/TBUF2009
A week after Paganello 14 teams from British Universities came to Rimini to compete in the Festival Italia Tournament. The atmosphere of 2,000 students playing so many different sports was amazing and the nightlife was incredible. The ultimate players had a fantastic time on the beach; they don’t often get to play beach ultimate at home. Rimini blessed them with beautiful weather throughout the tournament and the players really enjoyed themselves.
The Final was between Southampton 1 and Southampton 2, with Southampton 2 victorious in sudden death. Swansea beat Exeter 2 to win the Plate. Spirit was fantastic throughout the tournament for the more experienced tour veterans and for the first time tour teams; the Spirit award went to Bath.
My mother-in-law has given the F-word a new meaning: Frisbee!
According to her it is bad for our kids (My wife and I have an 11-year old and an 8-year old). We go to too many tournaments and they should be doing other things with them. True, sometimes we take the kids. Sometimes we don't (and then they frequently stay with her :-).
However she seems to forget that we only play Beach Ultimate. So we take the kids to the beach. Most of the time the weather is great. What better place for kids to be than on the beach? It is better than being behind the Nintendo, TV, and the Internet all the time. They are not always looking forward to it, but once they are on the beach they have fun and run around.
I like my mother-in-law, but she should realize that the F-word is not a bad thing.
A college team from Oregon was removed from competition after five players shed their pants and underwear on April 11 during sectional play at Oregon State University in Corvallis.
Sandie Hammerly, executive director of the sport's governing body in the United States, the Ultimate Players Association in Boulder, Colo., said she and the association's championship director, Will Deaver, support the punishment. "You have to wear clothing — it's in the rules," Hammerly said.
Last weekend saw the second edition of the beach tournament of Mozambique. On the tiny island of Xefina in the bay of Maputo, where 20 inhabitants watched amused at the invasion of mad discoteiros who took over the beach in front of their village.
6 teams with players from Mozambique, Swaziland, Lesotho, South Africa, Angola, Europe and North America quickly found their groove and proved to be pretty equal in strength.
The tournament was a great succes and we are sure that we are going to make this tourney an annual event.
Look out for next year's announcement and reserve your seat on the boat!
Cheers,
Stef
Spanish Beach Ultimate is growing strongly. Each year there are more teams and now they also allow Portuguese teams to enter in their national championships. If they continue their growth like they have in the past, they will be the country to look out for at the 2011 World Championships.
The Spanish Mixed Championships 9-10 May, Lanzarote
Every year BULA plants a Beach Ultimate seed around the world to help the sport grow. It does so by organizing/promoting one special Beach Ultimate tournament per year in an area that has potential.
In 2009, the BULA BUTT moves to the beach of Monster in the Netherlands for the 2nd edition of Monsterball. Last year's edition, organized by Ultimus Prime in The Hague, was a wild success - great competition, teams from 4 countries, and a rockin' party.
With BULA's help Monsterball is going even bigger this year: 32 teams, 8 fields, an under-17 division, and an even bigger, better party.
It is going to be a Monster BUTT! :-)
Check it out: www.ultimusprime.com/monsterball.html
Since last year BULA has been using the WFDF rules with a BULA appendix. This allows all players worldwide to have the same basis to play with (with the exception of the US that uses the UPA rules)
If you want to know how good your rules knowledge is, check out the Rules Quiz at: http://rjhberg.googlepages.com/WFDFQuiz2009.xls
This quiz is in Excel. I recommend you "Enable Macros" when opening. That way the answers can be revealed by clicking on the "Answers" button. If not, you can use the "unhide" function to reveal the answers.
Happy quizzing!
For years we have been thinking about creating a European Beach Ultimate League. However that is not as easy as it seems. There are lots of tournaments in Europe but that is one of the reasons it is hard to organize. Beach Ultimate is still relatively small and players usually only travel to places 1-2 times year. There is a core of players that go to many hat tournaments but 'traveling teams' are few and far between. In addition, adding a series of tournaments will take away from other tournaments as well as dig into the finances of the players.
One interesting thought it to create a ladder league like there is in the UK (www.regionalultimate.co.uk) with one final tournament.
How would that work? I'd love to hear from Beach Ultimate lovers what they think...
The Beach Ultimate community is getting ready for another edition of the largest international Beach Ultimate tournament in the world: Paganello! 120 teams, big parties, new contenders (will the Boracay Dragons make it to the finals?), and lots of other fun things to do. We all hope that the weather will be a bit better this year. Last year's finals were cold and windy.
Here is one report on the tournament from the US:
Disk brings twist to Holy Week in Italy
When most people think of visiting Italy for Easter vacation, rarely do they stuff their suitcases with 40-ounce beer bottles, Spandex and oversized Uncle Sam top hats. But in the case of the American Gladiators, a Chicago co-ed Ultimate team, this is packing protocol. More...
For years I have been organizing pick games, practices, league days, etc... It is always the same: I send an email to the appropriate mailing list asking who is going. Within minutes I get lots of emails back. People comment on everything and suddenly a simple question becomes an email monster. And I only wanted to know who was coming!
And then I found HappyTC....
Nice! Simple! Effective! Players receive an email (this process can be automated) and they just have to click on a link in their email to say yes, no, maybe.I now I know who is coming.
Happy TC can use some improvements (e.g. specifying the time of sending the automated emails) but I love it already. It even lists Ultimate as a sport and you can see how the turn out is going to be based on gender and/or position. Sweet!
As of 16 March 2009 BULA tournaments should be played using the 2009 WFDF rules with the BULA addendum
Players will need to learn some significant changes before playing under the new rules:
- Marking infractions don’t stop play. After a second infraction, the marker resets the count to 0 and continues
- Play doesn’t stop for a travel where the thrower hasn’t thrown the disc, the stall halts and the thrower goes back to the correct pivot point as indicated by the defence
- Calling a time-out when you don’t have any left is not a turnover. Add 2 to the stall count instead
- Players may ask non-players for their perspective on a call
- There is a new infraction called “Contact” for when the marker touches the thrower or the disc but not in the act of throwing – this should not be treated as a foul as it is not affecting possession, but treated as a marking violation.
- If a call during or after the throwing motion did not affect possession, then it should be ignored. For example, if a thrower is fouled in the act of throwing, but the disc flies perfectly to the receiver who then drops it on their chest, the turnover should stand.
- In order to throw after landing but before establishing a pivot, a thrower must maintain contact with the ground throughout the throwing motion.
Another good blog posting from Ffindr.com. This time they featured the Boracay Open Beach Ultimate tournament and the still undefeated (on home turf) Boracay Dragons. Read more...
An integral part of any Frisbee tournament is its format and schedule. Teams are coming for the game (and maybe the party too), so you better give them what they want. This article is the first in a loose series on how to organise an Ultimate Frisbee tournament, trying to point out the most important aspects of a decent planning. There are quite some resources spread over the Web, most notably the UPA Manual of Championship Series Tournament Formats. More on Ffindr...
Dear Ultimate friends,
Yes at last!... after last year's success we promised to organise the Xefina HAT tournament again in 2009! And here it is:
This year it will be on the holiday of Friday May 1st and Saturday May 2nd! The Sunday is open for some interesting and relaxing excursions in Mocambique... or just for some nice lullas/camarao and cerveja while looking at the ocean.
Due to the tide that weekend we will organise a 5 on 5 multi-surface tournament, Friday we'll play on the beach of the island of Xefina (in the bay of Maputo) and on Saturday we'll be playing at the fields of the American School (same teams and beach ultimate size fields).
The tourney is limited to 60 participants and we plan to have always 2 women/3 men in the field.
Parties... yes there will be plenty... that goes without saying in Mozambique! One party will be in the old train station of Maputo built in 1910 by Mr. Gustave Eiffel, a very inspiring venue.
If you want to be part of this year's great tournament send us an e-mail: sjoerd@mozultimate.com.
First come first serve!
Happy hucking,
Stef Stevens
www.mozultimate.com
It is interesting to see the differences in how people feel about using Observers. As far as I know no observers have ever been used in Beach Ultimate and, as a founding principle, BULA approved tournaments and Championships will never allow for observers.
Is this logical? Not always. There are definitely situations where an observer could have made the a better call than the players. In the situation below the defensive team (SeXXXpensive with whom I play) was sure the offensive player caught the disc out of bounds. However the player called himself in. Correct? Who knows? We contested, the player maintained the call and a point was awarded.
I believe the onus is on the player. It has to do with honesty and respect. If the catcher has doubts he should send the disc back to the thrower and play on. If he truly believed that his foot was in then so be it. He/she has to make the right call.
I am glad that the WFDF took the Observers out of the rules a number of years ago. Players should be capable of having a great game, that is fun to watch, hard to play, and make their own (and the right) calls. Observers might assist in a certain part of the game, but they also take away from something that is unique. Let's be honest... in case of doubt, back to the thrower and play on! This is something unique we should work to maintain. I know it is not always easy in the heat of the game but it can be done, learned and taught!
We have good news for tournament directors: as we in previous years we got a good Discraft disc deal for all BULA approved tournaments. Tournaments can receive a 20% discount on regular price discs, plus 10 free game discs per every 100 discs ordered, and some more free gifts.
In addition, Lookfly is giving away 15 Spirit of the Game sweatbands per tournament. These sweatbands are for the team that wins the SOTG using the new SOTG scoring system that BULA and the WFDF launch last year. In return TD's have to send feedback about the system to us.
To apply, simply send us an email
Lei-Out 2009 shattered all previous tournament records on the Beach of Santa Monica with over 1,400 participants and a party at one of the most popular venues in Santa Monica.
Celebrating its Tenth year, the Santa Monica Beach Ultimate staple, Lei-Out, hit a record number participants and a record number of teams. 90 teams competed to be crowned the 2009 Champions.
The finals saw two former championship teams competing for the title again. Crazy Go Nuts University defeated defending champions Antimony becoming the second team in Lei-Out history to win Lei-Out more than once.
But the party was the talk of the town. Monsoon Cafe for the second year in a row hosted the event participants for an epic party. The party has several rooms, a VIP section for volunteers, and multiple DJs spinning tracks throughout the night.
Colt 45 was the beer sponsor and Below 42 Vodka, Fiji Water, Four Energy Drink, and Function Drinks were also represented!
Check out more about the tournament at www.leiout.com
Lei-Out just keeps getting better...!
It is always wonderful to see Beach Ultimate tournaments start anywhere on the planet, but when it is done in Africa it makes it even more special. There is so much potential for the sport there.
FEAST (Frisbee East Africa Sand Tournament) is held at Tiwi Beach, Kenya April 11-12 2009 (Easter Weekend). Organized by Nairobi Ultimate, in a few years this could be the African Paganello.
If you like to travel to interesting places and play Beach Ultimate, you will love going to Kenya. Check it out www.kenyaultimate.blogspot.com
Pass the word!
SAMBURU - Nairobi
Thanks to Igor "Buty" Butor, the Spirit of the Game Scoring system is now available in the Slovak language:
http://beachultimate.org/blog/2008/05/sotg.html
Spanish Beach Ultimate is booming! Only surpassed by the US they host the most Beach Ultimate tournaments in the world! Last year there were 7 Beach Ultimate tournaments in Spain and that is growing already. The latest edition is a world premier: The first women-only Beach Ultimate tournament!
Organized by Corocotta from Santander (North of Spain) this event will take place 28-29 March. (If you want to play: registration closes 24 January). Great initiative. Perhaps that will help take European female Ultimate player off the endangered species list... :-)
Spanish women at the World Championships in Portugal
The last few months there has been a fair bit of Beach Ultimate in Spain and Portugal. The Porro Open tournament in Barcelona, several tournaments in Punta de Umbria (South of Spain) and at Praia do Meco (Portugal). There wasn't a lot of sunshine, some rain and wind, but that made it special. With waves crashing, fresh sea air in your nose and the disc in your hand you realize that life is great!... until you have to huck into the wind... :-)
