Who is BULA?

"To assist, educate, and promote the Spirit and the Game of Beach Ultimate worldwide"

For Players

For Organizers

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What is Beach Ultimate? | Google Beach Map | Basic 5-on-5 Rules | Basic 4-on-4 Rules |

Who is BULA?

BULA is an organization promoting and assisting Beach Ultimate worldwide. It is run by an international group of volunteers who all share a great passion for the sport. In no particular order these people are:

Flo

Born on Sarnen Beach I learned in my very early days to move my feet on the smooth sands of rivers and lakes all over Switzerland. Only on the Easter Holidays of 1997 I discovered the big oceans of the world and to find a large crazy crowed competing in Ultimate on the Rimini Beach. Most impressively they already had found out that Sports Evolution thereby was completed. The spirit of the Beach grabbed me instantly, I fell in love Beach Ultimate, resulting in the participation of over 50 Tournaments to this day.

Raoni

I am from São Paulo, Brazil, and 28 years old. I have a master degree in Sports Sciences, and now I am doing my PhD. I play Ultimate since 1999, on the beach since 2002. I played 2 grass world championship, and 2 beach world championship. Here in Brazil, I work for the local federation as Technical Director and I am helping BULA, at the rules group since 2006.

Asli Yaman

I'm from Turkey and have lived in different European countries during the last ten years. Since October 2005 I am living in Barcelona, Spain. I was introduced to Ultimate Frisbee by a colleague during a conference in England who convinced me to participate in a friendly game. I will be forever grateful to this colleague, because he simply changed my life.

I have always been active in sports, at professional and amateur level. Ultimate, with its spirit and its energy, caught my sympathy and my curiosity immediately. Beside its competitive aspect, the open mindedness of the game was totally new and admirable.

I especially like to play mixed Ultimate, which has a particular charm in comparison to the other team sports, since men and women have equal responsibilities and can bring their own style and strengths into the game. This makes the game more dynamic than any other team sport I have ever played. My wish is to spread this game around the world and especially bring it to places where infrastructure is not yet well-developed. Because in the end, all Ultimate needs is some open space, a Frisbee and lots of enthusiasm.

Marco Aurélio Sanches

I've been playing since 1994 and after 1998 I played in several major Tournaments around the world.

1998 - Minessota - USA
1999 - St Andrews - Scotland
2000 - Hellbron - Germany
2001 - Rimini - Italy (Paganelo)
2002 - Hawaii - USA
2003 - Sta Cruz - USA
2004 - Figueira da Fóz - Portugal
2004 - Turku - Finland

Since 2002 I played and help to organized several tournaments in Brasil;
2002/2003/2004/2005 Beach Mundialitos
2003 - South America Championship
2004 - Copa América Championship
2005 - Panamerican Championship
1999 to 2007 Brasilian National Championship.
2007 WCBU - Maceió - Brazil

I just love to play Ultimate and be in contact with great people who play and understand what this game is all about!!!

Chris Hurwitz

Chris Hurwitz's addiction to Ultimate started in 1986. Clinical signs included the rapid abandonment of all other sports, investing significant time and money traveling nearly every summer weekend, and the odd proclivity of carrying a plastic disc everywhere he went. Chris first played Beach Ultimate at Paganello 1997, and has been hooked ever since. He organized and captained Pele Mana, one of the first American open teams at Paga, and later Thrill Ride, mixed Paga champions in 2001. Most recently, Chris played 2007 Worlds in Maceio, Brasil, with the USA masters team, winning a close finals against the Great Britain masters.

Chris will be living in Munich, Germany, for most of 2008 and is happy to help organize European beach events this summer. He will be at Paganello, Bar do Peixe, and all other beach events he can attend.

Rui Pires

I met Patrick in a school workshop at 2004, but I only started to play (more often) early 2007. And now, I can't stop it! :) I'm studying Exercise Mechanics & Muscle Activation Techniques and working for a Wellness Company (TWS) in Portugal. This year i will try to reach France, and play for Portugal at 1st European Championship Beach Ultimate. See you all, at the beach!

Karen Cabrera

Graduated with a degree in Architecture at University of Santo Tomas. Was the team captain of the UST Womens Football Team and member of the UST Swimming Team. She is also into kite boarding and enjoys playing poker with friends. Loves living in Boracay! blue sky + crystal water + powdery white sand + cold beer + refreshing cocktails + friendly and hospitable people + beach ultimate all you can = BORACAY She started playing beach ultimate with the Boracay Dragons in 2005. Practically a newbie in the sport, but trying to learn every training day and gain more experience in every tournament. Number 9 in the WCBU 07 in Brazil and the only female in the Philippine team line up. Plans to spread the love of beach ultimate by conducting and organizing clinics and hat tournaments for kids and tourists in Boracay. She also aims to help start promoting grass root level of beach ultimate.

Alberto Ferreira

My name is Alberto Rodríguez Ferreiro. I was born in Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain on February 26th of 1976. My family has to move to Lanzarote (another Canary Islands) when i was five years old, till today i live there. I practised a lot of diferent sports when i was child( surf, skate, bmx, football, basketball, tenis, climb...). After the University in Gran Canaria( Spanish Philologie) I discovered Ultimate Frisbee.I was 27 years old. Gran Canaria and Tenerife had ultimate team but not Lanzarote. So in 2003 we made a new team, Mubidisk, in Lanzarote.
In 2004 we organized with BULA´s help the 2ºBUTT and then we started in 2005 our own tournament, on November, called CFC, a dream team coed beach ultimate tournament. Since then i play all tournaments that i can, with my or other teams ( Talampaya(14th), Costa Brava(2nd), Spanish Cup( mixed,2nd this year), Doctor Sand(6th) with Mubidisk and Wonderfull Copenhague with Bravas, Paganello( mixed, 5th) and Rostock (Europeans club championship) and Rostock Beach Ultimate( champions and Spirit) with Guayota and Costa Brava with Atis Tirma( 3rd). This year i will play Paga ( open) with Bravas.
I played with Spain Open in Portugal 2004(9th) and Spain Mixed in Maceió 2007(4th). For Maceió Spain played and won CFC 2007).
In 2007 i started to coach Mubidisk Team. I began to work in the directive comitte of Spanish Federation too.
I am Fireman in Lanzarote Airport since 2nd January 2007, a perfect work to play Ultimate.

Daniel Dui

I am from Sardinia, in Italy, and the beach is my natural habitat.

I started playing Ultimate in 2002 while doing my PhD in London. Tempered by mud, wind, and rain, which are the common playing condition in the UK, I started to attend various national and international tournaments to quickly realise that Beach Ultimate is the best way to invest most of my holidays and a substantial portion of my income.

I believe the beach has the apparently magical power of making people happier and that who has never tried Beach Ultimate is missing something. I joined Bula because I like to contribute to the development of this exciting new sport.

I live in London where, in "real life", I am a researcher and a freelance IT consultant.

Natalie Visser

My name is Natalie Visser. Started playing ultimate in Colombia in 1995. Since then I have played in England, Spain and Germany and my heart belongs to each place in very uniqueways. I enjoy being outdoors and running around. I like green fields, freshair, and indulged in the pleasures of beach ultimate especially when Idiscovered that i ran faster on the sand!!!... :)) I have a BA in Sociology and recently finished my post-grad in Peace Studies. I´m not easy to spot as I am often traveling, but please get in touch if you are planning to travel round South America in 2008

Lorenzo Rizzi

I first got in touch with Ultimate in 2000 in a quite randomly way and in a pretty unusual location, at least for an Italian...I was working in the University of Otago in New Zealand and two bulgarian collegues of mine (cultural mingleling ratio is always high in ultimate stories...) invited me to a training session of the local ultimate team. Not to mention I fell in love with the sport quite soon and once back in Italy I joined my first ever ultimate tournament in South Italy called Pasticciotto. Obviouvsly a beach ultimate tournament... I could not have a better start because the first edition of this tournament had been really what all beach ultimate lovers would named after an "ultimate blast". A blast of good feelings, colours, smiles and discs flying in the sky. Since then I have been part of the european ultimate community joining a bunch of tournament both on sands and grass. I had a unique time at the Worlds on grass playing for Italy and even more unique times playing in many beaches around Europe and the World experiencing the almost perfect synthesis between human being, nature and sport which the beach ultimate can provide (nothing is perfect...). So, let's try to get more people enjoy this!

Mick Mengucci

I loved Frisbee and hanging out on the beach since always. I am from Rimini where I got involved in the Ultimate game and the spirit thing, I was present at the first Paganello and the following 6 editions, then I moved to Lisbon. In Portugal I co-organized the BDP tourney. I am doing a PhD in engineering of geo-resources; I play and compose music as a personal need and public pleasure (www.misturapura.net), do yoga and the father of my daughters Tcheva and Alumakai.

José Pires

I'm José from France. I'm playing Ultimate since end of 1996. I discovered Beach Ultimate at the 2nd Bar do Peixe tournament and got addicted. But I must confess that after so many years, I'm still better at side-line taking photos (http://joez.smugmug.com) and partying then on the fields ;-) I quickly got involved within the French federation helping making pedagogic documents (98-99). And then as an active Board member from 2000 to 2003. I also got involved in major Ultimate events : as a Field Staff at EUCC2001 in Prague, as Tournament Director & field system coordinator at EUC2003 in Fontenay le Comte and as staff (and speaker ;-))at WCBU2004 in Figueira da Foz. And of course, still playing beach ultimate all around Europe

Kristina Cernusakova

My name is Kristina, but most of the people know me as Kika or Kiki. I started playing ultimate when I moved to Spain in spring 2006 and jogging in the park became a sort of a bore to me. It's been a year and seven months already I am in the ultiworld and I still love it. Currently I am member of our Madrid team Los Quijotes, Portuguese BUFA team and an international pick up team The Splasssh. And what I do in my spare time when I am not playing? Well I am traveling, visiting my ultifriends and yes, unfortunately sometimes even working in order to finance my tournaments.

Mike 'Jose' Gringle

Most people in the ultimate community only know me as Jose'. <It may have something to do with the love of Tequila, but I know nothing!> ;-) My ulty roots are based in Chicago, although I only played there a brief time.
I was lucky enough to attend Worlds in Madison, Wisconsin, which changed my life!! I will never forget the awesome spirit and camaraderie displayed by the Yanomami team...they are my true inspiration. I moved to Seattle and honed my skills, and was able to volunteer time for Potlatch and general DiscNW board functions. I currently live in southern California. My goal would be to host a tournament on the sand equally as fun and successful as Potlatch which is obviously quite a chore! I am a manufacturer's rep. in the boating/yachting industry for a component parts company, so it allows me to travel the USA in search of quality disc people and soft, sandy beaches. I hope to see you on a sideline soon, and ...maybe we can chat about that agave plant, too!!

Mike Palmer

Mike has been playing for ten years since his first tournament on the world-famous Rimini beach. Born in the UK, he now lives in Brussels, Belgium. It's grim up north, so any excuse to hit the beach is welcome. Some of his happiest moments have been spent playing Beach Ultimate at the Porron open (Barcelona), Viareggio, Bar Do Peixe, Tenerife and Figeira de Fos, with hopefully many more beach fun and games to come

Marina Piria

I am from Croatia, Zagreb and I am 35 years old. My husband introduced me with this beautiful game. Immediately we setup ultimate club in our country (December 2005). Since than I played in dozen tournaments, here are some of them:

February 2006 -Tournament Welcome to the Jungle, Austria (We won Spirit of the game)
March 2006 - Free as a Bee, Slovenia.
May 2006 - A cup of Ultimate, Austria
July 2006- II. Open Hungarian Beach Ultimate Championship (We won Spirit of the game)
February 2007 -Tournament Welcome to the Jungle, Austria
July 2007- III. Open Hungarian Beach Ultimate Championship
October 2007 - Tournament Show must go on, Kimle, Hungary
December 2007 WCBU - Maceio – Brazil

I have always been active in sports and ultimate is my opportunity to continue with it. I don’t have a lot of opportunity to play on the beach but I love it most. Beside ultimate I have doctor degree in fisheries sciences and working at University of Zagreb, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of fisheries, beekeeping and spec. zoology.

Jude Lee

I’m Filipino/Indian by blood, born in the US. I started playing ultimate and disc golf in 1981 while growing up in Florida. Went to Drexel University in Philadelphia where I earned a degree in Mathematics. Spent most of my time there drinking beer and playing foosball and rarely threw a frisbee. I used to skip class and dream about living on a gorgeous beach, swimming and playing all day under the hot sun; and owning a bar and partying all night.

Apparently, some dreams do come true. I now live on the beautiful island of Boracay in the Philippines. As member of the Boracay Dragons, we spend most of our days swimming and playing ultimate with a beer in hand. I own Hey Jude Resort Hotel and Hey Jude Bar & Restaurant, one of Boracay’s hottest party spots. I still play foosball in the evenings.

I’m VP of the Philippine Ultimate Association, which hosts 2 international tournaments each year, The Boracay Open beach tournament and the Manila Spirits grass tournament. I’m also President of Boracay Forever, a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to preserving our island paradise.

I would love to promote beach ultimate in the region so I can spend more time playing on sand and less time playing on grass.

Paulo Bre

When i was kid, the summer was to play on the beach . At that time in Portugal it was easier to see a UFO than a Frisbee! It was even more dificult to play frisbee, because i didn't have a dog :) And so when I went to study Industrial Electronic, and I found some friends who played Ultimate in Palmela it gave me the oportunity to start to play on the Porto team and meet the Frisbee "Family". Now i dont lose the opprotunity to play at the WCBU and BDP.

Patrick van der Valk

Patrick started playing disc in 1979. He organized several Dutch DDC championships, was the coach of the Toronto Women's Ultimate team that became Canadian Champions in 1989, and was the founder of many Ultimate teams: Ultimate Stars Leiderdorp (Holland 1981), The Zoydz (Toronto 1991), and Diz-Cu (Portugal 1996). After organizing the Bar do Peixe Beach Ultimate tournament (Portugal) for several years he started to coordinate BULA in 2001. Patrick has Master degree in Organic Chemistry and is co-founder of ChemConnect Inc. He now works as a Startup Specialist for Archimedes in San Francisco. Patrick is father of 2 children: Sara and Tomas and is married to Sofia. His personal homepage can be found at http://pereiravandervalk.com/patrick/