Beach Ultimate in the US has mostly been in the form of annual tournaments. However that is changing. For many years Los Angeles was the only place with a Beach Ultimate league. This fall they are starting their 5th of Beach Ultimate league season with 16 teams (about 200 people) taking over a good chunk of Santa Monica Beach for 7 weeks. They even have an all-star game, where every team sends a male and a female player.(www.labeachultimate.com)
Chicago kicked off a 6-week Beach Ultimate league this year after their annual Sandblast tournament. The experience was very positive for new and experience players. Ultimate Chicago (a local social organization) ran the league and is going to host an even bigger one next summer in two different sessions.
There is even rumor of Beach Ultimate in Boston next year… but that is just a rumor…
Mojo Jojo – Lei-Out Beach League Winners 2008
Author: patrick
It is not always easier sailing
Beach Ultimate in Asia has been something I have written a lot about lately. China, India, Australia, Singapore, etc… many countries in the region have Beach Ultimate tournaments. The sport is truly growing. However it seems that when given the choice, most Asian players still prefer grass Ultimate.
We have been promoting and organizing the Asian Championships for more than a year now. We offered free accommodation, a Magic Bus trip to Manila Spirits (qualifier for the the world grass championships in Prague next year), and visited several tournaments in the region to get players/teams committed to come.But it seems that only a few countries are really dedicated to Beach Ultimate (Australia and the Philippines). New Zealand is coming with a mixed team and Singapore and China are still trying to get enough players to commit. India said they would come but payment has not yet been received.
This will not stop us from putting a stake in the ground. The championship will happen and we are still reaching out to get more teams. The Philippines will have two teams in each division and if you know of anyone that is interested in playing, let me know. Beach Ultimate in Boracay during Halloween is not something people should miss!
7-on-7 Beach Ultimate: New BULA variant?
I was approached by the tournament director of the Chennai Heat Beach Ultimate tournament in India. He wanted to know if his tournament could be BULA approved? He likes the Discraft discount and he also values the legitimacy BULA approval brings. It allows him to get more international teams to participate.
He told me that the tournament would adhere to all the BULA criteria except…they play 7-on-7 Beach Ultimate..
As far as I know this is the only 7-on-7 tournament in existence and since time was of the issue (the tournament is 2-4 October) we allowed them to be BULA approved this year. It will help the growth of the sport in India.
However it brings up an interesting question: should BULA accept 7-on-7 Beach Ultimate as another version of the sport?
Just a casual fling in Singapore
Asia is waking up to Beach Ultimate. Here is an article from Nina-Noelle Hall in Singapore:
Hurtling through the air, the red plastic disc escapes the desperate grasps of clasping hands and instead plunges, untouched, into the warm sands of Siloso Beach. Mere inches away lie the defeated: two panting players, now face-planted, who both missed the whizzing disc. ‘Hey guys, how ’bout catching it?!’ jokes a shirtless and sinewy defenceman toward his two sprawled teammates. A middle finger and a smirking face caked with sand is all he gets back. Trash talking is just part of the game in this popular twist on Ultimate Frisbee where, like volleyball, the adrenalin-pumping game has found its way to Sentosa’s sands. This is Beach Ultimate. More…
Polish Beach Ultimate stole my heart
I just returned from Poland where our team (Diz-Cu) played at the SandSlash tournament in Debki. Debki is a tiny village (125 people) north of Gdansk and is a fun place with beautiful surroundings. Poland is also still very cheap compared to most of Europe. For less than 10 euros you can get a complete meal with drinks and desert included.
The tournament was great. Well organized, great parties, and everyone was friendly and fun. A crazy drink-and-layout game on Saturday kept everyone laughing. The wind was strong but not unbearable. It did help that we are used to playing in the wind so we ended up winning the tournament in an exciting final against Uwaga Pies (=Beware of the Dogs). That we won the SOTG award was icing on the cake 🙂
Poland is going through a great surge of (Beach) Ultimate. Four years ago there was hardly any Ultimate, now the tournament had 13 Polish teams with 3 teams on the waiting list. With beautiful women and men (according to my wife 🙂 and tasty vodka it has a place in my heart and I hope to be back soon.
(Picture from http://picasaweb.google.com/uwagapies/Sandlash2009ByEddy)
Beach Ultimate photography
I love good Beach Ultimate pictures! Images that bring back feelings you had on the field. The catch, the defense, the layout…! Especially the layout is a great beach feeling. No worries about hitting the ground. Let it go and go ho!
There are some very talented Beach Ultimate photographers out there. Rene Westenberg, an old teammate from WAF (Holland), was probably one of the first top Beach Ultimate photographers. Just have a look at the pictures in Hargen he recently took.
Stephen Chiang on the other side of the Atlantic is another great photographer. His pictures of LeiOut last January were amazing!
And then there are photographers like Marco Luz that hardly know the game and just do well. Just look at the picture of David Pimenta that is now used for the BULA Monster BUTT, happening this weekend.
For more great pictures, check out our royalty free pictures page. Lots of great shots that you can download and use for tournaments, posters, articles, etc…
And then there are the mere mortals – people like you and me that just want to take good shots to remember the event. From Mozambique Beach Ultimate, to hurricane recovering Galveston. With our digital camera in hand we snap away. Lots a great times to remember!
Ukrainian TV, Beach Ultimate and Ffindr founder
The Beach Ultimate tournament in Kiev seems to attract a lot of interesting people. Christian Jennewein, the French/German/Scottish founder of Ffindr, went and he told me Kiev Hat is great. Really good Ultimate and a lot of fun. The spot was beautiful and considering that the tourney is inside a capital it qualifies as one of the best sites ever. Approx. 250 players from mainly Russia (75%), Ukraine (20%), Belarussia (4%) and foreigners (4 in total) made this a really unique experience.
A funky TV station also visited the tournament. I am not sure if the girl was drunk or just really happy but from what I saw it was clearly a BULA tournament: Play hard, party hard:-)
Most northern Beach Ultimate tourney
Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories (Canada), is not the most obvious place to find Beach Ultimate. However, in Ultimate loving Canada, local players are not deterred by geographic constraints and the following email was sent to local players:
“Hi everybody,
Denis/Aaron and Jenny/Simon are having a party on the 8th (Saturday). That is awesome, and you should all attend. During the day though, is there interest in having a beach ultimate tourney? We had one last year with 4 teams of 5 or so per team if I recall, and it was a lot of fun.
So, if you will be in town and are interested in playing, reply to this email and I will see what we’ve got in terms of numbers.”
I wonder if they managed to get enough players. If so, it would qualify as the most northern Beach Ultimate tournament in the word.
For more information about Yellowknife Ultimate, visit www.ykultimate.com
Beach Ultimate in Hawaii
Most of the beaches in Hawaii are not very conducive to playing disc but a local group have made some strong relationships in Waimanalo over the last several years. A few years ago they had a summer beach league that lasted about 8 Saturdays.
They are also holding the 5th official Tweedle Beetle Beach Battle August 8 & 9 a Waimanalo Bay Beach Park (a.k.a. Sherwoods or Waimanalo Bay State Recreation Area) map
It’s always been pretty low-key and not highly advertised; mostly just local players. One year they did get an entire team of women from Japan and now they want to see if there are more travelers around.
Travelling? Wanna play beach ultimate in Hawaii? Sounds and looks like fun to me 🙂
Forum for Tournament Directors
Tournament Directors (TD’s) are the backbone of Ultimate and Beach Ultimate. Without them the players would be lost and end up spending their days behind the TV 😉
BULA has always supported TD’s, helping them with tips, free posters, readily downloadable pictures for magazines, discounts, etc… Now there is another way TD’s can get help: James Melzack, an experienced TD from the UK has started a forum for TD’s to help each other with experiences and tips.
In less than 2 weeks, 57 people have already registered and the first topics included:
- Ranking players at a hat tournament
- Refunds
- Fees
- Media and Sponsorship
This was long overdue. Thanks James!
TD’s at the World Championships Beach Ultimate in Portugal