I have been a long-time Twitter skeptic. Especially when it comes to it being a profitable business (in my professional life I help grow and develop start ups). However that is not to say it is not being used. Its use has surprised many people and last week I noticed the first signs of Twitter in the (Beach) Ultimate community.
The biggest contribution was Piers Truter’s tweets at the World Games. They were great to use as additional info while looking at the live and online TV feeds that missed good commentary.The UPA and Jonathan Pottsy (WFDF President) also added good commentary.
Almost at the same time my Filtrbox started sending me alerts that the term “Beach Ultimate” was being tweeted about. Chicago’s Sandblast tournament was the start, soon followed by Parlee Beach (Canada) and now Wildwood tweets are coming in.
Useful? Not really!
Interesting? I think so. I wonder how/if Twitter will have any real impact on Beach Ultimate the way Facebook did? It will be fun to follow. Just don’t follow me. I stopped tweeting a while ago. It was useless!
Author: patrick
World Games Ultimate excitement
The World Games are held every 4 years and are for sports that just don’t have ‘it’ to be in the Olympics, but are still great sports. Korfball, a sport I grew up with, is one of them and so is (grass) Ultimate.
The 2009 World Games started last week in Chinese Taipei and Ultimate saw it first action today. The weather was hot (30 Celsius at 9:30 AM) and the stadium was filled with 8,000 spectators!
The games were exciting. Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) was better than expected but still lost twice in front of the home crowd. Japan and US both went undefeated with the US slapping gold-hopeful Canada around: 13-6. Australia is looking good and the Brits had a great last effort against Japan, but they were behind too far (5-0 and 9-2) to realistically hope for a miracle. They got to 12-10 but then Japan finished it: 13-10.
The scores on day 1:
Canada – Great Britain: 13-10
Japan – Chinese Taipei: 13-7
United States – Australia: 13-11
Japan – Great Britain: 13-10
Australia – Chinese Taipei: 13-9
Canada – United States: 6-13
If you want to follow the action live, check out the following URL’s and twitter feeds:
http://results.worldgames2009.tw/en/Comp.mvc/DetailedSchedule/FD/
http://wg09.net/cms/index.php
http://wg09.net/displayGames.php
http://hichannel.hinet.net/2009wg/live.html (seems to air the last day finals etc… Internet Explorer only)
http://www.upa.org/programs/intl/worldgames2009/updates
http://twitter.com/pottsy02
http://twitter.com/pierstruter
http://twitter.com/upaorg
As far as I know, no live TV feeds online. A bit of a dissapointment because after seeing it at the WUGC in Vancouver last summer and I come to expect this, especially from a large event such as the World Games. Perhaps because of (local) commercial interests this is not done? Who knows. All I know is that pressing refresh every 30 seconds is just not optimal 😉
BULA Japan immediately in action
Last weekend the BULA flag, created for the European Championships in France last year, was proudly displayed during the Taj Ultimate tournament in Japan.
And if you like good promotional Ultimate videos, check out the Taj Ultimate homepage video at: www.tajultimate.com
The new Beach Ultimate hot spot: Ukraine
Ukraine’s Gigolo won Paganello’s Spirit of the Game award and finished in the top 12 in the Open division. The great combination of high level play and great Spirit is totally obvious is this YouTube promotional video of their upcoming Kiev tournament August 8-9:
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDdqpcZ4r9E)
For those of you that never traveled that way, the Ukraine is a great tourists destination for Europeans, who do not need any visa. The tournament is located on the beach almost downtown Kiev, so you can play and enjoy the beautiful landscapes of the city which is situated on the banks of the Dniper river.
It sounds amazing to me… 🙂
More info at: www.hat.com.ua/eng/
BULA Japan now official
Many years BULA has been working with Matt Kass, a veteran player from the US who lives and works in Tokyo. We met Matt for the first time in Portugal when he was playing for the US Master’s team. His passion and drive for Beach Ultimate was clear and refreshing.
Now, with the arrival of the first Asian Championships Beach Ultimate, Matt has more than ever put his efforts behind helping BULA in Asia, and in Japan in particular. We are very fortunate that Matt has offered to further develop BULA Japan as the Representative Director. There are at least 4 Beach Ultimate tournaments every year and with his help we hope to expand this.
For any questions or inquiries about Beach Ultimate in Japan, Matt can be reached at:
makass@me.com
m: +81-90-9857-7070
Ffindr helps TD’s with registration
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!
Read more on the ffindr blog
Korean Beach Ultimate
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.
The world no long longer exists… just the spot
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!
New Flying Disc Magazine
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.
South African Beach Ultimate
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
