SUNDAY, July 27th 2008.
Yes, there were 300+ teams. The beach, a good 400 yards to the ocean, was packed. You couldn’t see the end of the fields. Not too long ago Wildwood had 150 teams and that seemed large. How many teams will the tournament cap it at?
“We haven’t found that number yet,” says Mike Adlis one of the tournament directors. “I suppose we could add another day if we get more teams, and maybe keep adding days.”
Its appeal is accessibility and lack of pretension. Everyone is welcome. Anyone can come. All levels of play are encouraged. There are sweet trophies for 40 teams. You can win your loser’s G bracket chumpionship and walk away with hardware.
Sunday’s weather was cool. A thunderstorm with lightning snaps came midway through the day and held off games for an hour and change.
The top pools were headlined by the usual suspects, the many-headed Horned Melons who fielded teams in both divisions and the octopus-like Yellow Submarine. Both are Philly-based teams and Wildwood is their backyard sand box.
The Melons lost to Yellow Sub in 3-1 semifinals, but advanced in semis over Sexually Considerate (New York) in the 2-2 division. Yellow Sub won the 3-1 again, practically a birthright for this team, over Do The Deed (DC, I think). In 2-2, Atlanta’s No Limit Pandas, one of the few teams to have actually taken a plane flight to Wildwood, won the 2-2 over the Melons after having defeated Big Fish (Boston/ Slow White) in the semis.
According to one of No Limit’s players, most of the team hadn’t even played on beach before.
The rain delay sent plenty of teams packing. Two teams, Death By Misadventure and Thunder Punch, set to match up in the finals decided to determine the winner realized they couldn’t play because many folks left. Instead they competed in a boardwalk carney watergun-shoot-the-target race, won by Thunder Punch.
To get a copy of the 2007 tournament DVD, email kenne DOT hemphill AT gmail DOT com.
To see some tournament pictures, check out briancanniff.smugmug.com

It’s Saturday night, 9pm. I will post again after pools are announced.
The Wildwood weekend is reserved far in advance for most ultimate players on the Eastern Seaboard.
Jake lives and Connecticut but comes down to volunteer at Wildwood so he can get a free ride. With the resort prices here, it’s a smart call.
“I spent all week doing homework in my summer classes so I could make it here. This is my sixth year in a row. So far I’ve spent most of my time regulating the registration line. It’s great because someone always brings you beers when you do the line.”
Boston. Providence. Baltimore. Dover. Washington DC. Atlanta, Georgia. Every player in the New York Metropolitan area, across all skills levels, makes the three-hour drive to this tournament. Philadelphia, just an hour and a half distant, sends swarms.
Saturday begins with a .99¢ breakfast: scrambled eggs, English muffin, hash brown. Games start 10am for half of the tournament, 11am for the other half. Temperature is perfect, humidity ideal, the sand is packed but not too tight. It’s a fast track.
It is impossible to try and recap the winners and losers of day one at Wildwood. The tournament is well-organized, for sure, so that teams choose their overall skill level and pick either 2-2 or 3-1 (ratio of men to women).
By the time it all shakes out there are tons of pools, tons of teams with random beach-themed names masking their city and club affiliation and tons of games, more than 75 per round, every hour, like clockwork.
At the end of the day teams move up or down in pool strength and placards showing championship and chumpionship brackets in new pools from A to S are posted on the side of a rented cube truck.
On that same side of the truck they hoist up a white screen and play an hour-long DVD of last year’s tournament highlights while players queue up at the trough of free beer like farm animals. 32 kegs, scheduled to last for three hours.
So I can’t really provide a concrete review of the top teams, because the pools haven’t been posted. In the meantime, some quotes from players across the spectrum of the tournament.
Question: What’s your favorite thing about Wildwood?
“Wack the Iraqi” – Drew, Brooklyn
“Crazy scenes on the boardwalk.” – Courtney, New York
“I love all the fried food and I love beach Ultimate!” – Annie, New York
“Seeing friends from all over. Oh and also babes in bikinis.” Brenton, Connecticut
“Seeing everyone you know from the Northeast.” Squeege, Albany
“Getting to see old friends. Tracy’s been to every Wildwood since the 2nd one [14 years ago]” Geoff, Boston
“I like that as a high-brow New Yorker I can come down to slum it out on the Jersey Shore and not feel guilty because it’s an Ultimate tournament. I get to go to the batting cages, eat all sort of fried food and stare at the 15 year old girls on the boardwalk.” – Brian, New York
“I like the deep fried Oreos” – Zar, Ithaca
First time at Wildwood:
“Two pointers” – Troy, Australia
“It’s a great showcase for the sport because spectators can see all of the action here. It’s also great for social networking.” – Steph, Boston

Wildwood XXVI begins in about 6 hours when the 308 teams (and counting) square off in 19 pools of 16 teams each for the world’s largest 4-on-4 beach ultimate tournament. I’m at the registration party on Friday night where the libidinous teenagers and savvy college kids match up on the party grounds of New Jersey’s finest boardwalk enterainment.
The boardwalk scene at Wildwood is pure Americana, battered in lard, fattened on easy living, primed for a weekend of low-effort entertainment. Large amusement park rides, silly little carnival games and an endless barrage of fried foods await the the packs of traveling Americans, groups of familes and friends who descend upon this sanctioned party land like schools of fish investigating a sorority cruise.
Enter the Ultimate scene. Its an uninhibited bacchanalia of well-bred manners, a frolicking of the cultists attracted to ultimate, the sport. Mostly college kids, some teenagers, a handful of oldsters but its basically the introduction to “this is Ultimate! We party like we dont care!”
One of the Tournament Director’s, Mike Adlis, is more than happy to accomodate the fun times. Here at Wildwood, you can be young for a long, long time and it’s all good.
“Some teams are coming down on a six to eight hour drive, so we keep the party open late. That way you don’t miss anything!”
Indeed, its 1:45 am when the registration packs it in.
OK, well, its 2:40 now and they are kicking me at the bar. Back to the hotel, one of the few not overpriced….
The good times flow freely. At the registration party where some (usually most) members of a team must come to register their team and thus be qualified to play tomorrow, the craziness is in the air.
“How do they fucking throw a frisbee that good??” explaims the bartender, watching the TV screens filled with the highlights of last year’s games
The Americans travel in packs, whether with their families or their friends. The wander up an down the wooden slats.

Canada is a country with an amazing Ultimate community. Toronto, Vancouver, and Ottawa all have thousands of players and 250-350 teams per city. However when it comes to Beach Ultimate they are the victim of their geography. The West Coast close to Vancouver has basically no good beaches (anything more north of Vancouver has either no inhabitants or it gets too cold). The East Coast is slightly better, with the Parlee Beach tournament in Fredericton, but apart from that there is not much else. The only hope for Canada is to use their wealth of lakes to play Beach Ultimate.
Britannia in Ottawa has been going on for 17 years and last year a new tournament got started: La Petite Vite du Capitaine
On the 23th and 24th of August, La Petite Vite du Capitaine takes place on the Haldimand public beach in Gaspe, a small town in the area of Gaspesie peninsula, in the eastern part of the province of Quebec. This tournament will be part of the town summer activities and they are expecting local people and tourists to enjoy the event.
They are expecting teams from Quebec and New Brunswick but are also hoping for other teams/players to register. The airport is 20 minutes away and many facilities will be provided such as a beer garden, meals, washrooms, music and others services.
The accommodation and the Saturday night activities (dinner and party) will take place at the Douglastown Hostel. The fees for the tournament are 350.00$ can. per team including accommodations, meals and activities for the weekend. There will be prices and gifts for the team who will achieve the best spirit and the teams who will be playing the finals.
If you are in the area, or love adventure, this can be quite the new experience for seasoned Beach Ultimate players. Try it. Even if you do not have a team, they can get you one.