Author: patrick

The Spirit of Flying Disc sports

Dan Engström, a WFDF Board member, wrote an official article for the Danish Swedish Flying Disc Federation about the Spirit of Flying Disc sports.
It’s main focus is Ultimate but other parts of the disc sports, such as disc golf, are also included. Since Spirit is one of the main focal points for BULA we wanted to share with you (with permission from the WFDF).
Let us assume that it is possible to pin-point the attitude to life and sports of players and leaders of flying disc sports. This “Spirit of Flying Disc” would be a key feature of our family of sports. It would be knowledge that is invaluable in the development of the sport. This paper aims to identify the Spirit of Flying disc, and to be a stepping-stone for development that is based on it. If considered successful, this paper can be used as the foundation for the development of flying disc federations and for their policies on the use of Spirit of the Game. The more concrete methods of how to build on the Spirit of Flying Disc and the Spirit of the Game should be developed by interdisciplinary working-groups within each organisation. Consequently, they are only touched on here.
An effort to identify the essence of this special something has led me to the conclusion that there are three main building-blocks of the Spirit of Flying Disc, all connected:

  • Counter-culture – The urge to be part of a non-establishment platform for expression.
  • Focus- The rules of the game focus on what constitutes a positive contribution to the game, not on the limitations on what is allowed. The Spirit of the Game is a vital part of this.
  • Fascination- The flight of a disc is a beautiful thing, with strong connotations of the first two building-blocks. Generally, flying disc players love it.

Read the whole article here (.pdf) (Updated 2 April 2007 version)

Tales from the Egyptian beach

This winter in Dahab, a city in Sinai, Egypt, the first Ultimutation – BULA beach ultimate hat co-ed tournament took place. If you missed it, no worries: next year they will be back 🙂
Ultimutation was organized by Russian beach ultimate lovers who couldn’t wait for the sun in Russia. Around 60 players from all around the world joined the tournament. Two days of 4 on 4 games, party with belly dancing, party in Sinai Mountain, warm Red sea, cheep and cozy restaurants with nice food with real Egyptian sheesha (water pipe) and real summer sun on the middle of winter.

Official tournament pictures
Pictures from Jose Pires
From the Ultimutation website:

“It’s been two weeks since the tournament is over… My face, still tanned, hiding under the hood and winter cap, looks strange in cold and grey streets of St. Petersburg.
In my previous article “Open Truth” I shared my views on Ultimutation as I saw it before the tournament, now I’ll try to describe what we got in the end. I won’t be surprised if your point of view differs from mine, so you’re welcome with your stories, impressions and suggestions…” more

Brazilian league uses BULA posters

As we were hoping, organizers are starting to use the BULA posters and flyers to develop Beach Ultimate locally. In Porto (Portugal), Los Angeles (US), and now in Brazil the posters are used to attract new players.

The Brazilian “Campeonato Paulista de Beach Ultimate 2007” will be held on:

  • 25/03/2007 – Mixed 5×5
  • 29/04/2007 – Mixed 5×5
  • 27/05/2007 – Open 5×5
  • 24/06/2007 – Open 5×5
  • 29/07/2007 – Woman 5×5
  • 26/08/2007 – Woman 5×5
  • 30/09/2007 – FINAL Mixed, Open and Woman

The first league day will be on Praia do Centro – Peruibe – SP and starts at 9:30h. There are no tournament fees and for more information contact frisbeeperuibe@yahoo.com.br

Ocean Beach Ultimate Hat Tournament

So this past weekend was the annual Ocean Beach Ultimate Hat Tournament. 60 people from around NZ meet at Ocean Beach (which is about 30 minutes from Whangarei) to play two days of Ultimate. All the teams are picked randomly based on ability, sex, and date of registration. On Saturday morning when the teams were named out I stood with my team and looked at all the other ones and was pretty sure I got a bad draw and got put on the worst team in the tournament… (more on Jordan’s space)

Brendon Love (the organizer) in action

APBU: The 2nd Beach-Only Ultimate organization

Beach Ultimate has long got its players from the grass Ultimate scene. There are beach tournaments galore but few leagues. However this is slowly changing. Portugal had the first national Beach Ultimate organization: BUG-P. However a second organization just got started: Associação Paulista de Beach Ultimate (APBU) in Brazil. No grass, just beach 🙂
APBU is now organizing the national Beach Ultimate league March – September 2007. The first games will be on Praia do Centro in Peruibe. Here is a picture of the local team “Jararacas Beach Ultimate Team”:

Where will the next ‘beach-only’ Ultimate organization come from? Spain? Italy? New Zealand? US? Mexico? Any bets?

Regolamento ufficiale (Italiano)

cover_rules_IT.jpg Today we are publishing the second in a series of translations of the BULA rules.
Many thanks to Nadia Sillano and Luca Giordano for their work in translating the BULA rules into Italian.
Italy, the home of Paganello (which gave birth to BULA) has a strong potential for the sport with lots of beaches and many tournaments and players. We hope that with the help of this translation growth will continue and a national Beach Ultimate league will not be far away.
Download the Italian Rules here
The next translation we’ll be releasing with be the long anticipated Portuguese rules. Something that will come in handy for the World Championships in Brazil 🙂

Homer’s Iliad mentions Beach Ultimate?

It’s pretty amazing that in one of the first stories ever recorded in a book, tossing a disc on a beach gets a mention…
“…and his men beside the break of the sea-beach amused themselves with discs…”
iliad.jpg
– The Iliad of Homer (Richmond Lattimore transl. Univ. Chicago 1967, Book II, line 773-774)
Thanks to Melissa Clarke and Chad Woods for bring this to our attention 🙂