In an article about the commonwealth games Paul Beckett and Tripti Lahiri recognize that the sports played in the commonwealth games are all sports spread around the world through the British Empire.
Then they wondered, just for fun, what sports might appear in an American equivalent of this extravaganza and which countries would be invited into the “U.S. Commonwealth” to compete.
Naturally Ultimate Frisbee was included. They wrote:

“A quintessentially American sport that derives its name from the flying discs made by the Wham-O Corp. of California. Ultimate has elements in common with both (American) football and rugby, to the extent that it involves two teams trying to move an object over a touch line. It also has the best name of any sporting organization we’ve found: The Beach Ultimate Lovers Association. At least, we hope it’s a sporting organization.”

🙂
The whole article can be found here

I just finished a great trip: Beach Ultimate in Kilyos (Turkey) followed by Beach Ultimate in Odessa (Ukraine) and then Kiev. Wonderful!
In Kilyos I visited the BULA BUTT with Jonathan Potts, the WFDF President. In terms of the number of teams, it was not a success. However, I know that a seed was planted and that our visit was good for the growth of the sport in Turkey.
The people that were there were wonderful and extremely hospitable. Levent Akis is a great organizer who can get things done. He has an Ultimate video clip in Turkish cinema’s, he introduced us to the heads of the Turkish Olympic Committee, we taught kids the game in a football stadium, etc… Together with the local Ultimate community of about 100 players who do other promotions, Turkey can expect some good growth these coming years.

Next stop: Odessa (Ukraine). Again, the hospitality of Beach Ultimate players is amazing. Ivan, a young local talent, showed me around the city, and I attended several trainings on the local beaches. Great city, great people, great food. Loved every minute of it.

Last stop: Kiev Hat Tournament. Or better Kiev HOT tournament. Pfew! Between 35-40 degrees Celsius every day. But what a great tournament! Kiev has some of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. The beach where we played is on a river bank with a great view of the city. You have to cross the river in small row boats that take a maximum of six people. Great level of play, two divisions with 16 teams each. Dima did a great organization and arranged 15 minutes of rain just before an exciting finals started. You can’t get any better.

Beach Ultimate is growing… that is for sure. Take advantage of it! Visit new places, meet new people, and make new friendships while laying out on the beach! Life is short and Beach Ultimate is amazing!

I hardly can wait to go to Kiev and play at the 7th Kiev Beach Hat Tournament. Kiev is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, with a lot of interesting sights. The beach is “Dovbychka” – on a uninhabited island (the Kiev nudist resort) in Kiev with perfect soft sand and the peaceful cool river Dnieper near.
The tournament is organized by players from two teams: Dyki Krali and Gigolo (who took the Paganello Spirit in 2009) and they are expecting more than 250 Frisbee players from Ukraine, Russia, Belorussia and other countries.
The good news is that you don’t need visa’s to get in. Furthermore there are some low cost airlines that can get you there and the organization speaks English. They offered to be your guides and meet you, help you get settled in, and get you to the tournament.
Sounds like a great place to play Beach Ultimate to me 🙂 Want to join me?
More info at www.hat.com.ua/eng

If you want to say no to offshore oil drilling, yes to clean energy, take notice:
Hands Across the Sand is a movement made of people of all walks of life and crosses political affiliations. This movement is not about politics; it is about protection of coastal economies, oceans, marine wildlife, and fishing industry.
You can make a symbolic gesture to show you support by going to your beach on June 26 at 11 AM in your time zone. Form lines in the sand and at 12:00, join hands.
More info at: www.handsacrossthesand.com

If you like soccer and the World Cup, you can combine 2 goals together. A great idea from Louis Eisenberg (tarheel@gmail.com).
As a fundraiser for Ultimate Peace and a way to make the World Cup more exciting she is running a World Cup pool with half of each person’s $20 entry fee going to Ultimate Peace.
If you’re a soccer fan, please join the pool and/or pass along the info to your friends and teammates! The full details are here: http://world-cup-pool.webhop.net
The key points:

• $20 to enter
• Half of the money supports a very worthy cause promoting peace in the Middle East: Ultimate Peace
• The other half of the money goes to the top finishers (winner gets 80%, 2nd place 15%, 3rd place 5%)
• You can update your picks throughout the tournament
• To register and for more info, click here and submit your entry fee (PayPal or check) by the night of Thursday, June 10th

I just received this from a friend of mine:

Fiji – land of the ‘Bula Spirit’
The land of the ‘Bula Spirit’ and home to some of the friendliest people on the planet, small wonders that Fiji remains firmly fixed in place as one of Australia’s favourite overseas destinations.
Offering perfect weather all year-round , this sun-kissed, azure-sea surrounded collection of more than 300 volcanic islands and coral atolls and its famously smiling open hearted people table the perfect ‘across the board’ holiday solution.
Fiji truly offers something for everyone – from romantic hideaways to fun-filled family holidays, from lush, luxury island resorts to boutique cruising and a huge range of soft adventure activities.
‘Bula’ is a unique concept, it can’t be faxed or emailed or sent by messenger. ‘Bula’ can only be experienced from hand to hand, eye to eye, heart to heart, ‘Bula to Bula’ – and only in Fiji. It is what sets Fiji apart from the rest of the world.
—
It sounds like Fiji should be BULA’s headquarters… I am in! 🙂

Every year BULA plants Beach Ultimate seeds around the world to help the sport grow. It does so by organizing one special Beach Ultimate tournament per year in an area that has potential.
This year the Beach Ultimate Traveling Tournament (BUTT) is going to Turkey 30 July – 1 Aug. The tournament will be held on the beach of Kemer (close to Anatlya). The organizers had already submitted a great bid to host the World Championships of Beach Ultimate in 2011 and although they couldn’t beat the amazing bid from Lignano the BULA organization was extremely impressed with their bid and gladly awarded the BUTT to Turkey this year.
Here is the website will all the info: www.ffestival.org
I am planning to go and so is the President of the WFDF: Jonathan Potts. I hope to see you there too! 🙂

Clearly a lot of work has gone into a new WFDF website dedicated to the rules of Ultimate. With hyperlinks that show the difference with UPA rules, official interpretations, scenarios, quizzes, videos, and lot of other goodies. It is truly an amazing website.
I am not easily impressed but this is a site for everyone that plays Ultimate: www.wfdf.org/rules_ultimate/

Swedish Ultimate is a strange bird. They used to be a power house in the ’80s and ’90s, always finishing in the top 3 at the World Championships. However this seemed to have subsided somewhat in the last 10 years. Unlike many other European countries their players don’t travel much to other tournaments and you rarely hear about them internationally.
But that is not to say that Swedish (Beach) Ultimate is dead. There are still enough players and tournaments and now they are organizing an international beach hat tournament 21-22 August in Halmstad: the Bull’s Fat Hat (www.frisbee.se/beachhat or on Facebook).
Is this the start of the revival of Swedish Ultimate? I hope so. I liked seeing their yellow and blue outfits on the field.

Swedish National Beach Ultimate Team at the World Championships in 2004

There are signs of Beach Ultimate life on Borneo… Considering the quality of the video I am wondering what the government is trying to cover up? Is this real?