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/

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

The Texas Beach Ultimate Fest (TBUF), is back and bigger than ever. Come join them at Galveston’s RA RA Apffel Park (east beach) on Saturday May 30th for the longest running beach tournament in the WORLD. There is something for every skill level from beginners to world’s level ultimate players. Come help them show the rest of the country that Galveston is still on the map and stronger than ever! This year they will be supporting a fund raiser for the local Galveston Independent School District (GISD). See the tournament details at:http://houstonultimate.org/TBUF2009

A week after Paganello 14 teams from British Universities came to Rimini to compete in the Festival Italia Tournament. The atmosphere of 2,000 students playing so many different sports was amazing and the nightlife was incredible. The ultimate players had a fantastic time on the beach; they don’t often get to play beach ultimate at home. Rimini blessed them with beautiful weather throughout the tournament and the players really enjoyed themselves.
The Final was between Southampton 1 and Southampton 2, with Southampton 2 victorious in sudden death. Swansea beat Exeter 2 to win the Plate. Spirit was fantastic throughout the tournament for the more experienced tour veterans and for the first time tour teams; the Spirit award went to Bath.

Spanish Beach Ultimate is growing strongly. Each year there are more teams and now they also allow Portuguese teams to enter in their national championships. If they continue their growth like they have in the past, they will be the country to look out for at the 2011 World Championships.
The Spanish Mixed Championships 9-10 May, Lanzarote

The Beach Ultimate community is getting ready for another edition of the largest international Beach Ultimate tournament in the world: Paganello! 120 teams, big parties, new contenders (will the Boracay Dragons make it to the finals?), and lots of other fun things to do. We all hope that the weather will be a bit better this year. Last year’s finals were cold and windy.
Here is one report on the tournament from the US:
Disk brings twist to Holy Week in Italy
When most people think of visiting Italy for Easter vacation, rarely do they stuff their suitcases with 40-ounce beer bottles, Spandex and oversized Uncle Sam top hats. But in the case of the American Gladiators, a Chicago co-ed Ultimate team, this is packing protocol. More…

Another good blog posting from Ffindr.com. This time they featured the Boracay Open Beach Ultimate tournament and the still undefeated (on home turf) Boracay Dragons. Read more…

The last few months there has been a fair bit of Beach Ultimate in Spain and Portugal. The Porro Open tournament in Barcelona, several tournaments in Punta de Umbria (South of Spain) and at Praia do Meco (Portugal). There wasn’t a lot of sunshine, some rain and wind, but that made it special. With waves crashing, fresh sea air in your nose and the disc in your hand you realize that life is great!… until you have to huck into the wind… 🙂

Jose Pires just sent me an email that a new satellite image was taken during the Bar do Peixe tournament in Portugal.

(Also see the Google Earth .kmz link)
You can clearly see the mass of players around the umbrellas, the 2 fields, the players on the fields and the side lines. On field 2 (left mid), the players are on the line, about to start a point!
Could this be the first time that a Beach Ultimate tournament was captured by the big eye above us?