Tales from the Beach

Boracay Beach 2008

OK, here’s some news from Boracay straight off the bat.
FIRST, the tournament this year is being held about 2 months earlier than normal. The local Filipinos, many of whom play in this tournament, are still in their “work” season and thus attending this tournament is difficult. As a result the tournament is not massively large — perhaps only 14 teams.
But on the flipside there is some serious beach love here. The Dragons (teams A, B and C) practice ultimate just about any day of the week. Tomorrow the teams gear up for some beach conditioning at 9am. Tomorrow being Friday of course… games are not until Saturday.
Not a lot of traveling disc players have made it to Boracay this year. It is not the easiest tournament to get to, but not the most difficult either. And this place really is a swell beach scene.
The other talk of the scene here is that this weekend may be WINDY which apparently is not common for this tournament, as, again, it is usually help in late April or May.
The teams to beat are the stacked Manila big boys Sexual chocolate and the speed demons of Boracay Dragons (A). Last year Dragons won by 2 in the final.
Tony

Respect not rivalry

northernadvocate.jpgIf football is the “beautiful” game then Beach Ultimate is well on the way to being known as the “social” game.
The competitors at the sixth annual Ocean Beach “Beach Hat” tournament came from all over the country as well as from overseas, but once they were put into teams, friendships blossomed that should last a lot longer than the two-day tournament.
The beauty of this tournament, apart from its setting on Ocean Beach, is the fact that no team rivalry exists other than during the game. Each team is picked at random at the beginning of the tournament, meaning teammates have to get to know each other pretty quickly.
(Continued at the Northern Advocate)

Lei-Out: the US equivalent to Paganello?

What better way to start off the new year than to come out to Southern California and play a weekend full of 5 v 5 beach fun? Lei-out grows every year and this year they have expanded it from 2 days to 3 days (Jan 19-21).
Here are some of the key details:

  • Three day tourney right at the Santa Monica pier. Enjoy the sun and the ocean while you play.
  • Raging Tournament Party
  • Hotel discounts and local restaurant discounts for you and your team
  • No roster cap for your team so you and all your buddies can come and play for only $30 per person.
  • No UPA fees

Of course there will be the normal Frisbee morning cuisine of bagels, fruit, an initial supply of water and some other yummies.
LEIOUT_2008.gif

San Francisco is going beach


Beach Ultimate in San Francisco has long been in the shadow of its grass cousin. During the summer, when the grass league is in full swing, there are just enough players to play on one field on Ocean Beach (for those of you interested, it is on Saturday’s at2 PM at stairwell 9). There are no tournaments in the area and there is no beach league.
However persistent work from Edmundo and Chris McT is starting to change this. More and more players are showing up on Saturdays and now Ed is organizing a Beach Ultimate tournament close by: Gazos Gambit November 30 – December 2. There is also some talk about a beach league… It is still just talk, but San Francisco has the players, has the beach, and has the funkiness to have a great Beach Ultimate league. BULA is rooting for it! 🙂

Extremfeiner Schottercup

(Austrian article about their Mixed team in Graz this summer)

“Bereits zum 4. Mal veranstaltet der Frisbeeverein Catchup Graz das international besetzte Beach-Frisbeeturnier im Eggenberger Bad.
Heuer werden 12 Teams aus 3 Nationen erwartet, darunter auch das Ă–sterreichische Mixed Nationalteam, das Ă–sterreich im Dezember auf den Beach Weltmeisterschaften in Brasilien verteten wird.
Zusätzlich starten mit dem Ă–sterreichischen Masters-Nationalteam die amtierenden Beach-Ultimate-Weltmeister (Portugal 2004).“

Austian Mixed Team at 2004 World Championships:

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