Who is BULA?

BULA is a beach sports and lifestyle organization whose mission it is to help organizers and players further develop the sport and the Spirit of Beach Ultimate worldwide.

BULA was started in 1999 and organized the first ever world championships of Beach Ultimate in 2004. As a member of the World Flying Disc Federation, BULA also helped Beach Ultimate get recognized as an official disc sport in 2010 and subsequently co-hosted the World and Continental Championships in partnership with the WFDF, in 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019.

WFDF and BULA will continue to work together in 2020 and 2021, evident as WFDF supporting BULA during this time period. Starting in 2021, WFDF will be fully assuming the organization of World and Continental National Team Championships in order to standardize event organization.

With the intent of further developing Beach Ultimate in Europe, BULA started the European Beach Ultimate Club Championships series in 2018 – where Champion Club teams from Beach Ultimate National Championships can compete at the elite level.

Patrick van der Valk

Scientist turned entrepreneur and frequently traveling marketeer, Patrick has been in the disc community forever. He has founded several teams, including: Ultimate Stars Leiderdorp (Holland), The Zoydz (Toronto), and Diz-Cu (Portugal). He played on the Dutch and Portuguese national teams, organized many national and international events, and coached the Toronto Women’s Ultimate team See Jane Run to victory in the Canadian Championships.

Patrick led BULA for close to 20 years (2000-2019), was a member of the WFDF Board of Directors (2010-2016), Founding Chair of the WFDF Spirit of the Game Committee (2007-2014), and still plays Beach Ultimate weekly. He was selected to play for the Dutch National Great GrandMaster’s team at the 2019 European Beach Ultimate Championships.

Pedro Vargas

Pedro loves Ultimate. He started playing Ultimate in 2003 and since then has had a crucial role in pushing Portuguese Ultimate forward. In 2006 he founded the Ultimate team (B)UFA, and was the VP of Sports Development for the Portuguese Flying Disc Federation until 2018. He has been the coach/captain and player on the Portuguese National Mixed team since 2004 and is still the coach of the Mixed team, which ended in 4th place at the European Championships in 2019.

With a degree in Sport Sciences and PhD in Human Performance, Pedro provides an important role to BULA as a sports visionary.

Sofia Pereira

Sofia started playing Ultimate in Toronto Canada in 1992 and has been playing Beach Ultimate since moving to Portugal in 1995, where she played an important role in the establishment of the sport. Since BULA’s birth, her organizational and managerial capacities have been beneficial for Beach Ultimate as well as BULA’s development, including organizing the first World Beach Ultimate Championships in 2004 and directing the 2019 WFDF European Beach Ultimate Championships, in association with BULA.

With intense experience as a scientist/ health coach/ writer as well as in Beach Ultimate, Sofia has recently taken over the reins directing BULA’s mission development with Pedro Vargas and is looking forward to spreading SOTG and Beach Ultimate worldwide!

The other people on the team

BULA keeps growing Beach Ultimate thanks to the precious help from many Beach Ultimate Lovers around the world, including (but definitely not limited to): Alex Pereira (Portugal), Adam Levy (US), Bruno Gravato (Portugal), Chris Hurwitz (US), Corinne Tupling (Scotland), Filipa Matta May (USA/Portugal), Felipe Dinis (Portugal), Jeff Scott (US), Jose Pires (France), Jude Lee (Philippines), Justin Palmer (Spain), Karen Cabrera (Philippines), Kate Barabanova (Russia), Kristina Cernusakova (Slovakia), Marco Aurelio (Brazil), Michele Mengucci (Portugal), Mike Palmer (UK), Mike Palmer (Australia), Pad Timmons (USA), Rahim Resad (Singapore), Raoni (Brazil), Rue Veitl (Germany), Shiellah Quintos (Canada), Tim Morrill (USA), Wayne Davey (UK),  Peldi and Jumpi (Italy), and many others that helped along the way.

If you want to help out and spread the love, we are happy to have you join the team.

(The Portuguese team celebrating winning the Spirit of the Game award at the 2013 European Championships)