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Last week I mentioned that Beach Ultimate in the US will have its own group of people organizing and growing the sport. Now I found out that the LA beach league has become the favorite league in Los Angeles.
People all year round say that they love the league and can't wait for it to start up again. In fact, players biggest complaint is that the league is too short! The organizers squeeze it in between the fall series and Christmas when everyone gets busy.
Last year they had 18 teams, and it was a fun and exciting season. This year they are adding a youth league. I'm guessing that the league is going to grow enormously. Luckily, they have a giant beach in Santa Monica :-)
In preparation for the masses, they are having two clinic days. One on Aug 1st and the other a few weeks before the league. The clinics will be separated for women, youth and men.
For more info: labeachultimate.com
Now that Beach Ultimate is recognized by the WFDF, I see things are going to change: Japan will probably send a team to Italy next year, and so will many other countries traditionally absent at the World Championships of Beach Ultimate (WCBU).
The other big change is that national federations now have to make a decision whether to allow for a separate national organization, or incorporate Beach Ultimate as a part of their flying disc federation?
In the US, BUUS is being prepared by the organizers of the US Beach Ultimate teams that went to the WCBU's in Portugal and Brazil. They have gotten the initial okay from USA Ultimate.
Many countries might opt for the option to bring Beach and Grass Ultimate in the same federation. Time will tell. In the meantime, Portugal is the only country in the world that only has a Beach Ultimate Federation. No grass :-)
Interesting and fun times ahead...
If anyone want to help out shape Beach Ultimate's future, let me know.
See you on the beach!
Patrick
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
Last Saturday Matt Kass, Representative Director for BULA Japan, and I were at the the World Ultimate Club Championships in Prague and attended the WFDF Congress to defend BULA's motion to get Beach Ultimate recognized as an official sport.
This is what happened:
The WFDF had been too late submitting all the motions to its members. According to the WFDF bylaws they needed to do this 60 days before the congress starts. BULA was on time with our motion to the WFDF (75 days before congress starts) but the WFDF was late in sending it out. So, to try to rectify it, the WFDF submitted a motion to Congress to accept the submission of motions that were submitted too late.
The US and Canada had problems with some of the motions and with the fact that the WFDF didn't follow their own rules. So they decided to publicly show their discontent with the WFDF by voting against the motion to allow the late motions. This meant that we could have gone home almost immediately.
Fortunately Jonathan Potts, the WFDF President, suggested that congress would discuss the motions during the meeting and do a non-binding straw poll to see what the direction of the votes would be. In about a month or two a binding electronic vote will take place and those results count. This idea was accepted, albeit somewhat reluctantly, by the US and Canada.
In total 9 motions were voted on and the Beach Ultimate motion was the only motion that did not have any votes against or abstains. Beach Ultimate as an official sport was "passed" by 26 votes for, 0 against, 0 abstains!
Again, this is not 100% official yet, but the fact that Japan, US, and Canada voted for the decision is a huge win for Beach Ultimate. I honestly don't see any problems laying ahead of us now. Whooohoooo! :-)
Next steps will be to organize a hugely successful World Championships of Beach Ultimate in Italy next year and getting Beach Ultimate included in the World Beach Games that will be organized by SportAccord at the end of 2012.
This sport is going somewhere... :-)
Back in April I wrote that we submitted a motion to the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) to get Beach Ultimate officially recognized as a sport. Now we are close to getting the answer.
On Saturday morning the WFDF will hold its congress in Prague where the World Ultimate Club Championships will be held. Representatives of all the countries will vote on the motion.
I know we have the support of many countries already but there is one possible obstacle: the WFDF was late in submitting the motion to its members. To rectify this they submitted a motion to congress to accept all motions that were submitted late. If that motion is not accepted all our efforts have been for nothing. Let's hope it doesn't turn out that way.
I will keep you informed!
Patrick
It never ceases to amaze me where Beach Ultimate can be played: indoor, on market squares, in the desert, and in the woods. No matter where it is played, it is always fun and tough to play.
The 4th éditions of ''La P'tite vite du capitaine'' in Gaspe, Quebec (Canada) is no exception. This great tournament that features great music and drums and will be held on the 21st and 22nd of august.
The tournament is in an idyllic framework: a 5 km sand beach, a festive atmosphere and the typical warm welcome of Gaspe Coast people... On the menu during that weekend: competitive matches, music and drinks on the beach, Gallic supper, and party with musicians on Saturday night.
For more info: www.ultimategaspe.com
La P'tite vite du capitaine (2:58m.) from ultimategaspe on Vimeo.
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! :-)
Over the years there have been various companies that tried to compete with Discraft. Daredevil discs is one of them. They are "UPA approved" but I have no idea how successful they have been. I think that for most Ultimate players, if the price is almost the same and the disc is almost the same, they will still stick to Discraft. I know I do.
But what if the price drops significantly?
This might be a good option for poorer countries, players, or organizers who don't want to risk a large investment.
Now there is a alternative.
YiKunSports (www.yikunsports.com) has a new Ultimate disc made in China. I had the opportunity to test their new version last week (hot from the press) and I must say I was impressed. I didn't notice a difference with the Discraft disc. It was stable, same hardness/softness, and all-in-all a good disc.
Not extremely cheap, but still $2-3 per disc cheaper than Discraft (pricelist). Something to consider...
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
Paganello is long gone. The weather is getting nicer but the memories are still there. There are of course tonnes of Facebook pages with pictures but none of them have as many great shots as Uncle Botto's:
Jonathan Potts, the President of the World Flying Disc Federation, was at the SportAccord (former GAISF) convention this past week and brought back some news about the World Beach Games.
This event will be run along similar lines to the upcoming World Combat Games in Beijing. At World Combat Games all flights, accommodation and meals for athletes are paid for by the games. If they can manage the same sort of deal for World Beach Games it will be a world first for ultimate!
You can also bet that there will be significant broadcast opportunities, so if Beach Ultimate we were to be included, we would probably use the World Beach Ultimate Championships 2011, which are to be held in Italy, as a qualifying event.
SportAccord is tentatively aiming at late 2012/early 2013 for the inaugural event, and already have had informal interest from a number of cities. They plan to have a host in place as soon as possible, maybe by the end of this year.
Unfortunately, SportAccord didn't have the information it required to evaluate Beach Ultimate and it hasn't been included in the list of initial sports for the first World Beach Games.
However, Jonathan had very positive discussions with SportAccord staff and thinks if we put together a strong proposal for Beach Ultimate's inclusion we will have a good chance.
So that is what we will be working on this week :-)
This is great news for Beach Ultimate!
France has taken 4-on-4 Beach Ultimate to the next level: the French 4-on-4 Cup (Coupe de France). Way to go! See the pictures
Notice the great use of the free BULA posters we have available for download in 5 languages :-)
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?
Did you know that according to the Appendix of the WFDF rules of Ultimate you can call a Spirit of the Game Time-out?
Appendix A7 states that a SOTG time-out can be taken:
- If a team's captain believes that either or both teams are failing to follow the Spirit of the Game (SOTG), they may call a "Spirit of the Game Time-out.
- This can only be called after the start of a point and prior to the ensuing pull.
- During this time-out, neither team may engage in tactical discussions.
- All team members of both teams will form a "spirit circle" in the middle of the field.
- The two opposing team captains shall separately discuss all current issues with adherence to SOTG, determine ways to rectify those issues, and then convey the agreement to the spirit circle.
- SOTG time-outs do not affect, nor are they affected by, the number of time-outs available.
I think this is very good to stop things from getting out of hand.
Thanks to Tushar from I am Ultimate I saw this promotional video about the sports complex where the 2011World Championships will be held:
I just finished emailing a 36-page motion to the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) to have Beach Ultimate officially recognized as a Flying Disc Sport and for the WFDF to co-host the upcoming World Championships.This motion will be voted on by WFDF members at the next World Ultimate Club Championships in Prague in July.
Why is it a good thing for Beach Ultimate to be independent from (grass) Ultimate and why should the WFDF support the next World Championships? Read the motion. Don't be put off by the number of pages. Pages 3-8 are the real proposal. The rest of the pages are supporting material.
Let us know what you think!
www.beachultimate.org/Beach-Ultimate-Motion.pdf
At the recently concluded Dream Cup tournament in Fuji-shi, Shizuoka-ken, Japan (March 20-22, 2010), Matt Kass of BULA Japan was seen promoting Beach Ultimate and trying to get the Japanese interest in participating at the next World Championships.
Background:the Open Final and Mount Fuji-san
Leave it up to the Belgians to come up with an innovative Beach Ultimate hat tournament idea...
At hat tournament players always have to rate themselves so the organizers can do their best to make balanced teams. This can be as straight forward as asking for a single number to represent your level (1-10), or as complex as asking for preferred position, height, physical condition, years of playing, etc...
At JetSet Goes Beach (June 5-6 in Belgium), there is a new system: players give themselves a level upon registration and then the public can vote on their a level too. So far it seems that people were good in rating themselves. Have a look.
I think it is a great idea! Go Jetset!
P.S. The rules say that the player who most overrated themselves has to give a lap-dance to an ugly stranger! :-)
FEAST (Frisbee East Africa Sand Tournament) is back by popular demand and this year promises to be even feastier. Last year, Mighty Meaty put together an awe inspiring run to the championship that is remembered as one of the greatest victories in sports history! In addition to the world class athleticism, there was also glow-in-the dark night frisbee, greased watermelons, beer pong, dance parties and much more that cannot be mentioned nor remembered.
This year's FEAST will be held on May 30-31st at Tiwi Beach, (one-hour drive from Mombasa, Kenya). The format will be 5 x 5 of co-ed ultimate on the beach. The team fee is $280 per team. Lunch will be provided both game days and remaining money will go to purchase a finite amount of party beverages for the final night of the tournament. To register or for additional information email nairobi.ultimate@gmail.com.
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This is how the bid from Max Vitali started:
"It doesn't often happen that you manage to find what you really need. Usually, when you try to build an event, you spend months making contacts, talking to people, knocking on doors to get green lights, adequate facilities, the right deal. Usually, if you work hard enough, and for long enough, you eventually pull together a package that works. But sometimes, just sometimes, something else can happen: you come across an Opportunity. A Golden Opportunity. Something else that is even better than the thing you were looking for. Something you know you can't ignore."
He was right! We couldn't ignore his bid. It was perfect.
The location is the GeTur "Sports Village" in Lignano Sabbiadoro (close to Venice in Italy). This is a state-of-the-art resort center for sport, health and fitness, set in 60 ha. of natural pine woods. The accommodation and sports facilities are right next to each other, right by a private beach, over 1 km long, which can easily accommodate 15 regulation-size Ultimate playing fields. Players make the short (50 mt) walk from their hotel room to the beach along paths between the trees, with no road traffic.
Accommodation + all meals (breakfast, packed lunch, dinner) is only € 35!The food is very good, and comes in embarrassingly large quantities! It's also very varied, always offering a range of superb dishes catering to all tastes. Of course Team and Player fees come on top of that but those will all be within normal parameters (think about € 100 per player and € 250 per team).
Not only is the place perfect, the dates are perfect too: 22-28 August 2011.
With Max as a TD (he is also organizing the Under 23 World Championships this year), all of us at BULA are extremely happy with the winning bid and we can't wait for the next World Championships of Beach Ultimate to take place.
Keep an eye out on this blog for more info that will be coming to you.
Yesterday was the deadline to submit bids for the World Championships in 2011. We received bids from Italy, France, Turkey, and Mexico. The WCBU Committee will examine the bids and announce the winner at the end of this month. All look like good places to play at :-)
BULA hasn't published much on the blog lately. The main reason is because we upgraded our blog software from Movable Type 3.5 to 4.34. Some of the tags are now 'depreciated'. This means that comments no longer are available, and the archive is not shown.
Our in-house knowledge of HTML coding is not what it used to be. Anybody that knows Moveable Type and can give us a hand?
Thanks in advance
Patrick (patrick@beachultimate.org)
Fred Morrison, inventor of the Frisbee, has died at his home in Utah at the age of 90.
Morrison traced the idea for the Frisbee to a Thanksgiving Day family picnic in 1937 when he and his future wife tossed the lid of a popcorn tin back and forth for fun, the Deseret News reports. He took the idea to the beaches of Santa Monica where he sold the "Flying Cake Pan" for 25 cents.
Various versions -- and various names -- came and went over the years, especially after Morrison learned aerodynamics as a bomber pilot in World War II. There was the Whirlo-Way, the Flyin-Saucer and the Pluto Platter until Wham-o signed on with Morrison and registered the name Frisbee.
Vince and Hilco from Blockstack TV, and players on the New Zealand Beach Ultimate team, finished their video report on the Asian Championships Beach Ultimate in Boracay (the Philippines) and the subsequent trip to the Asian Championships Grass Ultimate in Manila.
Great stuff! Thanks guys. It was great playing with you!
http://www.blockstack.tv/home/episode/3109381
Yes! BULA is ready to accept bids to host the 2011 World Championships Beach Ultimate.
If you, or your local disc organization is interested in hosting the 2011 BULA World Championships Beach Ultimate, send an email to wcbu2011@beachultimate.org and put "Bid Request" in the subject line.
You will receive a Word document that has to be filled in as complete as possible and send back by March 10. The winning bid will be awarded by March 31 2010.
Submission and questions to wcbu2011@beachultimate.org
Thanks and see you on the beach!