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