Here is a visualization of the location of the World Championships...

About six months ago, I became aware of a group of Ultimate players in Dubai (United Arab Emirates). They have been growing slowly but steadily in numbers and on Friday April 1 (no joke) they will hold their inaugural Beach Ultimate tournament!

For more information: http://dubaiupa.com/?page_id=711

They are also preparing to send a team to the World Championships of Beach Ultimate! I can't wait. Here are some scenes from the group playing in the sweltering heat on the beach.

For many years BULA has be represented in Japan by Matt Kass. Of course when the quake struck on Saturday we were all worried. Fortunately we received word from Matt saying that he and his family are okay. He wrote:

Despite the grim news, Japan and Japanese people can be remarkably industrious and resilient. I maintain faith Japan can and will bounce back. The assistance from abroad has been amazing, inspiring and truly brings humans together. Thank you and praises to all!

We continue to wish Matt and all people and players in Japan all the best.

Matt at the Dream Cup 2010. This tournament was scheduled for this weekend.

Just a quick update on the WCBU: It is going fast... :-)

Lots of countries already signed up. Fifteen Mixed, twelve countries in Open, eight in Women, and nine in Masters. Plus still potential to get the Grandmasters and Mixed masters filled up with 6 countries per division.

Many more countries are getting close to signing up too. Most of the power houses have signed up. We are still missing countries such as France, Brazil, Japan, Italy, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Hungary, Denmark, South Africa, Latvia, Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela but they are all working on it.

Furthermore some new countries such as Uganda and United Arab Emirates are trying to get enough players and might really be present. That would be sweet!

We are working with Ultimate Peace to get some players from the Middle east: Arab Israelis, Palestinians from the West Bank, and Jewish Israelis.

In the meantime on the sponsorship side things are moving forward well. Discraft and Flashflight were the first two to sign up. Plus we have lots of other good conversations, broadcast interest, and much more.

On the ground things the local organizing committee is doing a great job getting the city of Lignano involved and getting the best deals for the players.

It is lots of work but we feel the excitement building and that makes us all very excited!

Can't wait to see you on the beach!