As the Chairman of the WFDF Spirit of the Game Committee I am very pleased to announce the 2010 Spirit of the Game Scoring system. The Committee looked at all the feedback on the 2008 system and worked hard to make the system better and easier to use. I think we succeeded :-)

The reduction of the number of scoring criteria from 8 to 5 is one of the main changes. Each team is now scored on: 1) Rules knowledge and use, 2) Fouls and body contact, 3) Fair-mindedness, 4) Positive attitude and self-control, 5) Themselves (did the team play with worse, same, or better Spirit than the other team?)

The other major change in the 2010 Spirit of the Game scoring system is the rating. Each of the criteria are now rated "Excellent", "Very Good", "Good", "Not so Good", or "Poor", and teams awarded 4, 3, 2, 1, or 0 points respectively, yielding a score range of 0-20 points per team per game. I believe that this correctly reflects the overall Good Spirit seen in the (Beach) Ultimate community and allows us to maintain this level of Spiritedness worldwide. As of November 8, 2009 have translations of the SOTG scoring sheet in 27 languages(!) and we will continue to add new translations. (download translation template and send it to patrick@beachultimate.org by the end of the year)

We also created an official press release. If you have contact with local or national press people, forward the press release at http://beachultimate.org/New_Fair-Play_scoring_system_released_in_25_languages.pdf. Spirit of the Game is what makes our sport special.

Of course, spread the word in you local (Beach) Ultimate communities as well. Show people the new SOTG scoring sheets or send them to www.wfdf.org/index.php?page=rules/spirit.htm or www.beachultimate.org/blog/2009/10/spirit.html

In any case, here are the 27 languages available until now:

1. English
   
2. Catalan
   
3. Chinese
   
4. Danish
   
5. Dutch
   
6. Estonian
   
7. Finnish
   
8. French
   
9. German
   
10. Hungarian
    
11. Icelandic
    
12. Italian
    
13. Japanese
    
14. Latvian
    
15. Lithuanian
    
16. Norwegian
    
17. Polish
    
18. Portuguese - Brazilian
    
19. Portuguese - European
    
20. Russian
    
21. Serbian
    
22. Slovakian
    
23. Slovenian
    
24. Spanish
    
25. Swedish
    
26. Turkish
    
27. Ukrainian

Enjoy!

Many thanks to Chris Schneider (CH), Christian Jennewein (FR), Dan Engstrom (SE), Daniel Bailey (VE), David Raflo (US), Ethan Milberg (CA), Jerry Rosenberg (US), Momme Butenschön (IT), Natalie Visser (CO), Paul Bernier (IT), and Rue Veitl (DE) for their work on making this happen, as well as all the volunteers that translated the document.

Last weekend the BULA flag, created for the European Championships in France last year, was proudly displayed during the Taj Ultimate tournament in Japan.

And if you like good promotional Ultimate videos, check out the Taj Ultimate homepage video at: www.tajultimate.com

Many years BULA has been working with Matt Kass, a veteran player from the US who lives and works in Tokyo. We met Matt for the first time in Portugal when he was playing for the US Master's team. His passion and drive for Beach Ultimate was clear and refreshing.

Now, with the arrival of the first Asian Championships Beach Ultimate, Matt has more than ever put his efforts behind helping BULA in Asia, and in Japan in particular. We are very fortunate that Matt has offered to further develop BULA Japan as the Representative Director. There are at least 4 Beach Ultimate tournaments every year and with his help we hope to expand this.

For any questions or inquiries about Beach Ultimate in Japan, Matt can be reached at:

makass@me.com
m: +81-90-9857-7070

Every year BULA plants a Beach Ultimate seed around the world to help the sport grow. It does so by organizing/promoting one special Beach Ultimate tournament per year in an area that has potential.

In 2009, the BULA BUTT moves to the beach of Monster in the Netherlands for the 2nd edition of Monsterball. Last year's edition, organized by Ultimus Prime in The Hague, was a wild success - great competition, teams from 4 countries, and a rockin' party.

With BULA's help Monsterball is going even bigger this year: 32 teams, 8 fields, an under-17 division, and an even bigger, better party.

It is going to be a Monster BUTT! :-)

Check it out: www.ultimusprime.com/monsterball.html

Dear Ultimate friends,

Yes at last!... after last year's success we promised to organise the Xefina HAT tournament again in 2009! And here it is:
This year it will be on the holiday of Friday May 1st and Saturday May 2nd! The Sunday is open for some interesting and relaxing excursions in Mocambique... or just for some nice lullas/camarao and cerveja while looking at the ocean.
Due to the tide that weekend we will organise a 5 on 5 multi-surface tournament, Friday we'll play on the beach of the island of Xefina (in the bay of Maputo) and on Saturday we'll be playing at the fields of the American School (same teams and beach ultimate size fields).

The tourney is limited to 60 participants and we plan to have always 2 women/3 men in the field.
Parties... yes there will be plenty... that goes without saying in Mozambique! One party will be in the old train station of Maputo built in 1910 by Mr. Gustave Eiffel, a very inspiring venue.

If you want to be part of this year's great tournament send us an e-mail: sjoerd@mozultimate.com.

First come first serve!

Happy hucking,

Stef Stevens
www.mozultimate.com

PS There are numerous flights to Johannesburg (JNB). From JNB it is a one hour flight to Maputo (MPM) (5 flights a day South African and LAM (Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique)), you can also rent a car and drive in approx. 6 hours to Maputo, Mozambique. Don’t forget to visit the Kruger Park and see the big 5 on the way back and to swim with the dolphins, whale sharks and manta rays on the Mozambican beaches!

Thanks to Igor "Buty" Butor, the Spirit of the Game Scoring system is now available in the Slovak language:

http://beachultimate.org/blog/2008/05/sotg.html

Thanks to Christian, Gemma, Dima, Carlos, Sofia, the Italian Flying Disc Federation, and Eduardo the new WFDF/BULA Spirit of the Game scoring sheets are now available in Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Italian, and Brazilian:

http://beachultimate.org/blog/2008/05/sotg.html

We keep on adding new and great Beach Ultimate pictures at www.beachultimate.org/pictures.html

UPDATE 15 March 2009: the links now point to the 2009 Rules instead of the 2008 rules.

Since BULA's inception early this century we have had an independent set of Beach Ultimate rules. However this was not an optimal solution for Beach Ultimate players. Differences between WFDF, BULA, and UPA rules made playing internationally more difficult than is should be. So when the WFDF made major improvements to their rules last year BULA wanted to follow suit.

As of today, and after getting unanimous approval from the BULA rules committee and BULA tournament directors, all BULA tournaments will play by the just released 2008 WFDF rules with an appendix showing beach specific difference such as number of players, field size, etc...

• WFDF 2009 rules
• 5-on-5 Beach Ultimate Appendix
• 4-on-4 Beach Ultimate Appendix

UPDATE 22 October 2009: The 2008 version has now be replaced by the 2010 version. Please redirect your browser to www.beachultimate.org/blog/2009/10/spirit.html

BULA and the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) have launched a revolutionary new Spirit of the Game scoring system. The system is designed to quickly and accurately determine the SOTG winner while teaching what Spirit of the Game really means.

Maintaining the Spirit of the Game is key for us and having a system that correctly teaches this is very important. It allows for further growth of the sport while keeping the Spirit intact.

The new system got its foundation from the system that BULA launched in 2006. However the system was improved thanks to feedback from the community and the work of Chris Schneider, Christian Jennewein, Dan Engstrom, David Raflo, Kolja Sulimma, Momme Butenschön, Natalie Visser, Patrick van der Valk, Paul Bernier, and Rue Veitl.

Scoring is based on judging Respect, Fairness, Positive Attitude, Emotional Management, Rules Knowledge, and Physical Contact. Teams are also asked to reflect on their own Spirit as that is only fair. To make it easy to adopt we created 3 similar documents:

1. One SOTG scoring sheet on a page
2. Two SOTG scoring sheets on a page
3. Two SOTG scoring sheets plus a goal scoring sheet on the same page

The system was tested at the European Championships Beach Ultimate last weekend and the feedback has been extremely positive. We encourage all tournament and league directors to use this system and get feedback from your players and see what they think about it. We would love to hear what players around the world think of this system. Let us know what you like or dislike!

UPDATE 8 May 2009 - German translation available

1. German - One SOTG scoring sheet on a page

UPDATE 28 April 2009 - French translation available

1. French - One SOTG scoring sheet on a page

UPDATE 23 January 2009 - Slovak translation available

1. Slovak - 2 SOTG + 1point scoring sheet

UPDATE 16 October 2008 - New language versions available:

1. Spanish - One SOTG scoring sheet on a page
2. Brazilian Portuguese - One SOTG scoring sheet on a page
3. European Portuguese - One SOTG scoring sheet on a page
4. Italian - 2 SOTG + 1point scoring sheet
5. Russian - One SOTG scoring sheet on a page

What do you think BULA should do in the next 2 years to help develop Beach Ultimate around the globe?

Now is the time to give your input. During the Championships in Brazil we will hold a BULA Congress where we will discuss the next 2 years of the organization. If you like to see anything discussed there, send us your feedback. The deadline is Sunday 25 November:

http://beachultimate.org/bula2008.html

Thanks to Dima in Kiev (the organizer of the Kiev hat and КаZантип tournament) the BULA Spirit of the Game rating system is now available in Russian as well.

Download SOTG rating system in Russian

Thanks Dima!

Matthew Shaer has come to BULA's aid and sent us an adapted a piece of JavaScript that allows visitors to sort all tournaments by date, country, and name. Great addition. Thanks Matt!

http://beachultimate.org/tournaments.html

As of today the BULA rules are now available in Portuguese Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese!

Many thanks to Pedro Vargas, Joana Rodrigues and Raoni for their work in translating the BULA rules into Portuguese and 'Brazilian'.

The rules have not be adjusted to the new 2007 WFDF rules. That is the next step for us and we hope to get this done in 2 months. Until then, these rules should help the players in Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique and Angola. Not to mention the press in Brazil that is getting ready for the World Championships in Brazil. (more news about the WCBU in a week)

Download the Portuguese rules here
Download the 'Brazilian' rules here

Through the efforts of Malela Paredes and Du Faim from Brazil, we now have the BULA Spirit of the Game rating system also available in Brazilian Portuguese.

Thanks!

Download .pdf

Dima and Valeriya Gavrilchenko from the Ukraine translated the BULA Sponsorship guide into Russian. Thanks!

Download Russian Sponsorship Guide here
Link to original (English) Sponsorship guide

UPDATE 19 AUG 2009: The BULA 4-on-4 and 5-on-5 rules appendix were also translated into Russian:
Link to the Russian 4-on-4 appendix
Link to the Russian 5-on-5 appendix

Today we are publishing the second in a series of translations of the BULA rules.

Many thanks to Nadia Sillano and Luca Giordano for their work in translating the BULA rules into Italian.

Italy, the home of Paganello (which gave birth to BULA) has a strong potential for the sport with lots of beaches and many tournaments and players. We hope that with the help of this translation growth will continue and a national Beach Ultimate league will not be far away.

Download the Italian Rules here

The next translation we'll be releasing with be the long anticipated Portuguese rules. Something that will come in handy for the World Championships in Brazil :-)

Today we are publishing the first in a series of translations of the BULA rules.

Many thanks to Gemma Perez and Arcadio Diaz Diaz for their work in translating the BULA rules into Spanish.

Download the Spanish Rules here

In a few weeks we are expecting to publish the BULA rules in Italian and Portuguese. French is scheduled for later this year.

Today we changed our website. We added a few more links on the navigation to make it even easier for you to find what you are looking for. In addition we added a Google Map where anyone can add information about locale Beach Ultimate. It doesn't matter if you only have 5 players that want to play, or are organizing a league or tournament. With the Google (Beach Ultimate) Map people can find you!

Each year BULA promotes a new tournament somewhere on the globe. These series are called the Beach Ultimate Traveling Tournaments (BUTT). We are still waiting for confirmation of the 2007 location, but the 2008 location has been determined and it will be a great one: New Zealand! Four weekends, four tournaments!

Starting 2 & 3 February 2008, at Otaki Beach (one hour north of Wellington) the "Wellington Wild Wind" mixed hat tournament will make its debut. After 2 days of playing and partying the tournament will move up the North Island. Three more beach tournaments will follow over successive weekends. Costs, maps, links, accommodation and other details to follow.

Below is a first picture showing a view of the beach, and an insert of the grass area with BBQ and seating area adjoining the beach. With a river a few hundred metres away, the weather brings different surfaces to the beach, such as the shells showing in this photo, or lots of driftwood (fires!). But no worries, it is very easy to groom :-)

For any (Beach) Ultimate player, that loves to travel and wants to visit one of the most beautiful countries in the world, this will be an experience that should not to be missed. Sign up for our Beach Ultimate News (left) to get more details when they come out, or subscribe to our Atom/RSS feed (top right)

Here is a list with the tournaments that used the SOTG rating system that we released last February:

• Oceans Beach Hat (New Zealand)


• Bulf à l'eau (France)


• Battle on the Beach (USA)


• Boracay Beach (the Philippines)


• Costa Brava Tournament (Spain)


• Sandblast (USA)


• Bibione Beach Combined (Italy)


• Beach Fest (UK)


• the Portuguese Beach Ultimate league (Portugal)


• the Cork Beach Hat and Layout Championships (Ireland)


• Yes But Nau (France)


• 4th Beach Ultimate tournament (Colombia)


• Wildwood(USA)
• Singapore local tournament (Singapore)

To add the geographic dispersion, Magic Maggia (Switzerland) and Fiesta en Pie de la Cuesta (Mexico) also have committed to trying the system. Nice :-)

Initial feedback has been that it is logistically a bit cumbersome (Wildwood uses 4 volunteers to deal with all the score sheets and getting captains to fill them in). Nevertheless the system has received many positive reviews and several good suggestions for the version we will release next year.

If you have used the system and have any comments: we're going long... so throw the huck!...

UPDATE: AS OF 13 MAY 2008 THE SOTG SCORING SYSTEM HAS BEEN UPDATED.

More info at: http://www.beachultimate.org/blog/2008/05/sotg.html

Today we launched a new Spirit of the Game scoring system that is much more objective than most systems, yet still has some subjective influences.

It started with the idea to use/adapt the Swedish Fair Play system that was promoted through the WFDF in 2004. However after several discussions within the BULA-Rules workgroup it was decided that this system was too subjective and we wanted to improve the SOTG rating system that originated by Fadi Hobeila and Christine Sura in Montreal (Canada).

Lorne Beckman (Canada), Rue Veitl (Germany), Raoni (Brazil), Tim Finan (USA), José Pires (France), Rahim Resad (Singapore), Filipa Bringel (Portugal), and I spent over a year discussing and improving the system so it could be used to create a worldwide Beach Ultimate Spirit of the Game rating standard.

Are we happy with it? Yes... for a beta version :-)

You will be the ones to tell us if this is a step in the right direction. We sent an email to all Beach Ultimate tournament directors and asked them to test it. In order to further improve the system we want (and need) feedback! Download the .pdf version below and send comments to sotg@beachultimate.org or leave them below.

In case you are wondering what the cap is all about... The symbol is the Chinese symbol for Spirit/Energy and Lookfly, the SOTG sponsors of the WCBU in Portugal in 2004, is so kind to offer this to Beach Ultimate tournament SOTG winners this year. So if you see someone with this cap, you know he/she is good company :-)

And now.... without further ado.... (drum roll).... The BULA Spirit of the Game rating system (version 1.06beta. Last update 26 February 2006)

• Spirit of the Game rating system (English)


• Spirit of the Game rating system (Español)


• Spirit of the Game rating system (Français)


• Spirit of the Game rating system (Italiano)


• Spirit of the Game rating system (Português)


• Spirit of the Game rating system (Brasileiro)


• Spirit of the Game rating system (Russian)

If you need a free PDF reader, you can download it here.

Keep the Spirit. It is what makes this sport the Ultimate!

Happy New Year you Beach Ultimate lovers! May your life be healthy and may you have lots of fun on the beach.

This year should be interesting for anyone that loves Beach Ultimate. As you can see we have launched the BULA Blog which allows us to add and share knowledge and fun easily. Tournament stories, pictures, product reviews, etc...

In addition, we are creating free material for anyone that wants to organize a Beach Ultimate tournament or league. Downloadable (and editable) posters, flyers, CD’s (based on the Lookfly Fresher CD, which they generously made available to us), and videos in English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and perhaps other languages.

But it doesn’t stop there: BULA is setting up a committee to produce a sponsorship document that tournament/league organizers can download and use to attract sponsors. I know I would like a copy myself to see how we can get sponsors for the WCBU2007 ;-)

Speaking of the WCBU2007… We are starting to setup for the World Championships Beach Ultimate in Brazil that will be held in December 2007. The Brazilian FDF just finished organizing the Pan-American (grass Ultimate) Championships, and now the World Championships… Many people have already told me they wanted to go so we are hoping for at least the same turn out as in 2004 (40 teams from 22 countries) but it might very well be bigger. Singapore wants to come, I have heard some interest from Holland who was absent in 2004. It should be great…Thanks Marco and the gang for organizing this!.

If you are think of going to Perth this year for the World Ultimate Club Championship you might want to stay around for the weekend after… We are trying to organize there the next BULA BUTT there. More news later this month…

On January 10 we will be launching the beta version of the BULA SOTG system in Los Angeles at the Lei-out tournament. After we get their feedback we will make it public in February.

So as you can see, we want you to have fun playing Ultimate on the beach. This is a great sport and with help from the entire BULA group of volunteers we want to spread the fun worldwide so you can go to fun places, play hard, party hard, and make more friends :-)

I am sure we will increase the use of interesting technology on the BULA website. We already have Google Earth files of many tournaments, now a blog, and we are also looking into launching the Beach Ultimate version of Ultilinks, and who knows what else ;-)

So 2006 should be a beachy year. Keep ‘em flying!

P.S. If you would like to contribute to the BULA Blog…:-)