![Photo credit: Louise Dyring Nielsen [www.photoz.dk]](/images/masthead_layout.jpg)
Slowly but surely the Asia Pacific is waking up to Beach Ultimate.
Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines have been on the forefront for many years, but Singapore started with a Beach Ultimate tournament last year and now Hong Kong is doing it too.
This is great news for the 1st Asian Championships Beach Ultimate that will be held in 2009.
In the meantime, if you are in Hong Kong on Sunday 7 September, go play!
Some communication went on recently about the size of tournaments. Of course size doesn't matter, but we all still want to know who has the biggest.
According to Tony Leonardo:
Last year Paga had 48 open teams, 32 mixed, a gaggle of womens teams and juniors teams. Paga is 5 on 5 and team sizes tended to be larger than 4-on-4 Wildwood by about 5-6 people per team. So maybe team sizes of 15 and multiply that by 110 and you get 1650 or so Wildwood had 300+ teams this year, but lets estimate that about 50 of those teams double up and play in 2 divisions. So lets say 250 teams with about 9 peeps on each, so 2250 folks, all of them, coincidentally, teenagers from Philadelphia and North Jersey.Potlatch this year had 104 teams i think, team size about 20+ so that puts them around 2100? Potlatch is the largest grass tournament in the world, i am pretty sure so Wildwood could be the largest (and fattest) tournament of all?
What about World Club Championships? Is that bigger? Of course that is not an annual event but I wonder how big that one was last time. Anybody know?
Erick Fix, a humble handler, cameraman and editor from the North East has used his talent to craft an adrenaline-pumping highlight video of Wildwood. He is calling on you merry folk to make a difference in this crazy mixed-up world. He works for an internet fitness video website and causally asked if he could put together a video for the Wildwood tournament that occurred a few weeks ago (see our coverage here, here, and here). The bosses shrugged and agreed. Little did they know his master scheme to dominate the site with the power of our glorious sport...
Now he is reaching out to the global (Beach) Ultimate community with his plea: his video needs to get more hits than anything else on the site. Currently, the highest rated video on the site is a bodybuilding video....for the love of god...a bodybuilding video. In the name of all that is round and plastic please send this link (http://www.myfitnesschannel.com/on-location.asp?video=27) to all the players you know and watch the great video every day. If not for yourselves, for our sport...
I had seen Ultivillage before and thought it was interesting, but not something to write about on this blog. Ultivillage is a mostly North America focused, grass Ultimate video website. Registered users (a few months ago they had 8106 registered users) can buy DVD's, watch Ultimate TV, and participate in forums.
However, their coverage of the World Ultimate & Guts Championships last week brought international action to people around the globe. Some people had to stay up late, some had to get up early, some had to skip work. All of them enjoyed the live coverage of what was happening in Vancouver. Our friends from Blockstack.tv were the commentators and suddenly it felt much less "North Americany". It felt nice and global (like BULA :-).
The quality of the live broadcast was not always perfect, but perfect enough for me and Sofia to be excited seeing the Open final between US and Canada. We loved it and we did not have to pay for it. It was billed as a $7 event (payable by paypal I think) and I would have paid the money (I saw other games for free and decided it was worth it), but somehow I was never asked for payment. Bonus! :-)
Perhaps a live broadcast is something BULA can have at the ACBU (Asian Beach Ultimate Championships) in 2009, or the World Beach Ultimate Championships in 2011. Ultivillage is bringing Ultimate to the fans, perhaps now they see the international interest they are interested in bringing the beach along... :-)
The collaborative nature of the internet is starting to work its way deeper into the fabric of (Beach) Ultimate. Open Ultimate (www.openultimate.com) is another example. You will find two primary uses for openultimate.com:
- Locating resources that will help you in coaching Ultimate; and
- Creating a private online course for you and your team that will help you to create, manage, and disseminate resources to your team, including activities such as journal writing or discussion forums.
The name "openultimate" was chosen because the creator (Dan Cogan-Drew) wants to encourage coaches and players to share their resources (good books, DVDs, websites, blogs, etc., as well as lesson plans and/or drills that they have found useful). They've started it off with an initial assortment to "seed" the ground for continuous and robust contributions by the world- wide Ultimate coaching and playing community.
For any who are familiar with Blackboard, you will find this environment to be very similar. It's built in a free open-source equivalent known as "Moodle". If you are interested in becoming a "site editor" (like a wikipedia editor), or have other contributions to offer, please contact Dan at dan.cogandrew@gmail.com
Wikipedia has become a standard on its own, and now there are specialized 'pedias' showing up everywhere. One of the latest is the Ultipedia. This is a great start for a worldwide collaborative effort to get a repository of tactics, websites, cheers, etc...
That is not to say that there are no problems with 'pedias'. The originator/moderator has a lot of power. When Ultimate (Frisbee) was added to Wikipedia we tried to get some content for Beach Ultimate included but we were constantly hindered by the 'moderator'. The moderator decided that he had enough knowledge of the sport and that he could decide what should or should not be included. Also an entry for 'The Worst' (the opposite of 'The Greatest') was rejected because he had never heard of it before.
Nevertheless, the Ultipedia is a good start. The thing it now needs is enough publicity so that everyone starts to use it and contribute. I hope that this blog posting helps. Good luck to all involved!
SUNDAY, July 27th 2008.
Yes, there were 300+ teams. The beach, a good 400 yards to the ocean, was packed. You couldn’t see the end of the fields. Not too long ago Wildwood had 150 teams and that seemed large. How many teams will the tournament cap it at?
“We haven’t found that number yet,” says Mike Adlis one of the tournament directors. “I suppose we could add another day if we get more teams, and maybe keep adding days.”
Its appeal is accessibility and lack of pretension. Everyone is welcome. Anyone can come. All levels of play are encouraged. There are sweet trophies for 40 teams. You can win your loser’s G bracket chumpionship and walk away with hardware.
Sunday’s weather was cool. A thunderstorm with lightning snaps came midway through the day and held off games for an hour and change.
The top pools were headlined by the usual suspects, the many-headed Horned Melons who fielded teams in both divisions and the octopus-like Yellow Submarine. Both are Philly-based teams and Wildwood is their backyard sand box.
The Melons lost to Yellow Sub in 3-1 semifinals, but advanced in semis over Sexually Considerate (New York) in the 2-2 division. Yellow Sub won the 3-1 again, practically a birthright for this team, over Do The Deed (DC, I think). In 2-2, Atlanta’s No Limit Pandas, one of the few teams to have actually taken a plane flight to Wildwood, won the 2-2 over the Melons after having defeated Big Fish (Boston/ Slow White) in the semis.
According to one of No Limit’s players, most of the team hadn’t even played on beach before.
The rain delay sent plenty of teams packing. Two teams, Death By Misadventure and Thunder Punch, set to match up in the finals decided to determine the winner realized they couldn’t play because many folks left. Instead they competed in a boardwalk carney watergun-shoot-the-target race, won by Thunder Punch.
To get a copy of the 2007 tournament DVD, email kenne DOT hemphill AT gmail DOT com.
To see some tournament pictures, check out briancanniff.smugmug.com
It's Saturday night, 9pm. I will post again after pools are announced.
The Wildwood weekend is reserved far in advance for most ultimate players on the Eastern Seaboard.
Jake lives and Connecticut but comes down to volunteer at Wildwood so he can get a free ride. With the resort prices here, it’s a smart call.
“I spent all week doing homework in my summer classes so I could make it here. This is my sixth year in a row. So far I’ve spent most of my time regulating the registration line. It’s great because someone always brings you beers when you do the line.”
Boston. Providence. Baltimore. Dover. Washington DC. Atlanta, Georgia. Every player in the New York Metropolitan area, across all skills levels, makes the three-hour drive to this tournament. Philadelphia, just an hour and a half distant, sends swarms.
Saturday begins with a .99¢ breakfast: scrambled eggs, English muffin, hash brown. Games start 10am for half of the tournament, 11am for the other half. Temperature is perfect, humidity ideal, the sand is packed but not too tight. It’s a fast track.
It is impossible to try and recap the winners and losers of day one at Wildwood. The tournament is well-organized, for sure, so that teams choose their overall skill level and pick either 2-2 or 3-1 (ratio of men to women).
By the time it all shakes out there are tons of pools, tons of teams with random beach-themed names masking their city and club affiliation and tons of games, more than 75 per round, every hour, like clockwork.
At the end of the day teams move up or down in pool strength and placards showing championship and chumpionship brackets in new pools from A to S are posted on the side of a rented cube truck.
On that same side of the truck they hoist up a white screen and play an hour-long DVD of last year’s tournament highlights while players queue up at the trough of free beer like farm animals. 32 kegs, scheduled to last for three hours.
So I can’t really provide a concrete review of the top teams, because the pools haven’t been posted. In the meantime, some quotes from players across the spectrum of the tournament.
Question: What’s your favorite thing about Wildwood?
“Wack the Iraqi” – Drew, Brooklyn
“Crazy scenes on the boardwalk.” – Courtney, New York
“I love all the fried food and I love beach Ultimate!” – Annie, New York
“Seeing friends from all over. Oh and also babes in bikinis.” Brenton, Connecticut
“Seeing everyone you know from the Northeast.” Squeege, Albany
“Getting to see old friends. Tracy’s been to every Wildwood since the 2nd one [14 years ago]” Geoff, Boston
“I like that as a high-brow New Yorker I can come down to slum it out on the Jersey Shore and not feel guilty because it’s an Ultimate tournament. I get to go to the batting cages, eat all sort of fried food and stare at the 15 year old girls on the boardwalk.” – Brian, New York
“I like the deep fried Oreos” – Zar, Ithaca
First time at Wildwood:
“Two pointers” – Troy, Australia
“It’s a great showcase for the sport because spectators can see all of the action here. It’s also great for social networking.” – Steph, Boston
Wildwood XXVI begins in about 6 hours when the 308 teams (and counting) square off in 19 pools of 16 teams each for the world’s largest 4-on-4 beach ultimate tournament. I'm at the registration party on Friday night where the libidinous teenagers and savvy college kids match up on the party grounds of New Jersey's finest boardwalk enterainment.
The boardwalk scene at Wildwood is pure Americana, battered in lard, fattened on easy living, primed for a weekend of low-effort entertainment. Large amusement park rides, silly little carnival games and an endless barrage of fried foods await the the packs of traveling Americans, groups of familes and friends who descend upon this sanctioned party land like schools of fish investigating a sorority cruise.
Enter the Ultimate scene. Its an uninhibited bacchanalia of well-bred manners, a frolicking of the cultists attracted to ultimate, the sport. Mostly college kids, some teenagers, a handful of oldsters but its basically the introduction to "this is Ultimate! We party like we dont care!"
One of the Tournament Director's, Mike Adlis, is more than happy to accomodate the fun times. Here at Wildwood, you can be young for a long, long time and it's all good.
"Some teams are coming down on a six to eight hour drive, so we keep the party open late. That way you don't miss anything!"
Indeed, its 1:45 am when the registration packs it in.
OK, well, its 2:40 now and they are kicking me at the bar. Back to the hotel, one of the few not overpriced....
The good times flow freely. At the registration party where some (usually most) members of a team must come to register their team and thus be qualified to play tomorrow, the craziness is in the air.
"How do they fucking throw a frisbee that good??" explaims the bartender, watching the TV screens filled with the highlights of last year's games
The Americans travel in packs, whether with their families or their friends. The wander up an down the wooden slats.
Canada is a country with an amazing Ultimate community. Toronto, Vancouver, and Ottawa all have thousands of players and 250-350 teams per city. However when it comes to Beach Ultimate they are the victim of their geography. The West Coast close to Vancouver has basically no good beaches (anything more north of Vancouver has either no inhabitants or it gets too cold). The East Coast is slightly better, with the Parlee Beach tournament in Fredericton, but apart from that there is not much else. The only hope for Canada is to use their wealth of lakes to play Beach Ultimate.
Britannia in Ottawa has been going on for 17 years and last year a new tournament got started: La Petite Vite du Capitaine
On the 23th and 24th of August, La Petite Vite du Capitaine takes place on the Haldimand public beach in Gaspe, a small town in the area of Gaspesie peninsula, in the eastern part of the province of Quebec. This tournament will be part of the town summer activities and they are expecting local people and tourists to enjoy the event.
They are expecting teams from Quebec and New Brunswick but are also hoping for other teams/players to register. The airport is 20 minutes away and many facilities will be provided such as a beer garden, meals, washrooms, music and others services.
The accommodation and the Saturday night activities (dinner and party) will take place at the Douglastown Hostel. The fees for the tournament are 350.00$ can. per team including accommodations, meals and activities for the weekend. There will be prices and gifts for the team who will achieve the best spirit and the teams who will be playing the finals.
If you are in the area, or love adventure, this can be quite the new experience for seasoned Beach Ultimate players. Try it. Even if you do not have a team, they can get you one.
Yesterday in Los Angeles Nintendo unveiled a new add-on for the Wii remote. A small accessory, called the Wii MotionPlus, plugs into the base of the Wii remote to more accurately sense subtle movements such as the twist of a wrist, Nintendo said in a demonstration of a game involving the tossing of a virtual Frisbee.
The Wii already has one disc game. In Big Beach there is a disc golf game that actually allows three ways to throw the disc: backhand, forehand and hammer. Hammer is the coolest one, obviously, but whichever you way you decide to flick the Remote, your avatar will mimic your motion and it'll all affect where the Frisbee goes.
Perhaps we will eventually see a full (Beach) Ultimate game developed. Wouldn't that be cool?!
The Subic Bay Beach Ultimate Frisbee Challenge in the Philippines was held last June 7-8, 2008 at the Waterfront. Twelve teams from Manila and Boracay participated in the tournament. Boracay Dragons White and Gold ended up playing against each other in the finals. Dragons White won 13-6. Junthir from Boracay Dragons Gold got the MVP award in Pool A. Janjan from Dragons Gold suffered a severe cut just below his left eyebrow and chin. (See collision on video.) Dragons Katol bagged the Most Spirited Team Award (AGAIN! They won the same award at the Bora Open 2007.) Awarding and party took place on the field. There was a band…and lotsa beer…and a lot of dirty dancing party people!
Thanks to all who joined and especially to Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority and Department of Tourism for sponsoring the event and to UP Sunken Pleasure volunteers for organizing the tournament.
The first Beach Tournament in Mozambique was a blast. Inspiring scenery, a great crowd and a loud party! Here are some pictures
Brazil has seen a surge of Beach Ultimate since they hosted the World Championships last December. They are now creating a new federation solely dedicated to Beach Ultimate (!) and organizing the first national Brazil Cup 2008.
This is great news. Brazil has such great beaches and their beach culture is fantastic. BULA is in big support of this new movement :-) Força!
There has been some confusion about catching the disc while the foot is underneath the line. Here is the response from Lorne Beckman, the person who has been involved in all the BULA rules as well as most UPA rules:
First let’s clarify nomenclature: a person's foot cannot be "underneath the line". "Lines" are conceptual. A person's foot can be underneath the coloured tape, but the coloured tape is not the line. The coloured tape is only an aid to mark the lines. See the BULA addendum to the WFDF rules:I hope that clarifies it. Let me know if you have any questions.The conceptual "line" exists as a plane that extends infinitely upward and downward parallel to the pull of the Earth's gravity.A person who catches the disc with a foot which is underneath the coloured tape is therefore squarely on the line, and therefore, out-of-bounds. If the disc is caught by someone with a foot before the tape and then the person’s foot slides underneath it, he/she is in-bounds.
- 2.2 The perimeter of the Field of Play is the Perimeter Line and consists of two (2) Sidelines along the length and two (2) End lines along the width.
- 2.2.1. All lines shall be marked with colored tape between five (5) and ten (10) centimetres wide
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...
Many of us have had the experience of being stuck with only 4 players showing up at practice. And what do you do...? You play Double Disc Court (DDC)! It is a great game and lots of fun.
Now the first European Beach DDC tournament is a fact: DDSea-spot on the Westende Beach in Belgium will take place 28 June. Check it out: www.gentlesite.be/seaspot
Wow! Ffindr.com is something that the disc community needed for a long time. A central depository of tournament info, leagues, pickup games for DDC, (Beach) Ultimate, Freestyle, Disc Golf, etc... They work with volunteers around the world to make sure as many disc events are added and the amount of listings they have already is enormous. I have yet to see anything that comes close.
But that is just the tip of the iceberg. Using Web 2.0 technology anyone can setup a filter to display what they are interested in. Only interested in Ultimate in the Iberian Peninsula? No problem! What about DDC worldwide? Any disc event in Africa? Just 3 clicks away! And still this is just the beginning. You can save filters as an RSS feed so you can immediately see when new events that you are interested in are added.
As if that wasn't good enough, the real beauty comes when you then have webmasters integrate these feeds into their own websites. This is what BULA did. We created a filter to select all upcoming Beach Ultimate tournaments worldwide. Next we saved the filter/RSS feed and then, using some fairly straightforward coding, this feed was integrated into an existing page. Check it out: beachultimate.org/tournaments.html. The same was done on the Portuguese site: bug-p.org/teams.html and I am sure many more websites will follow.
Ffindr.com is like a pot of gold for anyone playing disc sports. Whether you are a player, a webmaster, or a tournament director. You can only gain by going to ffindr.com to add your event, select your event, or promote your event.
Thanks Christian. What you did was long over due!
Dutch Beach culture is mostly limited to holidays and 'strand jutten' (picking up things that wash ashore after a storm). The Crunch Hut tournament in Hargen has been the only Beach Ultimate in Holland (although this year will be their 14th edition!) and until recently the Netherlands never participated at a BULA Beach Ultimate World Championships.
However Beach Fever has struck Holland. They participated at the European Championships Beach Ultimate where they just missed the chance to go to the semi finals and suddenly there are two new Beach Ultimate tournaments planned:
The Texel Beach Tournament 21-22 June: Texel is the biggest island of the Netherlands and it's about a 100 km. north of Amsterdam. The tournament is going to be an open tournament and you can sign up at their website.
The Monsterball Beach Classic August 30-31: This tournament is very close to The Hague and the base of the tournament will be the Bondi beach club.
Hup Holland Hup!
Soon the ECBU website (www.ecbu2008.org) will have a guestbook where people can leave links to pictures, comments, etc... Until then, here are some of my pictures on Facebook, as well as the final results:
| Classification | |||
| Pos. | Open | Mixed | Masters |
| 1 | Switzerland | Germany | Germany |
| 2 | France | Spain | France |
| 3 | Belgium | Czech Rep. | |
| 4 | Spain | Portugal | |
| 5 | Netherland | International | |
| 6 | Austria | Belgium | |
| 7 | Czech Rep. | Denmark | |
| 8 | Ireland | ||
For the Spirit of the Game award, the new WFDF/BULA SOTG scoring system was used. This system gives 1 point for a normal game and 2 points for an exceptional game. The teams are rated on 8 criteria so a score of 8 is normal and a score of 16 is truly exceptional. After all the games were played, the average score per team was calculated and this was the result:
| Spirit of the Game | |||
| Pos. | Open | Mixed | Masters |
| 1 | Ireland (11.5) | Portugal (11.0) | Germany (11.3) |
| 2 | Switzerland (11.4) | Germany (10.3) | France (10.0) |
| 3 | Belgium (11.4) | Belgium (9.9) | |
| 4 | Czech Rep. (10.8) | Denmark (9.8) | |
| 5 | Austria (10.6) | Czech Rep. (9.7) | |
| 6 | Netherlands (9.2) | International (9.6) | |
| 7 | Spain (9.2) | Spain (9.1) | |
| 8 | France (8.7) | ||
I want to thank all the players, organizers, the volunteers, sponsors, and the city of Le Pouliguen for making this happen. The next National Championships will be the World Championships in 2011. Next year we will send out requests for bids.
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:
- One SOTG scoring sheet on a page
- Two SOTG scoring sheets on a page
- 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!
African Beach Ultimate is still in its infancy. South Africa is by far the most developed in this region. With the help of the Lifeskills organization and the Kaiser Foundation thousands of kids are starting to play (Beach) Ultimate. The rest of the continent is still almost untouched.
There is some Ultimate in Egypt, helped by Russians that host the Ultimutation tournament in Dahab, and there is some Ultimate in Morocco. 
However new on the horizon is Mozambique! Led by well known Dutch Ultimate veteran Stef Steven, the man who started the development of Ultimate in Vietnam, there is now a Beach Ultimate tournament on the island of Xefina just off the coast of Maputo.
Chapeau na Ilha da Xefina (translation: Hat on Xafina island) is the name of the tournament and it will take place 14-15 June. It will be beach disc like you've never experienced it before. Local fishermen will give players dhow rides to and from the island with a sundowner included. Caipirinha served in the boats. It should be just an amazing experience.
Party and play like Mozambicans. You know you want to! :-) Contact Sjoerd Brouwer, sjoerd_brouwer@hotmal.com for more information. I am sure they would love to get a couple of foreigners to visit.
Finally someone decided to put Ultimate on a game computer like the Nintendo DS. There have been some PC games about Ultimate out but this is the first one I heard about that worked on anything but a PC.
OFDS: Ultimate & Golf
Unfortunately, the reviews have been not very positive. One of the buyers on Amazon steers people away from buying it.
Why develop a game when it sucks? That is a waste of money. If you do something, do it well! Ultimate is a great game!
The preparations for the European Championships Beach Ultimate are going real well. It is unfortunate that there will be no women's division this year but it is their loss. The local organizing committee is doing an amazing job arranging everything. From full media meetings with cocktails, to getting celebrities at the award ceremony. This tournament is going to feel like a real European Championships while BULA guarantees fun and a relaxed atmosphere. I can't wait to be there and play!
I can't but shake the feeling that European women's Ultimate is not doing well. For years we had problems getting them to play, but they showed up anyway. However, this year there are 3 instances that make me think... hmmmm... are female Ultimate players becoming extinct?
- The European Championships Beach Ultimate could not find 6 countries that could field 9 women to play in France this year
- Wonderful Copenhagen Ultimate, spring's biggest tournament, will not see any women participating this year
- Bar do Peixe, one of the most female friendly tournaments in Portugal, had more than its fair share of women canceling this year.
Steve and Tom have packed their bags, got theirlaptops primed for high speed editing, and are taking Blockstack.tv to Rimini Italy for Paganello.
They have exclusive backstage access to all the Paga action, interviews with the big names, and with Ultimate loving people having a good time. Most importantly they'll be bringing back a flavour of one of the world's most famous and exciting Ultimate tournaments.
Part 1 of Blockstack.tv in Paganello should be live late Friday night or early Saturday morning.
Check it out: www.blockstack.tv
Games are more fun if there’s something on the line like a cup of beer. Gatorade can be substituted for beer. Boxed wine can be substituted for Gatorade but nothing can replace common sense.
Cups on Sticks - Secure two three-foot durable plastic sticks into the ground a disc-and-a-fist length apart with plastic cups overturned on top of them. Set up another pair directly across about 30 feet away. Two teams of two take turns throwing a disc to try to either knock the cups off the opponent’s sticks (1 point per cup) or get the disc through the sticks cleanly (2 points). If you knock a cup off an opponent’s stick but the cup is caught before it hits the ground you get no points. However, it must be caught one-handed, as the other hand must be holding a beer. Game to 11.
Beer Box - Played 2-on-2 or 3-on-3. A small square demarcated by cones or shoes forms the box. The object is to catch the disc inside the box. You have to reset about 20 yards outside of the box before attempting to score. There are cans or cups of beer as the reset markers. To reset and begin play you must first take a three-second sip of beer at the marker. If you finish the beer, your opponent has to run to the cooler to get another one while your team gets a 3-on-2 power play. You score by catching the disc inside the box.
With permission from Tony Leonardo's book "Ultimate - The Greatest Sport Ever Invented By Man" (link to review)
I suppose it shouldn't have been a total surprise the way the Boracay Dragons A (so-named for the dragon boat races on the island -- a few of the players are dragon rowers) dominated the finals, winning, in effect, 16-5 over Manila's league champion Sexual Chocolate. 16 points because the last goal was an end-zone to end-zone huck which, like Wildwood or those Florida tournaments, is worth 2 points.
The Dragons were fast, deep (roster of 17 i believe) and basically played smart. Their D caused SexChoc to make throwaways which the Dragons converted with efficiency. Game started out 4-0 or 5-0 and was never in doubt.
In semis, Dragons A (White) beat Dragons C (Blue/Yellow), while Dragons B (Silver) lost to Sex Choc 10-9 when the game ended on a one-pointer when the team needed a two-pointer to tie and prolong the game (alas, thrown by me)
In the Important Prizes at the crazy beach after-party, the Manila-based team called Dragon Katol, so named for the local spiral mosquito repellent incense, won the Spirit of the Game, the Party Award and one of their regular player Christian (who played with Boracay Dragons here and was MVP of WBUC in Brazil) won the MVP making it some sort of weird Katol sweep.
Party Details: this tournament was sponsored by a Filipino energy drink, 100 Plus, a number of fine establishments on the beach like the Hey Jude bar, Summer Place bar and grill and Smoke Restaurant, to name a few. Also a TV network/channel sponsored prizes for Spirit/Party and "Top 4 Players" awards which included a compass from the TV show "Lost." Evidently Lost is coming on air here soon.
But the number one sponsor in terms of ubiquitousness was Colt 45, "America's leading premium strong beer." However, we don't have "strong beer" in America, only the more apt designation "malt liquor" a category which Colt 45 probably created too, heck.
Colt 45 is a great and wonderful brew for smashing one's head to mulch for the following day. But it was free.
The finals were pretty colorful: the usual loudspeaker setup, lots of local fans clapping and cheering, all of the teams here, tons of cameras with nice lenses, a TV station was here to do a segment on the tournament and the team (airing March 29th in Manila I was told -- a sports show, nonetheless)
Once again the talk of the day from the Dragons was about how excited they were to bring their game to other tournaments around the world and how psyched they would be to host more traveling players and teams to this tournament. In fact, it appeared that besides a small Singapore team with none of the players from Freakshow, the only travelers here were Jane and I, Izzy and Pierre the French-Canadian handlebar-mustache brothers and two blokes from Regina, Saskatchewan. Truly that will change in the future because it is pretty good times here with lots of free food, free beer, tournament shirt and disc included, parties every night and good competition.
I'm trying to get some pictures up but otherwise go to the official tourney photographers websites:
http://ssshortzzz.multiply.com (not up yet)
http://ogong.multiply.com (not up yet)
More later
Tony
Saturday pool play was divided into two pools, an upper and a lower. The upper pool was six teams. Boracay, a, b, and c, manilla's alabang, dragan kutong (insect repellenent for dragons), and sexual chocolate, also from manilla. The closest and best game of the day was sexual chocolate v. boracay silver (b). With two and three goal leads throughout, silver coudlnt finish it al the end and manilla escaped with a universe-point win at the end.
Boracay white (a) crushed sexual choc. two games later to take command of the pool and of the tournament. Tomorrow the semi-finals will likely be a rematch of sex. choc. and bora silver, while bora white should play bora blue (c, aka the young fast kids).
Truly the young kids here in Boracay have a bright future ahead. They are really receptive to the game and start pretty young -- the 12-year olds were forehand hucking like champions. The deal is: Boracay takes ultimate seriously. They really have a good vibe for the fast action of beach ultimate.
Manila and PUA (Philippines Ultimate Association) also are very psyched with Ultimate here -- several celebrities (Rima and Derrick) in Manila, known as TV and Radio hosts (seriously, random locals passing by the frisbee scene stopped and HAD to get a picture with Derrick on Friday night, and everytime he held up a disc in the pic -- which is pretty rad if you think about it.)
Team Alabang Anonymous is know here for the good times, team Dragon Katon for also making things merry and who can forget the travelers, like Pierre and Israel from... Quebec. Viva Francais.
So you can be rest assured that we are drunk now because the saturday night food and party was swell and now we must get ready to play tomorrow
Pictures will be coming...
T&J