BEACH ULTIMATE DIGS IN

Soon, you may be calling ultimate "grass ultimate." That's because a new wave of beach tournaments has arisen and is threatening to overshadow traditional ultimate. For comparison think of how in a short period of time Beach Volleyball out-stylized and out-sponsored Volleyball on its way towards sport fame and fortune.

The stakes are high, but for Tim Finan, they are firmly planted in the sand–marking off his 36-yard long by 30-yard wide fields (and 8 foot endzones) for beach ultimate, West Palm Beach style. Finan, the self-styled pioneer and founder of beach ultimate and Beachultimate.com in the United States sees a sunny future for ultimate on the sand, envisioning a pro league with sponsorship, referees, prize money, and of course, more visibility for the sport we play.

Finan's vision of a successful commercial ultimate enterprise isn't unique, but it seems to have more potential to turn into reality than tampering with established and sometimes reactionary traditional ultimate.

On the other hand, a much different idea of the future of ultimate's sandy offspring has come from Europe where beach ultimate is appreciated more for its convivial qualities.

Outside Lisbon, Portugal, self-employed entrepreneur and Ultimate enthusiast Patrick van der Valk and several prominent European beach ultimate organizers have started BULA, the Beach Ultimate Lovers Association, to promote and standardize beach ultimate across the globe. Van der Valk imagines a jet-setting crowd of Epicurean Ultimate guys and girls, travelling internationally from beach to beach playing a series of unique tournaments where victors earn the right to compete in a Championship tournament at season's end.

BULA closely follows on the heels of the highly successful Paganello tournament where participants are heavily encouraged to party and enjoy, spiritually and even intimately, the competition. To that end, BULA's early goals are focused more on finding ways to start new beach tournaments in exciting and different locales. For BULA, having spirited play is intrinsically a part of playing on the beach, and without a good, fun and enjoyable spirit all is lost.

For Patrick and Tim, the aspirations of BULA and professional beach ultimate are not mutually exclusive. In fact, Tim is a member of the BULA Rules Committee and is generally complimentary of BULA's efforts to promote beach ultimate. For years Paganello has attracted wide-ranging sponsorship and media attention, and BULA continues to view potential sponsorship and monetary influx as a plus rather than a negative.

One thing is clear: playing ultimate on the sand, once a fringe and less competitive past-time for players, is fast becoming a legitimate and distinctive version of ultimate. What began in Europe with Paganello in 1991 and in the United States with Tim Finan's hat tournament in West Palm Beach in 1988 and Mike Adlis and Dave Woods' Wildwood tournament in 1993, has now sprouted into nearly 40 worldwide tournaments a year, a number that will almost surely double within a few years.

Players find the game fast-paced and exciting, and the extra-curriculars of playing on a beach are very complimentary to our practiced appreciation of sport and socializing. While major Ultimate tournaments across the United States try to find enough field space to fit the increasing number of co-ed teams, the longest-running beach ultimate tournaments Paganello (going towards its 12^th season) and Wildwood (into its 10^th season) seem to have almost unlimited range to expand, and are doing so at extraordinary rates. This past June, Wildwood, 40 miles southeast of Philadelphia in Wildwood, New Jersey, featured 110 4-on-4 teams playing on 55 Finan-sized fields. Paganello 2001 carried 88 5-on-5 teams from 16 countries and looks to increase that number in successive years.

The formation of BULA comes at a perfect time for Beach Ultimate and for veteran organizers like Van der Valk, founder of the much-celebrated Bar do Peixe ("Fish bar") beach tournament in Portugal and Gian Pietro (Jumpi), caretaker and visionary behind Paganello's tremendous success.

"I want to have beach ultimate around the world. My goal has been to set up a solid foundation for beach ultimate and then the rest will flow from that," explains van der Valk.

BULA's mission statement is "to assist, educate and promote the Spirit and the Game of beach ultimate." Towards that goal, BULA hopes to create services that will expedite the growth of beach ultimate, including founding tournaments, promoting tournaments, and standardizing beach ultimate rules for the possible introduction of an international series leading to a beach ultimate champion

It is the standardization part that may prove most difficult. Currently, there are two differing sets of rules that govern most organized beach ultimate play. In Europe teams typically compete 5-on-5 on fields that are approximately 50 yards long, 27 yards wide with 16 yard endzones. There are three divisions: Men, Women and Co-ed. The stall count is 10 and games are played to 13 or 15.

But Tim Finan's popular U.S. version of beach ultimate takes place on a much shorter field, 36 x 30 x 8, with a stall count of 6. Teams play 4-on-4. and are typically co-ed in either a 3-1 division or 2-2 division. Finan's Battle for the Beach tournament also provides three observers who count stalls, make active line calls and decide on contested foul calls, much like Callahan observers. And for a new look on an old twist, Finan has resurrected the 2-point play which he helped introduce in the now-dismissed Cuervo tournaments of the late 80's. In Finan's beach ultimate, you score two points when you complete an endzone-to-endzone pass.

"It's great. If you're down 3 or 4 points in a game you're not out of it. Conversely, if you start making turnovers you'll lose a lot faster," explains Finan, "It opens up the field, because players have to guard against the dump back behind the endzone line."

Here's a grand unified theory: add Callahan goals and the action really heats up (a Callahan goal is scored when a defender catches an offensive pass in the opposing teams endzone).

Finan really does envision the kind of spontaneous rise to popularity and television fame with beach ultimate as happened with beach volleyball. There's consideration under way for a Pro Beach Ultimate league in cities across the United States with sponsorship and television coverage.

"You have an audience that's already there, on the beach and that's one reason I think beach ultimate will overtake grass ultimate, where you play on fields away from the public," says Finan, "But grass ultimate is good for beach ultimate as Goaltimate is good for ultimate, and beach ultimate is good for grass ultimate."

Van der Valk couldn't agree more. But as he sees it, beach ultimate is just more fun than traditional ultimate. "If you waiting for a pickup game on grass fields and no one shows up, you just leave. On a beach that changes. You'll wait on a beach!" and in response to a question I asked that needed to be answered, "I've never heard of any European beaches where you can't drink beer. And please note that BULA will advise against playing with a beer in your hand unless it is in a plastic cup."

Veteran event organizer Jumpi sees beach ultimate more romantically, as is befitting his Italian culture, "The beach is a special place. It is between dream and reality. You feel you are different as you step in the sand. I think you get to feel more natural, like when you are a child. You get to play right by the sea, in front of an endless horizon, without shoes...."

Mike Adlis, co-founder of Wildwood, also enjoys the fun of sand, "My favorite aspect of Wildwood is seeing so many players get horizontal. Especially the ones that have never really tried it before – after they get up their faces are all covered with sand and seeing those expresses is priceless. Fortunately you get a refreshing swim in the ocean afterwards."

More concretely, the issue on the table right now is what to do about the different sets of rules. On one hand BULA and van der Valk want to actively encourage a unification of the standards. Van der Valk sees standardization as the first step in making BULA an effective international governing beach ultimate association, although he concedes that there might be room for two sets of rules. Finan likes BULA's ideas and drive, "It's good — but I'm not going to change my rules."

Adlis and Finan helped each out at this year's Wildwood and have both agreed to be a part of BULA's efforts. Says Adlis, "I know that both our tourneys (Wildwood and Battle on the Beach) have agreed to work with the BULA group about merging the European & U.S. style of beach ultimate."

The strange fact is that none of the leaders of the beach ultimate revolution have crossed the Atlantic to play in each other's tournaments. Most Europeans have not experienced 4-on-4 and only a small percentage of Statesiders, mostly in Philadelphia and Houston, have been to Paganello as well as U.S. beach tournaments.

For my two cents, after playing in Paganello, Pasticciotto and Wildwood this year I can appreciate both styles of play. I found the 4-on-4 to be quite liberating, but the 5-on-5 to be a very thrilling game. The 4-on-4 requires smaller teams which brings more unity and demands more playing time, and the shorter fields means your touch on the hucks has to be very precise. The 5-on-5 is more closely related to the traditional ultimate we all know and play.

Whatever the outcome, look for BULA and Florida-style beach tournaments to be coming to a beach near you. Let the fun in the sun begin!

Patrick van der Valk contacted me and asked if I could write an article on Beach Ultimate. I decided to do a little research on both sides of the Atlantic to write this article, which was published in the UPA Newsletter.

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