Winter is coming

Here we are. The northerly gales are back. That sounds pretty awful in Ultimate terms.

In Northern Europe and in most of North America people play indoor during the winter because it is just too cold to play outdoor. In the UK, on the other hand, it gets cold, windy, and wet to the point of making playing outdoor painful, but possible. You just have to be prepared and accept mud as a legitimate playing surface. Winter Ultimate is less painful and more possible using the right thermal clothing, waterproff gear, and footwear.

Thermal clothing

Someone once told me: "There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing". Here are my suggestions:

First of all, forget cotton! Cotton clothes are useful for doing sport only for 15 minutes. After that, they will get soaked with sweat and rain. Dump clothing will make you very cold, very quickly. It’s just physics: water conducts heat much better (25-30 better) than air, so dump clothes absorb heat from your body very quickly rather than insulating it from the cold.

What you want is some kind of clothing that stays dry in contact with the skin (you may have heard this already in some tampon commercial) so that the air trapped inside the garment acts as an insulating layer.

Solution: Wear technical clothes. They come in a variety of brand names, such as “dri-fit”, “coolmax”, etc. These garments hare usually made 100% of polyester. The stretchy ones usually are made of “lycra”, “spandex”, or some other elastic material.They are great for 2 reasons. First, they hardly absorb any water, they come out of the washing machine already nearly dry. Second, they are usually made of wicking material that draws water from the inside to the outside of the garment, hence: Never wear them inside-out.

I can recommend:

- Lite Sports top and leggings. They are very stretchy and they cost less than Nike and other brand names.

- EDZ under-layer. All products are on their website. When it’s really cold, I use the base layer top, leggings, neck warmer, and hat. They can all be bought at these online shops:

- http://www.thermalshop.co.uk/

- http://www.mandp.co.uk/

- Decathlon has its own range of thermal wear, which is of decent value. You can have alook at their website.

I have worn this stuff last year and I was always toasty warm, regardless of weather. Some people, incomprehensibly, dress only to the point where they can bear the cold, rather than to the point where they are comfortable. I am definitely in the second group.

Your body burns calories just to maintain its core temperature. If you don’t dress well, your body will be burning a large amount of calories just to keep warm. I’d rather use those calories to play D.

It's better to wear this type of underlayers skin tight. Often it is better to buy them one size smaller than you usually wear.

Water-proof gear

The main thing that characterises winter Ultimate in London is rain. There is no way out. You will play under the rain at some point.

- Bin liners. The easiest way to keep dry bags, shoes, food etc. on the sideline is to put everything inside bin liners. You can buy bin liners at any supermarket. The only problem is that, when the entire team does this, the sideline becomes full of indistinguishable black bags and it will be impossible to find your own.

- Waterproof jacket and (over-)trousers (pants for the Americans). It is a good idea to keep dry and warm between games, and sometime between points. This is easily done with water proof jacket and trousers. I have bought mine for around £10 each; both packable.

- Waterproof poncho. An alternative to jacket and trousers. You can put it on and take it off easily and when you are not wearing it you can use it as a blanket to cover bags and other gear.

- Rucksac liner: Keeps your rucksac dry.

Any half-decent outdoor shop should sell all the above. I have bought most of my stuff from Mountain Warehouse in Covent Garden. They have also a website.

Stretching

There is always quite a bit of discussion about stretching among Ultimate players, who are often also fitness geeks. Should you bounce or hold the stretch? How many repetitions? Should you breathe normally or exhale as you stretch? What’s the difference between a warm up stretch and a warm down stretch?

Here is a decent resource on stretching: http://people.bath.ac.uk/masrjb/Stretch/stretching_toc.html

Worlds in Perth

This week the World Ultimate Club Championship took place in Perth Australia.

Results and final standings on the tournament website: http://www.wucc2006.org/

Some considerations from someone who did not go and followed on and off what what going on from a distance:

Initially the general feeling was that this was not going to be a tournament that represents the best of ultimate around the world. For most teams in North America and Europe it’s very expensive to get to Australia and mid-November is not the ideal time of the year to take 1-2 weeks off work or University. Many Americans have already used up all their holidays for UPA sectionals nationals.

The result is that the tournament would have represented who could afford to go rather than the best teams throughout the world.

On the other hand, it gave the chance to Asian and Australian teams to show their worth. They normally have the same cost problems in coming to Europe and North America.

I have the feeling that the average level was probable lower than at other WUCCs, but at the top end of each division there were some really strong teams.

Buzz Bullet, in particular, have spanked pretty much everyone, showing that in Japan they really know what they are doing.

Apparently the Spirit was bad, especially by European standards. I have seen an email on itadisc by Davide Morri (aka Il Migliore), one of Italy’s strongest players, complaining that the amount of fouls and dodgy calls was simply insane. He was playing with Ultimate Vibration, a team from Paris that is infamous around Europe exactly for poor spirit.

One last thing. It was really difficult to follow what was going on. The tournament website was rubbish: no clips, no blogs, no match reports. The results of individual games were made available via www.scoreomatic.com, the least usable website ever.

Some stories from British teams here:
- DiFranco's Blog
- LTD Release Blog

Death of Thyl "Kuki" Luyckx

I am very sad, upset and shocked to learn about Kiki's death.

I have played with him in Copenhagen for the past three years and I have met him a few times also at other tournaments.

I don't remember seeing him without a smile on his face and I don't remember anyone not having a great time when he was around.

We will all miss him very much.

See also: http://www.beachultimate.org/blog/2006/10/thyl_kuki_luyckx.html

Guerrilla Ultimate

Watch out, this is going to be huge.

Philth and I do some guerrilla Ultimate in Pisa.

Beachfest, Sandbanks, Poole, UK, June 4-5 2005

This is Keen's match report:

So, we got in as NOLO but turned up as UCL Alums, with Jack Laloe representing the current young blood. It was looking pretty good.

However, Day 1 was a lesson in taking things too easy and expecting too much from too little practice together (read: no practice together).

So, after a thrilling start against the GB Masters club team Age Against the Machine (eventually finished 5th), where we were head to head into the cap and lost by 3 points, we proceeded to drink beers in between matches and duly underperform - granted in between bouts of grand fun and derring-do. We were in a tough pool which included the eventual championes MLF, whom we actually did some good work against. The nadir was when Bristol Plastic Factory creamed us 9-4 in the third game of the day. Grim, grim, grim.

NOTE: Remember this, because the happy ending depends on it ...

A few jokes and some sobering up later, we walked straight into the fourth game against 20th seed Skumy to keep our 13th seed and the right to stay out of the bottom 8. We duly did the business and served them up a neat defeat, barely breaking a sweat.

The most fun of the day was then had at a private Lovers campsite BBQ with enough food to feed a refugee camp and booze that even Easy was too tired to really make a go of. Pasta did his best with some Hoogarden Gran Cru but it had been a long long day in soft sticky sand, and we called it a night at 11pm. Great laughs, though, and it warmed my heart to see old friends again around a fire on a clear night in the woods, randomly abusing everyone (of course), and listening to Chris play guitar songs that nobody knew the words to.

Day 2, the first game was against MILF from Southampton, to take 12th place. We stormed it with a zone D and some very sweet O. The still air allowed my hucks to actually land within 15 feet of target, which Chris G and Jack L, and even sunstroked Baggy, scored with to great shouts of acclamation along the lines of 'Thank God, we don't suck anymore!'

The next game for 9th place was against DHB / Exeter Uni and it should have been glorious. However dropped pulls and bad throws from just about everyone, especially me, meant it was a truly depressing failure by cest moi of keeping my cool. Apologies for shaking the heavens with my curses of rage, everyone, but it was a truly dismal display.

The only way, and I mean the ONLY way Beachfest could end with a high for us was if we could regain some dignity against Bristol Plastic, whom we were meeting again in the match for 11th place. And, oh yes, did we ever!

Showing the kind of ballsy, hard-running, Fuckit Huckit spirit, with the legendary Jedi-strength magic of a 5-of-spades zone, we absolutely blitzed BPF. They were deer in the headlights, and we were the NRA. True proof o character all round, and especially notable was Easy and Chris G anchoring the team with bloody-minded determination that literally dripped from their pores. Chris' layout blocks reminded me of brutal Winter League battles back in the day when he'd regularly leave pints of blood on the pitch, while Easy dominated every matchup he had turning most of them into cowering bowls of 'How-the-fuck-did-he-get-that?' BTW, I think Pasta actually got faster as the day went on ...

Jack L continues to impress for a rookie, and gets props for playing the entire tourney with a busted foot. The rest of us had various degrees of pain but Pasta was dealing Vitamin I, and we were all mostly used to it anyway. :)

Final score, 11-2 to UCL and 11th place overall.

Thanks to Difranco, Easy, Chris D, Pasta, Baggy, and Jack L. It was a helluva weekend ... Next: Britopen!

Cheers and POST-match beers,

Adam Keen

Porró Open - Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, Oct 30 - Nov 1 2004 (beach/hat)

This tournament is famous for being a lot of fun. When in central and northern Europe Autumn starts to set, in Catalonia the sun is still warm and the beach is still inviting.

It's a there-day tournament: Saturday 30, Sunday 31, and Monday 1. In Spain the 1st of November is a holiday. I booked my tickets from Friday the 29th to Thursday the 4th. I have had never been in Barcelona and I wanted to spend a few more days there.

Two friends of mine, Miguel and Carlos, live in Barcelona and I was hoping to sleep on one of their floors for the extra nights. Miguel had offered his floor, but a couple of days before leaving he sent me an email explaining that his flatmate, who is in charge for the flat, decided that the flat was already too crowded and did not wanted me on his floor for more than one day. In retrospect that was too bad a news as his flat is really crappy and he's staying there temporarily until he can move in a more decent place. So I emailed Carlos and he told me that he is also pretty much squatting in a shoe-box-size room in his cousin's flat, and that he could not have guests. That left me with the only option to stay in a hostel.

Friday night: Welcome Party.

The welcome party was held at the Bar Glaciar in Paca Reial. I went there after dropping my backpack at Miguel's flat and having some food. Unsurprisingly many of the people there were well known international disc sluts that I had already met in other tournaments (Alian, Lucy, Claudia, Dominick, Peter, Ikram, etc.) and in London (Milja, Beef Cake, Jason, Dribbles, Matt, Diane, etc.).

Darren

I was surprised to see Darren. I had seen his name way down on the waiting list and I was not expecting him to show up. I had already met him in May in Copanhagen and he has become since an Ultimate legend in Europe. This is his story: He used to be a factory manager from Iowa with some money saved and considering to buy a house. Then he thought “fuck it”. He left his jobs and started travelling around, mostly in Europe, hopping from tournament to tournament. He told me that this was going to be his last tournament in Europe and that he was going back to the States. His plans are to find a job, apparently he has one already lined up, save some more money and come back to Europe because he is in love with European Ultimate. We all hope to see him again soon.

Gala Lincoln

This is a hat tournament and on the fist day the first thing that comes to your mind is: What my team will be like? Who am I playing with?

This year's theme is Salvador Dali and all teams are named after Dali paintings. My team was called Gala Lincoln. This is what the painting looks like:



Team Members:

Myself
Rocky
Staphan
Minsu
Nadia
Nick
June
Helena
...
I have already forgotten a lot of names...


more to come...

Matchday One

Surreal Party

Matchday Two

Second Party

Matchday Three

Other Stuff

Burla Beach Cup - Viareggio, Italy, 24-26 September 2004 (beach)

more to come...

Interflug - Berlin, Germany, 11-12 September 2004 (hat)

More to come...

Ceci n'est pas un chapeau - Brussels, Belgium, 6-8 August 2004 (hat)

More to come...

Wondefull Copenhagen 8-9 May 2004

More to come...

Paganello - Rimini, Italy, 9 - 12 April, 2004 (beach)

Nothing yet...

Pasticciotto - Torre Dell'Orso, Italy, 25 - 27 April, 2003 (beach/hat)

Nothing yet...