Through a friend of a friend, we found out about a tournament taking place in Portland the weekend of Aug 3-4 called Kleinman Eruption. While looking at the tournament website, we noticed that one of the team’s was named Breakers Mark. It seemed fitting to play with a team whose name was similar to The Break Side.

Breakers Mark captains Matt and Kerrin were open to the idea of letting us play with them, but they wanted to put it to a team vote first. They nominated Ashish, a veteran cutter, to become the expert on our site and make a recommendation to the team. Thankfully, his recommendation was to let us play with them, and the rest of the team agreed. Or at least, no one voiced their disagreement to our faces….

Playing with Breakers Mark ended up being both fun and competitive for Chris and I. Breakers Mark went 5-1 on the weekend, running mostly junk zone defenses that forced opponents into bad decisions that turned into cool D’s. We took second in the B bracket, losing only in the championship to a team that liked to huck back and forth between MLU players. Turns out, those guys are ok.

We also saw a lot of great spirit at the tourney. Our team, obviously a pun off of Makers Mark (I shouldn’t even have to make that comment, but my road trip partner missed it, so others might too) would give out small_bottles_of_Makers to the opposing team’s most spirited players. One of our opponents, Natural Twenties (Dungeons and Dragons themed) preferred to roll a 20-sided_die instead of flipping a disc to decide who pulls. Another team, Robot , had a life size robot with a hidden prize inside for the spirit winners.

We also got to see some pretty high level Ultimate at Kleinman. The Saturday night showcase game featured Portland Rhino hosting regional rivals Seattle Voodoo. The game was filled with some pretty sick plays and plenty of chats of, “You let the whole team down…” from the crowd every time a disc was dropped. In the end, Rhino edged out Voodoo, but it was a Voodoo player that came up with the catch of the day.

More high level Ultimate awaits us in the Seattle area, including the Emerald City Classic next weekend. Can’t wait to watch our MSP friends do work. Off we go!

The July 20-21 weekend was one Chris and I had been looking forward to for a long time. Hats, Hops, and Hucks is a hat tournament near Santa Cruz that has been held annually for the past 22 years. For the first time on this trip we weren’t going to be the only ones who didn’t know everyone else on our teams.

Hats is not your run-of-the-mill hat tournament, however. It’s a three day event where your entry fee covers the tournament, dinner Friday and Saturday night, breakfast Saturday and Sunday morning, and plenty of Boulder Creek Brewery beer. But here’s the catch: In order to partake in these festivities, you must always be wearing a hat.

Rule number one of Hats, Hops, and Hucks is that you are not a player without a hat. If you catch or throw a disc without a hat, it’s a turnover. If you make a defensive play without a hat it doesn’t count. If you take off your hat during breakfast at the Highland Park Senior Center, the seniors will ring a bell and everyone will boo you. And standard baseball caps don’t count, so you better get creative.

Year 22 of Hats was themed, “Make it a Double” so all teams were named something that would normally be preceded with double. Chris played for Entendre, which fell in defeat on Saturday to my Jointed team. Unfortunately, neither of our teams had what it took to make it to the finals, so we found ourselves seated comfortably high up on Heckle Hill.

It was, without a doubt, the most fun final I’ve ever watched, with hecklers throwing out lines that would please even Carl Koepke. One of my teammates even got involved with a crucial hat D late in the game, where he_stuffed_a_disc_in_his_hat_and_threw_it_onto_the_field, connecting with a thumber mid-flight that would have resulted in a point. In the end, Up came up a little short, falling to Dog Dare Ya on universe point, 18-17.

After the final, everyone gathered for the award ceremony where prizes were given away to the champions, spirit winners, and to the person with the most creative hat. My favorite award, however, was given to our friend Jo-Jo, who we met at a pick-up game the previous Wednesday. Jo-Jo received a crown hat for being the only person to have attended all 22 Hats, Hops, and Hucks Tournaments.

We’ll be featuring Hats in our next episode, so you’ll be able to see everything we’ve described above. For now, however, we decided to give you a sneak peak of the opening ceremony for the awards show. That way, you can see the kind of competition you’ll be going up against in the near future at Hats, Hops, and Hucks.

On Friday, Chris and I were privileged to attend the San Mateo Youth Ultimate camp. The Bay Area Disc Associate hosts five such camps for youth aged 8-14 throughout the summer. Each camp runs for a full week from 9 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon.

Youth Director Valerio Iani explained that he designed the curriculum to teach kids the basics of the game while mixing in other activities to keep them interested. The kids run drills and scrimmage frequently, but they also play games like disc golf and frisbee tag. We even got to join in ln a few of the activities since there were only 15-20 kids this weeks. Other camps in the area have drawn as many as 45 participants.

Whatever the curriculum entails, its clear that it is working for a number of kids. Maggie Ruden, the San Mateo Head Counselor, says that the kids improve a lot throughout the week and they really enjoy the camp. In her third year as a counselor, she has seen a number of kids return for a second or third year. This year, she even has a former camp participant on her counseling staff.

Val, Maggie, and the Bay Area Disc Association have done a great job in creating an outlet for young children to learn to play Ultimate. We wish them the best of luck in continuing to inspire kids to pick up this sport. As you can see, some of this kids are going to become really good, spirited Ultimate players.

For more information on these youth camps, visit bayareadisc.org.