Boracay Open 2017

I found my second Ultimate tournament on our big trip here in The Philippines. I was able to get connected with a team that needed players, called The Designated Drinkers. We had people from all over the world: Philippines, Russia, Germany, UK, US, Taiwan and France, most of them being ex-pats living somewhere in Australia or Asia. There were teams from many different countries participating from Finland to New Zealand, and even a fake country called Currier Island. (Back in 2004 some frisbee players created a fake country in order to play in the World Beach Ultimate tournament. Their ruse was discovered, but they were still allowed to play and Currier Island still sends a team to the World tournament every year!)

The Designated Drinkers played surprisingly well considering the lack of team unity (many people on the team were meeting for the first time) and of course the name hints that the spirit of the team is more focused on off-the-field pursuits. We won four of our seven games and made it to the semi-finals of the D pool.

Beach Ultimate is huge on this particular island in The Philippines. The perfect stretches of soft, white sand beaches make it a breeding ground for world-class beach Ultimate. The championship games of the tournament in all four pools (A, B, C, and D) were games between two Boracay teams (except the Kiwis made it to the finals of D pool and lost to none other than the Boracay developmental team comprised of a bunch of really athletic, fast 14-year-olds).

We are in Manilla now, biding our time until our night flight to Yangon, Myanmar. Water festival here we come!

The Designated Drinkers

Here's what some of the action looked like. (I did not take this photo. There were some pros shooting the event).

It is a mixed tournament, meaning men and women play together. 3 men, 1 woman on the field for each team.

Typical Boracay sunset.

Sand-sculpting artists take to the beach every night to create these masterpieces.

Sunset catamaran boat cruise.

We got one of those cheesy drawings done. Pretty disappointed at how it turned out; not really looking like either of us.

Is this up to code????