Wildwood, New Jersey: tackier than a post-it note and greasier than a can of crisco. One weekend a year, over 2,000 ultimate players flood the town and hit the beach for the largest ultimate tournament in the world. The last Friday night in July, teams crowd into run-down, overpriced motels and prepare for a weekend of 4 on 4 ultimate, swimming in the ocean, and the obligatory fried food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. After diving for a throw that's just a little too far away for the speed you can run on the beach, you can't get the sand off of you for the rest of the weekend. Going down to the water can help get some of it off as well as adding salt to the mix. And somehow, after a long day of playing, you actually manage to be allowed into a restaurant covered in sand, and afterward trudge over to the beer tent. The evening goes on from there and often ends in go cart races.
This past weekend was no exception. All the thunderstorms missed us except the last game of the last day, so the weather was mostly gorgeous. Every year I forget how difficult it is to run on sand for even the relatively short games that we play. Every year I come ready to party and end up crashing from exhaustion much earlier than intended. And every year I have an absolute blast. It's great just running into other ultimate players you haven't seen in forever. I'm currently so very sore from playing all weekend, but it's worth it.
Since the fields are small and the teams don't have to be as big, we split our regular team up into 2 for the tourney. We were both in the non-competitive division and as luck would have it, we ended up playing each other in the finals for our pool. We didn't get to finish the finals, as we were kicked off the beach due to lightning, but we called it a tie and brought the trophy home to DC. I think the battery powered blender (An awesome wedding present; thanks, Rod!) and sideline margaritas significantly improved our play throughout the weekend.
Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures. Some year, we'll get a disposable camera, but the sand, salt, and water would not be good for our regular camera. Oh, and I don't mean to gross anyone out by the title of the post. We were discussing words that people hated to hear. Moist and crusty were both near the top of the list. However, at the end of the day, covered in sand and salt water, we realized that's just what we were. After a very long drive home through much traffic, we finally got back, showered, and collapsed. And so another Wildwood weekend comes to a close.
