ULTIMATE - Respect not rivalry the ultimate for enthusiasts

IF football is the "beautiful" game then Beach Ultimate is well on the way to being known as the "social" game.
The competitors at the sixth annual Ocean Beach "Beach Hat" tournament came from all over the country as well as from overseas, but once they were put into teams, friendships blossomed that should last a lot longer than the two-day tournament.
The beauty of this tournament, apart from its setting on Ocean Beach, is the fact that no team rivalry exists other than during the game. Each team is picked at random at the beginning of the tournament, meaning teammates have to get to know each other pretty quickly.
Beach Hat organiser Brendan Love said that the tournament throws people together.
"Because the teams are drawn out of a hat, the tournament is more of a social thing than anything else, people don't know who is in their team until the morning of the tournament," he said.
Ultimate is a small, but well organised game in New Zealand, with national tournaments for men and women every year, but the beach game is more informal.
Love said the beach game is not only a hit with Kiwis but also attracts visitors to New Zealand who can find out on the internet their is a "hat" tournament that they can enter while they are travelling - giving them the chance to meet fellow ultimate enthusiasts on their travels.
The Tauraunga-based Love is heading to Switzerland later in the year and intends to get involved at the European offices of the sport.
"Like in New Zealand, ultimate is not a huge sport (in Switzerland) but there are a lot more players there and because there are so many shared borders it's easier to attract players to competitions," he said.
The non-contact aspect of ultimate and its informal rules make the game easy to fall for and Love noted that many elite sports teams are now using the game for cross-training.
"The game's popular with teams like the All Blacks because it's fun and fast and there's little danger of getting hurt," Love said.
Love started the Ocean Beach Hat competition six years ago and has handed the event over to the Whangarei Ultimate club.
The local club plays at Kensington Park on Thursdays at 6pm, and new players are always welcome.
* AT A GLANCE
• Five players (and five subs) per team picked out of a hat. Each player has a rating so the teams are as evenly matched as possible.
• Games are 35 minutes in duration and are played on a "field" 75m long, with 15m endzones.
• Any incomplete or out-of-bounds pass of the disc results in turnover of possession.
• After catching a pass, a player must pass again within 10 sec or lose possession.
• Games are self-refereed.
• Points are scored if a team fields a pass in the endzone. The team with highest score is the winner.