Ultimate: Pro Elite Challenge

As the solstice passes and temperatures rise, the annual migration south begins: the Vancouver frisbee players pack up and head south to Corvallis, Oregon. What draws them to this town? The pro-elite challenge. Somehow despite my many years of playing I can never keep the tournament names straight. If I was a migratory bird I fear I would not do well.

Driving down the Oregon coast sounds like a beautiful dream. Perhaps it is. Sadly, all I know is the endless crawling traffic of I5. My car left at 9am and arrived in Corvallis at 6pm. my work generously scheduled an office closure on the Friday so I didn’t even need to take a day off to creep along the jammed highway next to a thousand farting RVs and semitrucks. I got all the way through a bag of kettle corn and halfway through the ninth book of Wheel of Time.

The Games

Day One

Our first game was at 8:30am so we dragged our tents, coolers and selves down the long winding walking paths to the fields. Even early in the morning the sun was burning hot in the sky, threatening the 35+ degree temperatures coming later in the day. Interestingly it seemed like every second team ordered mint sun hoodies this year. We were no exception. I will say that the mint hoodies were a balm against the relentless cruel sunshine.

The first game was against a team called FAB, new to us this year, one of the teams out of the illustrious bay area. After securing a win we defeated our regional rivals Riot. From there, our final game was a crossover match for seeding against Fury. We were neck and neck in the first half and then after that Fury decided to stomp us into the dirt and won 14-10.

Day Two

Day two brought an earlier game, quarters against Schwa, which we lost. Schwa played a really good fast-paced game with almost no turnovers, which was pretty rude in my humble opinion. We slunk off to play Nightlock. In that game I had an absolutely shining point where I fell over on the mark and also got hit in the head by a huck I lost in the sun. Luckily that game was not filmed. We won, and then played riot to secure a final win before driving the nine hours back home.

With a new coach and a whole handful of rookies I wasn’t sure how we’d play but I was pretty happy with the general play and overall team attitude during the tournament. I was really impressed with some of the catches and plays the rookies were making considering a bunch of them haven’t ever played club women's. I think in my first year as a rookie I spent most of the time either trembling or complaining about playing time.

O Line

After eight years slogging it out on the D Line I have finally cracked into the O Line. Luxury! I romped around the field with flowers in my hair and sparkles in my eyes. At least until we got broken and had to go right back out there. Disgusting.

In practice, though, I didn’t find the mental switch too difficult - the fundamentals are unsurprisingly mostly the same.

Personally, I think I played ok (except for that one point where I imploded). I was a little nervous to start on O Line but someone had to clear space. Once I got settled and remembered that I’d been playing frisbee for a million years I felt much better. I also thinking that working with the S&C coach is paying off - my ankles survived and I feel very good about my jumping. Who knew working with a professional would yield results!

General Sorrows

I left my expensive bikini drying in the hotel and they IMMEDIATELY THREW IT OUT. I made my car wait so I could dumpster dive. Bless their soul, the receptionist tried so hard to help, but it was gone. I am still devastated.

I didn’t want to drive this tournament since my car is making distressing noises but I remembered that I love going straight home when I had to take the skytrain downtown and had an unfortunately experience with walking into a cloud of bear spray in Robson square. Why are people bear spraying Robson Square on a Sunday night? It is beyond me. Luckily it wasn’t much bear spray but it was not my favourite part of the day.

My plants were all still alive. I had enough energy to water them before stacking my various work laptops into a bag and getting up at 6am the next day to fly out to the client site. You may think this is a lot of travel and you would be right.

What comes next? That's right: more travel, this time thankfully to Burlington, a hop and a skip over the border, for Select Flight Invite West.