Bar do Peixe Beach Ultimate Tournament

In 1996 the idea was conceived to hold a beach Ultimate tournament in Portugal. Although there were not many players in Portugal at the time, Peldi and other Italian players helped us organize a great tournament the following year.

From Thursday 19 June to Sunday 22 June 1997, fifty eight players from Austria (3), Belgium (1), Germany (4), Holland (1), Hungary (2), Italy (8), Portugal (7), Spain (10), Switserland (7), UK (13), and the US (1), competed in the first Bar do Peixe Ultimate Tournament (at that time known as the Pork'n'Cheese Tournament).

The

wind was strong but that didn't stop anybody. The games were competative and lots of fun. There was one naked Ultimate game that was played just before sunset on the longest day of the year. People with kids watching the game! Everybody enjoyed it because it was a good game to watch! Not just because all players were naked!

The parties were great too! Everynight, first at the beach, then at the campsite, Playing guitar, Ultimate with torches as cones, just hanging out getting nicely plastered!. Saturday night's party was one to remember!. We still do not know who that local man was that ended up in his underware on stage. But when he was dancing next to a naked swiss player we all laughed our heads off :-)

"My toes are still hurting, but it's a sweet pain because it reminds me of one of the greatest Ultimate tournaments I've ever been!

It's multicultural character was not restricted to players of the same teams or languages but you could find it everywhere: at the breakfast at high noon (!), at the evenings by the fire place, between the games at Bar do Peixe, at the spontaneous dancings right after the last games or at the party! So many new friendships with people from far away!

So, thank you all, Patrick, Sofia, Michele and Louis for making it possible, Bar do Peixe for the Sangria, the music and their kindness and all players and spectators for giving their last to make the event that special, it was every single one of you!!!"

Martin, Germany

"I'd like to join all my old and new friends in thanking Patrick, Sofia, Michele and Luis for having made an other DREAM happen. The "Bar Do Peixe" Tournament was not only a fantastic tournament, but also a clear demonstration that it's possible to have tournaments also in places where (till now) there's no team or that are just far from the "European circuit".

Oddi, Austria

yes yes yes ,these is to congratulate patrick,sofia mikele(lou reed) and all the organisation from portugal. javier cuyas nacho arcos (speedy gonzalez..) javier laaaarrrouche monica and eva saaaays viva portugal big jog wonderfull time amaizing parties nice people cant be better

hope to be there ssooooooonnn .so looking forward going back gran canaria whants to say:
mmmmmmmuuuuchas gracias

Javier, Spain

I gonna to tell something about the great Portugal tourny. YOU HAVE TO RESERVE NEXT SUMMER SOLSTICE because:
is well organized
the beach is awesome
the bar play good groovy music
the people are sooooo coooool
the weather is sunny
the wind teach you to become better
the grill fish is teasty
bunch of gossips to cher with you buddies
diving in the sand is so gooood
and the spirit is flying high
sangria, nice looking boys......and more

and I really love to still have sand in my nose!!!

Pascale, Switserland

PORTRAIT OF Praia do Moinho de Baixo (-or- "What a Bacalao!")

Heaven is four days of running about barefoot in sand on a long, wide beach, with sandy cliffs and painted Portugese fishing boats perched on the dunes ready to take the old men out to sea. Unrelenting wind couldn't keep us under wraps for long, especially while dodging and cutting and diving for discs in sand up to our noses. Happiness is smart cuts, good passes and scoring up-wind against the odds. The paragliders enjoying the steady draught between the cliff and the bluff were replaced at sundown by a flock of the real thing.

  It was a change, in this "hat tournament" on one of the westernmost points of the European continent, to play against compatriots, and a rare opportinity to play on the same team as those crazy Swiss or Italians or Brits that usually start the point on the opposite end zone. (Now we know your secrets!) Cries of "Merda Che Vento!" could be heard from the field in all languages. Members of Le'i'd Hulas of all descents lounged proudly and contentedly in their grass skirts even when just calling for more sangria at the bar. The U.N. love-in extended to the campfires at night where Hungarians freely shared their intestine-cleansing spirits of rubber tree origin.

  Saturday night after the round-robin portion of the tournament, a handful of fellows and a couple of gals initially responded to calls of "Time for Naked Ultimate!" As the game progressed, many who at first were faint-of-heart eventually joined the bacalao, and the ranks of disrobed players swelled until there were more on the field than in a regulation game. Swiss pleas of "Come on guys I been playing all the whole day and I'm sooo tired, I need a sub!" enticed a third a gal too, not wanting to let down a teammember. (Her efforts were rewarded by a lovely poem, extolling her graces in French, by talented "Mad Kows".) No matter how freezing it seems at sundown on the sidelines, when you're out there running hard and concentrating on things flying through the air, it's a pleasure to take off layer after layer until you run out. Unfortunately Portugese television didn't arrive until Sunday.

  There were campfires and parties on the beach at night, people playing guitars, and an incredible medley of languages swarming about. Beach grass, palms and aloe plants lined the Bar do Peixe on the beach where Brazilian music played on the sound system, and frenetic Italians took turns banging on a congo drum in the midst of a crowd of frisbee players with incredible endless resources of energy. Swiss gal in her kilt and bikini top was on the dancing stage boogying with a middle-aged Portugese man in a dark gray suit. The full moon of the summer solstice poking from behind eerie cloud streaks and the crashing of the waves on the eastern edge of the Atlantic drew some of us into the dunes to hear the chirping of swamp frogs sounding like a never-ending miniature traffic jam. Reports had it that the Portugese guy was not so daring as his company and kept his underwear on, claiming marital status immunity to total craziness.

  Monday, those straying a little longer in the country met up in Lisbon to wander back streets trimmed with painted tiles ("azulejos"), and explore the raging Barrio Alto with all its gay bars and Carribean clubs, hanging with the Angolans jamming to that funky music ooh ooh owww.... Some of us "missed" our flights home, loath to return to beachless provinces, and leave behind this land of sublime sunsets and Spirit.

Melle, USA