Review, videos, photos at http://www.frisbee.com/freestyle/results/2002/world_beach_invitational/ventura_results.html

The World Beach Invitational Freestyle Frisbee competition was held last weekend in beautiful, sunny Ventura, California. It prooved to be one the best tournaments of the year, bringing together some of the top freestylers in the world to a location featuring perfect playing conditions. Tournament sponsors Patagonia and BIG, Inc. put on an excellent event with players from Colorado, Massachusetts, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, San Diego and Santa Barbara, California coming out to play, party and compete.
Beach Jam

Saturday the wind was strong and steady, you could basically do any wind move you could think of. Combine that with sunny weather and a minus low tide and what you get is premier beach freestyle conditions. There were no cuts on Saturday so the teams played loose without the worry of not making the finals. The result was real and spectacular!

Sunday morning the wind was dead and the thermometer hit 92 but later in the afternoon it kicked up and ended up being much stronger than Saturday. So, the teams were forced into survival mode at times with the wind blowing them back towards the peir.

Open Pairs Final

Jan Sobel and his son, Shane provided a nice alternative style of play throwing the disc high into the wind and having Shane go for big air and even a front flip into the water. Anne Graves and Alan Caplan worked the wind and hit some nice co-ops. Jamie Chantiles and Danny Cameranesi hit some big moves but had some trouble with the wind as did Larry Imperiale and Joel Rogers. Peter Laubert and Lee Harper were able to hit a good portion of their routine and had fewer drops than most teams which propelled them to a 4th place finish.

The top 3 teams all played great with Chip Bell/Danny Sullivan and Tommy Leitner/Dave Schiller tying for 2nd place. Chip and Danny shredded hard showing how years of beach jamming together really pays off – they hit legover body rolls, gitis pull outs and sweet sponteinous co-ops. Tommy and Dave hit some monster combos hitting lots of against moves and multiple spinning catches. The win went to the defending champs: Dave Lewis and Dave Murphy – they dealt with the gale force winds well with Dave L. hitting spinning phlauds and Dave M. going for big, acrobatic gitises.

Co-op Final

If 5 minute pairs wasn’t enough time to shred, then you could still look forward to 8 minutes co-op! Peter, Lee and Danny S. had won the pool the day before by hitting what seemed like everything they tried, but in the finals they had to try to make up for a flurry of drops in the openning minutes. Taking 3rd place was Joel, Jamie and Danny C. – these guys love the beach and it showed – Joel hit some nice scarecrow brushes and worked all sorts or cool angles with the disc, Jamie is playing really well these days catching big air on his spinning gitises, Danny C. played solid and spectacular as usual.

Defending co-op champions, Tommy and Chip teamed with Larry Imperiale and after a slow start they turned up the heat with Chipper hitting a sweet 11 tip combo to the music, directly into a pull to a triple spinning catch. The routine ended with Chipper’s big water gitis. Team Dave cubed came out next and survived a few flat sections to shred their way to the title. They hit some cool, choreographed co-ops and big indys in the strong wind. Congraluations Dave…and Dave….and Dave!

The 2002 WBI rocked!

There were almost as many sideline jammers as competitors – Richi Smits, Richi Bartal, Crazy John Brooks, Z, Alex “Zen” Schwartz, Ami, Amy, Jeanie and local jammers Corey, John and Scott. On Sunday there was a school of fish close to shore and the Pelicans went crazy, you could see 10 Pelicans and Sea Gulls dive into the water at the same time, resulting in a frenzy of splashing and squaking. Thanks to Richi Bartal (BIG, Inc.) for bringing the sound system, to Patagonia for providing prizes and to Chipper “Bro” Bell, his family and staff….yes, the WBI 2002 rocked!!!