The answer is obvious to me. First, I love ultimate. Secondly, traveling isn't just about seeing "stuff." It's about making connections with the people that live there. And what better way to get to know some Germans than to enjoy one of my favorite activities with them? So when Vivien invited me to join her ultimate team, the Trier Porta Pirates, for a tournament in Kaiserslautern, I was totally stoked.
We hopped into the team's clunky white van early Saturday morning and made the 2 hour drive to Kaiserslautern. My arrival at the ultimate tournament felt like home: green grass, players running, discs flying, silly games, costumes, cheering.
I was so excited I couldn't wait to get on the field! And I didn't have to wait long at all. Trier's neighbor team, Luxembourg, was short on players and asked if some of us would be willing to play a few points for them. Sure! So my first points of European ultimate were for Team Luxembourg, or as they call themselves: DeLux.
The games themselves were very quick. The tournament was 5 on 5 with 45 minute rounds. That made the games really fast and fun. For my first game with the Porta Pirates, we got thrashed. This was probably because we were playing the eventual tournament champs and most of our players are new to the game. Normally losing pisses me off tremendously because it's no secret that I am a wee bit competitive. But it's hard to be sore about losing in Europe because the level of spirit is so high. After the game, the players from both teams make a "spirit circle" where everyone links arms and players from both teams say something positive about the game and the other team. Everyone claps and then sometimes there's a spirit game like "mingle" or "wah." Even though I couldn't understand the spirit circle (it was in German), I love the gesture so much that I didn't even care if we won or lost.
My Porta Pirates team found our groove in the 2nd game and pulled out a win. Even more exciting was the news that our 3rd game would be on the sand field for some 4 on 4 German "beach ultimate." Awwwww yeah! This my JAM!
I was so eager to get on the sand that I picked up with a team that needed an extra player during our bye. That team was called "Ooups!" You know how every tournament has that "fun" team? The team with the ridiculous theme/costumes? The team that's too drunk to function? That team was Ooups. And they brought a SAUNA to the tournament. No joke, they had a big wooden barrel sauna on wheels and the team played in towels, which were consistently falling off during the games. Brilliant.
I had a blast playing with Ooups and even more of a blast being back on the sand. On one particular point, there was a high stall count and I managed get off a desperation huck to this short guy, Martin, who lays out for a ridiculous endzone score. He gets up and triumphantly yells "we're like bacon and eggs!" Needless to say, it was fun.
Next, it was time for the Porta Pirates to take the sand. I knew that some of our players were new to ultimate, let alone beach ultimate, so I asked Captain Jan if I could go over cutting in the sand. I stressed the importance of making shorter cuts, faking, short passes, and quick disc movement. We didn't win the game, but I was starting to see improvements. A particularly athletic guy named Timo was finally making more vertical cuts. We were trusting our dumps and playing as a team. It's fun to see the newer players gain confidence.
Now it was time for me to learn something from the German ultimate players: The Beer Race. Now of course American ultimate is loaded with drinking games, but in Germany it's an official part of the tournament. The entire tournament comes to a halt for the Beer Race and the results are posted right next to the tournament standings. I guess that's what happens when you play in a country where you can drink in public.
Vivien and Timo were our Beer Race participants. This is what it looks like:
After the beer race we played our final game of the day against a team called Merda Wehrda. They wore gold jerseys with toilets on them and I learned that "Wehrda" is maybe where they're from and "Merda" is a word for shit. That's ultimate for ya. Merda stomped us by coming out in an extremely frustrating 5 on 5 zone. Did I mention it was windy and rainy at this point? We got crushed.
So maybe that game wasn't as fun, but Merda made up for it in the spirit circle when we played a "Merda Wehrda" version of Mingle that was quite hilarious. One of the calls was "toilet brush" that involves holding your partner in a handstand while making a dunking motion.
That was the end of our playing for the day. By then we were all dirty, cold, and hungry. Since this was a camping tournament, the only showers were on site. That's where I got my biggest culture shock. I walked into the women's shower room where I was greeted by... well.... the wrong kind of German sausage. (sorry, I had to) Why are there naked men in here? Coed showers!?
My teammate Luca must've noticed both my face and hesitiation because she explained to me that while Coed showers are not necessarily typical of Germany or European ultimate, they are typical of German ultimate. The reason being that since there are often way more guys than girls in ultimate, their showers fill up faster. To avoid waiting, the guys just started using the girls' showers and no one objected. Now, they just see it as part of "spirit of the game" to shower with your teammates. Really?
My shock probably confirms that Americans are generally less liberal about nudity than Europeans. Someone would have to confirm with me about whether or not coed showers are a common at American tournaments like Potlatch or Kiamana because with the exception of my time on BCBC, I've seen very few of my ultimate teammates completely naked. Yet here I am discussing this topic to European players I just met while they're bearing it all in front of me. So yes, I got over my American shyness and "just went with it." Oh, and in case you were wondering, most German guys are uncircumcised. TMI? Well, you didn't have to look at it. You're welcome.
Once everyone was clothed again, we made our way to dinner in Kaiserslautern. We ended up at an American-Mexican Restaurant called Cantina Mexicana. Fun Fact: Kaiserslautern is home to the largest US military base overseas. Lots of US troops go to the restaurant and they import many of their ingredients from the good old U.S. of A. They even accept USD.
For me, it was nice just to be able to read a menu in English and see Corona and Pacifico on the shelves. We ate dinner with the Luxembourg team and had a nice warm meal.
Back at the tournament grounds the party was in full swing. It was typical: music, drinking, dancing. The best part about the party was that I got to meet German Crissy Vega. Seriously, there was a girl I kept eyeing all day because of her uncanny resemblance to my friend. Not only did she look like Crissy, but she had similar mannerisms and definitely was the life of the party like Crissy.
Check out Day 2 HERE!
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