Eastern Europe Ultimate

Since I'll be in Lithuania for 10 weeks, I figured I might as well try and find some ultimate there. Well, lo and behold there is not one, but a handful of teams in Lithuania. It seems like Taskas is the best, but they are way far away from the capital (where I will be, and car-less obviously so that is not an option). I would actually be interested to know how an ultimate team formed in Zarasai, Lithuania (just down the road from the Chernobyl-type Ignalina reactors that the EU hates so much) but it seems like they're among the best in the Baltic region. The city is so far from most of the other major cities, though, it's weird.

I got in touch with that team and asked them who the best team in Vilnius was. Apparently, it is the Zepps, who practice at a park that is a 20-30 minute walk from the Embassy compound. This has turned out to be quite lucky -- it looks like I'll be able to practice with them. I also found out that there is a beach ultimate tournament on the weekend of 31 May. Assuming I can bum a ride out to the coast, I'm really psyched to go. They have contests for farthest throw and best layout and such. Being a jackass, and hoping that I will be a big fish in a little pond while I'm over there, I'm gunning for at least one of these distinctions.

I did some research into the ultimate that goes on in the area. I found some interesting things. Apparently, they throw a shit-ton of blades. This is a Swedish team playing a Lithuanian team:

Weird, right? And the guy's catch around 1:00 is pretty ridiculous.

The Russians do it too (this one is super-long, feel free to pick a couple of random times and watch a minute or two -- there are some sweet blades in the first three minutes or so).

Anyways, I had actually heard that Russians throw a lot of blades, but I didn't really believe it. I think it must come from playing inside so much. Once it's warm enough to be outside, it seems like most of the tournaments are beach tournaments. I guess you could attribute the preponderance of blades to playing mostly inside. Anyhow, it's interesting. I can't wait to see all of their faces when I throw a scoober.