After you’ve recovered from celebrating the political separation of the American Colonists from England, why not head to the beach for a day of fun and sport celebrating the importance of interdependence between all people, all peoples, and with the natural world?

We’re calling it Interdependence Day and we’re putting on another Free Beach Hat tournament for just the purpose. After all, isn’t the Spirit of the Game at its core a recognition and celebration of the idea of interdependence?

Sunday July 7 10 am – 3 pm between lifeguard stations 28 & 29 in Venice/Santa Monica.

Register here. For more details, read on.

As usual, we’ll have lined fields, scoreboards, water and ice, an orange juice press and oranges, a massage table where you can work your friends’ kinks out for them, some pizza or other food after the finals, and prizes for the winners, all on us (LA Throwback). A special prize will go to whoever comes up with the most creative way to highlight the idea of interdependence.

The event will be 4×4 mixed. Each team will have a maximum of nine players. We are planning for each team to play 3 games to 11 and one game to 13 (last game of the day, the playoffs!).

Registration is free if you sign up here by Friday July 5.  If you don’t register by then, it’ll be $10 when you get there, with the money going go toward the pizza (or other food) we’ll be serving late in the day. (If you pre-register and then can’t make it, please let us know).

This will be a TRUE random draw tourney. All the names will go into two hats (one for men, one for women). We’ll pick the male and female captains for each team, and they’ll take turns drawing from the hats. No segregation by skill or experience, and no baggage…a literal free-for-all, with one exception: total newbies will be distributed evenly among the teams.  Your name goes in the hat when you show up. Anyone arriving after teams have been chosen will get assigned to a team. There will be a fixed genzone on each field and the woman captain of the team starting the point in the genzone will select the number of women playing that point.

We are asking that people arrive 30 min after the end of the World Cup Final (10:30 if it ends in regulation time). We’ll finish up around 4:30 or so we expect. Afterwards we plan to head down to the water to throw lead passes into breaking waves (catch and dive drill!) so bring a bathing suit. Also, the sand has been heating up lately. If you have sand socks, bring them. If you don’t have them, you may want to consider getting some.

Look forward to seeing you out there!