You’ve never played beach ultimate?! You don’t know what a Hat Tourney is? Then you should come on out to the beach on Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend to join us for some great food and beach ultimate at the 2023 Thanksthrowing Community Beach Hat tournament and potluck!
A hat tourney is a tourney where everyone’s name gets thrown into a (virtual) hat, and we pick teams for a day of ultimate on the beach. Players are distributed among the teams based on playing experience so all teams are about equal strength, and you’ll (almost) always have someone out there you can guard who is at about your level. It’s a fun, welcoming environment for everyone from beginners up to pro players.
The deets: Sunday, November 26th, 9:30 am ~ 3:30 pm, between lifeguard stations 28 & 29 in Venice/Santa Monica. The event will be 4×4 or 5×5 mixed (depending on the final # of registrants).
Registration is free up until Thursday Nov. 23rd but please do not sign up unless you’re fairly certain you’ll make it.
This event is also a potluck! We hope everyone will bring something, whether it’s food or drinks. Remember, those leftovers aren’t gonna last forever, and this is a great chance to put them to good use! Please bring something that can last outside in the shade/sun all day (without perishing or going nasty), and please bring enough for yourself as well as one other person.
As usual, we’ll have lined fields, scoreboards, water, ice, and some other goodies. Please note, we will *NOT* have cups for water, even though we will have 5-gallon jugs of water out there. We ask that you bring your own container for water. If you’re a tenderfoot, you may want to consider bringing sand socks to protect your feet. We will also have a small number of sand socks available at the event for a suggested donation.
Other Notes
Again, registration is free if you sign up by Thursday, Nov. 23rd. If you don’t register by then, it’ll be $10. Registration closes on the Friday before the tournament. If you pre-register and then can’t make it, please let us know. Please do not register unless you are serious about coming and playing. We know it’s free up until the Thursday before the tourney, but please don’t use this fact just to reserve a spot you aren’t sure you’ll use. Doing so makes planning very difficult, and leads to a lot of last minute shuffling of players.
This will be a random draw tourney but we will distribute players based on survey responses so overall team strengths are as even as possible. We use a random number generator to make the selections. Players will get an email the Saturday evening before the event telling them which team they are on and letting them know their team color.
The event will be at the same location as our prior Free Beach Hats, on the beach just south of lifeguard station 28 and the Ashland Ave. bathrooms (i.e. at “South Beach Park”) in Venice (technically Santa Monica, but most people think of it as Venice). Please be there by 9:30 am so first games can start at 10:00 am. We’ll finish up around 3-4pm.
If you feel like donating to LA Throwback, please do…we will use the funds to produce more free events like this one, and our Nighttime Beach Ultimate.
Look forward to seeing you out there!