Beach ultimate national championships headed to the sand in Huntington Beach
They’ll have a disc — and a dream.
About 1,000 ultimate athletes from across the country will convene on the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier next weekend for the 2023 USA Ultimate Beach Championships.
The sport, originally known as ultimate Frisbee, is familiar to many. Teams advance the disc by throwing it to teammates, with the goal of catching the disc in the opposing team’s end zone to score a point.
This year’s Beach Nationals are being held on the West Coast for the first time. The previous six iterations were competed in Virginia Beach, Va.
Huntington Beach made sense as a destination, tournament director Grant Boyd said. Boyd is the executive director of the California Ultimate Assn., which was established in 2017.
“We started our organization to help promote the sport across the state of California,” he said. “One thing that folks everywhere across the country think of, when they think of California, is the beach. So to have a national championship here on one of the most beautiful beaches in America, it’s just a really cool opportunity.”
Boyd already runs a fun, party tournament on Huntington State Beach each January called LeiOut. He added that having several hotels right across the street from the venue was appealing.
“I should also give a shout out to USA Ultimate for taking a risk in moving an event to a new location,” he said. “That was a scary prospect at one point, but our community embraced it. We’re 68 teams strong, which is a really impressive showing.”
Boyd said he worked with Huntington Beach events officials, including Chris Cole and Molly Uemura, to get the logistics down. Visit HB and the Orange County Sports Commission have also played key roles.
The Beach Nationals tournament, which runs Saturday and Sunday, is comprised of athletes in eight divisions that are divided by age. There are men’s, women’s and co-ed divisions, and the co-ed divisions are split evenly.
“There’s a set ratio of 3 to 2 gender-wise,” Boyd said. “Every two points, you swap that ratio. So it’s three men, two women for two points, then you swap it, and it’s three women, two men for two points. It’s truly gender-equal.”
They’re competing mostly for pride, though there are engraved trophies and medals for the winners. Spectators can watch from the beach or the pier.
“Really, for a lot of these athletes, it’s just about the pride of knowing that you’re the best in the country — on beach,” Boyd said. “Almost all of these competitors play grass ultimate for 98% of the year. We call sand the great equalizer. Even if you’re tall and a great jumper, on the sand, nobody can jump. I mean, you’re still tall.”
Jacob Walsh, the president of Orange County Ultimate, will have members from his organization helping out over the weekend.
Walsh also coaches the UC Irvine men’s team, which is competitive, though he said ultimate is more popular in Northern California and some areas of the East Coast.
“We’re trying to build up,” Walsh said. “It’s a big push for us. You know, in Vermont, it’s an official high school sport, and other places are going that direction … We know that fun and creativity and some of these aspects are good for kids as they grow up, but everyone’s trying to be the next professional athlete instead of diversifying at younger ages. I’ve talked to a lot of parents who understand this, they just don’t know any alternatives. So we’re here saying, ‘This sport is great.’”
To that end of introducing people to the sport, free youth clinics will be held on Wednesday and Thursday at both branches of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Huntington Valley. A Learn To Play youth clinic will also take place on Saturday from 4 to 5:15 p.m. at Beach Nationals, and kids get a free disc.
Next weekend won’t be the only time this year that ultimate hits the sand in Huntington. Surf City has also secured the World Beach Ultimate Championships, which will be held this fall on Nov. 1 through 5.
Boyd said about 20 of the competitors at Beach Nationals will also represent the United States at Beach Worlds.
“My vision for Beach Worlds is that you can look down from the pier, you’ll see like four or six fields,” he said. “Then on the sidelines, we’ll have a flag for each country. You can look off the pier and see, ‘Oh, Team USA is playing Team Japan.’ It’s going to be very cool.”
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