USA Adventures - Interview : ERIK DOESBURG, Dutch Player Of SOCKEYE

Let me start this blogpost with an interesting quote as found on the Sockeye website :
"Known for exploiting defenders with his height, speed and throws, Doesburg is excited to bring his young exuberance and intimidating mark to the Fish for the 2011 season."

Well here's the deal : Erik Doesburg, a young and great player from Gronical Dizziness (Netherlands) crossed his way over the Atlantic Ocean to be part of and play with the World Vice Champion in Ultimate Frisbee : Seattle Sockeye.

Some might say "well,okay" but to those of you who know Sockeye or anything about Ultimate in the US of A, you should know that this is a very big deal.

Sockeye took home the silver medal at World Ultimate Club Championships 2010 in Prague and has been in the top 3 of UPA Nationals (North-American championships if you must) ever since 2002 while winning the 2004,2006 and 2007 edition.

This team brings top high-level ultimate to the field and they have the credits to show for it.

And yes, Erik is a part of the 2011 roster.

Proud as we all are of him, here's a little interview with the man himself :

GetHo': Why and for how long have you moved to the USA ? Only for Frisbee reasons or did you have any study or work projects to achieve ?

E.D."I’ve been here since late april and I’m staying until mid november. I’m only here to play Ultimate. I meant to get a master/graduate degree at one these colleges and play for a college team but after failing the application process I came anyway."

GetHo': Did you choose Seattle/Sockeye for any particular reason or did you just wanna be part of a top-level Ultimate team ?
E.D."The idea was mainly being part of a top team. Sockeye seemed like a real nice team and Seattle has one of the biggest Ultimate-communities around. If I wouldn’t have made it into the team I could have seen and learned more than enough..I’ve been following North-American Ultimate for a few years now and was always very pleased by Seattle Sockeye. I also played against them in Vancouver at the 2008 Worlds."

GetHo': You took parts in the Sockeye try-outs. Did it take you a long time ? How were these games ? Multiple days ? A lot of people trying to get a spot ?
E.D."Yes, tryouts were pretty hard and took a while. It started with a “combine” where about 90 players were divided into 5 teams and just played some games. After that there was a selection of 18 players (plus all the returners from last season) and with those players we practiced for about 3 weeks. At the end of this period we played Flowerbowl, a tournament in Vancouver where we split up into two different teams. After this tourney the selection was made and we had 24 players left, including me. 2 players might be added but they’re not in Seattle yet…"

GetHo': How did you react when you got the good news ? How does it feel to be part of this amazing team, Vice World Club Champions ?
E.D."I was thrilled ! It had been a dream for years to play at the highest level possible so it was almost unreal when I got the good news..


It’s really amazing and I am so honoured to play with a team like this. In the beginning I found it a little intimidating playing against all the players you see in the highlight videos on Youtube but they are all amazing and very friendly guys who helped me out a lot with moving issues. They even got me a place to stay and the furniture to put into it !"

GetHo': Since you’re sticking around till november, this means you’ll be playing for Sockeye at UPA Nationals ?
E.D."Well, first we gotta qualify for these nationals. The Northwesteren region will probably only have two bids this year. In this region we will have to compete against last year’s champions Revolver and other top level teams like Furious George and Rhino. It promises to be an exciting season ! Basically I’m only here till the end of the season, but I’m already dreaming of coming back again ! "

GetHo': What are you’re ambitions there ?
E.D."At first I was just trying to make the team, but now I’m focusing on contributing as much as possible to the team."

GetHo': Did you experience a lot of differences in the way Ultimate is played over there ? Another way of playing, another level ?
E.D."Yes, there are a lot of differences. The game is played much faster and way more physical. It took me a while to get used to this kind of playing and I’m still adapting. It’s not uncommon for a defender to put his hand on your chest so he knows where you are going and there’s a lot more contact…


Next to that the level is just much higher, tactics are more advanced…


In Seattle there are a lot of recreational players but the true talents are all part of Sockeye.

Back in the Netherlands we always had a mix of competitive and more recreational players at practices but here it’s just one big group of people who want nothing but getting better at playing this lovely game."

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If you'd like to read more about Erik, you can follow his blog at http://whatskrakken.blogspot.com/ ,
his player profile at the Sockeye website : http://www.seattlesockeye.org/team/erik-doesburg/ or cool preview on the upcoming UPA season where Erik is already mentioned twice http://skydmagazine.com/2011/06/glance-2011-elite-open-landscape/  

Good luck to Erik, and keep on reading !!

PLAN B Needs Your VOTE ! Please Help !

Okay, here's the whole deal :
Plan B, the Belgian National Mixed Ultimate Frisbee Team, needs your help.
We're going to the European Ultimate Championships in Slovenia this summer and we have entered a contest where we can win 3000€ of sponsorship by Nivea For Men.
The point is we need to get people to vote for our team yell, which is actually a quite brilliant shout that goes a little something like this :

"Ey !
A !
B all you can Be !
C all you can See !
D all you can D !
Plan B"

Okay, you might not be part of this team, but if you read this message it probably means that you are an ultimate player who may already have played against this team, or just somebody who knows somebody on this team, or might even have a little sympathy for this bunch of enthousiastic belgian frisbee players.

You could really help us out here, we would appreciate it a lot and we will not rest until all of our family and friends have voted for this team yell.

Here are all the relevant links :

http://www.nl.niveaformen.be/local_content/typiquement-masculin-4.html Please vote for us, it only takes 2min of your time ! Click this link, click "stemmen" (=vote) and search for Ultimate or Plan B.

The link to the facebook video :http://www.facebook.com/pages/PLAN-B-Belgian-National-Ultimate-Frisbee-Team/217670121587030#!/video/video.php?v=10150665770410162&oid=217670121587030&comments Please share on your wall and suggest the Plan B page to all of your friends !

We need your help, please vote !
Thanks in advance,

Plan B

WINDMILL WINDUP, where you had to be, FROM A TO Z !

A tourney report, written from A to Z, because there's so much to say about the amazing Windmill Windup. Huge thumbs up and thanks to the entire crew .

Amsterdam (City of dreams, where all this madness takes place) ,

Accuracy competition (throwing competition during finals, pretty funny to throw your disc to a cycling elephant)

Breakfast (with nice krentebolletjes,lots of good food,fruit,cucumbers,eggs,cheese,ham,you name it..) Blockrocker (supercool soundsystem,battery operated that blows the tunes from your ipod) ,

Beerrace (pretty funny drinking game seen at many tourney's) ,

BicycleMark (yeah he has a nickname and as the videographer of Windmill he deserves a special dedication !)

Cash Machine ("hey I'm out of money", "no worries, just go to the helpdesk and get some cash" -> amazing !!) ,

Cocktails (made by beautiful ladies, brought to you at the table, how great can it get ?)

Charity Huck Competition (during halftime, 2700€ donated to charity by the WW sponsors, once again won by the amazing thrower Luca from Freespeed !),

Crunch (one of the amazing organising teams)

Dunktank (not such a great succes as last year due to some bad weather, but funny like hell to see somebody get dropped in the water by a good throw.)

Details (you know you saw some, it's amazing how these Dutchies have eye for detail, everything was fixed down to the bone !)

Elephant (the logo of WW, also attending the tourney in huge inflatable style, unthinkable to go to WW without having the elephant there, you know the one that has been on the disc you get every year !)

Ecological (separated trash, recycled printing paper, trying to have as few impact on the environment as possible)

Efficient (seemed like nobody was stressings since all was arranged so well in advance !)

Food (nice food,freshly made),

Fun (yeah,big Fun !) ,

Fields (great fields, about a billion next to eachother, of which none seemed to flood after heavy rainfall...)

Flying Angels Bern (twice in a row winners from Switzerland, EUCF champions of 2010 !),

Freespeed (3d at WW2011, 3d at EUCF2010 !),

Fred Spanjaard (Tournament Director, amazing man with great organising skills and an everlasting smile ),

Frans Passchier (Tournament Director, also an amazing man with great organising skills and an everlasting smile !!)

Grass (is greener in Holland :) )

High Level (top level European teams, 23 national teams !!!!), Hamburgers (yeah, gotta love 'em)

Joints (hey, it's the Netherlands right...)

Kool. (and even if written with a K, you can't argue with me that this isn't a kool tourney. damn right.)

Lookfly (official sponsor of WW, selling cool WW pimped gear !),

Livescoring (on the WW website, for all your fans at home to follow your every win/defeat),

Live comments (during finals,keeping you up to date),

Lunch (no need to worry for lunch, just pack yours in the morning and you'll never be hungry!)

Mingle Mingle Mingle (legendary game, lead by Mister Tom himself !, y'all know it ),

Mixed division (the second biggest mixed division in European tourney's right after Talampaya),

MISTER STEEL (our new hero, who never had an 'encore-we want more' cheering but had his mind blown last weekend with the crazy WW crowd and the Gentle team who kind of started the whole partying !)

Nuts (one of the amazing organising teams)

One place (all this madness, in just one place, where the tent,fields,party,campsite,toilets,showers and everything is within 150meters, that pretty amazing if you ask me),

Open division (top European tournament, this is where you wanna go with your team to be tested...)

Potatoes (hot potatoes with special filling, local Dutch specialty and oh so nice)

Quality and Quantity (says enough doesn't it ?)

Radiostation (mister Snowy D talking you through an entire weekend of Ultimate frisbee and playing all the hits you wanna hear at a tourney, great stuff man),

Rain (WW2011 had a little too much of this, but hey, we still loved it...) ,

Reverse graffiti (have I told you the WW crew is cool ? well here's the proof, they made graffiti by cleaning the floor !)

Swiss Draw (brilliant concept made by the ever brilliant swiss allowing you to end up where you belong and play games that are hard and thigt, and where every,every point is as important as any other....),

Shirt Canon (they thought of everything and pleased the crowd with a Lookfly shirt canon shooting free t-shirts into the crowd during finals),

Stadium (a stadium for the crowd to enjoy finals in a nice comfy plastic seat, they just keep getting bigger and better !) ,

Shortfilmfestival (during diner on saturday, makes you feel right at home while eating dinner in front of the TV),

Sponsors (big sponsors like Bavaria and Lookfly and Buggaboo for providing all the WW guests with our every needs, and they managed to pull it off !)

Text messages (no need to worry when your next game is starting, at the end of every game you receive an automatic text message on your mobile phone stating the time and location of your next game. Brilliant !),

Twitter (social media platform where one could follow all info about WW),

Tents (big ones to host around 1200 players),

Tom (the red haired guy you've seen all weekend, quite legendary and maybe the face of the Windmill Windup !)

ULTIMATE (the game we all love, what brings us together at tourney's like WW)

Volunteers (and a whole bunch of them, who have all been named during the price ceremony even though it was raining, respect to them, cause without all of these no WW..),

Videos (every move you make is recorded by Mr Bicyclemark and edited into some brilliant videos you can find on youtube- and at Get Horizontal off course !)

WINDMILL WINDUP , according to the TD's : "Windmill is kind of a national symbol in the Netherlands. Windup refers to a spring-loaded windup toy - you wind it up and then it's energised for action. Also a Windup is a humourous provocative tease. Windup for a huck, windup for a big weekend, lots of wind in NL, we love alliteration, and this way we can call it the windmill AND the windup. Or something like that.", Winners : FAB (Switzerland, Open division) , Deutschland Mixed Team (Mixed division) ,GB Women's team !

Xtra cool, extra big fun. At WW most things you see, you don't see them at any other tourney's. WW has that extra touch that makes it so worth going there.

Yeah ! (need I explain ? you might wanna read all of the above..)

Zeus (if frisbee tourneys were ancient Greek gods, Windmill Windup might be Zeus.)

From A to Z, in 2012 Windmill Windup is where you have to be.

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Keep on reading and please give us some feedback through the comments below or on the facebook page.

Wanna know if all of you are still out there and liking these efforts.

Windmill Windup 2011 : Quote + Video

"If one wanted to know how to organise THE PERFECT TOURNEY, you might wanna ask the Windmill Windup tourney directors"



FAB (Open), Deutschland Mixed (Coed) , Great Britain (Women) win this year's edition ! Congrats to all !
 
Here's a video of day 1 shot by Mark (aka bicyclemark) from the organising crew :

Random Picture - Windmill Windup 2011 - Cool Logo

Check out this cool logo for the Windmill Windup tourney in Amsterdam, starting in only a few hours.

It's Europe's biggest grass tourney and they always manage to find cool ways of promoting their tourney and here's one above. Made by Frans and here's his explanation : "It's reverse graffiti, the light parts are cleaned thoroughly with just high pressured water"

See you tonight or tomorrow !

Windmill Time !

One more day till the biggest European Ultimate tourney around. Not to forget that it is one of the best,funniest and most high-level tournaments I know.... Windmill Windup is coming ! Yeah !

More info at http://www.windmillwindup.com/2011/eventschedule/ and definitely check out http://www.windmillwindup.com/2011/eventschedule/

Jack'Suns Win YES BUT NAU 2011

Not that this picture has anything to do with Jack'Suns who beat Freezzzbeezzz in the final of Yes But Nau 2011, but this picture was taken at one of the guesthouses during the tourney by Patoche from Yaka.

This picture was so brilliant I just had to post it !

Results :

1. Jack'Suns (FR)

2.Freezzzbeezzz (Bruges,BE)

3.France Open (FR) 

4.BDM (FR)

..

7.FüF (Ghent,BE)

Spirit Of The Game : Jack'Suns

EUCF In Bruges !

We already announced this a while ago, but here's the official logo for this year's EUCF hosted by the Freezzzbeezzz from Bruges,Belgium.

Hoping that a Belgian team will be able to qualify (at regionals) for this event but either way it's a guarantee for top level Ultimate right in our very own backyard of the more than lovely Bruges !
Can't wait ! 

Check out the facebook page http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_175361679183392#!/event.php?eid=105258086235087 

and the official site at http://eucs.efdf.org/2011/index.html 

Plan B, the Belgian National Mixed team after winning the final against Croccali (Fano,Italy) in Talampaya, Geneva 2011.

Man I love this team !

"A ! Ey !

B all you can be.

C all you can see.

D all you can D.

PLAN B !"

PLAN B Wins Talampaya!

Title says it all! I love this team ! More news tomorrow

Talampaya Update !

SEMI FINALS :
PLAN B vs France Mixed
Black Bonzai vs Croccali

Plan B is our very own national mixed team , playing the semis against the frenchies which is an exact copy of the G-Spot final where we took home the cup.
Black Bonzai is a mixed team with a bunch of friendsfrom around Switzerland and France and ...lead by the ever amazing Nasser M Bae. After losing the finals 3 years in a row they will be on fire while looking for their first victory. Monday will be hard whatever the outcome will be ! Keep on reading !

Upcoming Weekend !

Upcoming weekend we'll be heading to TALAMPAYA, the biggest coed challenge in Europe (Geneva,Switzerland) while many other will also be heading to YES BUT NAU, a lovely beach tournament near Nantes in France and at the same time Berlin is hosting the BERLIN ULTIMATE MITTE beach tourney during a big city festival.

Sounds like a weekend of fun ! Can't wait !

Neighbours - UK Ultimate TOUR 1

Congrats to CLAPHAM (Open) & ICENI (Women) for winning the TOUR 1 weekend last weekend !

Seems like the favourites are on top of their game during the UK Ultimate Tour....

EUCHat - 16/07 - Ghent,Belgium !

Wanna have one more day of relaxed,chilling Ultimate before you head off to the EUC in Slovenia ?

Or just wanna support your national teams ?

 Well, here's your chance : EUC HAT in Ghent, Belgium on the 16th of July.

A one day hat tourney as a fundraising for the Belgian Mixed and Open team who are preparing for the European Ultimate Championships in Maribor,Slovenia.

Come over and join the fun.

Only 20€ to support a bunch of enthousiastic national team players !

All info at https://sites.google.com/site/euchat2011/ 

Random Video - "Disc Death"

That's why they call it B-films. Too cheesy for words but oh so funny....

New Design + SPECIAL EDITION DISCS !!!

Get Horizontal is proud to present the new website design and the NEW LIMITED EDITION DISCS.

"Play Proud" because it truly is a wonderful game and we should all remember this.

More info on where to get a disc like this at http://gethorizontal.blogspot.com/p/discs-shirts.html 

Enjoy, keep on reading, and please spread the word about this website.

You might wanna suggest it to your friends on facebook !

Cheers,

Bommie

WORK IN PROGRESS !

If you can read this, please come back tomorrow. I'm doing some updates on my blog right now (sunday afternoon)
Thanks for your patience and keep on reading !

EUC Countdown : 55 Days Left !

Only 55 days left till EUC2011 in Maribor,Slovenia. Hot days like these are perfect for preparing in Maribor-like conditions ! Practice makes perfect.

(Sweat my *ss off while running...)