kaimana 2007 review

this year i'm really branching out. going to all those hippie [sic] shindigs that i never had money or desire to go to before. i was initially approached to play with a southern team, but i guess that fell through because i never heard anything more about it, so i picked up with a team of some ex-condors and other assorted players. i was excited at the chance of taking down the famed nada mooger crew. i've been on the other side of a legacy pickup team having played for long list of whores in 1997, the year they/we lost their/our first solstice after 9 years of winning. the chance to break someone else's streak was very attractive.

anyway, the hawaii tournament has to be one of the best run events. you get to waimanalo on friday afternoon and don't leave until monday evening. beer is flowing from night one and never taken off tap (our team tried to guess how many kegs they go through on the weekend, and we all dramatically underestimated, with the closest guess being about 1/3 less than the total). byes are abundant and well-placed such that you get adequate time to enjoy some beach time or take a hike. the camping is a 5 minute walk from the field, and besides the fact that it was windy as hell this year and that the bathroom/shower facilities are a disaster, the location is awesome.

i arrived thursday night and met up with some teammates in waikiki and posted up at duke's while teammates slowly filtered in. by the end of the night we were about 10 people sucking down local beers and umbrella drinks. friday we drove up to the north shore and checked out some of the big surf spots before setting up camp and heading over to the fields at dusk. checkin brought some swag and then i started throwing down the beers in what turned out to be my big night at the tent. it was good to see some old friends and talk to some players that i've matched up with on a regular basis.

saturday morning i managed to miss most of the opening ceremonies, although i caught the helicopter part, which was very cool. our team assembled and it turned out we were 14 players. 5 were current condors, 2 were current revolver, 3 were current justice league, and the other 4 didn't play UPA open this past fall (by my count 2 had never been to club nationals). 8 had been on team USA in finland, 11 had been condors at one time or another. it was generally a really good mix of personalities, and a good mix of talent with some good throwers, good receivers, and good versatile players who could fill in. instead of getting uniforms, the powers-that-be got us some aqua terrycloth shirts for hanging out around the tournament. so we'd play in an assortment of brown shirts and after the game immediately put on our lounge uniforms. a perfect fit for this laid back tourney, where the down time is as important as the game time. we rolled our saturday games 13-3, 13-3, 15-5. back to the tent and then back to the party for dinner and drinking. an intense game of spoons got everyone lubed up and ready to party.

sunday morning was pretty windy and we started with what turned out to be the third seed in our pool. they had some players i recognized, but we were able to run some zone on them to get cheap turnovers to convert. this was also the game where we pulled the 'lemon tree' play. worked to a T, and left the opponents trying to figure out what just hit them. then the game for the top seed in our pool. a back and forth first half that i think we took 8-6, then we came out and ran zone in the second half, again earning some cheap turnover and a few bad hucks that we were able to convert and we won going away. this earned us the afternoon off. get on the lounge shirts, get some hawaiian food and i headed back to the fields to have some beers and watch the pre-quarters. our morning opponent lost this game, largely after passing up the perfect opportunity to run a 'lemon tree' of their own after seeing it's effectiveness in the morning. went down to the beach and did some bodysurfing before trying to clean up and get some dinner. i was planning on taking it easy sunday night, but some ice luging and general festivities found me ahead of the curve but not in as bad of shape as our guy who passed out on one of the tables in the middle of the party.

monday started with a pretty hard quarterfinal against a bay-areaish team. it was close early but we slowly pulled away. this set up our semi with voltron, a mix of players including one current condor, and ex-black tide, a current monster, at least one current bravo (i think) and an assortment of seattle guys. we started out by spotting them a 4-0 lead, looking like we weren't sure we belonged in the semis or maybe hoping they would get overconfident, i'm not sure which. we struck right back and tied it at 5's. i think they took half 8-6. in the second half we went predominantly to zone. this is where having a bunch of players who have played in the same system, and even more have played a lot together paid off as our zone was firing like a well-timed machine. we got a few turns and took advantage to tie it at 13's. at some point before this i realized that this was a really fun game, good players playing hard and at a high level of skill, nice weather, and no calls. we took our first lead of the game at 14-13 and won 15-13. this set up the matchup we were hoping for. it turned out to be a little anticlimactic as nada mooger's loose play gave us some early turnovers that we converted with solid, patient offense. we took half 8-2. they started putting out their top lines in the second half and made a bit of a run, maybe getting as close as 11-7 but we finished it 15-8. the fact that we had a tough semi to dial us in, while they waltzed (i heard) to a 14-2 lead in their semi, probably accounted for our quick start. after the game we got some cool champions shirts and started sucking down the beer, daquiris and margaritas provided. people started leaving, but for the most part our group hung around and about 8 or 9 of Ono (hawaiian for delicious) won the fields finishing off the booze right at dusk.

this tourney is amazingly well-run and it really caters to the players having a good time. the vibe among the players is generally friendly, leading to games with very few calls even while people play hard. our team was a lot of fun bringing together a good mix of old friends and new teammates where everyone contributed to the final victory. a great weekend.