Stoked to be Soaked – A Frisbee Weekend in Oregon:

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This weekend I was fortunate enough to play in a Frisbee Tournament in Oregon. I was picked up bright and early Friday morning (6am) as it is a 16 hour drive. One of the girls has a van, so eight excited girls piled onto a van and headed off for a road trip!

This time I was excited because leaving so early meant I was able to see the scenery. We drove through Idaho again, but I didn’t see any potato fields! Admittedly though, the land was under snow and the fog obscured a large amount of the view! The road was cleared and ice free so driving conditions were fine. Some of the areas we passed through were really beautiful and it makes me want to do so many road trips through the US! Sigh….next visit! This is despite hearing people say that there is no reason to visit Idaho as there is nothing there! We knew when we had arrived in Oregon because the rain started, coming down quite hard at times. We ended up driving via Portland rather than through a mountain pass due to snow on the ground and snow forecast in the area. The total drive ended up being 17 hours as it took a while to pick people up and there were the food, toilet and gas stops!

I would love to visit Oregon. Portland seemed like a pretty cool city, the little we saw driving through and stopping for dinner. The countryside is beautiful, with lots of fir trees, mountains, rivers and lakes. Definitely a must visit destination (through probably aim to visit in their driest month!)

Saturday morning we got up and headed to the fields to play some frisbee! The tournament is quite big with 16 women teams, but they are spread out across multiple fields, so the festival nature that I experienced in Montana was missing. There were, however, bagels, bananas and oranges to keep the energy levels up during the day.

We were playing three games from 9am to 1:30pm. Being in Oregon it was to be expected, but the heavens opened and we got soaked. We were seriously outclassed by the opposition with a 14 nil loss. Nevertheless, we were stoked to be soaked and figured the score lines could only get better! We definitely improved as the day went on, and the scores became closer and the rain got lighter (even though we did lose all three matches). I even scored multiple times (after a super effort by the team)!

We then had an interesting experience of cold team showers….this means a row of showers with no dividing walls or anything. A number of women frisbee teams were in there at the same time. Definitely a first!

This was followed by a very late lunch (i.e. 3pm) at the local sports bar so that we could watch the last quarter of the Utah football match. The stadium was pretty empty since it was raining and cold in SLC. The girls were all very excited because the ski fields received a dumping of snow, over half a meter, and are opening early!

After playing some card games back at the house we were staying at (Utah’s girl and guys frisbee team were staying at the same house so could get some serious team spirit and socialising going on! We then went and watched the exhibition match between Oregon’s boy frisbee team and alumni Oregon frisbee team. Amazing seeing their speed and skills! Makes one green with envy looking at the accuracy, strength and distance they could throw the disc.

There was a house party on Saturday night, but since one of the cars didn’t arrive until after 4am in the morning, quite a few didn’t feel like going. Instead, Jackie, Steph, Susie, and myself went out at 10pm for a late dinner of Burritos. Yum! Of course, if you have dinner, you must have desert! Next stop ice creams!

Sunday was frisbee matches again. Being the last team to arrive at the fields and only having a ten minute warm up, compared to all the other teams which had properly warmed up and were ready, we weren’t expecting too high a standard to start off with. It was more relaxed than a Mirra hockey warmup! Needless to say, first point on and we nailed it! Boy were we off to a good start! The team dynamics were starting to form and skill levels and field awareness improving. We had people knocking discs out of the air, trying new throws, laying it out (that means diving for the frisbee and landing on your stomach!), new people scoring and understanding how to play against the more unusual defensive styles. We won two games in a row! The third game the opposition forfeited, though watching them play earlier games, I reckon we could have beaten them!

Personally I felt I have improved a lot over the semester. We were given the challenge of throwing six hundred throws before this tournament. Not only was it an excellent way to bond with people, it brought our skill level to the next level. I felt my throws were more consistent than the tournament in Montana. I had definitely improved my catching and defensive skills, skills that I felt needed improvement and only get better through playing matches, tournaments and pick ups. I was even awarded the shield award for my defence! Pretty chuffed!

A quick lunch and then on the road for the loooong drive home. Since the weather had improved, swerve home through the mountain pass..again some beautiful scenery! Arrived back in SLC at 6am and went to bed for four hours before class…can’t sleep during lectures!

I was reflecting the other day after a fantastic Frisbeegiving (thanksgiving meal with the frisbee team) what a fantastic decision it was to join the frisbee team! I originally joined it for my love of team sports and need to exercise! However, it has turned into a fantastic social decision. Other than my housemates, the frisbee team has been my social outlet. Many exchange students socialise among themselves in the dining hall, which means I haven’t met or had a lot to do with them since I cook my own meals. Often they complain that they don’t get to meet many local American students. I am the opposite, having met and socialised with Americans rather than exchange students. Frisbee was an inspired choice!

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