If you take a walk down to Balmedie beach this weekend hoping to build sandcastles or have a quiet picnic in the sun, then you could well be in for a surprise.
The British Beach Ultimate Frisbee Championships are taking place on the Balmedie dunes on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th April. The event, CUBE (Caledonia's Ultimate Beach Event), is now in its 6th year and attracts the top teams from all across the UK, and is organised by the Aberdeen University Ultimate Frisbee Club.
Ultimate Frisbee is a fast, non-contact team sport played with a frisbee. It mixes the best features of sports such as football, netball, basketball and american football and can be played indoor (5-a-side), outdoor on grass (7-a-side) or outdoor on sand (5-a-side).
As hosts, Aberdeen University's club will be entering two teams and hopes are high for a place in the final. Aberdeen have made home advantage count, making it to the last four finals, and last won in 2003.
John Dixon, a second year Sports Science postgrad at the university who won the MVP (Most Valuable Player) award in 2005 and was vice-captain for Scotland at the World Beach Ultimate Championships in Portugal in 2004, is looking forward to this weekend's event. He said: "The club have performed extremely well in the UK university tournaments over the last few years, winning men's, women's and mixed tournaments both indoor and outdoor. The harder challenge comes for CUBE as it is an open tournament which means that non-university teams are entered alongside the university teams.
"The weather has been great over the last two weeks and hopefully the sun will be out all weekend at Balmedie. We have a really good core of players in the team now, and hopefully we can make the top four, and at that stage anyone can win. The beach up at Balmedie is a brilliant location and while the sand makes running hard, it hurts far less when you lay-out for a disc."
CUBE takes place this weekend at Balmedie beach. Games run from 9am to 5pm on Saturday and from 9am to 3pm on Sunday, with the final expected at around 2.30pm on Sunday. Parking is available at the Balmedie Nature Reserve car park and the event will be signposted from there.