After two days of ultimate here in Dubai we thought readers from around the world would like to know how this edition of the World Championship for Beach Ultimate looks and feels.

To start, the venue itself is crazy. When you turn inland you see the dizzying and sparkling glass sides of some of the most incredible skyscrapers in the world. Turn 180 degrees and you can enjoy the sun glistening of the clear blue Arabian Gulf and perfect white sands for our favourite plastic chasing sport. The local organising committee have done a great job making sure there are regular shuttles to access the beach and the Athletes Village consists of everything you need shade, information, Five tent, cushions, water, more shade, ice, did I mention shade.

Marquees line each pitch side and a huge bucket of ice is there for every pitch which, along with the water, is replenished often. Food wise players and volunteers are getting a very full packed lunch with good variance (although putting chocolate in there has made for some messy faces).

As you have probably seen the arena pitch has the fantastic streaming coverage by Dubai Sports working with Skyd and ALL the players are able to watch from the stands on one side. There were some streaming issues that were due to the connection from Dubai to the rest of the world but it appears this have been sorted. Other coverage issues were the scoring and live site going down yesterday but today it was very stable.

Some improvements could be large scoreboards on the pitch side, internet access improvement (we always struggle with this, but it is pretty impressive what we have here for players) and consistent live scoring.

A final note would be how great the volunteers have been and in general the players are so grateful for their hard work and efforts!

I have been to a number of international tournaments of various types and this is one of the best logistically and it is clear a lot of thought has gone into the player experience both on and off the pitch and any issue has been met with calmness and communication. We would also love to hear any player or external feedback so please feel free to contact us on the fb or twitter account.

This BeachTale was brought to you from David “DP” Pryce from Get Horizontal. Feature photo courtesy of William “Brody” Brotman from UltiPhotos.com