Another awesome Wildwood is in the books. Random friends were seen, beach ultimate was played, beers were shotgunned, and we even a trophy. Here’s how it went down.

Friday

I started the weekend by fooling everyone into thinking that I’m now the TD of wildwood. The crew asked me to send an email to every player at the tourney to tell them some useful info (be respectful, no glass on the beach, watch out for plainclothes cops, etc). But the way it came off, it was like I was making the announcement, and that’s usually the TD’s job. All weekend people came up to me asking about cops and saying they didn’t know I was in charge of wildwood now. I set most of them straight, but sometimes it was easier to just go with it.

Friday was also the start of our weekend-long game of Gems. Everyone started with 5 gems, and whoever had the most by the end of the weekend got to keep the trophy. People were flipcupping for gems, betting gems (I won 3 on an arm wrestle between Diana and Katie), and even giving gems away for things. It definitely spiced the weekend up.

After pregaming at the house, we head for the Bolero. We danced for a bit, then bounced and went for ice cream and skinny-dipping in the ocean. The water was surprisingly warm, and the ice cream was surprisingly good - vanilla with strawberries on top. That sobered us up some, so we went home to party some more.

Saturday

Our theme for the weekend was a bit unusual: you must wear (at most) one article of clothing and it must cover your back. We had some interesting choices - dresses, panda suits, wrestling singlets, full-body spandex suits, even a kimono. I went with a fullbody suit on Saturday and a dress on Sunday. The suit was a big hit, and not all that bad to play in. I thought it would be super-hot (it was) and that throwing in those gloves would be tough (it wasn’t). We spent most of the day drinking and chilling with people. We won all our games (both Troyalty and Troylettes) without too much of a struggle. One of the teams we played was solid, but we stepped our game up and won by 4, our closest win of the day.

The party was quite good this year, mostly because we didn’t spend too much time at the Bolero. We pregamed at the house, then went out. Robb and I went ahead of the rest, and we went straight to the Rabs party room by the pool. When we migrated to the Bolero dancefloor, Diana was already there. We spent maybe 5 min inside, then went back to the Rabs room and to the pool area. After much socializing and big-containering and dice-gaming, our thoughts turned to food and we went to buy way more Chinese than we needed (though Singapore noodles were delicious). We ate on the steps near our house, then went in for the afterparty and for bedtime.

Sunday

Sunday went pretty similar to Saturday. The teams we played were better, but we were never down on points. Our two-pointers were decent, our guys were very solid, and our ladies carried the day as usual. I thought we’d have trouble against Esser’s team, but we went up big and they didn’t manage to catch up in time. In the finals, we played Max Power, a Canadian team that played in Borocay and other beach tournaments. We talked them into playing Pick-6, which turned out great. I ran back a pick-6 for a goal, then threw a pick-6 Callahan shortly afterwards. Our first game to 7 was closer than it should have been. I threw a 2-pointer at 5-5 to win it, but it could have gone either way. Our second game was not as tight. I think we won 7-3 or 7-2. After the games, I played an awesome spirit game of 1-on-1 hockey in the sand. We each had a tiny hockey stick and the puck was a tennis ball. I lost my game, then Diana played one of their girls and lost as well. But we did drink tasty Canadian whiskey, so really everyone won.

Troylettes lost their second game on Sunday, so they were done at this point. There was nothing left to do but collect the trophy, take some photos, and then count our gems. We met back at the house and went through the final calculations. After much trading and consolidating, Stefan and I were the clear leaders. It was very close, and we each did some shots and promised some things to get the last few. We’re now both wearing our costumes to FGiving, and I owe Steve a cheesesteak next time I’m in Troy. In the end, I had two gems more than Stefan so I took home the MVP title and the trophy. I like to think of it as being voted “most entertaining” by the team.

Lessons for next year:

• Gems game was great, but the small gems were annoying.
• Prepare a spirit game. They are very fun.
• Team theme for next year: fun police.
• Robb should be in charge of swag.