Ultimate Frisbee in Dubai

For those of you who are going, "huh?," let me provide you with a brief explanation of what Ultimate Frisbee is. Ultimate Frisbee is a sport that has been rapidly growing in the U.S. and around the world in the last several years; it is now the fastest growing sport on U.S. college campuses. Ultimate Frisbee involves two competing teams, fielding 7 a side, moving a frisbee up the field in order to score in football-like end zones, with each score being worth 1 point (games are typically played to 13 or 15). You can't move with the disc, you have 10 seconds to throw, and any time the disc is dropped or the opposing team grabs it while in the air, it's a turnover.

Those are the basics. At the high-end levels, Ultimate (as it is commonly referred to) is a fast-paced sport that requires great skill and strategy to master. However, Ultimate is also a great sport to play recreationally. Across the U.S., and indeed across the world, there are a growing number of leagues and organizations that promote and facilitate recreational Ultimate Frisbee. Having lived in many different countries around the world, I have witnessed firsthand the increasing appeal of Ultimate. As it turns out, Dubai is no exception to the trend. Just before I left for Dubai, one of the first things that I did was to see if there was an Ultimate Frisbee league, and sure enough, there was a highly structured league and organized groups of pick-up Ultimate.

One of the things that I appreciate most about Ultimate Frisbee, is the people that it attracts. From Mali to Dubai, I've met some of the most interesting people in my life through Ultimate Frisbee. For one reason or another, Ultimate brings together highly educated people from all walks of life. Here in Dubai, through Ultimate Frisbee I've met airline pilots, entrepreneurs, private equity firm CEO's, a chef at the Burj Al Arab, a high-powered consultant, and many more. Going to a game of Ultimate is always a rewarding experience, because you never know who you're going to meet, or the friends you're going to make. Many of my best friends, friends that I would consider life-long, have been through Ultimate Frisbee.

So, while it's fantastic to be abroad here in Dubai, I am glad that I still have the opportunity to play Ultimate. Not only do I love to play Ultimate - I currently play for Stall 11, American University's Men's Ultimate Frisbee Team - but playing ultimate in Dubai has introduced me to a great group of people that have greatly contributed to my amazing experience thus far.

Oh, and as my picture shows, playing Ultimate Frisbee in Dubai during the summer can be quite the physical challenge; try running around in 100+ degree heat with 60% humidity for a couple of hours...

A Tale of Two Cities

I've been in Abu Dhabi for not quite two weeks now, interning with the United Nations Development Programme, and the contrast with Dubai is interesting. I will admit that I had a lot of preconceptions before I got here; several people I know in the US with experience over here told me that I would like Abu Dhabi much better than Dubai. They told me that while Dubai was all glitz and media hype, Abu Dhabi was a more relaxed, somewhat more traditional Middle Eastern City.

In contrast, once I got to Dubai, all the UAE people I met, regardless of where they came from initially, warned me that Dubai was where all the action was, and Abu Dhabi was just boring.

After a week and a half, I can say that neither of these is really true; Abu Dhabi certainly isn't more "traditional" as far as I can tell - there are far more old buildings, neighborhoods, souqs, and dhow wharves in Dubai. In many ways, Dubai remains much more linked in with its traditional commerce activities, where oil-driven Abu Dhabi has just built a massive amount of apartments and office buildings from scratch.

But its not boring, really - its a little less colorful and active than Dubai, but the problem seems to be one of timing. Everyone talks about the contruction in Dubai, but at least in 2009, there seems to be much more here. Half the city is a construction site, and some of the plans look really interesting. There's a Formula 1 Grand Prix racetrack under construction on the next island over. Just this week, Abu Dhabi won the hosting rights for IRENA, the new international organization for renewable energy - its going to be housed in a whole section of the city, called Masdar, built to develop and test green technology. The plans look as crazy as anything we saw in Dubai - but none of it is finished yet. Even Qasr al-Hosn, the traditional palace of the ruler and seemingly the only building in the city built before 1970, is closed for renovation until next year.

So at the moment, I have the opportunity to experience what should be a really interesting and fantastic city in a couple of years. Right now its a city in transition - but getting a feel for what came before is a worthwhile enough pursuit, even if just to see how quickly the Gulf can change once it decides to do so. That, and the water is beautiful and much easier to get to than in Dubai - I'll content myself with that.