Think Elliot’s Beach, Besant Nagar and the following images unfurl in your head like a film in slo-mo. Neon-clad walkers and runners panting on the promenade, stepping around snoozing dogs and stray garbage; vendors peddling all and sundry from black-stippled corn to bilious green aloe vera juice ; lovers sequestered along the shore, the gentle whisper of sweet nothings mingling with hefting wave and briny breeze; fisherfolk cleaning their nets or hauling in their boats.
To these ubiquitous sights, we can now safely add another: Chennai’s Ultimate Frisbee (CUF) community for whom the beach is more than a playing field. It is their home away from home, a space where relationships are fostered, lessons are learnt, diversity is nurtured and yes, health is gained.
You will see them here almost every day. These shorts-clad players of varying genders, professions and backgrounds, sprinting behind their flying disc. “There are now over 300 regular players of the game in the city,” says Abhinav Vinayakh Shankar, veteran player, coach and Chennai Ultimate Frisbee board member. It is an eclectic mix, he adds, “of school students, college goers, working professionals, entrepreneurs,” drawn together by their overarching passion for the game.
In the beginning
But it is not always so. When Chennai Ultimate Frisbee first started a decade ago, the city saw the game as a laid-back, recreational sport, perfect for a picnic or a way to entertain the family pooch. “CUF was started by three alumni of ISB — Manu Karan, Narayanan Krishnan and Shankar Balakrishnan — in June 2007. It was part of their orientation programme there,” recalls Shankar.
What started as a few friends coming together to play a pick-up game every Sunday morning on Elliot’s beach soon began attracting different sorts of people to it, says Shankar, who joined them a couple of months later.
The exponential growth of the community can be attributed to a number of factors,. It helps that the game’s entry barrier is low (a newbie will get the gist in a few minutes), there is little you need in terms of equipment (only the disc) and it is gender-neutral. “That is why we have so many sons and daughters of fisherfolk playing the game,” says Shankar. Also, the male female ratio has evened out considerably since they started, “We had one woman playing when we first started. Now most teams have an almost even number of men and women.”
Most importantly, the game which is believed to have been formally conceptualised by film director, Joel Silver in 1968 and still holds traces of the hippie culture it was mired in, is a self-referred sport governed only by a code of honour called the Spirit of the Game. “This really appeals to most people,” believes Shankar, “It leaves them feeling good about themselves and not have to go home feeling small or cheated if they lose a game.”
What lies ahead
This weekend, the beach is all poised to play host to players not just from Chennai but from all over the country. The 10th edition of Chennai Heat, India’s only Beach Ultimate Frisbee Tournament will be held here between September 29 and October 1. “We try to make it bigger and better every year,” says Tournament Director Raghul Jayaprakash. Sixteen teams bearing outrageous names like Airborne Chicken Pox, Face the Meluhan and Slipdiisc, consisting of players culled from all across the country will soon be here in the city to participate in it, according to Chennai Ultimate Frisbee’s Facebook page. “The biggest advantage Chennai has is the beach,” he adds, pointing out that it is usually played on hard ground in other parts of the country.
Chennai Heat, which started with four teams of roughly around 10 players each, has indeed come a long way admits Sangamithra Rajender, Secretary, Chennai Ultimate Frisbee. “The community has nurtured and supported some of the most talented players in India,” she says. From creating online fund-raisers, sending selected players to World Championships, offering training workshops, assisting economically disadvantaged players and taking the game to educational institutions to the support — financial and otherwise — has always come from within, agrees Shankar adding, “So many of our players have found mentors, livelihood, travel and networking opportunities: Ultimate gives them tremendous exposure and equips them with life skills.”
Despite the lack of recognition and funding, scarcity of spaces to play and prejudice that dogs the sport, its torch bearers nurture big dreams for it. “I would personally like the community to not only grow in quantity but quality too,” says Rajender. “We are already a competitive bunch and should aim to move this to a more professional and elite platform so the outside world can know the skill, sportsmanship and talent behind Ultimate Frisbee,” she says.
