Remember your first frisbee event? Some remember Rising High 🇳🇱

Rising High, organized by the Delft-based club Force Elektro, has been taking place during the Pentecost weekend for years.

The ULTI.TV crew comes from Leuven to Delft to stream this two-day tournament on May 19 and 20 (in essence, only Stef Pazzo from that Belgian on site crew, but we’re one team one crew JWZ). The presence of ULTI.TV at this tournament ensures that another step towards professionalism is taken and that young talent, which is abundant at this tournament, can be seen.

Rising High may not be the largest tournament in the country, but it has a significant impact on Frisbee Netherlands. This is because Rising High has been used for years as a preparation tournament for the Dutch youth teams. For many big names in Dutch frisbee, this tournament was their first introduction to a competitive environment, and Rising High offers all the elements for a true frisbee experience.

Many will never forget their first tournament, and so will I never forget mine, Rising High 2014. As a thirteen-year-old girl, I played with the national U17 team. Our goal was the European Youth Championship in Lecco, Italy. Since I do not come from a frisbee family, I had absolutely no idea what to expect that weekend.

The evening before, very nervous, I walked onto the terrain. There was a large canteen overlooking the fields, and I had never seen so many frisbee players together. What struck me, and what is seems normal, was the abundance of Nalgenes, slippers, Birkenstocks, eating dinner from frisbees and the friendliness of the people at the tournament. Throughout the weekend, I learned what it was like to play as a team, to improve, to win, and to lose.

Since Rising High in 2014, it amazes me how many tournaments I have played and where I have been to play frisbee. All the types of frisbee, exciting matches, and the atmosphere seem increasingly normal until I think back to a time when frisbee did not exist for me. In that world, I lived before Rising High 2014. Since then, tournaments have been the moments my teammates and I look forward to every year, to play a game of frisbee in a unique world. And in my opinion, we should occasionally take a moment to reflect on that one moment where the frisbee world opened its doors. For me that is: Rising High.

So come join the live chats or come to Delft. We’re streaming all day Sunday and Monday on the ULTI.TV YouTube channel.