Emerald City Open II

03/17/2013

Yay!, My first polo tournament ever! And what a tournament at that. The Emerald City Open II was of course in Seattle and promised to be one of the best tournaments of 2013 in the world.

On the 22^nd of March most of the East Van Bike Polo crew made a mass exodus to Seattle to take part in the tournament. I drove down with my friends Chris, Woadie, Louise, Niki, and Lacky. We got down to Judkins Park in Seattle at around mid-day and I made my way back up to Capitol Hill. I played pick-up and hung out till later in the evening and met up with my couch surfing hosts Denise and Kai.

I ate at a GREAT Mexican cuisine restaurant called Taco Chukis that is located on Broadway, just north of Pine Street. They had a wonderful vegetarian option that was cooked prickly pear cactus. Was really good.

Later that night all the polo players that were playing pick up at Cal Anderson(About 50 people) all rode down to Belltown Underground for the tournament pre-party where there was a really sweet mini bike velodrome, an area for knife fights(One vs. One bike polo game), home made beer and moonshine and a lot of great people!

The tournament was 40 teams and was played over Saturday and Sunday. Two thirds of the Saturday games were played at Judkins Park, and the other games were played all day at Cal Anderson. We were one of the teams that played at Cal all day. 

Me and Lacky at Judkins Park

Our team, Blind to Defeat, was composed of Louise(East Van), and Jared(Everett Bike Polo) and it was the first tournament for all three of us. We were not quite on the same page on the court but that was expected as we were a composite team that never played together. But through out the day we improved a lot throughout the day and we played our best game on Sunday morning in our single elimination game.

 

I ended up having a great weekend, meeting tons of new folks from all over, Fresno, LA, San Fran, Portland, Seattle, Bellingham, Columbia Missouri, and Saskatoon. The folks from Saskatoon where really great dudes and we ended up grabbing pizza and beers at a really cool craft brew pub called The Pine Box. The pub was in a grand and beautifully converted funeral home with high ceilings, old stone facade, and upper mezzanine seating. I highly recommend this pub if your a beer snob.

 

Woadie, Chris and I stayed in Seattle until Monday evening and played some really good pickup. Overall, a great weekend.