I’ve never been to California, or the West Coast. Even with the beautiful weather and equally beautiful people, I was always convinced that the dreary, cold, bitterly sarcastic East Coast [or, at least the New England area] suited my personality much better.

These days, though, I’m flirting with the idea of checking out the other coast. Seattle, in particular. Yeah, I know, it rains a lot. Yeah, I heard it can kind of suck to train there. Yeah, it’s probably not the cyclist’s paradise that I’m convincing myself it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It’ll never be associated with law school, though, which is part of the appeal. That’s not to say that the decision over whether I should even try exploring my options west doesn’t fluctuate as wildly and as often as Britney’s weight. I’ll make a decision, and then scrap it within the next 30 minutes, think about it while zoning out on bike rides and nearly run myself into parked cars.

Because Boston’s got its charms. It comes in the form of bike shops and polo, and awesome people who give great hugs. Standing alone in a crowd at the ESPI finals – having wedged my way by the door of the court which now lacked the usual chainlink fencing for better viewing – someone squeezed my shoulder and I turned to find Tom…then saw Croth, Matt, Clark, Cole, Reuben…Boston represent!

So when Seattle played against Boston yesterday in the finals, I shamelessly cheered for Boston, despite the fact that I was literally surrounded by strangers. Toby and his friend turned to me, telling me that they were conflicted as to who to cheer for because Seattle played so well. For me, for that one game, the choice was blatantly clear.

Constitutional law [and the fear that accompanies final exams] had me jetting off before the final game. East Vancouver took 1st place though, with Milwaukee taking 2nd and New York City taking 3rd. All points west.

And Seattle did win over Boston in that game. I was sorely disappointed but hey, it happens. And even with the magnetic pull that Seattle’s had over me recently…well, maybe we [and I mean Boston] can win that trophy next year…

Congrats to the winners and everyone who played!!! It was amazing to watch!

[To get your official ESPI 4 fix, head on over to Legit Bike Polo.]

[Pictures here...and some by Croth here and here.]

With the ESPI 4 soon, you will need to know how to make a mallet if you want to play in the tourney.

See not that hard!

From Legit Bike Polo, this looks epic! Show up, there are a lot of very cool people putting this together, you will not be disappointed!

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Boston will be hosting the 4th annual East Side Polo Invite in Spring 2009. The ESPI’s will begin on Friday May 1st with final registration and pickup games. Tournament play will be held on May 2nd and 3rd.

HOUSING – Contact nckregan@gmail.com and he’ll get you hooked up. Sooner the better!
Any other questions – gus@legitbikepolo.com

We will be running two separate courts a couple miles apart the first day in a round robin fashion. The goal here is to get as many games as possible played in order to determine the 16 most worthy teams for Sunday’s single-court double elimination bracket. Unfortunately, many teams will get dropped after Saturday’s play. BRING A KILLER TEAM!!! That said, there will be a pickup court within sight of the tournament court.

Both tournament courts are street hockey style with tall wooden boards topped by cushy chain link fence. The main location has fenced in basketball courts for all day pickup games.

NOTE – Expect to play upwards of 5 tournament games on Saturday.

SCHEDULE

More details here.