The two popular beach tournaments are moving forward.
January 13, 2025 by Charlie Eisenhood in News
Two popular annual southern California beach ultimate tournaments — LeiOut and LA Throwback — are both set to proceed as planned this weekend amidst wildfires burning in pockets of the broader Los Angeles metro area.
Thousands of homes have been destroyed in the fires since last week, including those of multiple members of the LA ultimate community. Currently, there is no immediate threat of either fire or air quality degradation for either LA Throwback (hosted on Santa Monica beach) or LeiOut (hosted in Huntington Beach), but the National Weather Service issued a “particularly dangerous situation” warning for Tuesday and Wednesday in Los Angeles county, home to Santa Monica, due to high winds and dry air. However, local officials just lifted the evacuation order for parts of Santa Monica, and only a small band of evacuation warning is in effect at this time.
Both tournament organizing staffs have been discussing the situation in recent days and have decided to move forward while monitoring for potential risks.
LA Throwback has put together a document to answer questions from attendees and notes “the tourney is on until and unless local authorities deem it unsafe.” Santa Monica officials have asked Throwback to relocate fields to the southern side of the Santa Monica pier due to the Pacific Coast Highway closure but are not asking for further changes to the event. LA Throwback Foundation board chair Dave Adelson said that they are monitoring conditions and the increased fire risk midweek. “We’re not going to preemptively cancel because of that possibility,” he said.
Adelson said that “five or six” teams have canceled and they’ve fielded many questions about the fires — they are adhering to their standard refund policy. Cancellations this close to the event will face a cancellation fee of 30%.
LeiOut, which is far from any current fires, is moving forward as well. Air quality forecasts early this week are for good air conditions, and TD Grant Boyd said that the tournament will adhere to the standard LA Out air quality policy — AQI readings above 150 will suspend play.
The tournament is planning to build “three different community altars,” which will share some of the stories of the people impacted by the fires and list organizations that are helping with fire recovery efforts with scannable QR codes for players to donate to them. LeiOut attendees will also be able to write notes that will be shared with people in the LA ultimate community that have been impacted by the fires.
“The best way we can support those impacted by the fires is financially,” said Boyd, who said that “one or two” teams has canceled.
Both Boyd and Adelson stressed that the events are positives for the local ultimate community and that their operation won’t be taking any resources from fire efforts. “This is a really healing event for a lot of our local folks,” said Boyd.
For those looking to donate to wildfire relief, California officials are suggesting donating to the Wildfire Recovery Fund, Red Cross, and LA Fire Department Foundation.
