...and when wars and flags and religions and nations and cities and rockets and taxicabs and monosodium glutamate and television are gone, there will still be an order to things far beyond the order of power crazed men. It will be the order of a universe at equilibrium with all natural forces in balance. And that's what riding a wave is. -Drew Kampion, 1970
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Oylmpic Water Polo
I've been really excite to watch some high quality water polo on TV. The olympics is the only time, every four years, where I get to see the world's best play in HD. My problem is that I don't have a TV. So I've been eating a lot of lunches at a bar that is showing the games. They're live around 2:30 most of the time, and the broadcasts are really cool. The other problem is that I am always sitting alone, making a lot of noise, surrounded by people who don't know a thing about water polo. They don't really play it that much in New England, in fact, every member of the US Water Polo team is from California. So I have to explain to everyone around me what is actually happening. And their questions are what you expect from someone who has never seen water polo. Most of the time I have to convince them that they cannot, in fact, touch the bottom, that they do have to swim the whole time, and yes, those silly caps are completely necessary. Once they get the basics they usually come around and start enjoying the games with me. Then when they see the size and athleticism of the players (both the men and women) they realize that it's an incredibly difficult sport and the athletes deserve a lot of respect. So I am sort of advocating for water polo on the east coast. That said, I am excited to see Cal men's water polo team play in the Princeton Invitational this fall. I think most good California high school teams could beat the college varsities around here, so it should be a lot of fun. Also a shout out the former Golden Bears on the US Water Polo teams and the rest of the olympic teams. I hear Cal athletes are leading the Pac-12 in medals. So Go Bears to that!
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