We had a blast at Dustbowl 2025. Below are some notable memories.

First time playing on snow

The field was covered by thick snow on the first day.

Running on snow actually feels like running on sand. Falling doesn’t hurt much thanks to the fine-grained particles of snow. Furthermore, the lay-outs feel easier because you will slide on snow

First time playing on ice

After the first day full of snow, the snow melted overnight and become ice on the second day.

It was dangerous to play on ice. Your cleats would slide while you are running. And the surface was harder, because it is not grass but ice. Therefore, it is actually dangerous to play.

Our team warmed up extra-slowly. Almost everyone just ran in tiny steps.

When game timem came, different teams have different ways to deal with it. Most teams seem to cancel the match. Our opponent and we chose to divide the field into three and play 3v3 minis with each other.

On a field nearby, people were playing walking ultimate. It is like ultimate except that no one can run. The game there was great to watch, mostly due to the sideline energy. Players on the sideline of both teams cheer their walking teammates passionately, much more passtionate than that of a normally ruled ultimate match. Every successful throw and catch was cheered x3 normally to appreciate the lack of running in doing so. People weren’t running deep anymore, but “walking deep”. At one point, there was an overthrown huck to the endzone, and the cutter decided to run, caught the disc, and scored. Countless boos were given to him because he ran.

And when everything melted, the fields became a mud bath. Look at us and the end of the second day!

On the road

We drove 4.5 hours from Dallas to Tulsa for the tournament. It was a long ride through not only highways but also tiny roads. During the ride, vast rural fields moved backwards on both sides of our car. At the rural place, I saw houses to be extremely distant from each other – each pair was at least 100 meters from each other.

Lastly, if you are interested in UTD WOOF’s performance, here is the tournament results.