Dashed HOPE

HOPE Beach Volleyball. A booze and bikini fest that draws mobs of people every year to give selflessly to charity – by partying! And to play a little volleyball too, of course. Whether your team is a force to be reckoned with, or a complete calamity, HOPE is a guaranteed good time – rain or shine

Except for this year.

This year BSL rustled up some of its finest athletes and put together a long overdue team for the charity event. We were ready to represent.

Old school BSL team name: Check!

Custom team shirts: Check!

Grueling practice to ensure victory: Partial check!

Game-faces on: Check!

Optimism over intimidating weather forecast: Partial check!

Let's do this.

After playing one disgraceful (albeit fun!) match against Nav Canada, and having our dignity served up to us (overhand!), we were about to find out that Mother Nature was not in the mood for any fun, or fest of any kind.

At first we were only slightly discouraged by the rain, and the heavy blanket of dark clouds overhead. I know I sure had my party hat on (at a shamefully early hour I might add). So we spent our first batch of downtime blowing up branded beach balls and taking in the wide range of scenery.

By the time we headed over to play our next game, the conditions had apparently been upgraded to extremely-dangerous-to-be-on-a-beach. So our game was cancelled.

A brief glimmer of hope arrived, thanks to a break in the rain, and we scarfed down our complimentary team lunch (yes!). But the torrential downpour soon returned, and we were left no choice but to take that party under the table!

So after another bout of time-killing with those blessed beach balls, the dreaded announcement echoed across the crowd and officially killed the buzz – every single game was cancelled. And a whole beach’s worth of people – from those dressed up in costume to those who were barely dressed at all – were ushered off the premises like a herd of crestfallen, half-drunken cattle.