The 55th annual summer beach party and sporting event known as the Over-The-Line World Championships will fill Fiesta Island beginning Saturday, July 12 and continue July 13, 20 and 21.
In the midst of the one-year trial ban of alcohol on San Diego beaches and parks, however, OMBAC has a special event permit from the city. The permit creates a limited area for the OTL festivities where visitors can bring and consume their own alcohol, as well as purchase it at an onsite beer garden.
The colorful annual beach party and OTL tournament is hosted by the Old Mission Beach Athletic Club (OMBAC). The areas where alcohol is permitted are highlighted on their Web site, www.OMBAC.com, and include the OTL playing area inside the berms and the reserved RV areas across the road to the west ” but not on the road itself.
Over The Line is a unique sand softball game with three-person teams that was invented on Mission Beach in the early 1950s by founders of OMBAC. The annual championship tournament has grown into an event attended by more than 50,000 guests.
The four-day event is an adult activity that features 1,200 teams, most of them with clever, but unprintable, names. A few hundred of the names are quite sexy and sometimes gross, but to hear them repeatedly announced over the PA feeds an atmosphere both fun and bizarre.
The popular event draws cars that fill Fiesta Island early, so arrival on the free shuttle bus is recommended.
The shuttle system is similar to last year’s, but changed from the traditional locations. Shuttle buses pick up at the Bonita Cove parking lot across from the Belmont Park roller coaster and at the Linda Vista trolley station off Friars Road.
Shuttle buses will also stop at the dirt parking lot at SeaWorld Drive and Pacific Highway. When the shuttles aren’t already full, they will pick up people at the entrance to Fiesta Island at the isthmus. Shuttles no longer stop at Mission Bay High or the Visitors Center.
Bicycles are also a popular means of arrival and can be secured to fencing at the tournament entrance.
Other OTL tournament dos and don’ts include the four Bs safety tips: do not bring any babies, bowsers, bottles or bikes into the playing area. Coolers are permitted.
Do bring a beach chair or towel and suntan lotion and a relaxed attitude.
The 48 OTL courts are in constant use with the 3,600 athletes leaping, diving and slugging the official orange softballs while OMBAC offers cool souvenirs and provides refreshments at four locations surrounding the fields.
At the entrance to the party action, the lovely Ms. Emerson 2007, Mary Kraszewski, as well as other extraordinary former Ms. Emersons, will be available to autograph a program, shirt or hat.
Around midday on the second Saturday, a new beauty-queen spokeswoman will be selected.
The 450 OMBAC members use the huge gathering as their primary fund-raiser in order to support their agenda of civic activities throughout the year.
Funds raised from the sales are used to support charitable events and community activities. Local youth organizations such as the Boy Scouts, Little League and soccer teams, Children’s Hospital and breast cancer research receive OMBAC support. Student-athlete college scholarships and several events for the physically disabled are also sponsored throughout the year by the various OMBAC committees.
The sport of over-the-line features three-person teams and minimal equipment.
Teammates toss or “pitch” to each other from the point of a pencil-shaped field 55 feet wide. The game of place-hitting the ball into fair territory over a line 55 feet away has resulted in a unique golf-like batting technique that allows the very skilled batter to mask which direction the hit is aimed. Male players do not use gloves, adding to the difficulty of a solid defense. Scoring occurs after a third “hit” falls into the court, over the line. No one runs any bases. A lot of runs can be scored, plus the opportunity to make dramatic dives in the sand has made the game very popular to watch and challenging while simple to play.
More information is available at www.OMBAC.org.