This past Sat, 24 teams battled it out for the prestigious annual Café Caprice Volleyball tournament trophy.

Prizes included Sunglass Hut sunglasses, Havaianas vouchers and Havana Club beach kits.  But the true prize of course is the bragging rights. 

The lovely people from Caprice made sure people were refreshed, well fed and sun protected with yummy Red Bull mocktails being served at the beach bar, tasty mini burgers (which I missed sadly cause I only got there too late) and lovely ladies walking the beach handing out free sunscreen.

Weather wise it was the perfect day -  slightly overcast which gave you some relief from the sun every now and again, but still nice and hot.  The following 2 pics set the scene quite well:

Stunning right?  The beauty of our beaches continues to blow me away.  They are truly world class and in my personal opinion (and experience) totally trumps even those of Brazil and Thailand.

Anyhoo, the tournament consisted of 5 a side games, scheduled for 2 sets of 7min each (with the teams swapping sides after the 1st set).  My boy Bjorn and his friends, known as the Virgin daiquiris started out very strong, cruising through the early rounds without really breaking a sweat.

In between games Bjorn even made some time to do some Sunglass Hut marketing. (I think we was trying to ensure free sunnies whether they won or not. That’s good planning. )

The sunscreen is supposed to say “SGH” for Sunglass Hut of course

Team spirits remained high as they blew the competition out of the water and made it to the quarter finals with ease…

It was easy to see why though.  Just check out that defense!  Nothing was gonna get past this team:

The Virgin daiquiris was the only team who had as many as 3 ladies in the team.  Some might say that was a risk, but I say that’s what gave them the edge.  Just look at Karin’s impressive smashing skills for example:

You might be thinking “Hey K, why weren’t you in the team? You seem fit and amazing and gorgeous and stuff…”    Well you see, I have a “volleyball disability” – from a very young age I was the ball-smashed-in-the-face girl.   And no, I’m not talking about those kind of balls.  Get your minds out of the gutter.  I’m obviously referring to balls used in sports.  For example, I could be in a crowd of like a thousand people.  There would be no ball in sight.  I’d turn around and then – WHAM – right in the face.  My mom’s dreams of me becoming a SA netball champion were crushed.  Due to this problem, I now flinch just at the mention of the word “volleyball”.  This clearly equates to pretty crappy playing skills.  So there you go… my truly sad back story… sob sob…

Back to the tournament, there was also a prize for the best dressed team.  Some folks went all out, like these dudes who looked like they were wearing pajamas:

They must have been bloody boiling! Bjorn’s friend, Nick, noted that it would be pretty damn embarrassing to loose against a team wearing PJ “onesies”. I thought he made a very good point…

The guys who took the prize in the end were these brave, leopard print legging clad gentlemen:

Like totes hot right now…

The daiquiris didn’t have time to play dress up – they were there for one thing and one thing only… winning!  They smashed through the quarter finals and then the semi-finals and winning scores like this one just became the norm really:

My pic of the day has to be this one.  Love how the clouds in the sky was doing this awesome striped effect:

Love how Jared also looks like he’s about to do a very intricate dive maneuver. Score? Perfect 10!

Throughout the tournament, Bjorn certainly proved that white men can in fact jump… even when you’re not totally blessed in the “beanpole” arena.

Some seriously slick moves there…

In the end, not even the finals was a threat for the Virgin daiquiris’ kick-ass skills.  They came out on top, smiling all the way.

Let’s take a closer look at that beaut of a trophy:

Oooooh aaaaaah

Well done guys!  Obviously you couldn’t have done it without my support though.  So if anyone wants to gift one of those free pairs of sunnies, please feel free.

Who knows, maybe I’ll get over my ball-in-the-face fear and give this a bash next year.  Then again… that would require a lot of practice… hmmm… I’m more of a chillin’ with cocktail in hand girl… nah, rather just play to my strengths.

xxx