Thursday March 28th, 2024
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SpikeIt: The New Sport You’ll Be Playing on the Beach This Summer Whether You Like it or Not

Spike it, I'm going to the beach.

Staff Writer

Back in the weird and wacky 80s, a strange sport-come-game called round net was all the rage in the US. Much like, say, speed-ball (you know, that game with a ball attached to a string, which is attached to a pole), it quickly died, condemned to rust in the backyards of many a suburban home.

But this being the age of nostalgia and everything-that’s-old-is-cool, round net has resurfaced quite spectacularly as Spikeball, with a reported 4 million spikers playing it worldwide.

Not to be left behind on any global trend, Egypt is also embracing round net, too, and it’s looking like the beach-sport of the summer thanks to SpikeIt Arabia, founded by Samuel Nasralla, Seif Enab and Andrew Wahba.

The sport is comprised of a net and a small yellow inflated ball – simple as that. The point of the game is to spike the ball onto the net towards the opposing player/team. Once the ball has been served, players can move and hit the ball from anywhere they choose. When the ball hits the ground, hits the rim or bounces more than once on the net in three touches, the opposing team receives the point. Fist-pump.

Aiming to spread this jolliest of sports, SpikeIt Arabia launched in October 2018 and has been slowly but surely growing the round net community with the aim of making it as popular a casual beach sport as volleyball, beach tennis or begrudgingly playing catch with your dog while also trying to catch that perfect tanning time at noon – they even have their own hashtag, #JoinTheComunity.

You can get your sandy claws on SpikeIt sets via their Facebook and Instagram pages, or through Travel Garage, an online shopping page selling travel products, for EGP 880. The set is also available on Souq.com for EGP 895. Not sure why the EGP 15 difference, but, whatever.