Good afternoon, beach volleyball fans,
I delayed this newsletter just to get a good kick out of saying “good afternoon” after watching Spirited for the first time this Christmas season. Those who know know. Those who don’t, I highly recommend the movie. It’s a tremendous watch.
In all merry seriousness, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and I hope everyone is enjoying Void Week, this strange stretch between Christmas and New Year where nobody is really working, but maybe pretending to work, even though everyone’s bosses know that we’re not really working. It’s a fun week, full of leftover pie and depressing Christmas decorations that are about to be retired for 11 months.
This week has become the unofficial Awards Week on the Beach Pro Tour. For the third straight year, we at SANDCAST have curated and hosted the awards, getting votes from more than 100 players on the Beach Pro Tour. The Awards will drop on Wednesday, premiering on YouTube at 10am Eastern and 7am Pacific, so you have that to look forward to. Members of our YouTube Channel, however, can already watch my opening monologue, recapping what I think is the craziest year yet.
If you’re looking for fresh, newsy content, I don’t have much for you, but Lee Feinswog’s volleyball newsletter, 900 Square Feet, always does, as does Larry Hamel over at his All Volleyball Substack.
Until then, enjoy our penultimate pod of the 2025 year.
The week in SANDCAST Studios
This week Tri Bourne and I caught up, coast-to-coast, and recapped a very, very full 2025 year for both of us. Retirements? Moves? TWO children? Big year for the boys. We also answered some fan questions and had a lot of fun.
You can:
Give us a follow on Spotify if you haven’t already. Many of you have, as we grew by 193% on the year! Grateful for all of you.
Photos of the Year
Many, many thanks to our wonderful photographers, who shoot for us, for free, ’round the year. They were awesome. And this gallery, featuring our 38 favorite photos of the year, shows just how good they are.
Check out our top photos of 2025.
News Around the Beach
- Biggest takeaway of 2025: A new definition of success. I love to jot down my biggest lesson learned of the year, every year. This year? A new definition of success: Being excited to go to work, and being excited to come home. Read the reflection here.
- We ate…our trash this year. No joke. Another reflection from 2025, on turning our trash into compost into legitimate food we cooked and served to both us and our children. It was awesome. Read up.
- 1,000 hours outside! Our 2025 New Year’s Resolution/Goal was to get Austin outside for 1,000-plus hours this year. We crossed the rubicon in Pompano a few weeks ago. My reflection on a fun year of outdoor time, and how important it was.
- Watch SANDCAST Episodes Early! Become a member of our YouTube Channel and you’ll get every piece of content days or weeks or, now, months, even, before anybody else.
- Coming up on Wednesday we have our Beach Pro Tour Player Awards. This is the only episode members won’t get early access, as we don’t want to spoil the awards and who won. But, to atone, members can already watch an episode Tri Bourne recorded with Taylor Crabb and Trevor Crabb 🙂
Much Love to the sponsors
We’ve been with Wilson Volleyball since day one, and we love the products they make — the best ball on the market, hands down, no questions asked. Use our discount code: SANDCAST-20 for 20 PERCENT OFF.
Watch VBTV for 10 percent off using our discount code, SANDCAST10.
We’ve got SANDCAST merch! Get yourself some swag.
SANDCAST adds another year with AG1. One of our longest-running sponsors, AG1, is back on the pod for another year. We’ve re-signed with the brand, and have changed our model with them, to a fully affiliate-model. So if you want to stay healthy AND help the show, please order with this link, which comes with a full year of Vitamin D for FREE, as well as five totally FREE travel packs!
We’re officially partnered with Better at Beach! If you want to get Better at Beach, use our code SANDCAST for 10 percent off all of their products, from online classes to in-person camps and more.
Appreciate y’all for listening, reading, and loving the beach like we do.
Have a great week!
SHOOTS!
SANDCAST Team
