Good morning, beach volleyball fans,
And a happy New Year! Hope everyone is still hitting the gym and doing whatever it is they’ve resolved to do in 2025. I’m back on the 5 a.m. wake-up routine, hence the early email. We at SANDCAST have resolved to continue growing, as 2024 was our most explosive year yet: 52% of our listeners discovered us in 2024 alone, we eclipsed 1 million audio downloads, our YouTube had more views in a single year than the previous six combined. As always, we want your feedback:
What do you want more of? Less of? What content isn’t out there that you’d like to see?
We solved one hole a year ago by bringing back the Beach Pro Tour Player Awards, which were a notable absence from the FIVB after the 2019 season.
This past week on the pod, we released the 2024 edition.
The week in SANDCAST Studios
This past week’s podcast featured our now-annual Beach Pro Tour Player Awards, which are 100% voted and decided by the players on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. Who won MVP, Team of the Year, Offensive, Defensive, Server, and so on and so forth? Listen or watch or read to find out!
Melissa Humana-Paredes, Brandie Wilkerson mic’d up!
As part of our growing collaboration with Beach Volleyball World, we have a ton of fun things coming down the pipe. Fantasy beach volleyball? Happened at the Rio Elite16 and the Beach Pro Tour Finals. International podcasts? More of them coming. Mic’d up content? You know it!
We put some mics on Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson during their pool play win over Cinja Tillmann and Svenja Muller at the Beach Pro Tour Finals, and it was as you’d expect: so dang awesome.
Watch Mel and Brandie MIC’D UP!
FUN NEWS! SANDCAST and Volleyball TV are partnering up. By the end of the year, the Road to Paris will feature highlights and clips from Volleyball TV to complement the coverage. Better yet: You can get 20 percent off your VBTV subscription if you use the code SANDCAST20.
News Around the Beach
- Mark Paaluhi: Man of the Year. Kevin Barnett did an annual Man (or Woman, depending on who won) of the Year when he ran the Net Live. I loved that, and have continued it. Paaluhi, with his revival of the Hermosa Open, is our Beach Volleyball Man of the Year. He follows up Adam Roberts, my 2023 Man of the Year.
- A new venture in Volleyball Media. As you may have read in my thank you to Lee Feinswog, which I wrote while renting a residence in Jetlag Land in Doha, I didn’t have the time or bandwidth to continue writing for VolleyballMag on a regular basis after accepting my job with Florida State. Lee is now breaking away from the magazine he resurrected nearly a decade ago, launching a daily volleyball newsletter, 900 square feet. You can sign up for his newsletter here. It’s excellent, as all things Lee does are. Some day, we will do a podcast and write a proper story on the rise and sudden downfall of VolleyballMag, but for now, keep reading Lee’s stuff.
- 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!
- Best Books of 2024. Sharing again: My annual top-10 books I read this year. Plenty of goodies in here. Should I do these more regularly? Monthly? Quarterly? Or is annual good?
- We’ve got NEW SANDCAST MERCH! Been a long time in the works, and a long time coming. Perfect time to scoop up some late Christmas gifts for the SANDCAST lover — if that is such a thing — in your fam!
- SANDCAST memberships are live. We’ve opened up memberships for anyone who wants to watch full podcast episodes on YouTube a day or two early.
- Coming up on Wednesday we have Florida State beach volleyball standout Alexis Durish talking about a fun fall in Tallahassee, beating pros, and the upcoming season. Fun chance to meet one of our top talents, and a 20-year-old y’all will be seeing quite a bit.
Much Love to the sponsors
Use code SANDCAST for 10% off The Genomic Edge Program now through December 31st!
https://root-and-fruit-nutrition.mykajabi.com/the-genomic-edge-program
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. With season coming up, if you’re looking to get some new equipment, use our discount code: SANDCAST63 for 20 PERCENT OFF.
Introducing Balltime, the AI platform making breaking down film and statistics EASY (FINALLY!). Use our link for a discount and give it a try!
Need to get hydrated? Waiakea has all kinds of fantastic deals online, and good news for you (and us), you can get 20 PERCENT OFF using our discount code, Sandcast, at checkout. Aloha, y’all.
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! Don’t know how this took so long, seeing the massive overlap between our audiences. So 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!
Tri and Travis (and Savvy)
