Good evening, beach volleyball fans,
And greetings from my wonderful, lovely, God-blessed home that I am never in. We’ve returned from our Myrtle Beach adventure, and what a lovely exhale it was, and so dang fun to watch my kids play with my brother’s kids, us extending a 29-year family reunion, becoming the fun uncles and tired dads of the trips instead of the wired kiddos. As I was decidedly not writing, I don’t have a single word of coverage for the Baden Challenge, won by the Young Swedes and Louisa Lippmann and Linda Bock, but that will soon change. I am home for a whopping two days before I’m back on a plane, this one bound for Montreal for this week’s upcoming Elite. Delaney and I did the math, and I will be home for a grand total of six days in August, and not many more in October and November.
It’s a busy life, this beach life.
This week is one of the busiest, and biggest, on the calendar.
It begins with the aforementioned Montreal Elite, which put on a phenomenal event in 2023, signed a five-year extension and then somehow pulled out of 2024 before returning to syrupy glory here in 2025. I don’t know the legality of such things, but I’m glad it’s on the schedule; I’m excited to be there on the mic. That begins with Wednesday’s qualifier, and a number of USA Volleyball teams are doing a fickle dance between Montreal and the Manhattan Beach Open, the biggest annual event on the beach volleyball calendar. Andy Benesh and Miles Partain are the top seed in the qualifier, while Savvy Simo and Abby Van Winkle, Kylie DeBerg and Xolani Hodel, Hailey Harward and Molly Phillips, Maddie Anderson and Brook Bauer, and Kelly Kool and Tiffany Svenssohn are all in the women’s qualifier.
If they make the main draw, they’ll stay in Canada. If not? They’ll hop on a plane and jet to the South Bay for the MBO.
It’s a road dog’s life.
As for Gen Z as a whole?
It’s an attention-deprived one. Luckily, we had Gary Green, a professor at Georgia who chats with sports teams at all levels and nations, to discuss how to best coach this new generation of athletes.
The week in SANDCAST Studios
This past week was honestly the most useful podcast we’ve done in a long, long time. Just golden nugget after golden nugget from Gary Green. Will it get a million downloads? No, but it should, because it’s that good. Do yourself a favor and listen to this one. Guy’s a certifiable genius.
AVP Dallas Photo Gallery
Rick Atwood was on site for the final stop of the 2025 AVP League season, and he delivered, per usual, with some excellent photos. Check out his photo gallery.
Beyond The Sand: Gstaad Edition
In our third episode of Beyond The Sand, Daniel Freitas hit the road, capturing all of the majesty of Gstaad. It is without a doubt the best episode yet, and one that will have you closing your eyes to avoid seeing the prices and booking tickets to Switzerland in an instant.
News Around the Beach
- AVP closes regular season in Dallas. The final stop of the AVP League was in Dallas last weekend. Larry Hamel offered his coverage of the event on his substack.
- Seaside: The Tournament That Thrives on Vibes. If you haven’t been to Seaside, you must. Doctor’s orders. It’s a bucket-list stop, 100 percent, and I’m sad I’ve missed it for several years in a row now. But Phil Dalhausser finally got to go, and he won the dang thing with Brendan Onischenko, knocking off Evan Cory and Derek Bradford in the finals. Meanwhile, the summer of Marine Kinna and Chloe Loreen continued, as they won AGAIN. Monstrous year for Loreen and Kinna.
- Wait…who is Tri Bourne playing with? Bourne’s career has been famous for his laundry list of injuries. Fittingly, just days before the last tournament of his injury-riddled career, he has no idea with whom he’s playing Manhattan. Evan Cory left Seaside in a sling. If he can’t go…any guesses on whom Bourne will pick up?
- We now have an ad free tier for audio. Tired of listening to ads? I saw a bunch of comments on the ad frequency in Rogan podcasts, and figured I’d give our listeners an ad-free option. For 5 bucks a month, you no longer have to listen to ads, and you support the show. Win win. Here’s the link where you can become a patron.
- 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. This week’s you actually can’t get early, because we have some time-sensitive news that will be dropping, but you can tune into several we’ve already recorded.
- Coming up on Wednesday we have a mailbag reunion pod. So dang good to get back in the studio with my boy Tri. Such a fun episode.
Where You Can Follow The Pod
- We’re essentially working to become the new VolleyballMag. A big part of that is building a Facebook presence, so we’re building a page. Would be awesome if you could follow us there!
- Spotify, obviously. Linked below
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
