Good evening, or boa noite, beach volleyball fans,
And greetings from the Rio de Janeiro airport. I’m here with Kyle Friend and our lovely silver medalist buddies, Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft, who won their third straight Elite16 medal, one of just three teams in the world to do that in 2024 (any guesses on the other two?).
Per usual, these final events where we’re commentating in person are continued experiments for what the content will look like moving forward. We’re dialing in our previews, and I think this one from Rio — complete with bucket hats and sick jerseys — is one of our best. We also tinkered with Fantasy Beach Volleyball, and at the very least, we had a blast (and Kyle will soon get a free acai for winning). The recap will be up on YouTube soon, though the audio is already up on our SANDCAST channel, and we chat quite a bit about those gritty, scrappy, English brothers who did the unthinkable: win an Elite16 out of a qualifier, in a tournament that included Norway, Sweden, and Qatar.
What?
Perhaps even more impressive? Martins Plavins, age 39, and Kristians Fokerots, age 19, taking out Sweden and Norway in the same tournament en route to a bronze, completing Plavins’ 2024 bucket list.
The Beach Volleyball World instagram page is also home to much of our new content, and I think Rio might be the best comprehensive coverage of an event we’ve ever had. Let us know what you think — what’s working, what’s not, what you want more of, etc.
We’ll listen. Promise.
And I listened to every word from Dain Blanton on this week’s podcast, as he is now my arch-nemesis at USC.
The week in SANDCAST Studios
This week’s podcast featured Dain Blanton, the architect of the most dominant beach volleyball program in the NCAA. Four straight National Championships is difficult to one-up, and he’s reloading, per usual, with star Maddie White leading the way. She also joined the show, which is, as always, a fun one whenever we have a new guest:
George and Andre 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? Coming this week at the Rio Elite16. International podcasts, like this week’s with Anouk and Joana? More of them coming. Mic’d up content? You know it!
We slapped some mics on George and Andre at the Joao Pessoa Elite16, as well as Anders Mol, Sophie Bukovec, and Heather Bansley, and will be dropping those throughout the next few weeks.
Next week on Mic’d Up Mondays, we’ll have Sophie and Heather.
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
- AVP League’s inaugural year is wrapped up. The San Diego Smash, unbelievably, took home the title, after being ranked dead last for several weeks of the season. The match scores aren’t anywhere on the website, and streaming doesn’t work in Brazil, so I couldn’t tell you what happened. But yeah, go Smash, who upset the indomitable New York Nitro, who didn’t even win a match in the playoffs. The Dallas Dream took second, and the Miami Mayhem finished third. What does next year look like? Nobody is quite sure just yet.
- To China the Beach Pro Tour goes! As the League finishes up, the Beach Pro Tour rages on, from Brazil to China, where a most interesting pairing of Tim Brewster and Theo Brunner make their debut, and Chaim Schalk and James Shaw have an excellent opportunity for a medal. Men’s entry list here and women’s is here.
- 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 answered as many fan questions as we could including the most pressing: Why did I move to Florida? And what’s going to happen to the podcast??
Much Love to the sponsors
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.
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 is fueled by a lovely mix of three main ingredients: We LOVE to do it, people enjoy listening to it, and sponsors fund our ability to do so. We only partner with sponsors we love, and we are so fired up to have Athletic Greens join the show! And they’re hooking up our listeners with a full year of Vitamin D for FREE, as well as five totally FREE travel packs!
Appreciate y’all for listening, reading, and loving the beach like we do.
Have a great week!
SHOOTS!
Tri and Travis (and Savvy)
