Good morning, beach volleyball fans,
And greetings from The Airport Lounge — I LOVE a good, basic name for a place, like The Airport Lounge, or The Bar — from Hamburg, Germany. Sitting right across from me is Daniel Frito Freitas, the man behind the lens and editing of so much of beach volleyball’s finest content. And fine content he did produce from this past week’s Hamburg Elite, which was easy, given the magnitude of storylines from the event.
First: An Italian star was born. We’ve all known Valentina Gottardi was going to be the sport’s Next Big Thing for quite some time, when she was a teenager bombing balls to a fifth place finish at the 2022 World Championships in Rome. Now we know Reka Orsi Toth will be alongside her for the ride to the top, as the two pulled off a stunner in Hamburg, winning six straight matches, including an upset over World No. 1 Thamela and Victoria in the finals, to claim the first Italian women’s Elite gold medal ever.
The best part? It comes after a last place showing in Montreal in which they went 0-3.
Fun stuff from the newest stars on the Beach Pro Tour, who capitalized on a field weakened by the AVP Championships.
While Italy went dreaming, Norway went hunting — for Emanuel and Ricardo. Anders Mol and Christian Sorum whipped up on everyone en route to their 29th gold medal as a team, and they now sit just five behind the all-time leaders for most wins as a team. It’s only a matter of time until they catch them.
More storylines from my recap:
- It’s awesome to see Poland back to playing excellent ball
- Linda Bock is a defender you need to pay attention to
- Teo Rotar, the 22-year-old French blocker, has officially arrived
- What’s up with Sweden’s David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig, who again missed the podium?
- Finland’s Taru Lahti and Niina Ahtiainen enjoyed a breakout fifth-place finish
We’ll have a Beach Access recap up on YouTube as soon as I get back in the States.
Meanwhile, in the States, Phil Dalhausser and Trevor Crabb won the AVP League Championships, and Julia Donlin and Lexy Denaburg claimed the title for the women, knocking off Kristen Nuss and Taryn Brasher and Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson in succession. No asterisk on that win.
That’s how you close a season.
Chicago looked like it showed out, per usual. Atmosphere looked electric, and some of my buds at Barstool Chicago had a good time playing 25-on-2 against Hagen while he was pounding beers. Good times all around. Happy to see a proper crowd for the AVP, as Manhattan Beach delivered as well.
Something about playing beach volleyball on natural beaches, perhaps…
The week in SANDCAST Studios
This past week featured fellow commentator and Australian GOAT Kerri Pottharst, a two-time Olympian who won gold at home in the 2000 Sydney Games. We recorded this in Gstaad, so the backdrop is just *chef’s kiss* as we chat Olympics, old school vs. new school beach volleyball, mental toughness — and it’s all in that delightful Aussie accent. Such a fun one with Kerri:
Old School vs. New School
Kerri Pottharst competed in both the old school, sideout format, the new school rally format on the smaller court of today. How’d she adjust? How were those rules changes recieved?
AVP MBO Photo Galleries
We had ALL of the photo galleries from AVP Manhattan Beach. Putting these up again in case you missed them.
News Around the Beach
- USA Volleyball had a hot start in Hamburg. Brook Bauer and Maddie Anderson, Kylie DeBerg and Xolani Hodel, and Hailey Harward and Molly Phillips all qualified, making it 3-for-3 to start things off in Germany.
- The German women were positively dominant at home. They smashed teams by a combined 55 points in pool play. No podiums, but a message was sent: There’s depth in Germany.
- AVP New York’s big TV numbers. The AVP stacked up some W’s late in the League season, with Manhattan Beach and Chicago delivering huge crowds and the Central Park League stop bringing in 500,000-plus TV viewers, the biggest of the year.
- It’s Hermosa Open week! I love this event for so many reasons: independently run, rogue, high level ball. Qualifier starts on Thursday and the event wraps up on Sunday. If you like beach volleyball tournaments on natural beaches and want to see more of them, then support it, show up, grab a beer, and hang. It’s awesome. Here’s the entry list and where to follow.
- Valentina Gottardi: One of the main characters. We have a new writer on the block! Graham Hays, an experienced and talented writer, emailed me and asked if he could write a feature on Italian sensation Valentina Gottardi. Duh. He delivered a wonderful piece on the blocker.
- An ode to a full-time mom. It was Delaney’s birthday last week. Meanwhile, I was in Montreal — and then Latvia and Germany — while she was at home with our two kids, changing all of the dipes, doing all of the naps and pre-bed routines and baths. Typically, we write poems on birthdays, but on this one, I wrote a little story on the appreciation of the most important job in the world: the full-time parent.
- 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.
- Coming up on Wednesday we have John Hyden, chatting with all of us in studio. SO SO SO GOOD.
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.
SHIELD is the new presenting sponsor of our Beach Access episodes following Elite tournaments. Get yourself some athletic tape that actually works, and use the code SANDCAST to get a little discount.
Appreciate y’all for listening, reading, and loving the beach like we do.
Have a great week!
SHOOTS!
SANDCAST Team
