Good morning, beach volleyball fans,
Did everyone heed my warning last week? Did we all buckle up? Put on our helmets? Don the bullet proof vests before we hit play — with a bowl of popcorn, properly salted with a touch of olive oil, next to us on the couch — on this week’s podcast with Kent Steffes?
If you did, well done. You likely needed it. If you didn’t…well, Wednesday’s podcast, where Kent now somewhat virally compared the AVP to a chicken sh** sandwich, may have come as quite the surprise, like a pop-up afternoon storm in Tallahassee that’ll rip the patio furniture right off your porch. It has, of course, made for a lively comment section, and Kent remains deep in the weeds, hacking through folks like some online Jon Snow.
I won’t waste any more time with the intro to this week’s newsletter. We’ll get right into the pod.
The week in SANDCAST Studios
This past week featured Kent Steffes, one of the greatest beach volleyball players of all time who, since writing our book, Kings of Summer, has become quite a prolific writer himself. He’s established a massive presence on Facebook where he writes about winning, the mental side of sport, sports business, and, yes, beach volleyball and the AVP. He also podcasts about all of these topics, and we decided to get back together since our last episode, two years ago, was so much fun. In an hour and a half, we covered a lot, and below you can:
More from Kent Steffes
As I mentioned: The conversation covered a lot.
World Champs Update
There are just three months remaining in the race to the World Champs, which will be held in Adelaide, Australia in November. The updates on the race will become more regular once the Montreal Elite in August wraps up. Here’s where everyone stands after Gstaad:
News Around the Beach
- Troy Field and Evan Cory did it again. Less than a week after winning AVP Denver, Field and Cory brawled their way under the barn at the AVP Waupaca Contender series to win again. It’s the second straight year Cory has done the Denver-Waupaca sweep, which is damn impressive.
- The Summer of Marine Kinna. Flying up our unofficial list of most underrated players is Marine Kinna. While she didn’t pull the back-to-back Contender wins, she did pull off a victory sandwich with Chloe Loreen, winning AVP Virginia, taking third in Denver, then winning AVP Waupaca by absolutely smashing everyone. It is officially the Summer of Kinna.
- Gstaad: The Majestic Major of beach volleyball. After Ostrava, I coined the Czech Republic’s signature event the Iron Major. Upon leaving Gstaad, the word I settled on was majestic. Here’s my feature of what must be the No. 1 stop on your beach volleyball bucket list: The Majestic Major.
- Larry Hamel’s All Volleyball covered the AVP at its midway point. Much of it was based on the episode above with Kent Steffes. He also wrote a fine piece on Geena Urango and her incredible ability to adapt after losing Toni Rodriguez to injury.
- 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 before anybody else. If you want to watch this week’s episode with Evan Cory, you already can.
- Coming up on Wednesday we have Evan Cory, the recent winner (again) of the Denver and Waupaca Contenders. One of my best buds talking about a curious topic: What to do when you’re an American player who’s out of the AVP League…and when your partner, Tri Bourne in this case, is out with injury? He’s clearly figuring it out just fine. Fun one with my boy.
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
