Good morning, beach volleyball fans,
This is typically a lighthearted and easy read of a newsletter. But after seeing all of the images from Los Angeles and, specifically, the Pacific Palisades, this past week, it’s difficult to avoid a more somber tone. Miles Partain, Olympian and good friend of ours and the beach community, lost his home, as have dozens of friends from a church we went to in the Palisades. It’s wild. Miles wrote a heartfelt post on Instagram, quoting Lord of the Rings quite perfectly.
Kent Steffes, Palisades native who lives in Santa Monica (I think his house is still fine), has actually been reporting better than maybe every other news service on his prolific Facebook channel. I recommend, if you’re interested in what’s been happening and the scope of it, that you take a look.
Sitting here from my home office in Tallahassee, with rain — “skywater,” as Austin calls it — pouring down, our situation couldn’t be much different. Aside from the hollow thoughts and prayers and love and all that, there isn’t much you or I or anyone who isn’t a firefighter can do. (Meanwhile, Zana Muno’s dad is actually a firefighter, and he’s been going around the clock since the fires started. Shout-out to Mr. Larry.)
So, for those who listen or watch the show or read this newsletter, hopefully this will provide a healthy outlet and news that isn’t the color of embers and ash.
On to more positive things and news, like the debut of our FSU Studios with our standout defender, Alexis Durish.
The week in SANDCAST Studios
This past week’s podcast featured Alexis Durish, one of the best players in NCAA Beach Volleyball and certainly one y’all should take note of. Already, she has a NORCECA Gold Medal to her name as well as a FISU World Championship silver, with wins over Toni Rodriguez and Carly Kan. She’s big league — though she’d never say that herself. Humble as they come, Durish was a fun listen this week:
SANDCAST Greatest Hits
We are now in our eighth year of the show, and with the rapid growth we’ve had the last few years — 52% of our listeners discovered us in 2024 alone, after we’d already hit 1 million downloads — we decided to re-air our most popular episodes, once per month.
This Friday, we dropped our No. 1 episode of all-time: Zana Muno, the chicest farmer there ever was.
SANDCAST and Volleyball TV are partners! You can get 20 percent off your VBTV subscription if you use the code SANDCAST20.
News Around the Beach
- Is California still mandatory? On this week’s podcast with Alexis Durish, we pondered whether moving to California is still all but a necessity if you want to pursue professional beach volleyball. Our verdict? Not anymore. (Note: we recorded this well before the fires started)
- Easiest way to help SANDCAST. Our financial numbers are in for 2024, kudos of our CFO Tri Bourne, and we had a total of $78k of expenses (videographers, SANDCAST Tour, etc.). We want to continue pouring into the show and delivering high quality content, and the best way you can help FOR FREE is by signing up for a free trial with Aura, which is back on with us again for 2025. It takes maybe five minutes to sign up, is easy to cancel, and the show gets $250 per sign up. It’s one of the most lucrative affiliate deals I’ve seen, especially when our fans don’t actually have to spend any money for us to get a kickback. We basically break even with the show — everything that comes in gets reinvested to produce higher quality content, with increasing quantity as well. So, signup, send the link to your friends (https://aura.com/sandcast is the exact link) and let’s make some awesome stuff.
- 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 Atlanta Vibe setter Marlie Monserez, a former setter for Florida, then a starter for UCLA Beach, then back to indoors playing professionally in the upstart PVF. Really, really fun episode detailing a winding volleyball journey spanning all levels and all regions of the country. If you’re a member of the YouTube Channel, you can already watch.
Much Love to the sponsors
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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.
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)
