Good morning, beach volleyball fans,
And greetings from my former home: Hermosa Beach, California. Specifically: the Starbucks off 13th street on the strand. What once was my most frequent coffee haunt when I didn’t feel like making my own is my makeshift office when I return. And, prior to some huge news last week, I thought this would be my last trip to California for the year.
But then the news that had been rumored, that had been confirmed by our commentary team at VBTV but not Volleyball World itself, was alas confirmed: Newport Beach will be hosting an Elite in October, preceding the third annual fours tournament put on by Steve Obradovich and Kevin Martin at Eagle Four Partners.
It’s the first time the USA has hosted a major international event since the Fort Lauderdale Major — before I had made a main draw or met my wife.
So, yeah: It’s been a while.
And it’s so, so huge.
Big splash of a move by new USA Volleyball CEO John Speraw, and massive kudos must be given to OB and Martin, without whom I cannot imagine this event happens.
A decent splash, too, was made by the AVP this weekend in Central Park, New York, in what I thought was the best stop of the AVP League by a long shot — which is saying something from me, someone who has long established my distaste for New York. Larry Hamel threw some jabs at the AVP for the modest setup, which probably sat somewhere between 800-1,200 or so fans, but New York is famously restrictive about…anything and everything in life… and I’d imagine there were severe limitations on how big the AVP could go with its setup (same, I’d guess, with the Hamptons event, which is my runner-up for favorite so far, tiny as it was). In any event, the stands, small as they were, were packed, and there were fans lining bridges above the park to watch.
It was also, as anyone who listens to the podcast knows I love, outside, utilizing the natural beauty of a place as cool as Central Park. The event could not have been cheap to put on but, financials aside, I don’t think it could have really gone much better (unless, you know, it was a double-elimination tournament). A major critique of the League, of course, is the limited number of players who actually get to compete, which was a topic of discussion on one of our most popular podcasts this week with Evan Cory: What’s a talented American player to do who’s on the outside looking in of the League?
The week in SANDCAST Studios
This past week featured Evan Cory, one of the most talented players in the USA Volleyball pipeline who’s currently on an absolute heater, winning AVP Denver and Waupaca in back-to-back weekends for the second straight year. We chat about that, as well as the severe test of patience that this 2025 season has been, an upcoming wedding, and a whole lot more:
More from Evan Cory
Per usual, this conversation covered a lot.
Photo galleries galore
All of the photographers who shoot for SANDCAST are based in Los Angeles, so we had an abundance of photo galleries from the Intuit Dome:
News Around the Beach
- The Netherlands will host the 2027 World Championships. They did an AWESOME job in 2015, and that final remains my favorite match of all-time. I’d expect nothing less in 2027, which will be a critical event to qualify for the Los Angeles Olympics.
- 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 Kristen Nuss and Taryn Brasher, recorded from Gstaad, and Hector Gutierrez, and we’ll be scheduling a few more that we’ve already recorded. We’ll be stockpiling while I’m in California this week as well, so become a member and get everything the minute it uploads.
- Coming up on Wednesday we have a top secret guest dropping top secret news. Stay tuned.
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
