After a longer than expected wait, the 2026 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour schedule has been released in full. Per usual, I’d expect there to be additions in the fall and maybe a few during the summer, a la Newport Beach in 2025.
It’s a season that will feature, for now, 29 Futures, eight Elites, and seven Challenge events, along with the debut of the ambiguous new Beach World Series coming in November.
Below is the full schedule of the Challenges and Elites, with a breakdown and commentary on how 2026 looks.
It’s a Brazil heavy year
The first thing you’ll notice is an abundance of events in what has become the mecca of professional beach volleyball: Brazil. Half of the Elites will be held in Brazil, beginning with Joao Pessoa — typically a fall host — on March 11-15 before hitting Saquarema (April 8-12) and Brasilia (April 29-May 3). The schedule circles back to Rio de Janeiro July 29-August 2, which should be a tremendous event in one of the most historic cities in beach volleyball, especially since it’s during the summer and not tucked away into the less popular fall.
I’d anticipate the standard huge crowds in three of those four, while Saquarema, a sleepy town that is more known as the home to the Brazilian surfing training center, will probably be light until the medal rounds.
I’ve long said Brazil has the truest fans in the sport, and any time there is a Brazil-heavy schedule, that’s a good thing, even if it does mean some extensive travel for the majority of the players on the Beach Pro Tour.
Welcome back, Montreal!
After a year off, Montreal roared back with one of the best events in 2025, packing the Gilles Villeneuve F1 stadium for nearly every match as home queens Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson sold the place out. All beach volleyball fans should love that it is back on the schedule again August 19-23.
Unlike last year, there is no conflict with the AVP Manhattan Beach Open, and I cannot, cannot, cannot recommend this event enough to American fans looking to get a taste of the Beach Pro Tour.
What’s up with Hamburg?
One of the most historic venues on the calendar, Hamburg, which has hosted a major tournament every year since 2016, is still listed as TBD. It’s never a great sign when this happens, but it also doesn’t mean it’ll automatically be a worst case scenario and get cancelled. Often the case when an event is initially listed as TBD is that the promoter and Volleyball World are still deciding on format — 16 teams or 24? — or prize money or exact dates or something of that ilk. Given Hamburg’s track record of hosting every year for nearly a decade, I’d still expect it to be on the schedule sometime in August, but it would be a bummer if something couldn’t be worked out, or if it does work out — but during the AVP Manhattan Beach Open.
The U.S. bows out again
After Newport Beach delivered the most delightful surprise of the 2025 season, hosting an Elite and, by extension, the first major event on U.S. soil since the Fort Lauderdale Major of 2018, the U.S. is again bowing out of hosting a Beach Pro Tour event. This isn’t exactly a shocker, given the exorbitant expense of Newport, but it’s always sad to see the U.S. without an event, especially as we get closer to the 2028 Olympic Games, which will be hosted in the…U.S.
The Challenges are… not great — which means they’re the perfect opportunity to build points
In a recent mailbag episode, I talked about how to get points on the Beach Pro Tour, summing it up effectively as this: Ignore the money-sucking Futures and hit the Challenges hosted in places few players want to go. Those events typically don’t fill up, and even a team with zero points would get in.
What a year, then, 2026 will be to those looking to get started on the Beach Pro Tour.
Four of the seven Challenge events on the 2026 Beach Pro Tour calendar are hosted in places few would label as bucket-listers: two events in China (Xiamen May 13-17, and Shangluo July 22-26), one in India (March 4-8) and another in the Philippines (May 20-24). The odds of any of them filling up are low, meaning all you need to do is sign up, punch your passport, and play and get points.
Xiamen has long been a regular host on the Beach Pro Tour, with 10 total events since 2016, and is one of the best, if not the best, stop in China. That one might fill, although I wouldn’t bet on it, and even if it does, it’s unlikely to haul in a top-tier field. While you might need more than zero points, you won’t need many.
India’s entry list is light, with just 42 total women’s teams signed up and 55 men’s teams, meaning if you had zero points and signed up, you’d be in the qualifier. Another way to put it: All but 10 women’s teams will make the main draw.
Meanwhile, Nuvali hasn’t up in any of the past three years hosting, for either the men or the women. I wouldn’t expect it to fill this year, either. It should be noted that the players who have played Nuvali have enjoyed it, and have nothing but excellent things to say about the event. It’s just expensive and hard to get to and doesn’t attract a huge base of players.
The back-to-back Challenge events in Mexico, in Tlaxcala — the host of the 2023 World Championships and legitimately one of the best cities in the world to play beach volleyball — and Nayarit in March should be tremendous. Mexico always does a wonderful job, and the events there attract full fields, even the NORCECAs. Those will be top-tier events, especially considering the back-to-back nature of them, only requiring one round-trip.
The other Challenge on the list, in Alanya, Turkey, June 10-14, should also be full and highly competitive. It’s a beautiful city, easy for the European-heavy Beach Pro Tour to get to, and the organizer there put on a well-run event in 2025.
Notable Scheduling Conflicts Between AVP and Beach Pro Tour
May 15-17: AVP Huntington Beach and Xiamen Challenge
This isn’t a massive conflict, as the top U.S. players will surely skip Xiamen to stay home for one of the best events in America. But the middling players on the AVP looking to climb the Beach Pro Tour ladder have a decision to make. I’d guess there will be anywhere from 3-5 teams skipping Huntington to take a swing at earning international points.
May 22-24: AVP Pompano Beach and Nuvali Challenge
Nuvali and Pompano will actually attract a somewhat similar paradigm of American player: one who is building points and working their way up the ladder on each respective tour. This conflict could pose an interesting choice for the up-and-comers: Take a chance in a light Beach Pro Tour field, or stay home and try and win some money — and spend less — while picking up some AVP points.
May 29-31: AVP Belmar and Ostrava Elite
Easily the biggest conflict on the schedule, the top American players will have to make a decision between one of the most historic AVP stops that has been resurrected this year, and the Iron Major of the Beach Pro Tour and one of the most well-oiled machines in beach volleyball. Because it’s not an Olympic qualifying year, my guess is most Americans will stay home and play Belmar, but a few might head overseas.
July 3-5: AVP Denver and Gstaad Elite
This isn’t really a conflict, since nobody who would be in the Gstaad field would actually skip Gstaad to play a lower tier AVP, even if Denver boasts the best prize money of any of the AVP Contender events. But they’re on the same weekend, and they’re two well-done events, and I just think Denver and Tom Davenport deserves its flowers.
August 14-16: AVP Manhattan and… Hamburg Elite?
This isn’t technically a conflict at the moment, but with Hamburg still being TBD, and the fact that it has hosted on this weekend in 2018, 2022, and 2023 makes it a potential conflict. In the end, however, no American in their right mind is skipping Manhattan to hit Hamburg during a non-Olympic qualifying year. So even if it winds up being a conflict, it really isn’t one — it just makes for more viewing for the beach volleyball fans at home.
