This is an excerpt from Travis Mewhirter and Gabby Reece’s new book, Volleyball for Dummies. You can order your copy on Amazon.
No. 5 Clearwater, Florida
With its sugar white sand that seems lifted straight out of a postcard, Clearwater is the finest place to play beach volleyball on the East Coast. The town is wonderful, the sand is beyond incredible, and the best part? The sand never gets hot! Because it’s white, it doesn’t absorb heat, so you can play all day long, no matter the weather, and your feet will be fine. Throw in a number of bars and shops near the Pier, and it’s the ideal spot to throw down a beach chair and play until the sun goes down.
No. 4 Oak Street Beach, Chicago, Illinois
Not too many people, at first blush, would put Chicago and beach volleyball together. But Chicago has, perhaps surprisingly, one of the most vibrant volleyball cultures in the United States. Home to an annual major tournament on Labor Day Weekend on Oak Street Beach, located on the shores of Lake Michigan, the stands are perpetually packed, filled to the brim with knowledgeable, excited fans. But even when there’s not a professional event in town, North Ave. and Oak Street are typically filled during the summer months with leagues and pickup.
No. 3 Huntington Beach, California
Down the coast of California we go! Huntington Beach was where Travis Mewhirter cut his teeth as a professional. More of a down-to-Earth, blue-collar coastal town, so to speak, Huntington is traditionally more open to casual games of pickup and generally more friendly for beginners than the professional hotbeds of Manhattan Beach and Hermosa. There are multiple nets on every block to play pickup, and Huntington will typically host a professional event of substantial magnitude on an annual basis.
No. 2 Hermosa Beach, California
The aptly named Hermosa Beach translates directly to Beautiful. It’s history in the sport is third Rio de Janeiro and Manhattan Beach, and it remains one of the most active beaches in terms of people regularly playing on it. It hosted its first professional event 10 years after the inaugural Manhattan Beach Open, and has been home to one of the biggest tournaments in the world nearly every year since. Like Manhattan Beach and Rio de Janeiro, Hermosa has produced more top-shelf talent than virtually any other city on the planet and is the training location of U.S.A. Volleyball. Like Rio and Manhattan Beach, Hermosa is also a tremendous place to play pickup, as there are nets for miles and miles and miles, and beautiful, deep sand to enjoy.
No. 1 Manhattan Beach, California
The Olympics are, of course, the beach volleyball tournament every player wants to win. But the Olympics are only every four years. There must be a tournament in between those four years that is the Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, the Super Bowl – pick your metaphor.
And there is: The Manhattan Beach Open.
It is the most storied event in beach volleyball, first held in 1960. The location of California’s South Bay is the obvious allure, as it is the very personification of a Beach Boys song, where the summers are endless and the cares are few. There is only one reasonable argument for a better place to play, and that is Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
But the history and legacy of the event are what make it truly spectacular. The winners will have their names engraved on a plaque that is cemented onto the Manhattan Beach Pier. Outside of an Olympic gold medal, there is no better prize.
If you’re not a professional, worry not: There are nets on the beach as far as the eye can see, ready for you to play pickup in one of beach volleyball’s most storied locations.
