AVP professional Beach Volleyball: now this is a fan oriented sport! We were down in Hermosa Beach, CA, (which borders LA) and decided to check it out. What a fun day!
First of all, they set up a stadium right on the beach next to the Hermosa Beach Pier and about 20 yards from the surf. General admission is only $5 and we actually preferred those seats as they were up a little higher and I got good camera angles, but we were not very far away. But even if you don’t want to go into the stadium, you can watch games on courts outside the stadium for free. In fact, Kerri Walsh, Olympic champion, and her partner Rachel Wacholder played in an exciting match on a court right off of the Strand (a paved “boardwalk” that runs between the housing units and the beach) where anyone could watch.
Before we went in we cruised the tent shops set up outside the stadium and got various free samples like special ionized water and ice cream cookies (those were delicious!). Then we went in and saw April Ross and Jen Kessy (below in the yellow), recent world champions, win their match against Rafer Johnson’s (think 1984 Olympic gold medalist in the decathlon) daughter and partner. (My wife was introduced to Rafer at one of the tents and didn’t know who he was!). April and partner would go on to lose to Nicole Branagh (spiking below) and Elaine Youngs (serving above) in the championship.
Later we saw Todd Rogers (serving below) and Phil Dalhausser (blocking below) overwhelm their opponents: they were ranked #1 in the world and would go on to win this tournament to keep their ranking. After the match we walked right by the 6’9” Dalhausser while he was talking to some people. I’m sure we could have stopped and talked to him as well and gotten an autograph if we wanted. Now that’s accessibility!
The hottest it gets there is about 76 degrees, but if you get too sun soaked you can just go out the gate and catch a wave. They give you a stamp that is good for all day so you can go out to the pier and have lunch and shop or go for a swim. Then head back and watch some fantastically talented athletes with no pretenses play an extremely rigorous and physically demanding game.
I am an avid new fan of beach volleyball and so is my wife Julie (that's us at the top)!!! Check it out the next chance you get!