I used to play a lot, back in Italy. We would come out from work, go to the beach, play two or three hours, swim a bit and then go out for the night. This would hap­pen about every day. We took it aw­fully se­ri­ously. We would go to the Italian na­tional cham­pi­onships and all. It was quite a big deal.

Seattle, on the other hand, is not too con­duc­tive to beach vol­ley. Not too many real beaches and all of them quite far (commute wise) from where I live. So I don’t play any­more, but I still like the game. One week­end or two each year, my wife and I go down to Los Angeles to watch AVP tour­na­ments. And man, it is a lot of fun!!

And, by the way, beach vol­ley has a lot go­ing for it. For the play­ers it is a low im­pact sport (the sand is soft). Plus you play the ball a lot, much more than in nor­mal vol­ley­ball (or even soc­cer). Your are al­ways in to the game, no place for hid­ing. It hap­pens un­der the sun, so you don’t get all the nasty prob­lem of not warm­ing up cor­rectly. And the en­vi­ron­ment oh man!! You are on the beach, not in some crazy smelling gym some­where. All in all, you got to love it.

Anyway, down mem­ory lane