SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter
373 episodes - English - Latest episode: 2 days ago - ★★★★★ - 131 ratingsSANDCAST is the first and leading beach volleyball podcast in the world. Hosts Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter take listeners into the world of the AVP, Volleyball World and any other professional beach volleyball outlets, digging deep into the lives of the players both on and off the court as well as all of the top influencers in the game.
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Episodes
Road to Paris: Chase Budinger and Miles Evans have taken the driver's seat
May 06, 2024 22:12 - 16 minutes - 29.9 MBOn this episode of the Road to Paris, Travis Mewhirter breaks down the race to the Paris Olympic Games after the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Brasilia Elite16. The main storylines are: Zoe Verge-Depre and Esmee Bobner retake the lead (again) over Anouk Verge-Depre and Joana Mader with a critical bronze medal Matthew Immers and Steven van de Velde’s first Elite16 medal (and finals) couldn’t have come at a better time, and they are now just behind Alex Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen in the N...
Abby Van Winkle: The rookie whose volleyball career is only up from here
May 01, 2024 13:27 - 1 hour - 153 MBThis episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features a new guest! Abby Van Winkle joins the podcast fresh off a successful debut on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, in which she and Savvy Simo – who also joins as a host/guest – won a bronze medal at a NORCECA before stunning Anouk Verge-Depre and Joana Mader in the qualifier of the Guadalajara Challenge to make main draw. Van Winkle has been an up and coming talent for a while now, beginning when she ...
Road to Paris: The Grimalts just did THAT! Ittlinger-Borger win first gold, Anouk retakes the lead
April 29, 2024 21:17 - 20 minutes - 37.1 MBOn this episode of the Road to Paris, Travis Mewhirter breaks down the race to the Paris Olympic Games following the Xiamen Challenge on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. As the Olympic race winds down, it just gets wilder and wilder and wilder, as: Marco Grimalt and Esteban Grimalt won their first medal of the Olympic qualifying period, coming out of the qualifier to win gold Chase Budinger and Miles Evans playing some of their worst volleyball…and also some of their best to take a fou...
Zana Muno: Rediscovering Herself on the Trip of a Lifetime
April 24, 2024 14:02 - 1 hour - 124 MBThis episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features our most popular guest of all-time: Zana Muno. Zana has had the most interesting few years, playing with some of the greatest in the game – Sarah Pavan, Brandie Wilkerson, Kerri Walsh Jennings, to name a few – but has struggled to maintain consistency on the court. Feeling burned out after a last place finish at AVP Chicago a year ago, she applied to a farming program she’d dreamed of attending – and wa...
Road to Paris: Cuba -- SHARPIE! And Switzerland still loves Mexico
April 22, 2024 21:40 - 10 minutes - 19.2 MBOn this episode of The Road to Paris, Travis Mewhirter breaks down the most recent Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour event: The Tepic Elite16. Switzerland's Nina Brunner and Tanja Huberli won their first gold medal as a team, while Sweden's David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig continue their absurd finals run, with seven straight now and a second straight gold in Tepic. We chat all about that, as well as: - Cuba's Jorge Alayo and Noslen Diaz, a bronze medal, and the long-awaited SHARPIE!! - Sarah...
Hendrik Mol, Mathias Berntsen: How the Beach Volley Vikings are Changing Beach Volleyball
April 17, 2024 13:32 - 1 hour - 176 MBThis episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features two of Norway’s Beach Volley Vikings: Hendrik Mol and Mathias Berntsen. Hendrik and Berntsen are enjoying a normal learning curve and path to success, a several-years buildup that seems almost flat when compared to the rocket ship that has been Anders Mol and Christian Sorum. If the Olympics were to happen today, for the first time ever, Norway would have two teams in the Games. That’s how good Hendrik ...
Road to Paris: Comeback Kings, Qualifier Queens, and Sensational Swiss
April 15, 2024 13:29 - 8 minutes - 16.2 MBThis episode of the Road to Paris, breaking down the Olympic beach volleyball race with Travis Mewhirter, recaps the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Guadalajara Challenge. What a weekend it was, especially fun since we brought Daniel Freitas, aka Producer Thrito, along for the ride, and he cranked out highlight after highlight and provides us with a ton of sweet b roll in this episode. We break down: Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner becoming the comeback kings, winning all five matches in thre...
Melissa Humana-Paredes, Brandie Wilkerson and the complete overhaul of Canada's top team
April 10, 2024 15:02 - 1 hour - 148 MBThis episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes, one of the best beach volleyball teams in the world coming off a silver medal at the season-opening Doha Elite16 – a tournament in which they alas vanquished Brazilians Ana Patricia Silva and Duda Lisboa. We chat all about Doha, as well as Their first year together as partners, and the various lessons they learned Why, in spite of 10 tournaments without a ...
Miles Partain, Andy Benesh, and the mindset shift that changed everything
April 03, 2024 13:36 - 1 hour - 168 MBThis episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter features one of the best and brightest teams in all of beach volleyball: Miles Partain and Andy Benesh. This is, honestly, maybe the best, most insightful, most vulnerable episode we’ve ever done, and I cannot recommend it enough. Miles Partain and Andy Benesh chat about: Their experiences and growth as professional beach volleyball players. They reflect on key moments in their careers, such as their first podi...
Road to Paris: Brazil mens' race winds down while USA men, Canadian women heat up
April 01, 2024 23:23 - 27 minutes - 50.8 MBWelcome back to the Road to Paris, where Travis Mewhirter breaks down the race to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. This episode follows the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Recife Challenge and Saquarema Challenge, covering: - How Evandro Goncalves and Arthur Mariano just delivered the knockout punch to Pedro Salgado and Guto Carvalhaes - Sophie Bukovec and Heather Bansley making a surge up the rankings, contending for the second Canadian spot - Laura Ludwig and Louisa Lippmann's massive silv...
Tim Brewster, Kyle Friend, and the most unique partnership in beach volleyball
March 27, 2024 10:35 - 1 hour - 149 MBIn this episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, we have one of the most unique teams on the AVP and Beach Pro Tours in Tim Brewster and Kyle Friend. What makes them unique? They are, as far as we know, the only male partners who are also dating, making for a fascinating dynamic on and off the court. We get into that, as well as: Their recent NORCECA win, and the pros and cons of competing in NORCECAs vs. Beach Pro Tour Futures events The uncertainty of t...
Sophie Bukovec, and the invaluable lessons from a "not exactly seamless" three years
March 20, 2024 11:34 - 1 hour - 132 MBThis episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Sophie Bukovec, one of the top players in Canada and a silver medalist at the 2022 Beach Volleyball World Championships. The last three years haven’t been, as Bukovec says, “exactly seamless,” with three partners in as many seasons, but like when most things don’t go to plan, Bukovec came away with a bounty of lessons, and a new perspective on life, both as a player and not. We chat all about that, as w...
Sam Schachter, Dan Dearing, and the New Culture of Canada's Top Team
March 13, 2024 14:16 - 1 hour - 161 MBThis episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features our annual Spring-is-here episode with our neighbors up North: Sam Schachter and Dan Dearing. Per usual, they dropped by Hermosa Beach for a month for a pre-season training camp, gearing up for a final push at the 2024 Paris Olympics. On this episode, we chatted about: What lessons Sam Schachter and Dan Dearing learned from a very full 2023 season The new standards of their coach, Srdjan Veckov, and w...
Road to Paris: Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot Just Did That
March 11, 2024 14:19 - 20 minutes - 37.6 MBThis episode of The Road to Paris, Travis Mewhirter’s breakdown of the Olympic Beach Volleyball race to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, follows the season-opening Doha Elite16, where Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot won a shocking gold (not shocking that they won, but shocking in how they did it), Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova took a critical fourth, Laura Ludwig and Louisa Lippmann made the most of their wild card, and Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner continued tacking onto their lea...
Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth set out to "rewrite the script." They've done that and more
March 06, 2024 14:26 - 1 hour - 139 MBThis episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter features an annual fan-favorite: Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth. In for a month-long training camp in California, Nuss and Kloth are perhaps the most unique team in the sport, and maybe the most unique pair USA Volleyball has ever had. Living in Louisiana? Five-foot-6 defender? A blocker from South Dakota? And they’re…No. 2 in the world? How does that happen? We chat all about it, as well as: The moment they reali...
Road to Paris: 10 Events, 3 Months, 1 Last Sprint for the Olympics
March 04, 2024 15:05 - 21 minutes - 40.1 MBWelcome back to the Road to Paris! Travis Mewhirter previews the final three months of the Olympic qualification cycle, which is about to begin with this week's Doha Elite16. Doha kicks off a sprint of the next three months, which feature 10 events on four continents. On this episode: - Travis provides a statistical analysis projecting the odds for every team remaining in the race - Why Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk still have a 7.9% shot at qualifying - Explains why the top 13 men's teams,...
Michael Gervais: How to Stop Worrying About What Other People Think of You
February 28, 2024 14:38 - 1 hour - 151 MBThis episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Michael Gervais, one of the most well-known sports psychologists in the world and the man who worked with Misty May-Treanor, Kerri Walsh Jennings, and April Ross and is currently working with Olympians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson. Gervais is the host of the Finding Mastery podcast, which boasts more than 25 million downloads, and is the new author of the book, The First Rule of Mastery:...
John Mayer Is Coaching His Brains Out -- And Winning Big
February 21, 2024 15:36 - 1 hour - 140 MBThis episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball With Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features one of our favorite coaches in the world: John Mayer. As a player, Mayer was one of the best defenders of his generation, the 2015 AVP Defensive Player of the Year and the 2015 AVP MVP. Since 2018, he has been a full-time coach, leading the LMU Beach Volleyball team to new heights: four straight WCC Championships, four straight WCC Coach of the Year honors, and three consecutive berths in to the NCAA Ch...
Mailbag! Talking AVP Schedule, Hand-setting rules, Olympic Race, Tri and Chaim's New Coach
February 14, 2024 14:39 - 1 hour - 128 MBThis episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, is our season-opening mailbag episode. As always, thank y’all tons for the questions. If you want to ask a question for the pod, drop one in the comments section or send us a DM on Instagram. With the AVP schedule being released the day before we recorded, much of the conversation centered around that, as well as: What are the young guns to keep an eye out for on the AVP this year? Our thoughts on the new AVP ...
Dain Blanton, Megan Kraft, Delaynie Maple and USC are gunning for four straight titles
February 07, 2024 16:05 - 1 hour - 129 MBAt USC Beach Volleyball, Dain Blanton, Delaynie Maple and Megan Kraft are looking to do something unprecedented in the world of NCAA Beach Volleyball: Win four consecutive NCAA Championships. They’ve won three straight, with 2023 being the biggest surprise of the bunch, if there is such a thing at USC. Now, they’re back for a fourth, doing everything they can to not think about winning a fourth straight. We chatted all about that, as well as: How the USC team culture continues to produce wi...
UCLA Beach Volleyball's Big Three Are Hunting An NCAA Championship
January 31, 2024 15:25 - 1 hour - 129 MBThe UCLA Beach Volleyball team has been one of the most dominant in the young history of NCAA Beach Volleyball. Three of its four decorated seniors – Jaden Whitmarsh, Devon Newberry, Lexy Denaburg – came on SANDCAST to chat about the last dance for this group, and how much winning the elusive NCAA Championship would mean, especially in a transition year with a new head coach in Jenny Johnson Jordan. We covered a wide variety of topics, including: What the program is like under Johnson Jorda...
Betsi Flint: The Supermom of Professional Beach Volleyball
January 24, 2024 15:20 - 1 hour - 112 MBBetsi Flint is, at 31 years old, somehow a veteran on the AVP and Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, a seven-time AVP champion who is currently ranked in the top 10 in the world alongside Julia Scoles. But she is far more than another talented defender. Flint occupies a rare space in the world of beach volleyball: A mom who continues to make her full-time living playing the sport. We chatted quite a bit about mom life, as well as: The difficulty of timing a pregnancy for a female athlete Fli...
Cody Caldwell's Beach Volleyball Career Is Thriving On Fun
January 17, 2024 14:00 - 1 hour - 144 MBCody Caldwell is one of the faster-rising talents in beach volleyball, both on the AVP and Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. After playing indoors in Greece and France, Caldwell decided to “try my hand on the beach,” and the results have been promising, with three career Tour Series wins and three third place finishes in 2023 alone. All of this has been done with one goal in mind: Fun – and he’s maximizing it and thriving because of it. We chat about: Why Caldwell decided to switch to beach ...
Corinne Quiggle’s 2023 didn’t go as planned, and it was perfect
January 10, 2024 15:02 - 1 hour - 158 MBCorinne Quiggle had one of the most volatile seasons of her burgeoning beach volleyball career. From losing in three straight qualifiers and barbequing in the first AVP of the year, she took that adversity and flipped it into the first AVP win of her career, in Hermosa Beach with Sarah Schermerhorn. What once looked like an awful start actually set her up to enjoy the most unforgettable year to date, capped by a bronze medal at the Pan American Games. We chat all about that, as well as: How...
Matt Prosser: ”Coming Full Circle” From Playing to Coaching to Broadcasting and Cancer
January 03, 2024 16:00 - 1 hour - 156 MBMatt Prosser is one of the most well-rounded talents in the sport of volleyball. An All-American at Long Beach State, Prosser took his size to the beach, where he won an AVP with Matt Olson and enjoyed immense success with John Mayer. In 2018, despite having been only a year out from chemotherapy, Prosser qualified for the Manhattan Beach Open with Eric Beranek, retiring afterwards on his own terms. Now, he’s a voice you’ll recognize on AVP and Volleyball TV broadcasts as a commentator for t...
Best of SANDCAST 2023: The Top Moments From Every Guest, From Andy Benesh to Zana Muno
December 27, 2023 14:26 - 1 hour - 130 MBThis episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball With Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter is a unique one: The top moment from every single podcast we did this year from A – Andy Benesh, April Ross – to Z – Zana Muno, and everywhere in between – Miles Partain, Taylor Crabb, Taylor Sander, you get it. This was, by a long, long, long shot, the most successful year the podcast has had, exploding through records in every single metric, from YouTube to audio to engagement. We wanted to THANK YOU for stick...
FINAL Road to Paris of 2023: Sharpies, Contenders, Dark Horses for the Paris Olympics
December 26, 2023 16:00 - 31 minutes - 57 MBThis is the FINAL Road to Paris of a long and wonderful 2023 beach volleyball season. This is a comprehensive recap of which teams are all but assured spots in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games – aka SHARPIED! – which teams are favored and in contention of the remaining spots, and which teams are the dark horses vying for the few spots remaining. As always, if you have any questions about the complicated Olympic qualifying process, I’d LOVE to answer them. Always happy to help and chat Olympic be...
Mailbag Episode! Our thoughts on the new AVP? Olympic predictions?! Best moments of 2023
December 20, 2023 16:25 - 1 hour - 126 MBThis episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter is our always-popular, semi-monthly mailbag episode. And boy oh boy did we have questions for this one, largely on the same topic: What’s up with the new AVP and its proposed league model? We delve into that for a large portion of the episode, as well as: What are our Paris 2024 predictions? What does off-season look like for professional beach volleyball players? What are our best, worst, and funniest moments...
Jump Higher, Hit harder, Play Better, With Volleyball Strength Coach Nathan Michaels
December 13, 2023 15:38 - 1 hour - 189 MBThis episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, is with volleyball strength and conditioning coach, and the man whom Mewhirter calls the “knee whisperer,” Nathan Michaels. Mewhirter began working with Michaels in 2021…and hasn’t taken a single Ibuprofen since, playing pain free, as strong and mobile as he’s ever been, all the while playing the best beach volleyball of his career. Michaels is a huge reason for that. This episode might be the most useful and ...
Mason Briggs: The Trailblazing Libero Who Built A 100k-plus Following
December 06, 2023 16:48 - 1 hour - 164 MBThis episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Mason Briggs, an All-American at Long Beach State and one of the best liberos in the world. But he’s far more than that. Briggs is a trailblazer, a 22-year-old who has amassed one of the biggest followings in all of NCAA Volleyball, a following he is using to expand the reach of the game in new and innovative ways, such as trading cards. We talked all about that, as well as: Where Briggs’ entrepreneuri...
Daniel ”Frito” Freitas: The content machine who escaped the 9-5 to ”do fun” for a living
November 29, 2023 15:54 - 1 hour - 164 MBDaniel “Frito” Freitas is one of the most prolific content creators on the AVP Tour. Ever wonder where many of those videos come from that so many players – Molly Turner, Tri Bourne, Zana Muno, Trevor Crabb, David Schweiner, Kelly Cheng, Ondrej Perusic, you name it – post with virality on their social media accounts? A large percentage of those are shot, edited, and produced by Frito, the man behind the camera for all of our World Champs coverage and for Tri Bourne’s Bourne on the Beach vlog...
Road to Paris: Dutchmen are Flying, China is Rising, Qatar is Returning, Chase and Miles Are Surging
November 28, 2023 15:55 - 22 minutes - 41 MBThis episode of The Road to Paris breaks down the two most recent @volleyballworld events, a Challenge in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and an Elite16 in Joao Pessoa, Brazil. The highlights, per Travis Mewhirter, are: - A Netherlands race that is heating up with a gold won by Steven van de Velde and Matthew Immers and a bronze taken by Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot - George and Andre reasserting themselves as the top team in Brazil - Chen Xue and Xinyi Xia: SHARPIE! - Chase Budinger and ...
Terese Cannon: Scrapping a six-year Olympic plan to ’go play because you like playing’
November 22, 2023 16:18 - 1 hour - 149 MBThis episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter features Terese Cannon, who is annually one of the world’s most improved players. Initially an indoor player for Georgetown, Cannon transferred to USC, won a handful of National Championships, and has since become one of the top blockers in the USA. A run at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games with Sarah Sponcil was abruptly called off after Sponcil switched to indoor, but Cannon is now back on track with, unexpectedly,...
Seain Cook: ”An idiot who plays beach volleyball? That’s good.”
November 15, 2023 17:00 - 1 hour - 179 MBThis episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Seain Cook, one of the funniest personalities in the entire sport of beach volleyball – or just volleyball as a whole – who is also, despite what his Instagram might lead you to believe, a very, very good player. Had it not been for his own partner, Cody Caldwell, Cook would have been the 2023 Most Improved Player, after a season in which he won both the Waupaca and Laguna Beach Tour Series events and f...
Megan Rice was always ”just one opportunity away” from her massive breakout season
November 08, 2023 16:35 - 1 hour - 142 MBThis episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter features Megan Rice, or Megan J. Rice, or M.J. She’s gone by a number of different names throughout her 2023 season, one in which she won the VolleyballMag Rookie of the Year. Rice was the year’s biggest breakthrough star, on both the men’s and the women’s side, exploding onto the scene at AVP Hermosa Beach, where she and Savvy Simo – on just one practice as a team – made it to the finals. She was then the AVP’s ...
Road To Paris: Maybe those USA partnership changes weren’t such a bad move after all
November 07, 2023 16:08 - 29 minutes - 53.2 MBThis past December was a wild one for USA Volleyball on the men's side. Tri Bourne dumped Trevor Crabb to pick up Chaim Schalk, and Theo Brunner then picked up Trevor Crabb. Chase Budinger scooped Miles Evans, while Miles Partain and Andy Benesh confirmed their partnership, and Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander stuck together. Eleven months later, were the partnership changes a good move? With three of the four semifinalists at the Haikou Challenge USA men, and four USA teams now in the top-2...
Fall Mailbag! Tri Bourne on the hot seat! Why doesn’t the AVP stream on YouTube? Where’s Sponcil?
November 01, 2023 16:12 - 1 hour - 139 MBTri Bourne made a landscape-altering decision this winter, dumping Trevor Crabb and picking up Chaim Schalk instead. The results thus far haven't backed up that decision, and our semi-monthly mailbag on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball With Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter was chock full of questions about that decision. So our episode today put Bourne on the hot seat, answering the question: Does he regret dumping Trevor for Chaim? As well as: Why doesn’t the AVP stream on YouTube anymore? Is Sa...
DJ Klasnic is living the volleyball dream and then some
October 25, 2023 16:00 - 1 hour - 196 MBDJ Klasnic is arguably the best Serbian beach volleyball player ever – the first to win a medal (in 2017 with Lazar Kolaric) and then the first to win a gold medal (in 2022 with Kolaric). Now, after six years of trying, Klasnic is alas competing on the AVP Tour. What a rookie season he had: six AVP main draws, a seventh in New Orleans, ninth in Huntington and Chicago, with a win over Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander. When the Volleyball Magazine awards come out on Thursday, he’ll be the Rooki...
Steve Obradovich, and the revival of fours beach volleyball
October 18, 2023 14:59 - 1 hour - 150 MBSteve Obradovich is reviving fours beach volleyball in the United States with the Newport Beach Volleyball Invitational on October 21st. It features a star-studded field of both players and sponsors alike, with the teams being: Taylor Crabb, Taylor Sander, Nick Lucena and Alex Ranghieri; Sean Rosenthal, Jake Gibb, Miles Partain, and Andy Benesh Troy Field, Casey Patterson, Chase Frishman, and Brenden Sander For the women, the teams are Kelly Cheng, Sarah Sponcil, Toni Rodriguez, and Emil...
The Road to Paris: WORLD CHAMPIONS! And a historical weekend in Mexico
October 17, 2023 16:18 - 25 minutes - 46.1 MBKelly Cheng and Sara Hughes are the 2023 Beach Volleyball World Champions! Becoming the first @USAVolleyball team to win a World Championship gold medal since April Ross and Jen Kessy did so in 2009. Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth added a bronze medal to the slate, becoming the first American team to win a World Championship bronze medal since Liz Masakayan and Elaine Youngs in 1999 -- which was also the same year multiple USA teams won a World Championship medal. Big weekend. On the men's...
Hailey Harward: Playing ”like a kid on the playground” with gratitude and joy
October 11, 2023 15:36 - 1 hour - 134 MBHailey Harward is one of the brightest young talents making her rise up both the AVP and Volleyball World rankings. A year after winning her first AVP as a rookie in Fort Lauderdale, Harward bumped her average finish on Tour to nearly a fifth, tripled her international prize money, increased her AVP prize money by 38% and, oh yes, got picked up by Alix Klineman and scooped a wild card into the Beach Volleyball World Championships. So yes, it’s been a big year for Hailey Harward, and we chat...
Road to Paris, World Champs Edition: SIX USA teams win pool
October 10, 2023 15:20 - 6 minutes - 12.2 MBThe Beach Volleyball World Championships have arrived, and we are halfway through, with six @USAVolleyball teams winning their pool: Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth, Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles, Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft, Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner, and Miles Partain and Andy Benesh. But as anyone knows: The real tournament begins Wednesday, where it's single elimination from here on forward. ENJOY! *** We FINALLY have an alcohol sponsor, y'all! Bartend...
Kelly Cheng and Jordan Cheng, ”get to dream together” as husband-wife, player-coach
October 04, 2023 15:45 - 1 hour - 173 MBKelly Cheng and Sara Hughes are one of the best teams in the world, currently ranked No. 4 in the Olympic race, with a gold medal in Tepic, silver in Gstaad, and two AVP wins in 2023. They’re also coached by Kelly’s husband, Jordan, which has created, as you might be able to guess, an interesting dynamic, one that is both a dream and also extremely difficult. It’s working, both on the court – they are one of the top teams on the planet – and off – they are still happily married. We chatted a...
Road To Paris: Ana Patricia and Duda vs. The World
October 03, 2023 16:44 - 25 minutes - 46 MBWelcome back to the Road To Paris, where Travis Mewhirter breaks down the race to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France. On this episode, Mewhirter breaks down the most recent @volleyballworld Elite16 in Paris, less than a year from the Olympics, which will be hosted right down the street from Roland Garros. We chat about: - The growing dominance of Ana Patricia and Duda, who have now won as many Elite16 gold medals (4) as the rest of the world - Alex Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen gettin...
Laird Hamilton and Gabby Reece: The Good Stewards of The High Performance Community
September 27, 2023 13:54 - 1 hour - 182 MBLaird Hamilton and Gabby Reece have built one of the most extraordinary communities in the world, as top performers in virtually all industries, from the NFL and NBA to Hollywood A-Listers to MMA, big wave surfers, and everyone in between – including volleyball – gravitate towards their home for workouts, good conversation, and downright decadent coffee. Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter took a trip up to the Laird Compound to get a little pool workout and a podcast with Laird and Gabby, chatt...
Jon Alvarez, Volleyball Life, and ”volleyball people doing cool things for volleyball”
September 20, 2023 15:36 - 1 hour - 176 MBJon Alvarez is the founder and CEO of Volleyball Life, the leading tournament software in all of beach volleyball, running more than 3,000 events in 2023 alone – a 70 percent increase from 2022. But Volleyball Life is more than that – much more. It’s one of the top resources for college coaches to scout juniors, as it has an extensive database of nearly every junior player in the country, his or her results, rankings, points, and anything else you’d want to know. It has been fun to watch Vol...
Trevor Crabb is always taking receipts. Now he’s literally cashing in
September 13, 2023 15:16 - 1 hour - 146 MBTrevor Crabb has won more AVP tournaments than any player in the last five years. And yet…people still bet against him. And people are still being proven wrong. Crabb made good on his $500 wager that he’d beat Andy Benesh and Miles Partain the next time he and Theo Brunner played them. That next time came in the finals of AVP Chicago, which makes Crabb and Brunner tied for first in wins on the AVP this season, second in points per event in the USA Olympic race, and proving people wrong, as a...
The 3X NCAA Champion Nourse Twins have ”nothing else but to be themselves”
September 06, 2023 15:23 - 1 hour - 137 MBThe Nourse Twins – Audrey Nourse and Nicole Nourse – are three-time NCAA Champions as starters as USC, something no other women’s program has ever done at Southern Cal. Now, as fall season gets underway, they’re looking for an unprecedented fourth consecutive National Championship. We chatted all about their success as USC, as well as: Why they decided to flip their commitment from Stanford to USC What the culture is like on a team that included an Olympian (Tina Graudina), AVP champions (...
Road to Paris: $1M purse, Olympic bids, massive points -- a full preview of the World Championships
September 04, 2023 15:09 - 22 minutes - 42 MBThe field for the 2023 Beach Pro Tour World Championships has been set! With Wednesday’s drawing of the lots, all 48 teams per gender have been placed into their respective pools. There are some good draws, some bad draws – and huge opportunities all around. On this episode of The Road to Paris, Travis Mewhirter breaks down the World Championships field, including: Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk getting put in the pool of death Alix Klineman and Hailey Harward’s massive opportunity Betsi Fli...
Taylor Crabb, Taylor Sander, and ”the most satisfying victory in the world”
August 30, 2023 14:29 - 1 hour - 133 MBTaylor Crabb and Taylor Sander are, alas, Manhattan Beach Open champions. The world feels right, properly balanced, with Taylor Crabb on the Pier. As for Sander? It took the guy just two shots – two! – to get his name on the Pier. That’s insane. We chat all about their win at the Manhattan Beach Open, as well as a number of other topics y’all are going to love, including: Why Sander thought they had no chance of winning when he woke up Sunday morning How a trash talker ruined the hopes of...