Beach volleyball

Beach volleyball is a team sport played on sand, with a net dividing the court. Two teams, each consisting of two to six players, compete to land the ball on the opponents’ side while preventing the other team from doing the same on their own side. Teams are allowed a maximum of three touches to return the ball over the net, and no player may hit the ball twice in a row—unless one of those touches comes from an attempted block, which then leaves only two more touches before the ball must go over. A serve starts each rally, with the server hitting from behind the back boundary line. The receiving team typically uses its three touches to pass, set, and attack the ball back over the net. On defense, one player usually blocks at the net while another covers the sand behind. The rally continues until the ball hits the ground in bounds, goes out, or a fault occurs. The team winning a rally scores a point and earns the right to serve next. Players serve in the same order throughout the match, switching servers only when the receiving team wins a rally.

The sport likely began in 1915 on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii, but the modern two-player version emerged in Santa Monica, California, where the first beach volleyball courts were set up. Beach volleyball became an Olympic sport at the 1996 Summer Olympics. The Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) governs the sport internationally and runs the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships and the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.

**History**

Beach volleyball is a variation of indoor volleyball, which William G. Morgan invented in 1895. The beach version most likely started in 1915 at the Outrigger Canoe Club on Waikiki Beach. According to a 1978 interview with a club member, George David “Dad” Center set up a net there, leading to the first recorded game. In 1920, new jetties in Santa Monica, California, created a large sandy area for public use, which helped the sport develop in that region. Permanent nets appeared, and people began playing recreationally on public beaches and at private beach clubs. Eleven such clubs opened in the Santa Monica area starting in late 1922, and the first inter-club competitions took place in 1924.

Early matches often had six or more players per side, like indoor volleyball. The modern two-man game is credited to Paul “Pablo” Johnson of the Santa Monica Athletic Club. In the summer of 1930, while waiting for more players to arrive for a six-man game, Johnson decided to try playing with just the four people present, forming two two-man teams for the first recorded beach volleyball doubles match. Players soon realized that fewer players on the court meant a taller player’s height advantage could be offset by a shorter player’s speed and ball control. The two-man game spread to other beach clubs and eventually to public courts. Today, the two-player version is the most common and the only one played at an elite level.

Beach volleyball grew in popularity in the United States during the Great Depression of the 1930s because it was cheap. The sport also appeared in Europe around that time. By the 1940s, doubles tournaments for trophies were held on Santa Monica beaches. In 1948, the first tournament to offer a prize—a case of Pepsi—took place in Los Angeles. In the 1960s, an attempt to start a professional league in Santa Monica failed, but a professional tournament in France offered 30,000 French francs. The first Brazilian beach volleyball tournament, sponsored by a newspaper company, was held in the 1950s. The first Manhattan Beach Open took place in 1960, and it later became known by some as the “Wimbledon of Beach Volleyball.”

During the 1960s, the sport gained further attention: The Beatles tried playing in Los Angeles, and President John F. Kennedy was seen attending a match. In 1974, an indoor tournament called “The $1500.00 World Indoor Two-Man Volleyball Championship” was held in front of 4,000 fans at the San Diego Sports Arena, sponsored by Winston Cigarettes. Fred Zuelich and Dennis Hare beat Ron Von Hagen and Matt Gage in the final. Dennis Hare later wrote the first book on beach volleyball, *The Art of Beach Volleyball*.

The first professional beach volleyball tournament was the Olympia World Championship of Beach Volleyball, held on Labor Day weekend in 1976 at Will Rogers State Beach in Pacific Palisades, California. David Wilk of *Volleyball* magazine organized it. Greg Lee and Jim Menges won, becoming the first “world champions,” and split US$2,500 from a total prize purse of US$5,000. The next year, *Volleyball* magazine staged the event at the same location, sponsored by Schlitz Light Beer. In 1978, Wilk formed a sports promotion company called Event Concepts with Craig Masuoka and moved the World Championship to Redondo Beach, California. Jose Cuervo became the sponsor, and the prize purse grew. The event succeeded, and Cuervo funded an expansion to three events the following year. The California Pro Beach Tour then debuted with events in Laguna Beach and Santa Barbara.