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Manhattan Beach, CA
Tess’ cousin Kevin lives in Manhattan Beach, CA. He’s got a cool 2BR apartment a couple blocks from the beach. While we were there, the AVP Manhattan Beach Open beach volleyball tournament was happening a bit further along the beach. Beach volleyball is a sport I’m always excited about so I was keen to go check it out. Little did I know that this tournament was the crown of the AVP tournament series.
I knew something was up when we walked in (for free) and walked about 2 meters from Kerri Walsh, half of the best women’s volleyball team in history. As we got up to bleachers around the main court, Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers, the gold medalists in men’s beach volleyball in Beijing, were just starting. The match wasn’t particularly close (I think it was a quarterfinal), but it was amazing to watch these athletes, whom I’d only watched in person, do their thing right in front of me. The main difference I noted is that they look a lot dirtier in person. On TV, it never looks like the players ever have any sand on them, but in person, at least their chests are covered almost immediately.
After PD & TR were finished winning, we walked around for a little bit. Keven is working on getting into the pro beach volleyball circuit, so he had a bunch of friends who qualified for the Open and were playing that day he was checking in on. (I don’t think any of them won their first game, unfortunately).
When we wandered back to the main court, Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Traenor, women’s gold medalist in ‘08, were playing. In less than a half hour, I’d seen the best beach volleyball players in the world play before my eyes. It was a pretty awesome experience.
We wandered down to the beach in the late afternoon. After a quick nap, I decided to try my hand at body-boarding. Kevin and his roommate are really into it, so they’ve got a couple in their garage that we borrowed when we went down. It took me a while to get out far enough; the waves are a lot bigger on the Pacific. I tried to ride one wave, and got about 15 feet before the wave behind it dropped on top of me. I got slammed into the sand, lost the board, and got slammed a couple more times. Salt water filled my nose and mouth before I was finally able to get my head above the water. The rest of the day, my sinuses were perpetually draining, trying to get the excess salt out of my system.
