It is time to say goodbye to 2019. As a final post of the year, I thought I’d give some shout-outs to the sources and personalities that have made creating the Beach Volley Blog so much fun. Here are my bests of 2019.

Best Beach Volleyball Podcast

This one goes to Sandcast with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. This show focuses on the American beach scene, but you’ll love it no matter where your favorite team is from. I love the insights into the life of a beach volleyball player. Whether it’s stories of ridiculous travel itineraries on the World Tour or what goes on in the AVP players tent, Tri and Travis keep it entertaining. They have amazing guests ranging from up and coming stars like Troy Field to beach legends like Mike Dodd and Tim Hovland. They also bring on coaches, broadcasters and even a referee. This podcast gives you all kinds of perspectives and personalities and makes following the sport even more entertaining.

Tri Bourne receives a serve at the Hamburg World Championships. When he’s not competing, he’s creating an excellent podcast with Travis Mewhirter. Photo by FIVB.

Shout-Out for Best Instagram Feed

Bounce Beach walks away with this one. If you found me on the internet, there is no doubt you are already following this amazing source of highlights. The amount of effort and time that Parker Conley puts into watching and finding the best plays from every tournament is truly amazing. He’s an aspiring player himself and I’m hoping he gets the chance to put his own world tour highlights on Bounce Beach someday. When he does, I’ll be sure to write up his progress on the Beach Volley Blog, too. If you aren’t able to live stream your favorite team’s big match, don’t worry about it, chances are Bounce Beach will show you what you missed within a day or two. Another plus is the trash talking between the pros in the comments.

Best Photographer

We’re going back to Instagram where I discovered Michael Gomez Photography. I think he’s the best there is at capturing the emotion of the biggest matches on the sand and nobody gets better action shots. You can’t shoot beach volleyball as well as he does without knowing the game inside and out. His love for the game comes through each post. Do your self a favor and follow his feed.

Team I Most Want to See Qualify for Tokyo

Of all the teams on the outside looking in right now, Italy’s Enrico Rossi and Adrian Carambula are the team I’m pulling for. If you’ve watched them play, then you know why. The FIVB agreed when they named Carambula the most entertaining of 2019. I would love to see them playing on beach volleyball’s biggest stage.

The Most Impactful Point

I could be totally wrong, but I have a hunch that if this point goes the other way we may have four American men’s teams battling for Tokyo. The setting is way back in early May there at the final Kuala Lumpur final. Reid Priddy and Theo Brunner are looking at the summer ahead and charting their path to Tokyo as a new partnership. They beat reigning world champion Andre Stein. They beat Theo’s old partner John Hyden.

In the final they jumped out to a huge lead over Olympic gold medalist and multi-time world champ Allison and his new partner Alvaro Filho. Their first set point against the Brazilians was at 20-17. Just score once in the next three points and they are on their way to gold in Malaysia. A hit that goes long, a bad pass and then this rally… So much heart by Alvaro in the heat and humidity and the Americans just couldn’t get the ball to go down. Theo and Reid went on to lose the match.

Reid and Theo didn’t earn enough points to get one of the USA’s places in Hamburg and later they lost in two five-star country quota matches. Was this the point that ended their Olympic dreams? Maybe not, but the narrative is hard to ignore. A gold medal over Brazil could have set them on a different trajectory. They parted ways this off season. Alison and Alvaro, on the other hand, added another gold and two silvers last summer and are now second in the Olympic rankings.

Team on the Rise

Germany’s Laura Ludwig won a gold medal in Rio in 2016, won a world championship in 2017 and then had the biggest prize of all, a new baby. She took a year and a half off and came back to form a new partnership in 2019. Margareta Kozuch joined her to make another Olympic run. The excitement was immense when she returned to the sand, but the results didn’t follow immediately. The Germans toiled all summer long but earned a lot of 25th place finishes with some 17ths, and 9ths. That is, until they struck gold at the five-star World Tour Finals in Rome. In their last tournament of the season, Laura and Margareta took on the world and beat them all. Sure, 2019 belonged to Canada, USA and Brazi, but when the stakes are at their highest in Tokyo next summer, look out for these two.

Laura Ludwig and Margareta Kozuch celebrate their victory in the Rome World Tour Finals. Photo by FIVB.

Most Helpful Beach Volleyball Source

I am so thankful for bvbinfo.com. I feel like I refer to bvbinfo about 15 times for every post I write. As I explained in my about page, I missed many years of beach volleyball’s evolution, so bvbinfo is a lifesaver for me. From seemingly ancient volleyball history to the matchups in a country qualifier one week ago, bvbinfo is the first page on my favorites list. If you are a stats geek like me, you definitely need to check bvbinfo out.

Brightest Future

Of course the real answer to this one is Anders Mol and Christian Sorum of Norway, but that isn’t very creative. I’m going with Renato Lima. He and his twin brother Rafael won the U21 World Championships last May. That is after he won the same event with a different partner in 2017 and the U19 Worlds in 2016. He entered his first FIVB World Tour event with his twin in August and, of course, walked away with gold. His page on bvbinfo lists four tournaments and four gold medals. That is a pretty impressive resume. He’s 192 cm tall (6’4″), and I don’t know if he is still growing. He may not be tall enough to become an elite blocker for Brazil, but he is a good enough athlete to play defense behind a Brazilian giant and make winning tournaments look easy.

Renato Lima executes a perfect wrist away at the U21 World Championships. Photo by FIVB.

Favorite Competition

Most people will disagree, but I’m giving a shout-out to the Continental Cup. Some say the Olympics isn’t all it could be because teams are invited from every continent. I understand that point of view, but I also love the fact that teams from Sierra Leone and the Virgin Islands still have their Olympic dreams alive this winter. The African representatives have never won a medal in beach volleyball. In fact, from what I can tell, they’ve only won one match (shout-out to South Africa’s men in 2004). They won’t be taking home any medals this year either, but how amazing it must be to walk through the opening ceremonies at an Olympic Games behind your nations flag and take it all in. Making Olympic heroes of players from countries with very little beach volleyball history is a great way to grow the game across the globe. Who knows, maybe there are a couple of 10-year-olds in Ethiopia that will win gold medals in 2032 because of this competition.

Your Favorite Post

Thanks again to all of you faithful readers. From your notes and the stats on page views, I can tell a lot of you are into the numbers. You regularly visit the Olympic ranking (men’s and women’s) and qualification status (men’s and women’s) pages, so I guess it should be no surprise that your favorite Beach Volley Blog post of the year was my explanation of points and rankings. If you missed it the first time, you should make it your New Year’s resolution to read it soon.

Thanks gain to all of you for making 2019 a great success. I can’t wait to follow the exciting twists and turns that remain on the road to Tokyo with you in 2020!