How I Spent My Winter Vacation

The King of the Beach and I

Volleyball, Morning, Noon, and Night

As you can tell from the picture, I spent a week this January at Club Med Turkoise with Eric Fonoimoana ( along with the other AVP players who joined us this time, including Jennifer Meredith, Sean Scott, Canyon Ceman, and Albert Hanneman. ) Eric is the 1998 King of the Beach (I'm the one with the programmers tan.) For the third time in as many years I have participated in what has to be the ultimate volleyball vacation: seven days at an all inclusive resort on a tropical beach with close to 100 volleyball players, and half a dozen AVP players. Since this was my third time I knew most of the participants, and most of the pro's. In fact a good number of the participants that went this time are Yankee members. We also had a chance to renew friendships with people we met on previous trips who came from New Jersey, Canada, Colorado, California and Washington state. What keeps bringing us back every year? Sometimes twice a year? Answer: It's a blast!
Imagine this routine:

You wake to the sun in the palm trees, have a leisurely breakfast, then head to the beach. Minutes later you have game on one of the doubles courts, or perhaps you prefer to warm-up with a game of fours first. Either way you play volleyball for a couple hours, take a dip in the warm ocean to get the sand off, towel off, throw some sandals on and head to lunch. After lunch it's time to head to the beach again. It's 1:30 and you can get a few more games in before the clinic at 2:30. After some more open play Albert Hanneman calls everyone in for the clinic. He and the other AVP players each take a turn going over how to position yourself for todays skill, then you are divided up into groups and drill for about half an hour. You get individual attention from the pro's as you put into practice what was talked about. After the drills you either have a tournament, or more open play, as the sun sets, around 6:30, you get in one last game, then head for your room get ready for dinner. After dinner you relax poolside with a cool drink. Then there's sixes on the hard court till two, or hit the disco and party with the pro's until the wee hours. Finally, you head back to your room to rest up for the next day. You wake to the sun in the palm trees...

Here's what you get for your seven day investment: Eight hours plus per day of beach volleyball, pickup play, tournaments, doubles, fours and sixes, with some of the friendliest, fun-loving, volleyball players from the North American continent. The level of play ranges from Yankee C or so, on up, but everyone comes with the right attitude (No Kumbaya verses needed!) The open play on the beach by itself is worth the price of admission.

Fonoi hits Albert's set as Canyon puts up a late block

A couple times over the week the AVP players put on an exhibition. It's a blast to watch these guys rise up out of the sand and bring the heat. Other than that the pro's are just real friendly, accessible and fun to hang out with. On my first trip I played doubles with Mike Dodd, he even joined us for some pickup fours. You also get six hours of instruction in the basic skills of beach volleyball by AVP players. Not only do they give pointers, each participant gets individual feedback on how to improve.

My favorite clinic is the digging clinic. The drill is intense. With your group lined up around the outside of the court each player takes a turn in the center of the court. You dig balls that the pro's slap at you from ten feet away. They alternate down balls, and up, and throw in an occasional corner shot. You crouch in the sand with your hands ready to dig, trying to control the ball, sprawling for one corner, remembering dig with the outside hand. As you hit the sand you hear the pro's and your friends around you, "Get up! One more! Get there! Get there!" You scramble back to the center, hands up and ready... BAM! it's a down ball, you pass it... BAM! this ones up, good thing your hands were ready... this goes on for what seems like a long time, you remember Eric's words "I feel like I should get my hands on every ball"... POP! deep line, you backpedal, turn and lunge, platform ready and pass one last ball! You did it! You make your way to the edge of the circle, spitting out the sand and prepare to cheer on your friends.

To see more pictures from past volleyball vacations, check out the photo albums section of the Volleyball Vacations web page: http://volleyballvacations.com/ We have also posted other details and stories etc. Our next trip is planned for September of 1999, and will probably be in Florida. As soon as we have details we will post them on the web page.
- Mike

© Copyright 1999 Michael Sullivan. All Rights Reserved.