G'day I'm Spike. I believe that there needs to be a outlet for people to have a bitch about anything. From the colour of the balls to the way a TD runs the tournie. Lets get one thing straight right of the proverbial bat....

These are not the views of the author of this site, I am an independant person in the Volleyball community that gets the shits alot and I'm not afraid to speak my piece.

If you, as readers, have any grips you would like to let loose on the beach community feel free to drop me a line at australianbeachvolleyball@hotmail.com and the authors will be sure to forward it on to me.

January 2002

Happy New Year! Well another year goes. I hope that everybody is well and fit for the summer and year ahead.

This time of year sees the beginning of a new era on the Pro Tour. With a new group running the events, they hold the future of the sport in their hands. I wish them well and good luck. Lets hope they hold the sport in the same high regard as the players do.

Although what's an entry here with out a bit of a gripe. I have heard that in NSW the players only found out a few days before the qualification event at Manly that it was qualification for the entire tour not just the Manly Event. Added to which, most NSW players were not aware of the dead line by the AVF for nomination into the main draw of the tour. There were a number of players that would have had the points from last year to qualify directly to the draw enabling younger teams to take the qualification route thru the NBVAs 2 NSW positions. I guess there are a few teething problems but it would have been nice for the players to have had a little more notice.

Is it the duty of the Players Association to let the players know ? Or the AVF and Sporting Frontiers? We will see.

I don't understand why the Top 10 players from the previous season go thru to the main draw and the remaining 14 positions be made up from a qualification tournament in the days prior to the main event. Then at least the younger people in the state of the event would have the experience of the qualification event against national players and those wanting to play one interstate event can try and qualify and not be required to play the whole circuit. Anyway. Lets see how it goes on the weekend. Good luck Guys and girls.

OCTOBER 2001

I think it is fair to say that summer is well and truly on us. The weather at Manly over the past couple if weeks has been nothing less than bloody perfect. It makes it rather hard to head off to work.

Varying groups of people have started a regimented training routine. Just about every morning before 7am you will see people stretching out on the sand chasing balls. Although some of the people are a little scared to get dirty in the sand as they can't be bothered to take a shower before they head of to work.

A good core group of people head down to train at 6am every Tuesday and Thursday. Andy Mc, Daz Mc, Cuffy, Tristo, and Splatty. Occasionally Jules will roll out of bed to join the boys. Although if the surf is over ½ a foot then more often than not he will head into the sea for hours on end.

It seems like things are tracking well for the summer. The NBVA has staged 2 events so far. The first event, the Jazz Festival event, was a bit of a shocker. But hay! What do you expect for the first event for the summer when most people want to drink beer and lie in the sand.
The second event was better. Running with one set to 21 pool play. This gave the guys and girls a good round of games before the crossovers. Now… on the topic of crossovers I would like to say that I believe that a certain team was totally and utterly RIPPED off with not making the semi-finals. There was some underhanded payment offered and received by certain parties that meant this CERTAIN team missed out on the Semis by one point on count back, even though they DOMINATED the pool . All's good and FULL CREDIT to the boys and girls for the organization of the day. It would be nice to see the events start a little earlier than 9.30 - 10am though. Maybe a night before cut of so the seedings and draw can be done prior to the event.

On to broader matters. The Pro Tour Calender has been released with 5 events over the summer culminating with the Aussie Open Being staged in Surfers. Sporting Frontiers have the Pro Tour and are promising fantastic things. Good luck to them and I wish them success. Lets hope people get out there, have some fun on the tour and travel. BUT REMEMBER that we have our eyes out there and all assorted photos and stories of seedy nights at Shooters and the Charlie Bar will be reported and published on the site.

GET TRAINING !!!!!!

SEPTEMBER 2001

I would firstly like to congratulate the boys and girls for their efforts at the Goodwill Games. It was obvious that Kerri and Nat were disappointed with their final result after their interview but they are fantastic ambassadors for the sport.

Coverage on channel nine was, to be blunt, LIMITED. Granted the only games that were reported on or played in full were Kerri's and Nat's. I'm not saying that this was a bad thing, I think it is fantastic that the sport is now getting some commercial coverage on networks. All of this would never have happened if it wasn't for the girls and their efforts over the past 4 years.

Lets just hope that the general public in this country now have a taste for the sport and our new promoters can grab the proverbial ball and run with it.

I must say that it was a shame not to have seen any of the men's games. Australia hasn't seen a men's world series event on our shores (except for the Olympics) for quite some time. Even just a little coverage of the home town boys would have been nice.

I guess we will have to try and drive the TV cameras and spectators to the beach this summer.

AUGUST 2001

Let me first welcome you to australianbeachvolleyball.com This site was created with the thought of the players in mind. They arn't selling anything, owned by anyone or going to dick you around.

This is an independant site made for the players and people from OS who want to visit our fantastic shores to play the game we love.

My first rant is going to revolve around the poor organisation of this sport in our country. We have never had a season go by when there hasn't been a problem or redirection by the promoters/organisers of the game.

It is very hard to imagine that after the runaway success of beach volleyball @ the Olympic Games in Sydney that there arn't a stack of companies looking to jump into the sport. If one sport came out of the games that was marketable this is it. Thanks to Kez and Nat we now have a profile as a country that can compete on the world stage. Why arn't the promoters i-sport getting out there and pulling in the dollars. Oh yeh thats right......they are trying to sell the rights to the tour to someone for big dollars....Thats why we as players are probably going to be called spectators next season.

If this sport is going to happen it has to happen now.