Cruzin’

Pro beach volleyball has left the hallowed sands of Santa Cruz,
but what a ride it while it lasted

By Tom Burke

After a night of partying, the players would often groggily stumble out of overcrowded hotel rooms or roll out of sleeping bags on the beach. Sounds like any host of past and present beach volleyball events. But Santa Cruz was something special.

Back when beach volleyball was a “circus-like” sport in the three decades leading up to the first emergence of the modern pro tour in the 1990s, the players “lived” the game year-round.

“Beach volleyball was a refuge from mainstream life,” said Kevin Cleary, the 1981 Santa Cruz tournament winner when the tournament was still operated by the old parks and rec league.

Santa Cruz is one of California’s most popular beach towns and is bordered by majestic redwood forests and dramatic ocean-side cliffs. It’s a no-brainer that the sport of beach volleyball has a storied past, out there on the same sands where Hawaiian royalty first introduced surfing to the mainland.

“Santa Cruz is easy-going and informal — different than the bigger beaches in Southern California,” commented Carol Scurich, the city’s superintendent of recreation. Well-recognized for its surf breaks and its 100-year-old amusement park that remains in operation to this day, this laid-back city of about 55,000 residents has been a long-standing favorite for the volley and for the partying. So, the holding of pro beach volleyball tournaments here was a “no-brainer” for organizers. The California Beach Volleyball Association partnered with city officials to first bring the beach volleyball grassroots vibe to this area.

“Santa Cruz was an ideal town with great fans. It was the perfect beach to compete at,” said Mike Dodd, the 1996 Olympics Beach Volleyball silver medalist.

Because of this “lovefest” among players and fans, Santa Cruz was the ideal spot to kick off the tournament schedule nearly, often times over Memorial Day weekend, from 1959 through 2000. The town bustled with male players, the so-called “beach gods”, and fans of both genders, which contributed to the, um, holiday atmosphere. These knowledgeable and passionate fans, many of whom partied with the players well into the early morning hours, would then return just a few, hazy hours later to their beach chairs and blankets that saved their court-side seats and marked their buried kegs of beer.

Beach Blanket Bingo
These two-day tournaments were first held at the small Cowell’s Beach, a popular surf spot with a handful of courts just west of the wharf that juts into Monterey Bay. The un-groomed courts were usually uneven, and large wooden poles held the nets and served as the antennas. For those without the money to stay at the local hotels, high tide was known to wash a rude awakening over those passed out on the sand. As was the case with other beach tournaments of the time, competition began early each morning, and fans reserved their spots so they had the best seats to watch the pairs play several matches throughout the day.

“In many ways, back then, it was an endurance contest,” recalled two-time Santa Cruz champion Jim Menges, known for his on-court intensity and a mop of hair barely contained by his signature headband. He's a lot more cleancut these days.

Back in the day, crowds like this one at the 1984 finals were exactly that. They packed in like sardines right next to the action. Well, if you were lucky and got there early enough.
The side-out style of play quickly separated the strong from the weak with matches sometimes lasting more than two hours. Most teams adopted a “digging” defense, as they were content to hang back and scoop-up whatever heat came their way.

“Ball control was a premium in those days,” said Matt Gage, who took home five Santa Cruz trophies, two with the spirited Menges in 1980 and 1982, and three-straight with Bill Imwalle in the early 70s. “You needed to hit and have shots that moved the ball all around the court.”

Differences from today’s game abounded, from the old long-court and side-out scoring to the players themselves. For example, Gage is merely 6-feet, 1-inch, and his long-time partner Menges stood an inch taller. And many of the top players were notorious for their flamboyant personalities. The much-scorned “twin towers” of Dodd and Tim Hovland, who together won two tournaments here in 1983 and again five years later under the AVP flag, would storm onto center court with their 6-foot, 4-inch frames snaking through the thousands of fired-up fans at court side.

“I yelled at referees, other players and the fans,” boasts the man they simply call Hov, the same man who would regularly whip the fans into a frenzy by ripping off his tank top at a crucial point of a match, both to psyche himself and the crowd up and his opponents out. “If you got in my way, you were gonna go down.”

Similarly, Sinjin Smith, who won twice in Santa Cruz, and partner Randy Stoklos would smack-talk hecklers who hurled obscenities or objects, even in the midst of play.

And consistent with this rowdiness, the losing team often had to referee the next match, which sometimes involved the team they had just lost to. These beer-chugging refs would occasionally hold grudges, and “This would lead to lively arguments before, during, and after the match,” recalled Smith, who helped Karch Kiraly win his very first pro beach volleyball tournament at the 1979 Santa Cruz P&R over Andy Fishburn and Fred Sturm.

Yesterday vs. Today
During the 1960s and 1970s, tournament finishes were unique by today’s standards. Prize money was minimal, with gifts typically the booty awarded to the winners. Partners Gage and Menges recollect these austere days well — joking about the pitcher, or pitchers, of beer they earned for a victory. And some Santa Cruz tournaments ran late on Sundays due to the large number of teams, limited courts and side-out scoring. Because of darkness, the “finals” were cancelled and the two teams earned a tie and shared the low-budget awards, as both Cleary and Gage well remember. In 1983, the AVP was formed by Cleary, Dodd, and Smith who, as officers, represented players wanting to restore the integrity of the game.

At first, the AVP challenged a stubborn promoter’s demands for “rally scoring” and a synthetic ball; then, it began crafting deals with major sponsors. This resulting funding and promotion boosted this sport’s popularity, as seen at Santa Cruz where competition was moved to a larger beach (just east of the wharf) to accommodate the 30,000-plus crowds, sponsor exhibits, VIP tents, and 100-plus teams. The players soon began earning extra prize money, and, during the 1990s, Kiraly and Kent Steffes ruled here — winning four tournaments and earning $100,000 each time. Dodd continued his success with Mike Whitmarsh and raked-in megabucks from tournaments and sponsors that equaled several hundred thousand dollars some seasons.

“We were in heaven back then,” Dodd said.

However, by the late 1990s the AVP was suffering both financially and organizationally. Santa Cruz’s long-standing run of tournaments ended in 1997. The town, however, did enjoy one “last hurrah” during the AVP restructuring period where Dain Blanton and Eric Fonoimoana earned a mere $16,000 as the 2000 winners.

Today he's the AVP's tournament director, but here in 1979 Matt Gage was known as one tough competitor on the volley circuit. He extends here in Santa Cruz in 1979, when he and partner Bill Imwalle finished fourth.Now that the AVP is again enjoying success, the sport is understandably much more commercial. Sponsors and promoters currently contribute to decisions about profitable tournament locations – likely ruling out the smaller Santa Cruz town from tour schedules. Players, too, seek financial gain through sponsorship deals and tournament wins.

“It’s more of a job now, where players do drills in the morning and head to the gym in the afternoon,” says Menges.

And rally scoring and smaller courts have dramatically changed the game, according to veteran players such as Hovland.

“In the side-out game, whoever was in better shape would win the match,” he said. “Now it’s a race to the finish.”

The relaxed, yet boisterous sideshow era at Santa Cruz, unlikely to ever be matched, will long be remembered by those fortunate to have enjoyed this scene.

Tom is a freelance writer based about 20 miles southwest of Baltimore. He’s a regular contributor of beach volleyball articles to bvm and www.olympicproportions.net.

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Santa Cruz's Cowells Beach circa the 1970s.

All photos courtesy Sands of Time.

That's how the crowds used to, well, crowd around the action. Notice the big old Cuervo bottle looking over things during this 1982 event.

Today he's the AVP's tournament director, but as he was here, Matt Gage was known as one tough competitor on the volley circuit. He extends here in Santa Cruz in 1979, when he and partner Bill Imwalle finished fourth.

Andy Smith swings on a Dane Selznick set as Mike Hovland blocks and Mike Dodd awaits in 1984.

A nice view of that 1984 crowd taking in the finals.