Bet The Beach went live on Instagram & Twitter on February 20, 2023.  Almost a month later, our YouTube Channel went live with an introductory video with the same name as this blog.  A little over a month ago, our Tik Tok page went live with our AVP Chicago Recap Video.  I now have many ways to reach you, Beach Volleyball Fan, but nothing as personal as the written word.  So here it is, my opportunity to formally introduce myself. 

My name is Chris DeTurk, and I attended my first AVP tournament when I was 10 years old, at the 1995 Miller Lite Boston Open in Quincy, Mass.  I remember walking from one sand dune court at Quincy Waterworks to the next, taking it all in, seeing Karch’s iconic pink hat, and thinking about how cool this sport was.

Regrettably, I lost track of beach volleyball after that.  It would be 24 years before my next AVP match.  I watched this one from the comfort of the front porch of my home in Massachusetts.  It was AVP Waikiki, the last tournament of that season.  My fiancé and I watched Taylor Crabb and Jake Gibb beat Theo Brunner and John Hyden in the finals to take first.  It was the first, and sadly last, tournament I’d see Crabb and Gibb win together.  When I would eventually learn, later on, how much success they had as a team, I’d come to regret not tuning in sooner.

2020 and 2021 saw Covid-shortened seasons that, due to social distancing and an ongoing global pandemic, were not accurate representations of the character, the spirit, the energy, of a beach volleyball tournament. So it was 2022 before I got to experience a real beach volleyball season. The season before the quad starts, the season of partner experimenting. I watched all the AVP’s. Saw Phil win tournaments with three different partners. Saw TKN win their first Chicago, and follow it up with a finals win in Phoenix. We were courtside in Fort Lauderdale for the scuffle between Taylor and Hyden. I learned what the FIVB Beach Pro Tour was and how it worked.  I started listening to The Sandcast Podcast religiously, and began working my way backwards through the McKibbin brothers YouTube archives.  I was hooked. 

In 2020, when Covid shut down all our intramural volleyball leagues, I built a sand court in my backyard.  My fiancé and I started a King and Queen league (shout out Sandbar league), and played as much beach doubles as we could. I built a courtside tiki bar, and added lights, so we could play and have fun well into the long summer nights.  The sport of beach volleyball connects with me in a way that no sport ever did before.  I began to realize that sharing my love for this unique sport would be my calling. 

Broadcasting has always been near and dear to my heart.  In my late twenties and early thirties, I hosted and produced several shows on a local AM sports radio station.  My favorite, and most popular show was Friday Night Lights, a wraparound high school football program in which on-site correspondents would call in live updates from the state’s biggest games.  Our listeners were parents, aunts and uncles, friends.  It was NFL Redzone, on radio, for high school football and a very specific audience.  It was awesome. 

Then there’s the gambling. A “hobby” that I got into when my home state legalized it several years ago. What struck me from the start is how much more fun, how much more invested I was, with my $5 unit on the Celtics -8.5.  Or $5 on the over 43.5 points in the Pats/Ravens game.  How gambling could bring casual fans to the screen and keep them through the final whistle. 

Professional Beach Volleyball in the USA is the rare sport that has seen its popularity and profitability decline steadily over its 4+ decade history.   I won’t get into specifics on this here, I will do plenty of that over the coming weeks and months in this blog.  I bring it up to say this: I believe in Beach Volleyball. I believe that domestic professional Beach Volleyball can have its day in the spotlight once again. I believe that, through the hard work of many passionate stewards of the game, like Travis and Tri, like the McKibbins, the game can grow once again. I think a unique broadcasting approach can play a part. I think that gambling can draw in a casual but important new group of fans.  I think good leadership, ownership, and management is critical.  My hope is that what we do here at Bet The Beach can be entertaining, fun, and most importantly, help to grow the game we all love. 

If you’ve made it this far, Beach Volleyball Fan, I thank you for that. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Let’s have a conversation about the sport we both love. Let’s have some fun. 

Chris DeTurk – January 2, 2024