261 episodes in, 261 more (at least) to come

HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. — Over a grill smoking with a soon-to-be medium rare picanha, salted to perfection by a cadre of tanned Brazilians, I had something of a laugh out loud epiphany.

“Nothing I’m doing today,” I told Tri Bourne, “really existed five years ago.”

I cannot confirm such a statement as a fact, but I am not aware of anyone else who has previously claimed the job title of Beach Volleyball Writer/Player/Podcaster/Commentator.

The only writing being done on the sport at the time our podcast was founded, in October of 2017, was the occasional story in the Los Angeles Times or Orange County Register, or the quarterly edition of DiG Magazine, which stopped printing during COVID. Five years ago, I’d never won a set in an AVP qualifier, much less actually qualified. There was no beach volleyball-specific podcast, though the Net Live and Coach Your Brains Out, close cousins of SANDCAST, though not exclusively beach, did exist. And, sure, there was some commentating being done on the World Tour, but on the AVP? Much of it was largely Bourne winging it on the Facebook livestream (remember those days?).

“The definition of blue ocean strategy,” Bourne said, referencing the concept of essentially inventing your own market, rather than competing with untold numbers of others to climb the corporate ranks. This deliciously blue and sandy ocean of mine didn’t come on its own, of course. In fact, almost every aspect of my life, be it professional or personal, can be attributed, in some way or other, as the product of a single word:

SANDCAST.

For five years now, Bourne and I have been running SANDCAST, our weekly beach volleyball podcast that has published every single Wednesday 261 times in a row and counting. We’ve recorded episodes in three different studios and two houses, not to mention the many we’ve managed on the road, in Cancun, Bulgaria, Russia, Texas, wherever. We’ve added two members of the family — Naia Bourne, now three; and Delaney Mewhirter, with whom I’ve now been married for nearly three years, and whose first appearance on the podcast came when her surname was Knudsen.

We’ve had good episodes and bad. The audio has covered the full spectrum from a soothing richness — that’s a recent upgrade — to cringe-inducing awful — that was our first four and a half years, and we love all of you listeners for sticking it out with…