Partains spice Seaside volleyball tourney field; Frishman-Drost, Turner-Skodjt win titles

So, how did Miles Partain celebrate winning his first major pro beach title?

After he and Paul Lotman won AVP Atlanta, there were no fancy dinners or outings. No, Miles celebrated by dropping his partner Paul Lotman (at least for the week) to travel to remote Seaside, Oregon, along with 66 (!) other teams in the Open Division to play for a total purse that was less than Miles made all by himself in Atlanta.

And Miles chose someone even more familiar to him, his older brother, Marcus, also his teammate on the UCLA indoor team. Marcus has some bona fides himself, having teamed with Miles five years ago to be the youngest team ever to qualify for an AVP main draw in Hermosa Beach. Marcus was 17 at the time, Miles 15. Marcus’ best finish in an AVP is a 17^th, which he did three times with Miles, but the last was three years ago. 

A little bit of perspective. Miles decides to play in a grueling 67-team draw tournament a few days after winning in Atlanta. Drops Lotman for the week and picks up his brother, who clearly is far from his best form. And all of this a few days before the biggest tournament of them all, the Grandaddy, this weekend’s Manhattan Beach Open, where a player wants to be rested and peaked.

The epitome of brotherly love or what?

At the end of this past weekend, the most compelling story was the path these Palisades High Dolphins/UCLA Bruins brothers would take. But in the end, the men’s title went to Chase Frishman and Avery Drost, while the women’s crown went to Carly Skojdt and Molly Turner. Click here for the complete results.

There were some obstacles along the way. Even the open courts at Seaside were not well-tended (can we get a rake out here?) littered with debris from the barbeque pits of vacation revelers (Warning: if you ever travel to Seaside you must bring sand socks).

Seaside is the tournament every player in the Pacific Northwest points toward. It was started 40 years ago (September 4, 1982 to be exact) by Debbie Hauger, a Seaside High School student, who with other lifeguards, was able to attract 57 teams and 215 players that first year. Impressive indeed. And the event has mushroomed to three days, 1,600 teams playing on 184 courts in umpteen divisions. The only tournament of its kind in the world that is larger is in Bibione, Italy, with 10,000 athletes, 2,500 teams and 275 courts.

This year the quality of play in Seaside…