Beach volleyball history goes back a little in time. There are some unconfirmed reports stating that it started in 1915 in Hawaii. However, most people attribute the start of the sport to be in the 1920s in Santa Monica.
This is roughly 25 years after the indoor version started and the original indoor game was called mintonette (most people aren’t aware of that).
Within a few years, the sport was growing in popularity and was starting to cross overseas. There are reports of the game being played in France among the nudist beaches.
At this time, it was primarily a family sport where they played six people per side like the indoor version of the game.
During the Great Depression, the sport grew largely in popularity due to the fact that it cost virtually nothing to play. People could go to the beach and have a source of entertainment that didn’t cost anything. During this time, we started to see variations of 2 on 2, 3 on 3, and 4 on 4 volleyball.
In the 1950s, there started to be the first beach volleyball tournaments that also included beauty pageants. The sport started to really gain popularity as it was linked with these other events.
The next significant part of beach volleyball history is when the first sponsor came on to sponsor a tournament. This was back in 1975 and Winston Cigarettes was the first company to do so.
One of the signature aspects of beach volleyball happened in 1979 when the King of the Beach tournament started. Over the years, this became one of the most popular events for beach volleyball every year.
As time went on, the sport started to move to locations that weren’t on the beach and could be played anywhere. In fact, this picture is in Denver, Colorado.
There were many great players to play the sport (Sinjin Smith, Randy Stoklos, Ron Von Hagen, Pat Powers, Karch Kiraly) that grew the sport to what it is today.
Now, beach volleyball is an international sport that is also held in the Olympics. You will also find a beach volleyball magazine.
Where to go next?
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