Shows
Within The Game“Randy Stoklos: How to Activate Your Inner Inspired Athlete & His Vision for the Future of the AVP"Episode 91: Featuring Randy Stoklos - “Randy Stoklos is a legendary beach volleyball icon and the original ‘King of the Beach.’ Ranking 3rd all-time in tournament wins and the first player to surpass $1 million in career prize earnings, Randy's impact on the sport is in itself inspiring. Beyond the sand, he made his mark in pop culture with his memorable role as Rolo in the movie "Sideout". IG: @randystoklosBlenders Sunglasses 20% Off! Use Code "WCB20" www.blenderseyewear.com📚 Buy "The Inspired Athlete": https://amzn.to/3COPbJD🎧 Listen to "T...
2025-01-291h 22
All Things UnexplainedRandy Stoklos: Beach Volleyball Legend. Featuring ICN Athletics & Giftability.Randy Stoklos joins us for journey from the glory days of AVP to what's happening today. Plus, you'll find out how you can support two special non-profits that are allowing those with disabilities to do the things they love. SPECIAL GUESTS* Randy Stoklos - beach volleyball legend.* ICN Athletics https://icnathletics.com/ * Giftability https://giftability.org/🛸🛸🛸🛸🛸CHECK OUT OUR AWESOME SPONSORSArea 51 Coffee Company - AArea51 Coffee is carefully curated for java lovers from all walks of life. It's a perfectly smooth, evenly-roasted cup every time. We are committed to producing that perfect ro...
2024-03-251h 26
The OptionEpisode 200 - Randy StoklosRandy Stoklos is an American beach volleyball commentator and was highly regarded as the "King of the Beach" as a beach professional player, along with his partner, Sinjin Smith. Amassing 122 victories on the sand, his percentage of wins vs tournament participation (362) is an uncanny number that will most likely never be repeated. Leaving school early to pursue the sport (UCLA) turned out to be a wise choice, being the first player to reach the 1-million-dollar mark, en route to a hall of fame career that picked up what seems to be countless individual and team awards. His endeavors off the...
2024-03-201h 58
GODS to GHOSTS VolleyballMike Stormin' Normand - Part 3Mike discusses: His coaching career, including time at Santa Monica Community College and an epic comeback against Orange Coast Community College and how instrumental all -time LEGEND Randy Stoklos was, some of the heaviest hitters he ever saw, how he developed indoors as a player at places like John Adams Middle School, Pierce College, etc... Playing with Dave Schaeffer indoors, and classic story of "breaking in" filling in for '64 Olympian and Stockton Club player, Chuck Nelson in a tournament with fellow Olympians Rudy Suwara and Butch "4-F" May. Support the show
2023-11-1733 min
The OptionEpisode 190 - JD HamiltonJohn D Hamilton is an American professional beach volleyball player. Hitting almost every regional and Gold series the last eight years, it is safe to say the Alabama native gets around. A fantastic defender, and even better human being, he as hit big strides this season (highlighting Hermosa Beach) and we expect even bigger ones in the near future.
00:44 - Raising our children, respect, and consequences vs understanding
05:10 - The work put in just to take the trip TO beach volleyball qualifiers, getting started with the sport, and how the journey builds your character
17:28 - "Ice cream," quick healing, and...
2023-10-251h 15
SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis MewhirterHolly McPeak is always doing the workThis episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features an absolute legend of the sport: Holly McPeak. The fourth winningest player in beach volleyball history, McPeak is a three-time Olympian and a bronze medalist at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. She also discovered a then-unknown gem named Misty May-Treanor. Now, you can hear McPeak’s voice on the broadcast for indoor, Pac-12 beach volleyball and, soon, Volleyball World. We chatted about all of that, as well as:
What it was like growing up in the halcyon days of beach volleyball, with Marine Street fi...
2023-03-011h 29GODS to GHOSTS VolleyballAndy Fishburn - Part 2Andy Discusses:- His partnership with Dane Selznick and what made them such a great team over their partnership together, his recollection of the '79 Beach World Championships when he and Dane lost in the first round to Rocky Ciarelli & Tom Wade and battled back to reach the finals, where they lost 16-18 in an EPIC double final to Sinjin Smith and Karch Kiraly and how the crowd noise was deafening, his 3 most memorable wins, the controversial '84 Beach World Championships where he and partner Jay Hanseth crossed the player picket line to play as the tournament spon...
2021-01-1240 min
SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis MewhirterRandy Stoklos is still the King of the BeachThis episode of SANDCAST: Beach volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, is with one of the greatest players of all-time, with 123 victories, including four at the Manhattan Beach Open.
More than that, Stoklos, along with his partner, Sinjin Smith, is one of the most influential individuals in beach history, instrumental in pushing beach volleyball worldwide. Without Stoklos and Smith, it's possible the sport would not currently be in the Olympic Games.
On this episode, we cover a lot of ground, including:
- Stoklos' upbringing with his father, Rudy, a Polish immigrant who es...
2020-09-231h 33GODS to GHOSTS VolleyballMatt Gage - Part 3 ( Conclusion)Matt Gage Discusses:- How he would do competing against a modern day dominant team like Dalhausser & Rogers playing old school rules, some of his most memorable moments as the AVP Tournament Director ( including a classic OB story when OB mouthed off, Sinjin taking a stand, a tussle in Muskegon, Michigan between Brian Lewis and Kent Steffes he had to break up in the food tent, and Pat Powers swinging a milk jug filled with water at Randy Stoklos during the heat of the battle in Wildwood, New Jersey), what he's most proud of from his career as...
2020-09-1031 minGODS to GHOSTS VolleyballAdam Johnson - Part 2Adam Discusses:- Playing with legend Pat Powers and getting his first win with him in '91 at Santa Barbara and then being dumped by PP shortly there after, teaming up with Ricci Luyties that season and winning the first NBC live televised event in Milwaukee when he and Ricci beat John Hanley & Mike Whitmarsh in an epic final on live TV, the success Adam and Ricci had the rest of that summer playing together, culminating in an epic win over legends Sinjin Smith & Randy Stoklos at the USA Championships in Hermosa Beach, the '93 Manhattan Beach...
2020-07-0534 minGODS to GHOSTS VolleyballAdam Johnson - Part 1Adam Johnson - Part 1 Adam discusses: His start in the sport as a kid growing up in Laguna Beach, his illustrious Laguna Beach high school career, winning 3 CIF titles along side some incredible volleyball talent playing for coach Bill Ashen, his collegiate volleyball career as a USC Trojan, playing for Coach Bob Yoder (where he was the NCAA Player of the Year in ’86, a 3 x All-American, and 3 x NCAA runner up), his stint on the USA Men's indoor volleyball team, his start as a young professional on the beach competing on the AVP tour alongside Troy Tanner and Steve Tim...
2020-06-2937 minGODS to GHOSTS VolleyballNancy Cohen - Part 2Nancy Cohen Part 2.Nancy discusses:- The amazing men's players she saw at State Beach when she was playing ( including Dane Selznick, Andy Fishburn, Randy Stoklos, Sinjin Smith, Dane Hotzman, and a teenage Kent Steffes), the legendary players and characters of State Beach ( Bernie Holtzman, Gene Selznick, Ron Von Hagen, Ron Lang, Jean and Steno Brunicardi, and Butch May practicing with his his daughter Misty May!), plus basketball legend and lover of volleyball- Wilt Chamberlin, and the impact he had on the sport, her thoughts on the sport today and what could be done to...
2020-06-061h 11
SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis MewhirterMailbag: Who are the top five blockers and defenders in the world? More fan questionsTypically, I’d be a bit neurotic by now. Short on sleep. Distracted. Mind ping-ponging back and forth, looking at the draw, then looking again – did it change did it change?
This, of course, is not the typical pre-AVP Huntington Beach qualifier eve. This is just a Wednesday like any other in the off-season: no events on the foreseeable horizon. Nothing specific to train for.
Sleep comes easy.
In such a strangely uncertain sports world, Tri and I opened up SANDCAST: Beach volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, to fan questions, and we d...
2020-04-291h 02GODS to GHOSTS VolleyballGreg Lee - Part 2Greg Lee Interview - Part 2Greg discusses: His first trip in 1970 to Sorrento Beach in the spring as a young kid at UCLA during a "June Gloom" day and meeting Ron Von Hagen, Tom Chamales, and Jim Menges by the Sorrento wall when the beach was empty except for them on that day, and how those 3 players (aside from his brother Jon) shaped his volleyball career...., His classic memories of seeing Bob Vogelsang at the beach doing things only Vogie could do, an invaluable lesson he learned from Coach Wooden on how to put your socks and shoe...
2020-03-241h 08GODS to GHOSTS VolleyballJim Menges - Part 1Interview with Jim Menges - Part 1(This interview was conducted on Aug 28th, 2018)Jim Discusses: Playing high school football for legendary coach Don Steere at Santa Monica high, his start in the sport alongside his SAMO friends Randy Niles, and Tom Chamales in the summer of '69 at Sorrento Beach, how amazing the beach scene was at Sorrento, with legends Ron Von Hagen and Ron Lang holding A court all day, everyday, meeting his future partner Greg Lee in 1970, losing 8 - 0 to Lang the first time he played him (NEXT!), all the incredible players and characters at...
2020-03-0649 min
SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis MewhirterSinjin Smith, part two: 'You'd compete all day long'Sinjin Smith knows the world is different now. That guys just can’t play volleyball for four hours, jump train for one, take a ride down to South Mission Beach and then play for another four. Jobs. Kids. Families and responsibilities and such. But he is curious. Curious as to why the beach volleyball culture has changed so much from his days. Days when he and the boys would put a ball down on center court and have at it for an entire day. No need for drills or simulated plays.
You just played. And you never st...
2020-01-0850 min
SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis MewhirterSinjin Smith: Building the sport of beach volleyball from the ground upOn April 10, 1995, Carl Henkel was studying for his law school finals when one of the strangest, most unpredictable and, at that time he would have likely surmised, miraculous phone calls rang in around four in the morning.
“Hey,” said the voice on the other line. “I need you to play this weekend in Spain. Can you make it?”
Henkel nearly dropped the phone. Was that Sinjin Smith on the other side of the line? That Sinjin Smith? Asking him to play?
“How long do I have to think about it?” he asked.
“Well,” Sm...
2020-01-0239 min
SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis MewhirterMike Dodd: Finding the soul of the gameMike Dodd apologized.
He’d been getting all wound up, or as wound up as the man, labeled by anyone you ask as one of the nicest guys in the world, can get. He even dropped the f word not once, but twice.
“Sorry about that,” he said on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. “I think I said the f word.”
You can forgive the man for being impassioned. He’s seen beach volleyball in its every iteration, every stage of its growth, from infantile to colossus to broken to slightly...
2019-12-041h 23
SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis MewhirterTim Hovland is still kicking assThe Big Game Hunters. That’s what they’d call themselves.
Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos and Brent Frohoff and Karch Kiraly could have the Rhode Islands. They could have Dallas. They could have Phoenix.
But the big ones? Oh, no. Those were reserved for Tim Hovland and Mike Dodd.
“We’d win Manhattan, Hermosa, the Cuervos,” Hovland said on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. “We had a lot of finals together, that’s for sure.”
Eighty-one finals, to be exact. In 150 tournaments played together. A remarkable success rate for...
2019-04-031h 04
SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis MewhirterSteve Obradovich: The last true beach volleyball entertainerRolling with laughter. That’s likely what Steve Obradovich would be doing at the level of trash talk – what little there is, anyway – on today’s AVP Tour.
Passive aggressive Instagram comments? Staredowns under the net? A few over the top celebrations?
Ha.
That's peanuts. Especially to the old school bona fides, the entertainers like OB.
Take this snippet from an LA Times article from August of 1989:
“You see, Obradovich is the bad boy of the beach. He's "OB," the last of the old-time volleyball rogues. Brash and colorful, an enterta...
2018-08-0149 min
OFFBALL AthleteOFFBALL #11 Randy StoklosIt is an honour and a privilege to record the first ever podcast with the one and only Randy Stoklos - beach volleyball legend. This episode has a lot of personal meaning because Randy was my first ever exposure to beach volleyball in the 90's and was one of the athletes I always dreamed of becoming.He brought us into the start of his love for volleyball, his experiences breaking into the games top rankings, spine tingling stories depicting the pinnacle era of sport and all kinds of entertaining and informative tales about his career and...
2018-05-291h 43
SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis MewhirterAdam Johnson: The Hall of Famer hiding in plain sightAdam Johnson couldn’t believe it.
He’d had some rough losses in his day, narrow losses with a lot on the line. Twice he had been the first team out of the Olympics, and twice it was because of a random, head-scratching injury. In 1996, when Johnson was partnered with Randy Stoklos in the Olympic trials in Baltimore, the two had to win just one of their next two matches, the first of which would come against the Mikes – Mike Whitmarsh and Mike Dodd.
Thirty seconds before the match, Stoklos hit one final warm up jump s...
2018-05-1600 min
SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis MewhirterJose Loiola's legend only continues to growTo read through the old LA Times archives, to dig through all of the gushing, flattering pieces, is to remember Jose Loiola as a man of near mythical proportions, a beach volleyball Paul Bunyan. How hard he could hit! How high he could jump! How entertaining he was to watch! How loud and brash and charismatic he was!
Loiola laughs at those memories. He laughs through a glass of wine, even though he has sworn off alcohol during the week.
It’s just one glass, right?
Nothing compared to what he and the bo...
2018-04-181h 17