Back from my Clearwater, Florida trip with 11 guys and 4 days of non-stop beach volleyball action from sunrise to sunset. Clearwater is going through quite a transformation. Lots of new commercial development, infrastructure and condo conversions. Needless to say, the locals are not happy that the retail profile has changed dramatically and that the crowded evenings during spring are summer may never come back. Nature threw at us all it got with an assortment of heavy fog, rain, gusty wind and yes… sun! We were usually by the beach around 9:30AM although some of the celebrities in the group (e.g. Egan) would leisurely make his encore entrance around 11:00am and conveniently after the nets were up.
Here are some video clips from our trip. Unfortunately, as I’m the camera person, there is no evidence of my “open AVP level play”. Thanks to P90X, I squeezed the most games, outplayed most of my friends and felt pretty much on top of my game except for one afternoon. Lesson learned, never play right after you eat lunch.
Not surprisingly, we bumped into some local players to find out that most of the them play for half a day during the weekends. What’s up with that? It must be that sun and good weather are available all year long and these guys don’t have the craving that Chicagoans do. Our philosophy is just to play until you crash or the sun is out, whichever comes first! This was my first year with this group and I’m glad that I made the trip.
Top trip quotables…
20. I’ve already dropped people from the summer beach group, what’s a few more?
19. To heck with regulation height!
18. Hey Daryl, let me rub lotion on you!
17. You want “ME” to block….
16. the same “ME” getting a block on ensuing play after saying above 6. Is it really called Mugs & Jugs?
15. God D@mn, mother f’er, can’t I get a tape trickle over serve…hey, is that a church group over there?
14. Have they really been playing cards and drinking all day at Crabby Bill’s?
13. Jim…Jim… wake up!
12. Is it mothers/daughters weekend?
11. He’s in the closet, literally!
10. It’s all about respect here!
9. Where’s Eagan?
8. Jim, do you need some more sunblock?
7. Steve’s lifetime membership to the I-blocked-Chris-hall-of-fame
6. Fermented orange juice does increase your vertical
5. At the departure gate. “Steve go ahead, children board first”, and reply “Paul, pregnant people can go in first as well”
4. You look really hot with those short above your knees… and you can jump so much higher!!
3. Hey Mark, let’s also change the carpet and give the place a fresh coat of paint while we are at it.
2. I didn’t find any hot girls, I have higher standards. - Paul
… and the number one top 20 quotes from the trip…
1. Hey, you want some of this!!!
I’m looking forward to my summer season at NAB (North Avenue Beach, Chicago) and to Clearwater next year with this group of crazy friends.
Those of you who play and love beach volleyball know how much of a simple pleasure it is. No shoes, no coaches, no club dues and no time limit. All in all it is a the simple complexity and lifestyle that it offers which is always calmly calling us back to the sand, free of a shirt and in a place where we all feel like part of a small family. This is a family of hard-working people that keep making time to play out of the love of the game, not because it pays the bills, but because it puts life’s hardest moments in perspective. To those of you that have already discovered this, keep living the dream. And to those who have not, I encourage you to give it a chance. Feel the sand between your toes and the sun on your back. Stare into a sun setting over incoming waves and play the game in its most awesome state and let it become part of you life. - Marc Lomeli