On this episode of The Road to Paris, Travis Mewhirter breaks down the most recent Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour event: The Tepic Elite16. Switzerland's Nina Brunner and Tanja Huberli won their first gold medal as a team, while Sweden's David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig continue their absurd finals run, with seven straight now and a second straight gold in Tepic. We chat all about that, as well as: - Cuba's Jorge Alayo and Noslen Diaz, a bronze medal, and the long-awaited SHARPIE!! - Sarah Pavan and Molly McBain's lucky break winning the lucky loser to sneak back into the main draw and finish ..read more

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features two of Norway’s Beach Volley Vikings: Hendrik Mol and Mathias Berntsen. Hendrik and Berntsen are enjoying a normal learning curve and path to success, a several-years buildup that seems almost flat when compared to the rocket ship that has been Anders Mol and Christian Sorum. If the Olympics were to happen today, for the first time ever, Norway would have two teams in the Games. That’s how good Hendrik and Berntsen – cousins – have become. We chat all about that, as well as: How Mathias Berntsen and Ande ..read more

This episode of the Road to Paris, breaking down the Olympic beach volleyball race with Travis Mewhirter, recaps the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Guadalajara Challenge. What a weekend it was, especially fun since we brought Daniel Freitas, aka Producer Thrito, along for the ride, and he cranked out highlight after highlight and provides us with a ton of sweet b roll in this episode. We break down: Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner becoming the comeback kings, winning all five matches in three sets, and what their gold medal means in the Olympic race Zoe Verge-Depre and Esmee Bobner winning the ..read more

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes, one of the best beach volleyball teams in the world coming off a silver medal at the season-opening Doha Elite16 – a tournament in which they alas vanquished Brazilians Ana Patricia Silva and Duda Lisboa. We chat all about Doha, as well as Their first year together as partners, and the various lessons they learned Why, in spite of 10 tournaments without a finish worse than fifth in 2023, their coach, Marcio Sicoli, scrapped everything and started anew in 2024 ..read more

In this episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, we have one of the most unique teams on the AVP and Beach Pro Tours in Tim Brewster and Kyle Friend. What makes them unique? They are, as far as we know, the only male partners who are also dating, making for a fascinating dynamic on and off the court. We get into that, as well as: Their recent NORCECA win, and the pros and cons of competing in NORCECAs vs. Beach Pro Tour Futures events The uncertainty of the AVP rankings, and the high-stakes nature of having only three events on the 2024 schedule They also to ..read more

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Sophie Bukovec, one of the top players in Canada and a silver medalist at the 2022 Beach Volleyball World Championships. The last three years haven’t been, as Bukovec says, “exactly seamless,” with three partners in as many seasons, but like when most things don’t go to plan, Bukovec came away with a bounty of lessons, and a new perspective on life, both as a player and not. We chat all about that, as well as: What happened with her and Sarah Pavan after just three (decent) tournaments How she managed to ..read more

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features our annual Spring-is-here episode with our neighbors up North: Sam Schachter and Dan Dearing. Per usual, they dropped by Hermosa Beach for a month for a pre-season training camp, gearing up for a final push at the 2024 Paris Olympics. On this episode, we chatted about: What lessons Sam Schachter and Dan Dearing learned from a very full 2023 season The new standards of their coach, Srdjan Veckov, and why he was actually mad when Sam Schachter and Dan Dearing beat Miles Partain and Andy Benesh last Decembe ..read more

This episode of The Road to Paris, Travis Mewhirter’s breakdown of the Olympic Beach Volleyball race to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, follows the season-opening Doha Elite16, where Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot won a shocking gold (not shocking that they won, but shocking in how they did it), Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova took a critical fourth, Laura Ludwig and Louisa Lippmann made the most of their wild card, and Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner continued tacking onto their lead. On this episode, Travis chats about: Why Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot are now nearly a lock t ..read more

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter features an annual fan-favorite: Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth. In for a month-long training camp in California, Nuss and Kloth are perhaps the most unique team in the sport, and maybe the most unique pair USA Volleyball has ever had. Living in Louisiana? Five-foot-6 defender? A blocker from South Dakota? And they’re…No. 2 in the world? How does that happen? We chat all about it, as well as: The moment they realized they had qualified for the Olympics How they feel like veterans already, and it’s just year three Wh ..read more

Welcome back to the Road to Paris! Travis Mewhirter previews the final three months of the Olympic qualification cycle, which is about to begin with this week's Doha Elite16. Doha kicks off a sprint of the next three months, which feature 10 events on four continents. On this episode: - Travis provides a statistical analysis projecting the odds for every team remaining in the race - Why Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk still have a 7.9% shot at qualifying - Explains why the top 13 men's teams, and top 12 women's teams, are safe and pretty much a done deal - Why the Swiss, German, and Canadian women ..read more