AVP Volleyball is your next sports obsession

It took a little while for the weather to cooperate, it seems like it still isn’t in some parts of the country, but summer is fully and officially here. We are past Memorial Day, after all.

Soon enough you will (hopefully) be doing all of the summer-y things. Chilling, lounging, playing, fishing, and at some point in time I imagine you will make your way to a beach. I hope you do at least.

If you do so this weekend in the Jersey Shore area then you will find AVP Volleyball beginning in Belmar, New Jersey. AVP is professional beach volleyball and that is as awesome as it sounds.

Recently one of the more well-rounded players from AVP in Evan Cory joined SB Nation to talk about it all. It turns out Evan is quite the sportsman, he is a huge New Orleans Saints fan among other things, and he sold me pretty well when I asked him to pitch AVP to anyone who might be interested.

It is quite the sell to note that AVP tournaments take place on the greatest beaches in the world and in the greatest cities that the big, blue marble has to offer. That in and of itself is quite the marketing tactic.

In my conversation with Evan I came to realize that AVP volleyball is sort of the best qualities of professional golf and tennis. You develop an understanding of all sorts of details like the granular quality of sand the way that types of grass or surface texture come into play in other sport… that is something that I would have never considered if not for digging deeper into this world (pro tip from Evan to keep your feet from burning in the sand is to also dig within it).

This is a sport and world very much worth giving time to. Tickets can be found here if you are so inclined. The league is going to be in all sorts of places this summer as after Belmar there will be stops in Aspen, Miami, Las Vegas, Long Beach (California), New York (Central Park), East Hampton (New York), Dallas, Manhattan Beach (California) and Chicago. What a run.

The AVP League is a new concept in beach volleyball that started last year and has been extremely well received. Their teams play matches each week throughout the season, and their cumulative win-loss record determines if they advance to compete for the championship.

There are eight teams in the league - Austin Aces, Brooklyn Blaze (Evan’s team), Dallas Dream, L.A. Launch, Miami Mayhem, New York Nitro, Palm Beach Passion and San Diego Smash. Each team has a women’s duo and a men’s duo. While they don’t compete on the court at the same time, their results directly impact the team as a whole. It is fun.

I’ll certainly be tuning in across the rest of this summer, and I hope you do as well.