A Typical Tournament Day

Juniors Events

Junior tournaments are very similar to adult tournaments with the exception of the 'Queen/King of the Beach" and "Clinic" events which are described at the bottom. The only difference is that there are only 2 levels which are segregated by HS graduation years. Please read the adult description for a good understanding of how everything is set up and runs.

Adult Tournaments

Tournaments are generally run over two days, every weekend from early May until late September.   Saturdays have the men’s and women’s divisions competing while Sundays have the coed divisions competing.   Each gender has divisions of B, A, AA and Pro.  The top four finishers in all divisions earn prizes with the exception of the pro divisions which offer money. 

Tournament checking starts around 8:00 am and runs until 8:30.  While teams are suggested to pre-register, a day of check-in is required (unless you pre-pay online, but we still suggest coming no later than 8:30, especially if it is your first time).   Upon check in you will receive a free tournament t-shirt at that time!  Shortly after all teams check in pools are set up (4-5 teams per “pool” or “net”).  After you work your way down to your assigned court (grabbing as much free water as you can hold along the way) you will be required to assist in setting up your court/lines (the net is set up for you, but the players are responsible for putting up lines and antennas).

Your pool play will consist of 1 to 3 sets (depending on the prearranged format) against each team in your pool.  When you are not playing you will be busy working as a referee, eating food, drinking fluids, watching friends (or coaches), making sand castles or swimming in the ocean. 

At the conclusion of the pool play the two (sometimes 3) teams with the best records will advance to a single elimination tournament consisting of the top teams from all the pools in their division.  The top 4 teams in every division receive prizes (shirts, sweatshirts, long sleeve tshirts, balls, sunglasses).   It is not uncommon for beach volleyball tournaments to last until 7:00 at night (if you make the finals) with the exceptional tournament running even later.  

Queen/King of the Beach

This tournament format does not require a partner. Individual players sign up and are randomly assigned different partners throughout 4 matches. Each individual carries her/his own record throughout these matches with the top competitors advancing to playoffs. Teams during playoffs are assigned based on previous results and play in a single elimination playoff tournament (during each round of playoffs new teams are formed) until only 2 "undefeated" playoff players remain. At this time, the higher ranked player picks his/her partner from the team that just lost first with the remaining person going to the lower ranked winner.

The Queen/King of the beach is the person who has not lost a match in playoffs. Second place is the person who has only lost the final match. Third place goes to the person who has lost in the semi-finals, but won with a new partner in the finals.

Beach Volleyball Clinic

The clinic is a 6 hour instructional event in which players are taught basic and advanced beach volleyball strategies. During this time the players are exposed to much instruction and go through several drills with only limited "actual playing". The best way to describe a clinic is as a boot-camp for beach volleyball that will help a player adjust to the beach elements (like the power of the wind, the restrictive characteristic of the sand, etc) and learn some crucial beach strategies (the various offensive moves and when to use them, defense movement, setting strategies with respect to wind,  etc).

Clinic participants should stay for about 2 hours after the clinic is done. During this time scrimmages between the participants (and sometimes coaches) are organized.

Other general information

GAV offers participants free water, and fruit at every event.  However, you should always bring plenty of your own fluids as with the size of the tournaments you will find that most of the “freebees” will go quickly! My suggestion is to bring 1 gallon of water and at least a 32 ounce bottle of Gatorade/Powerade to mix the water with. Sugary drinks are not recommended.