Spring Break, Panama City Beach, the AVP

The AVP has announced the lineup for the 2009 beach tour. The first event of the season (March 27-29) will be held during Spring Break at Panama City Beach in the panhandle of Florida.

I think the timing and location are brilliant choices on the part of the AVP. While the weather and water temp along what is called "the Emerald Coast" can still be cool in late March, the built-in audience of college students and other vacationers who flock to the area each spring should accrue to the event. AVP beach tour sponsors, led by Crocs, should realize substantial exposure to a major segment of the overall AVP fan base.

For more than 15 springs, members of my family (and lucky friends) have gathered for a week in Grayton Beach, to the west of Panama City Beach. In the early years, I would wander off looking for v-ball courts on the beach. While club and resort courts could be found on Panama City Beach, the best action was well to the west at Pensacola Beach. I'm not sure if that has changed during the past few years.

The sand along the Emerald Coast is about as white as it gets, scrunching under foot as you might imagine baking powder would. It won't take much for the Pros to get used to the phenomenal sand. On the other hand, the sun setting down the beach rather than perpendicular to it might be a little disorienting for those from the West Coast.

There is a link to the 2009 Crocs Beach Tour schedule on our Web site. You'll see lots of familiar stops on the tour and a couple of surprises. The site for the San Diego stop, May 1-3, surprised me the most. I lived at the beach in San Diego for many years, learned to play v-ball there, and saw my first AVP event there. This year the San Diego event will be held in Valley Center, 62 miles north of downtown San Diego and well inland, just south of the Riverside County line. The location attraction is Harrah's Rincon Casino. It will be interesting to see what attendance looks like at this venue, particularly because there is a separate stop in Riverside (73 miles up the road) two weeks earlier.

Check out the schedule and stay tuned for a listing of the tour stops that will be televised. Here's hoping that your travels will allow you to attend one of the AVP beach tour stops in person during the 2009 season.