Volleyballers hit the beach, rain or shine

Beach volleyball is played rain on shine, and the sport’s growing popularity has league organizers searching for new venues to accommodate the demand, despite this summer’s wetter weather.

Patrick Coriveau, an organizer and coach with Ottawa’s Big Bounce beach volleyball club has watched the sport gain momentum first-hand.

“Over the last four years… registration in our league has grown 75 per cent,” he said. “We have over 500 teams now, and the tournaments have been growing every year.”

Coriveau noted a lot more kids and young adults are joining, leading to a demand for more courts. In response, Big Bounce recently christened a new series of courts near Scotiabank Place in Kanata.

Beach volleyball is similar to its indoor cousin, with some notable exceptions, keeping in mind the nature of the beach. In tournament play, teams of two compete barefoot, rushing and diving through the sand. Players dress the part too. For men, that means beach shorts, and for women, bikinis.

Ottawa’s beach volleyball enthusiasts wish they had to wear more sunscreen this summer. According to Coriveau, playing in wet weather, though challenging and refreshing, can become a hassle.

“When you play in the rain, it’s not exactly the same. Techniques change a bit, but it’s still manageable,” he said. “This summer, it got a bit old, (playing while it’s) raining all the time. But you got to do it. That’s the nature of an outdoor sport.”

In June, the Hope Beach Volleyball tournament had to be cancelled for the first time since its founding in 1981, due to poor weather. The tournament, held annually at Mooney’s Bay beach, has raised millions of dollars for Ottawa charities over the decades.

“After the torrential down-pouring of rain, the condition of both the sand and grass courts quickly became a hazard for the participants,” said a message on the Hope Volleyball website on June 13, the day of the tournament. “With safety being paramount, the decision to cancel the volleyball games was made.”

While the Hope tournament plans its comeback in 2010, volleyball enthusiasts in the capital have other avenues to pursue their passion.

The Big Bounce beach volleyball tournament gathered many of Ottawa’s best male and female players on Aug. 15 and 16 in Orléans for a weekend of smashing fun, and luckily, it all took place under beautiful, sunny skies. However, temperatures soared upward of 32 degrees over the weekend, and this posed some problems for the players.

“(It was) brutal,” Coriveau said following the weekend of extreme heat. But all the competitors stayed well hydrated during the tournament, and there were no cases of exhaustion or heat stroke, he reported.

Despite the relentless sun, Brett Bailey and Adrian Mota were crowned city champions in the elite men’s division, defeating Ryan DeBruin and Roger Marszalek in three sets.

It seems no matter the weather, Ottawans have a hard time staying out of the sand.

-- By Ben Myers