Would love to hear some comments on the email a lot of you may have received about the upcoming South Florida tournaments. I mean what is the best solution for the players beyond voting for who gets our money??? email below: Players in Florida have a chance to decide how many future tournaments there will be in South Florida. As you probably already know, East End Volleyball last fall scheduled a tournament in Hollywood for April 9-10 and announced it in early January. Dig the Beach decided to run a competing tournament in Ft Lauderdale 8 miles away. Both tournaments will be comparative in prize money and prizes. Players will be able to vote for what they want in the future by which tournament they decide to attend. Here is what you are voting for: 1. If you attend EEVB’s Hollywood tournament you are choosing to have more events in south Florida. You are asking Dig the Beach and EEVB to work out a cooperative schedule in future years so that events do not fall on the same weekend so that players can compete in both of these events. If you want EEVB to keep coming back to South Florida (Hollywood, Delray Beach, Singer Island), giving you more chances to earn Volley America Grand Prix points (39 players won $9,950 total in 2010), Saturday night after play parties with complimentary beer and food for players (spaghetti and meatballs and 2 Corona lights per player at Nick’s on the Hollywood Broadwalk this week) you will play in Hollywood this weekend. 2. If you play in Ft. Lauderdale you are telling EEVB that you do not like the tournaments that we have been bringing to South Florida since 1992 and that you only want Dig the Beach tournaments. You are saying that you only want EEVB to come as far south at Clearwater and Siesta Key. If you want to limit the # of events to the amount that Dig the Beach chooses to run you will play in Ft. Lauderdale this weekend. South Florida is one of the best places in the country for beach volleyball players. There is a deeper player base here than any place else in the county. And you can play more days here than anywhere else. Dig the Beach runs a nice series which is obviously well received by players as is shown by the # of teams in their tournaments. And it has improved and grown well since Chris took it over a few years ago. EEVB runs a well received tournament as is shown by how long we have been running events throughout the East Coast and the over 4,000 players who competed in one of our events in 2010. It seems like it would make sense for these 2 tours to not schedule events on the same weekend when EEVB only does 8 FL events every year and Dig the beach only has 10 events scheduled for this season. So it looks like we are leaving it up to the players. It seems like it should not be that hard for a cooperative schedule to be worked out. I am officially voting for a cooperative schedule which will benefit all involved parties. I have had problems situations like this elsewhere in the past and found that whenever promoters cooperate, everyone wins. The players have more events to join and the promoters end up with more players. Hope to see all of you in Hollywood. You can register online at www.eevb.net/reg (Open players need to register at www.active.com/volleyball-tournament/hollywood-fl/hollywood-fl-2011)
ECBVB has always welcomed every tour on the block, in fact promoted free of charge all of the many tours. We have even gone as far as worked on a point system, rankings, etc. all for the good of the volleyball community. It is not a secret the East End and Dig the Beach (the 2 biggest tours on the East Coast) do not have much love for one another. Who is to blame?? I find it very disturbing that the 2 biggest tours cannot even come to terms on scheduling. Realistically, do volleyball players really want to pay to play every single weekend? Look at the schedule on ECBVB, there are tournaments every week and if there is an open date, check one of the tours websites and I am sure you will find a TBD.
What have we learned in the first full month of Beach Volleyball in 2011?? That Adrian Carambula does not know what it feels like to place anywhere other than 1st. Let's break down his victories below:
ECBVB.com released the 2011 beach volleyball schedule today. With the AVP bankrupt, the game continues to grow over here on the East Coast. Reviewing the schedules of the participating tours their is no shortage of events with more events to be released in the coming weeks. Be sure and check in for the most up-to-date tournament event information.
In Clearwater, SSOVA hosted a great tournament taking down some great team due to the HEAT index kicking over 105. In the finals, JD Christie and Matt Henderson knocked off the Orlando duo of Billy Chenoweth and Roger Corbitt. 
Lets start with the Siesta Key Corona Wide Open results. JD Christie and Tyler Lesneski ruled the big court taking out the little guys, Neil Mayo and Jason Aucoin. Joey Cash and Jeff Soler pulled down a 3rd along with the Lunardi brothers. In the womens final Carla and Heidi Ford won a decisive final over Chantel and Amy. More on the corona site at: 
Big weekend in Beach Volleyball this weekend. Phil Dalhausser represents the East Coast well winning Huntington Beach AVP with Todd Rodgers over John Hyden and Sean Scott in 3 games. Gotta love Phil warming up with the Ranse Jones T-Shirt, we are all cheering for Ranse. Surprise of the tournament had to be the pair of 6 footers from the east coast, Adrian Carambula and Matt Henderson taking home a 13th and were a bad call away from grabbing a 9th. Congrats.
Great day at an incredible beach. Lot of teams today, I heard one of the biggest turnouts on the east coast ever, 370+ teams, WOW. And much thanks to the guys at Dig the Beach for the continual reminder and encouragement of our fellow baller Ranse Jones and he continues his fight. Late in the day on the Womens side, Tara Kuk and Kim Whitney took down Kristen Batt and Brooke Sweat. 
The biggest tournament on the east coast this weekend was the Corona Wide Open. Bringing it back to the ol' school, no antennas, big court, and side out scoring. Bringing home the championship was the 2 Brazilians Billy and Rodrigo knocking off AVP regular Al Hanneman and Kevin Craig. Mike Morales / Adrian Carambula took home a respectable 3rd and Dave Dipierro / Paul Christopher finished 4th.