SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter15 Aug 2018

Tri Bourne is BACK ON THE BEACH

Phil Dalhausser stands, hands on his hips, shaking his head.

“That,” he says, “looks so boring.”

He’s watching a young man play volleyball by himself, tossing a ball, hitting it line, tossing another, hitting a cut, tossing another, hitting a high angle. Over and over and over, nearly two hours on end.

Many of the passerby on the Manhattan Beach Pier that day could have reasonably concluded one of a few things: the guy was either bored, as Dalhausser suggested, had no friends to play with, or was just borderline crazy.

There was, however, a fourth option.

Tri Bourne was actually having the time of his life.

Weeks later, Bourne is in Bear Valley, California. He skipped out of AVP San Francisco early. It’s tough to be around the sport you once dominated, watching others who had never beaten you win titles you’re sure would be yours for the taking. So he’s visiting his sister, Kai, and his nieces and nephew instead.

They’re barefoot minions, those three, ages two, four and six, charging around the forest, biking down hills, rumbling through creeks and swimming in the lake nearby. It’s suggested that they’re already addicted to exercise, and it’s also pointed out that it’s not the worst addiction to have.

Bourne purses his lips, looks down.

“It is,” he says, “when the one thing you can’t do, is exercise.”

***

This is not a comeback story. No, no. That’s not how Bourne views it, and it’s not how he’d like you to view it, either. This is a reinvention, a rebirth, though not of the holy sort. Tri Bourne isn’t returning to the AVP Tour, to beach volleyball, the same person he was when he and John Hyden finished second in the world rankings in 2016.

He’s coming back as Tri Bourne 2.0. More well-rounded. A different person with a different perspective. A mindset that goes far deeper than pass, set, hit. A skill set that is relevant east of the Pacific Coast Highway, too.

Weeks before the onset of the 2017 season, Bourne and Hyden were registered to play the Fort Lauderdale Major. Bourne was still on the heels of ankle surgery, but all seemed fine. His mobility was good enough, jump felt no different, cardio was up to his world-class standard.

Except there was something going on with his hands. He’d block a ball and his hands would sting and throb, eventually swelling to the point that he wore mitts at practice. He thought it was carpal tunnel syndrome, where the hands experience tingling and numbness from a pinched nerve.

He got it checked out. The doctors didn’t know what it was, just that it was not carpal tunnel. Neither did the next doctors. Nor the next. It wouldn’t be until Bourne went to the University of Utah, site of the United States Olympic Committee’s medical center, that he would receive a diagnosis.

It wasn’t carpal tunnel syndrome, the doctors confirmed. It was an autoimmune disease, something called myositis, which means, generally speaking, inflammation of the muscles that you use to move your body.

It means Kryptnonite to the boy who grew up paddling, surfing, canoeing, playing volleyball, basketball, hiking – “just charging,” as he would put it.

The boy whose life was, to that point, based on movement, was no longer allowed to move.

“Basically,” he said, “I just had to shut it down.”

Friends began to see changes in him. He wasn’t quite the same. Something was off. Because of course something was off. Bourne’s entire life, entire existence, had been flipped upside down and inside out.

“You know when it’s raining and you have to sit in the house all day?” he said. “Yeah, that was me, every day. It was basically that. That’s what it was like. Everyone who knows me knows I’m pretty damn ADD. I come from a family that’s pretty much addicted to working out, that’s definitely a thing. Yeah, man, it’s intense. That’s why I had to go internal with everything because it was a lot, it was getting to be too much. It was, uh, it sucked. It sucked for a while, because I still had that drive, coming out of the Olympic qualifier, and my ego was just huge, I was ready to be the top guy in the U.S.

“I was still ready to work hard, but what could I do? It was ‘Do nothing.’”

He couldn’t surf, so he would body-surf occasionally, until his heart rate went too high and he’d have to sit back down. He couldn’t play volleyball, and watching film was almost as tortuous as blocking with the mitts. He couldn’t eat, well, anything. Anything that could potentially inflame his muscles – dairy, gluten, alcohol, just about everything not named broccoli, rice, and organic chicken breasts – was removed from his diet. The snacks in his pantry shifted spectacularly, from chips and salsa to dry-roasted peanuts and pumpkin seeds. His weight plummeted, nearly going south of 170 pounds.

“It was definitely one of the tougher things to see someone go through,” Trevor Crabb, Bourne’s partner for AVP Manhattan, said. “You can’t imagine missing out on a whole year and a half of your job and your love. Seeing him last year, when it first started, basically his muscles in his arms were as skinny as my legs. It was crazy just to see how his body changed so drastically.”

It was, for an athlete who had competed in 13 different countries in a single year and took a bronze at the World Tour Finals, rock bottom.

But that’s the thing about rock bottom.

The only direction you can go is up.

***

It began with the livestream. The AVP was expanding its coverage to Facebook live on stadium court. Bourne was asked if he might want to commentate. Seeing as he didn’t have anything else going on, sure, he could do that. It was an easy way to stay relevant and involved in the game, while expanding his skill set as a human being.

What he discovered was that, while he may have been a little rough around the edges in terms of live commentating – considering he had never once done the job and had precisely zero training prior to his debut in New York of 2017, he did, objectively speaking, an excellent job – he found he quite liked talking about the sport.

Later that year, he teamed up with a journalist and launched his own podcast, SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, which has since become a popular listen among the beach volleyball community, to the point that Bourne is now lightly chided about being the podcast guy rather than one of the world’s most formidable players.

While his old identity as an elite athlete was one he missed, to be sure, it was also fun to learn, expand, grow. He began reading, picking up books on everything from Georges St. Pierre’s memoir to one titled “Becoming Supernatural,” which details, per the book description, “that we have the capacity to tune in to frequencies beyond our material world and receive more orderly coherent streams of consciousness and energy; that we can intentionally change our brain chemistry to initiate profoundly mystical transcendental experiences; and how, if we do this enough times, we can develop the skill of creating a more efficient, balanced, healthy body, a more unlimited mind, and greater access to the realms of spiritual truth.”

Right. No book was off limits. He even wrote a forward for one, to be published later this year.

When Bourne was going to come back, he wasn’t going to return the same player or man he was. He was going to be something entirely new. His skill set continued to expand, enrolling in hosting classes to taking on a meditation challenge in which he had to meditate 45 minutes a day.

The kid who couldn’t stop moving? Meditating 45 minutes a day?

“Eventually I got the hang of it. It naturally progressed, and I don’t have that deep anxious feeling where my heart rate’s going up from being anxious just to do something,” he said. “It’s good.”

The time for sitting and thinking is, to the delight of the beach volleyball world, over. Weeks ago, Bourne was cleared by his doctors to begin exercising again. Just light stuff. Nothing serious. But this is Bourne we’re talking about. He got in the gym, then in the sand. He felt fine, fine enough to register for FIVBs in Moscow and Vienna.

He nearly pulled the trigger on Hermosa but decided against it. He had just begun a new treatment – “half great white shark, half puma stem cells,” he likes to joke – and didn’t know how his body would react.

The initial plan was to wait for Hawaii, the AVP’s final, invitation-only stop of the year. But still: This is Bourne. He couldn’t help himself. He texted Crabb, his best friend since the days of the Outrigger Canoe Club in Honolulu, Hawaii.

“It would be fun,” Bourne said in a text.

That was all Crabb needed.

He was in.

They were in. Tri Bourne was back on the beach.

“I was bored as hell this past year and a half,” Bourne said. “Trevor was the one friend who came over the most and spent the most time with me, and I was pretty boring, because I couldn’t do the activities we normally do. He’d just sit on the couch with me and just be dumb.”

Because sometimes, being dumb is the best rehab a doctor could prescribe.

They do not expect to win Manhattan, despite the last three Manhattan finals featuring one of them every year. Making a Sunday would be an accomplishment. It could be a long-term partnership or just a fun experiment, a welcome back party.

It’ll likely be emotional, hearing his name called. His wife, Gabby, is already prepping for the inevitable waterworks to come.

But when the first ball is served, the past year and a half is finished, done with, over. It may be a new Tri Bourne coming back to the beach, but he’s still here, he said, “to slay the dragons.”

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Marlie Monserez: Building The PVF And Atlanta Vibe From The Ground Up

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Marlie Monserez, who is currently in her second year with the upstart indoor volleyball league, the PVF (Professional Volleyball Federation). Monserez was a standout at the University of Florida before transferring to UCLA to play beach volleyball under Stein Metzger. On this episode, we: Explore her unique journey through volleyball, including her transition from indoor to beach volleyball, her decision to join the PVF and Athletes Unlimited, and her experiences at UCLA. How Marlie Monserez navigated the transfer portal, and the wild wild west dynamic of that landscape Why returning to beach volleyball was the best thing she could have done for her indoor career Her first year with the Atlanta Vibe and the PVF, which was successful both as an individual and a team And much, much more. SHOOTS! *** Unlock your peak athleticism with Root and Fruit Nutrition and the Genomic Edge. Stop leaving yourself vulnerable to data breaches and brokers. Go to my sponsor https://aura.com/sandcast to get a 14-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link. If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

17 Jan 59min

SANDCAST Greatest Hits: Zana Muno: Beach volleyball’s hustling, diving, gritty ’chic farmer’

Welcome to SANDCAST Greatest Hits! Given that our podcast, hosted by Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, is on its eighth year, and we have accumulated more viewers and listeners every year – 52% of our listeners discovered us in 2024 alone – we wanted to rewind and replay the best of the best from our podcast history. So, throughout 2025, once a month we will be replaying one of our most-listened-to episodes, beginning with our most popular of all-time: Zana Muno. This episode was recorded in January of 2022, and so much has happened since including, of course, Zana Muno retiring from beach volleyball. It makes episodes like this that much more intriguing to listen to, to see where the players were at then vs. where they are now. If you’re a longtime listener, enjoy the replay, and if you’re new, well, enjoy the most popular episode we’ve ever done! SHOOTS! PHOTO: Mark Rigney *** WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link. If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

10 Jan 1h 10min

Alexis Durish: Taking FSU Beach Volleyball to "A Whole 'Nother Level"

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter is the debut of our FSU Beach Volleyball studios! Fittingly enough, it features one of Florida State's best players in Alexis Durish, a junior who is coming off a NORCECA gold medal and set to continue building on a record of 60-11 in two years in Tallahassee. In this episode, we chat about: The explosion of juniors beach volleyball, even since Durish, just 20, was a junior Why this fall was so different at Florida State, in a good way, even if it did mean “sucking” The learning curve of NCAA beach volleyball players Why California is no longer mandatory for beach volleyball players to pursue a career in the sport And much, much more. SHOOTS! *** WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link. If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

8 Jan 1h 1min

The 2024 Beach Pro Tour Player Awards

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, is the annual Beach Pro Tour Awards Show. As with the 2023 Awards, all of these are 100 percent player voted, with a month-long nomination process, and then a two-week final voting process. Some of the winners might surprise you, some will not. This episode delivers awards in the following categories: Team of the Year Most Valuable Beach Volleyball Player of the Year Best Offensive Player Best Defensive Player Best Server Best Blocker Most Improved Rookie of the Year Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year Man of the Year Event of the Year SHOOTS! *** Use code SANDCAST for 10% off The Genomic Edge Program now through December 31st! https://root-and-fruit-nutrition.mykajabi.com/the-genomic-edge-program WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Love the insights from this episode? Make sure you never miss a beat with Chatpods! Whether you're commuting, working out, or just on the go, Chatpods lets you capture and summarize key takeaways effortlessly. Save time, stay organized, and keep your thoughts at your fingertips. Download Chatpods directly from App Store or Google Play and use it to listen to this podcast today! https://www.chatpods.com/?fr=TravisMewhirter Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Introducing Balltime, the AI platform making breaking down film and statistics EASY (FINALLY!). Use our link for a discount and give it a try! Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link. If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

1 Jan 44min

Tri Bourne, Evan Cory, and The Biggest New Partnership in Beach Volleyball

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter (and Savvy Simo in this case) features the host himself, Bourne, with his NEW PARTNER: Evan Cory. That’s right: Tri Bourne and Evan Cory are partnering up for the 2025 beach volleyball season. They talk about that, of course, as well as: Cory’s recent season with Alison, and all that he learned Why the AVP League is a significant focus for American beach volleyball players this season World Championships in Australia, and that being the Big Goal for Tri Bourne and Evan Cory Winning bringing a sense of relief and validation to all that hard work The importance of celebrating milestones, like Cory’s win in Haikou And so, so much more. GOLD MINE OF AN EPISODE!! *** Use code SANDCAST for 10% off The Genomic Edge Program now through December 31st! https://root-and-fruit-nutrition.mykajabi.com/the-genomic-edge-program WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Love the insights from this episode? Make sure you never miss a beat with Chatpods! Whether you're commuting, working out, or just on the go, Chatpods lets you capture and summarize key takeaways effortlessly. Save time, stay organized, and keep your thoughts at your fingertips. Download Chatpods directly from App Store or Google Play and use it to listen to this podcast today! https://www.chatpods.com/?fr=TravisMewhirter Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Introducing Balltime, the AI platform making breaking down film and statistics EASY (FINALLY!). Use our link for a discount and give it a try! Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link. If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

24 Dec 20241h 11min

The Bello Brothers: Becoming The Fastest-Rising Team in Beach Volleyball

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features co-host Kyle Friend and our good friends, Javier Bello and Joaquin Bello, better known, of course, as the Bello Brothers. And they are one of the fastest-rising teams on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, beginning in Challenge qualifiers, ending at the Doha Beach Pro Tour Finals, stunning Anders Mol and Christian Sorum, winning a gold medal at the Rio Elite16 – it’s A LOT. We chatted about all of that, as well as: Why Joaquin doesn’t think this year’s success has been sudden at all How in the world the Bello Brothers have gotten so good training in England Why qualifying at the Rio Elite16 was actually a better feeling than beating Anders Mol and Christian Sorum…or winning gold in the whole event Why, hilariously, Joquin was more scared of Travis Mewhirter at the net than Anders Mol And much, much more. SHOOTS! *** Use code SANDCAST for 10% off The Genomic Edge Program now through December 31st! https://root-and-fruit-nutrition.mykajabi.com/the-genomic-edge-program WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Love the insights from this episode? Make sure you never miss a beat with Chatpods! Whether you're commuting, working out, or just on the go, Chatpods lets you capture and summarize key takeaways effortlessly. Save time, stay organized, and keep your thoughts at your fingertips. Download Chatpods directly from App Store or Google Play and use it to listen to this podcast today! https://www.chatpods.com/?fr=TravisMewhirter Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Introducing Balltime, the AI platform making breaking down film and statistics EASY (FINALLY!). Use our link for a discount and give it a try! Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link. If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

18 Dec 20241h 18min

The McKibbin Brothers, And The Balancing Act of Entertainment And Competition

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features the McKibbin Bros – with a twist. Maddison McKibbin and the youngest Beard(less) Bro, Jameson McKibbin, makes his podcast debut. Together, the three McKibbin brothers have changed the game in terms of how beach volleyball is covered, creating content that had never been done in the sport, establishing a presence on the AVP Tour. In this episode, the boys chat about: The dynamics of the inaugural AVP League, focusing on the experiences of the McKibbin brothers and their journey in the sport. It delves into team dynamics, the evolution of player interactions, and the impact of fan engagement on the sport's growth. The discussion also highlights the challenges and insights gained from being part of the AVP League, including the introduction of new concepts like walk-ins and the importance of team chemistry. The evolving dynamics of volleyball, focusing on how players showcase their personalities, the balance between entertainment and competition, and the importance of fun in the sport. The first year of the AVP League, the significance of partnerships, and insights into female players' contributions to the game. The need for authenticity and creativity in sports, as well as the impact of fan engagement on player performance. SHOOTS! *** Use code SANDCAST for 10% off The Genomic Edge Program now through December 31st! https://root-and-fruit-nutrition.mykajabi.com/the-genomic-edge-program WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Love the insights from this episode? Make sure you never miss a beat with Chatpods! Whether you're commuting, working out, or just on the go, Chatpods lets you capture and summarize key takeaways effortlessly. Save time, stay organized, and keep your thoughts at your fingertips. Download Chatpods directly from App Store or Google Play and use it to listen to this podcast today! https://www.chatpods.com/?fr=TravisMewhirter Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Introducing Balltime, the AI platform making breaking down film and statistics EASY (FINALLY!). Use our link for a discount and give it a try! Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link. If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

11 Dec 20241h 36min

Beach Pro Tour Finals Recap: USA Dominance Continues; Norway Delivers "Psychological Damage"

Welcome back everyone to Beach Access, where Travis Mewhirter, Kyle Friend and the Beach Volleyball World gang recap the Beach Pro Tour Finals in Doha, Qatar. It marked the final event of a long 2024 season, and we covered a bit of everything, including: Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth becoming the first back to back champs since Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst Anders Mol and Christian Sorum delivering, as their new coach Adrian Carambula said, “psychological dmage” with a statement win over Sweden’s David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig Qatar’s sweet ending, with Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan finishing on the podium after a season that didn’t see them on many Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft entering the elite category with no further questions, your honor And, as always, much, much more. Full YouTube video is up on the Beach Volleyball World channel! SHOOTS and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! *** WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Love the insights from this episode? Make sure you never miss a beat with Chatpods! Whether you're commuting, working out, or just on the go, Chatpods lets you capture and summarize key takeaways effortlessly. Save time, stay organized, and keep your thoughts at your fingertips. Download Chatpods directly from App Store or Google Play and use it to listen to this podcast today! https://www.chatpods.com/?fr=TravisMewhirter Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Introducing Balltime, the AI platform making breaking down film and statistics EASY (FINALLY!). Use our link for a discount and give it a try! Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link. If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

9 Dec 202429min

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