HEY MATE, WE GOT IN!
Coolangatta Beach, Australia
The long-awaited international tournament!! Taryn and I are in the qualifier for the Pro Beach Volleyball Futures tournament in Coolangatta, Australia March 30-April 3.
This was not at all the case about a week ago. Taryn was actually signed up to compete with someone else. I had fully come to terms with the fact that I was going to be sitting on the couch, cheering my butt off, watching Taryn compete on the beach in Australia. Was it hard to face that reality? Absolutely. Did I know it would greatly help our goal of making it to the Olympics? Absolutely. That is why I was going to be cheering my butt off.
I am very thankful that is not the case for now. How did I find out? Glad you asked. I was driving to New Orleans to meet with my CPA (you know, just doing adult things), when I receive a call from Taryn. Her voice sounded a little more exuberant (I know, big word – look at me go) than normal. I quickly realized why she was so happy… we got in! I did not really have a huge reaction because I think I was just in shock that we were actually able to get in. However, it hit me a couple hours later after I had received the 5th call from Taryn about what flights we should take… we were going to Australia and a huge smile just came across my face. It was time to go get some points!
The little worldwide pandemic called the coronavirus is what brought us together in 2020 and it is what brings us together to be able to compete in this Australia tournament.
We found out on Wednesday, March 9 that some teams dropped out which bumped us from the reserve list into the qualifier. I am being specific with the dates so I can show you just how hectic it is to be a professional beach volleyball player. Australia is over 7,500 miles away from Baton Rouge, where we are currently located. We must compete in the qualifier of the tournament on March 30. That is 21 days to plan a trip literally across the world. During this planning process, we realized that we would have to leave on the 25th which would put us there on the 27th. That means, 16 days following finding out about being in the tournament we will be on a plane flying across the country. That is just crazy.
So, we went to town researching different flights. Flights across the world are not cheap that’s for sure. And with a long story short, we have flights booked. It only took me on hold with American Airlines for quite literally half the day (I really wish airlines would make things more simple), but we are booked.
Some other planning stuff that we had to work through was where to stay. One of the guys mentioned that they were getting an Airbnb, so Taryn was back to the research. She found a great spot close to the beach, and let me just say Coolangatta, Australia looks beautiful. We also had to apply for a visa and in order to do this you need your passport. Well, our passports were in New Orleans, and we are currently living in Baton Rouge. Thank goodness for parents… my parents drove our passports to us Wednesday night so we could apply for the visa ASAP. Turns out we did not even need it that night because we got approved right away (hope my mom does not read this and see that but thanks mom and dad).
I have mentioned that we are only in the qualifier. This means that we could do all this planning, fly across the world, and only play 1 match. I repeat 1 match. That is just nuts!!
Anyway, we have to win 2 matches in order to make it into the main draw so hopefully we will be playing a lot of volleyball! We will be posting updates on our social media platforms so make sure you are following ours and TKN’s Facebook and Instagram.
We are super excited to compete again, and we hope you follow along. Let the road to Paris 2024 begin!!!!
By: Kristen Nuss
