HUNTINGTON BEACH AVP - A BREAK FROM “THE POINTS”
I rolled over in my bed confused why I was shutting off the noise that was coming from my phone. I quickly came to realization that it was my 4:25am alarm going off and I had 20 minutes to get dressed and ready for our previously discussed 4:45am departure from the house to head to the airport. Our flight was scheduled for a lovely dark and early 5:55am departure. We luckily landed early at DFW which meant we had time to hit the Centurion Lounge for a very delicious breakfast. Right as I walked up to the breakfast buffet, they brought out fresh biscuits and let me just tell you they were absolutely delicious. Enjoying our breakfast made us a little late to boarding our flight to Orange Country (SNA).
Waking up that early puts our bodies in a weird stage of am I hungry?, am I supposed to be eating right now?, what time is it?. We knew we would probably want a snack on our 2.5 hour flight to SNA, so the night before we both whipped up a peanut butter and protein mix to pair with an apple. The mix was placed in a ziplock bag kind of like if you were icing a cake, so it looked a little weird which is why Taryn looked across the aisle at me while we were in the air and said, “you want to eat the apple right now.” I agreed, and we together looked a little interesting as we were “icing” our apple with our pb+protein mix.
We landed around 9:49am and quickly called an Uber (AVP does not provide transportation – that is all on us to fund/figure out) because we had interviews scheduled for 11 o’clock with the AVP at the venue. We had a lovely welcome to Cali while leaving the airport. We were trying to merge into the proper lane at the airport since our lane ended, but the guy next to us would not let us in. Our Uber driver was very adamant about getting in front of this man. We thought our car was going to lose its side mirror in the process. Just when we thought our driver was bailing, he pulled off this maneuver and forced the other guy to either brake and let us in or hit us. He chose the first option, and we got in front of him. Taryn and I were just sitting in the backseat smiling and laughing through the anxiety. Our driver turns to us and says, “his car (referring to the other driver) was nicer than mine, so I knew he wasn’t going to hit me.”Honestly, the other guy was in the wrong and it was an impressive maneuver but Taryn, the less aggressive driver, may disagree with me here.
While in the Uber, we came up with a plan for arrival at the hotel: I would hit the Starbucks across the street and Taryn would see if our room was available, so when we pulled up to the hotel, we wasted no time… plan was a go (we had about 15 minutes to get interview ready before catching another Uber to go to the venue). As I was waiting for the crosswalk signal, I was munching on a protein bar because again my body was in the weird & confused, hunger stage. I received the green light and also received another warm welcome to California... On the other side of the crosswalk, a lady started pedaling on her bike when a car almost turned and hit her. The lady stopped in her tracks, stared down the driver and started to spew profanity at her. My favorite line, “you b%&$*, learn how to drive b$%#@.” I got to give a nice warm smile to the less than happy bike lady as I walked past her J
Coffees were got, makeup was put on in the lobby restroom, and we were on time for our 11am interview. It lasted about 45 minutes and then we were able to catch some of the qualifier, but mainly we chatted and caught up with people that we hadn’t seen in a while before heading to a lunch with a potential agency. - We feel it is time that we start working/considering working with a sports agent. We have done well up until this point, but we feel we may be missing out on bigger opportunities. - The lunch went well and then we headed back to the courts to catch some more of the qualifier before heading back to our hotel.
It was only 4:15pm but to us it was 6:15pm which is around the time that we normally eat dinner at home, so we started researching what was within walking distance. Taryn found a delicious looking deli shop that was an 18 min walk from us. It was very much food chronicles worthy, but we were so hungry that the phone did not eat first or at all. A nice warm sandwich, in my opinion, is just way better than a cold one. Between bites I was telling Taryn how I think a deli shop would be an awesome restaurant to own (I have been frequently saying I want to own a restaurant). A place that whips up bomb deli sandwiches and does amazing breakfast sandwiches as well of course seems like something New Orleans could use! May start making a business plan in our free time ha
On our walk back we stopped in a CVS to grab some spray sunscreen and sprite zeros. We always crave something with carbonation at dinner. Unfortunately, they only had 7up zero, so we had to go with that (it’s not as good). After my explanation of my potential business plan, Taryn brought up the topic of real estate, so for the rest of our 15-minute walk we chatted about our thoughts on real estate investments. The rest of the evening was pretty chill… shower, get the room organized, and rest for the night.
Friday morning I hit Taryn with the “in the dark, bright flash photography pic” since it was GAMEDAY!
She was not a fan.
Friday, game day morning, came around and we were most definitely still on Louisiana time because we were both up around 6:30am. We also went to sleep around 9, so another reason for the early wake up. Our match wasn’t until 11:15 so we waited to eat breakfast around 8, Ubered to the venue around 9:15, had another breakfast in the athlete tent at 9:40, and then started warming up around 10:15. It was a pretty chilly 60 degrees, so actually warming up took a little longer than usual. I mean we have been practicing in mid to high 80s at home, so 60s was definitely chilly to us.
Kan/Gaffney – They came out of the gnarly qualifier the day before, so we knew they were going to be ready to play. In a match that went back and forth we were able to make some key plays and finish the match in 2 sets. We (Drew included) agreed that in years past we probably would have gone to 3, so we walked away happy since that was not the case. Our next game was in a couple hours so instead of spending the money and Ubering back and forth from the hotel back to the venue we decided to just hang out in the athlete's tent. We ate the provided lunch which was absolutely delicious (probs the best hummus I’ve ever eaten), chatted with some of the other players, and took some rough headshots for the AVP.
Muno/Kraft – 2:35 came around which meant it was time for warmups again. We decided to warm up in the open space next to court 2. This may have been one of our chillest warmups thus far. We had people coming up and talking with us in between band work and peppering, and we were also chatting with some friends the whole time. It’s crazy how our view of AVP tournaments has significantly changed since embarking on the Olympic journey. The AVP provides us with an opportunity to go out and just have some fun on the court with 0 pressure. I think that is what you saw in that match. We were just having fun and enjoying the sport that we get to call “work”. We pulled it out in two sets and booked our ticket to the last round of the winner's bracket.
Our dinner that evening consisted of a 10-minute walk to the Whole Foods up the street, 20 minutes deciding what we actually wanted to eat from there, 15 minutes warming it all up, and then 15 minutes eating and watching the 3rd quarter of the Heat vs Celtics game (Go Heat!). We made our way back to the hotel just in time for the exciting 4th quarter and then finished the night with some Impractical Jokers for some good laughs.
We typically make notes throughout the trip of what happens, so when it comes time to write these blogs we actually remember what we did.
Saturday morning, we made it to 7am and then laid in bed till 8 before heading down for breakfast. We both enjoyed a scrumptious cinnamon raisin bagel along with some other items, but the bagel stole the show. With our match not being till 4:40 we wanted to get moving, so we took a 20-minute walk to a highly rated coffee shop, Able Coffee Roasters. I got their signature blue cold foam cold brew which fueled me to start writing this blog. I would definitely get it again!
After chilling in the hotel room while watching some of the contender's bracket matches, we hit our favorite food spot again, Subculture. This time my phone did eat first. The deliciousness had to be shared with the world.
Amazingness!
We tried to go back for a third time after we lost on Sunday, but they were closed :/
Wilkerson/Humana-Paredes – We thought we were going to finally have some sunshine for this match, but when we hopped out of the Uber it just disappeared behind very thick clouds and the temperature dropped about 5 degrees. Not the most ideal beach volleyball weather. We knew going in that we typically struggle in late afternoon matches when we have the whole day for downtime, so we made sure to warmup a little extra to really get the heart pumping and ready for battle. I think it worked.
For those who know about the butterflies… after our match against Muno/Kraft one of the volunteers came up and asked for a picture. When he whipped out his wife’s phone case to reveal a giant butterfly Taryn and I both just looked at each other and smiled. On my walk to dinner Saturday evening after our match against Wilkerson/Humana-Parades, I looked up to find a giant butterfly hanging from a car’s rear-view mirror. And in case I hadn’t seen that one, while I was on FaceTime with my mom, a guy walked into the restaurant with a big blue butterfly on his shirt pocket. Shortly after, the same guy turned around to which I saw an even bigger blue butterfly taking up the entire back of his shirt. It just puts a smile on my face knowing I have people looking out for me/us from above.
Probably for the first time ever on a Sunday, I went through my warmup routine before our semifinal match thinking to myself, “Wow, my legs feel pretty good.” I was pumped for our game and wanted to be playing in the finals match later that afternoon. In hindsight, I think I looked ahead of our matchup against Flint/Scoles. They played a very good game, and we did not play up to their level, so we exited earlier than we wanted to with a 3rd place. In previous years, we would have been very angry but with our new perspective on AVP tournaments, we obviously walked away a little disappointed but with our heads still held high knowing that this was not going to affect our ultimate goal… Paris 2024.
So, we sometimes talk about the negatives of being a beach volleyball player, but in these next paragraphs I’m going to talk about a fun perk of being a professional athlete.
OGIO, our bag sponsor, hosted us for a visit to their headquarters in Carlsbad, CA. It was about an hour drive from Huntington Beach, so Monday morning we got a rental car and made the easy drive. We got to meet more of the OGIO team including two of the production creators for a new collection coming out. (Keep your eyes peeled for that because we know everyone is going to love it) Let me just tell you, however much work you thought went into making a bag multiply it by about 5. It was mind blowing to see what happens behind the scenes.
The parent company of OGIO is Callaway. Yes, the very well known golf company. OGIO and Callaway have the same headquarters which meant we got to do a custom golf club fitting. You may be thinking, we never see Taryn or Kristen playing golf and you would be correct. We have no time at the moment, but that will not always be the case. We will have free time at some point in our lives, and when that day comes, we will be set with the best golf clubs out there. The whole experience was incredible! We did not walk away pros by any means, but we definitely walked away with a lot more golf club knowledge and a better understanding of our swings. Thank you OGIO and Callaway!
By: Kristen Nuss
