Ron Kantowski on the rise of beach volleyball as a spectator sport and lucrative career in America

Monday, Sept. 11, 2006 | 7:31 a.m.

The first beach volleyball circuit originated in the late 1950s with tournaments in cities such as Pacific Palisades, Laguna Beach and Corona del Mar, places that invoke memories of woody station wagons and bushy, bushy blonde hairdos; of warm breezes and summers that never end.

President Kennedy attended the first official beach volleyball "tour" event on Sorrento Beach in the early 1960s, when the purse sometimes was cold soda instead of cold cash. The first tournament to offer a prize was held in Los Angeles. It awarded the best teams a case of Pepsi-Cola.

But it wasn't long before Moondoggie started chasing Gidget up and down the coast and Frankie and Annette spread out their beach blanket to play bingo on the silver screen. This was the advent of "Beachmania," halcyon days for James Darren and Eric Von Zipper and marginal surf bands, such as the Hondells; and legitimate ones, such as Dick Dale, the king of the surf guitar, and his Del-Tones.

It was a time to go trippin', catch a wave, go sidewalk surfin'. Even if there weren't always two girls for every boy, there was always plenty of fun in the sun, and this is where beach volleyball came in.

And never left.

In 2002, beach volleyball legend Karch Kiraly pocketed $7,500 for finishing third at the season-ending King of the Beach tournament at the Hard Rock hotel-casino to become the sport's first $3 million dollar man.

I've got news for you, Moondoggie. They're not playing for Pepsis and presidential handshakes any more.

The sport has evolved to where you needn't spend your formative years filtering sand from between your toes to make a living at it.

Take Casey Jennings. Back before Jennings was a bronze god of the beach, he was a green central midfielder for the Clark High soccer team. He played volleyball, too, but that wasn't such a big deal in Southern Nevada, where the big men on campus scored touchdowns and sank baskets and the only beaches were man-made and had gated communities built around them.

It's different in the California beach cities, which might explain why Jennings was cut after trying out for the Long Beach City junior college team. But he didn't give up. He made the team at Golden West Junior College, just a few miles up the 405 freeway in Huntington Beach. Then it was on to Brigham Young, where he starred for the Cougars' 1999 national championship squad.

Named the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) most improved player in 2002 and 2003, Jennings, playing with partner Matt Fuerbringer, broke through for his first beach victory in 2004. One of the most popular players on tour, Jennings, 31, was still whisking sand off his washboard abs after winning his match at the Gods and Goddesses of the Beach on Friday at Caesars Palace when he shared his good fortune with a local reporter.

Maybe he's not quite as big as the 10-story image of Toni Braxton that was keeping an eye on the action from the facade of Harrah's just across the Strip. After all, it was Todd Rogers who won seven regular-season events this year, as well as every one of his matches here, to claim the $25,570 first-place check. Jennings was seeded eighth and settled for seventh in the 12-man field. But when it comes to beach volleyball, he's not a 98-pound weakling anymore.

Jennings no longer worries about finding a real job. Or at least one where you have to wear a shirt. He told me about his home in Redondo Beach and another one in Hermosa Beach, which is "from here to the Mirage" from the Pacific Ocean.

"Dude, it's an effin' Cinderella story," said Jennings, who at 6-foot-3 is one of the shortest bronze gods on tour, but digs on defense like a construction site shovel.

Just then, a bronze goddess in a skimpy bikini with legs as long as the Pacific Coast Highway sidled up, wrapped her arms around Jennings and planted a wet one on his lips.

It was Kerri Walsh, who would go to win the women's tournament and cement her reputation as the best women's beach volleyball player in the world, although Jennings doesn't refer to her as such. He simply calls her "Honey." Kerri Walsh is his wife. The two were married on the beach last December.

This pro beach volleyball truly is an effin' Cinderella story.