linguistic:translation
History

Beach volleyball is a variant of indoor volleyball, which was invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan. Beach volleyball most likely originated in 1915 on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii, at the Outrigger Canoe Club. According to a 1978 interview with an Outrigger Canoe Club member, George David "Dad" Center put a net up there, and the first recorded game of beach volleyball took place. In 1920, new jetties in Santa Monica, California created a large sandy area for public enjoyment. This planted the seed for beach volleyball development in that region. The first permanent nets began to appear, and people soon began playing recreational games on public parts of the beach and in private beach clubs. Eleven such beach clubs appeared in the Santa Monica area, beginning in late 1922. The first inter-club competitions were staged in 1924.

Most of these early beach volleyball matches were played with teams of at least six players per side, much like indoor volleyball. The concept of the modern two-man beach volleyball game is credited to Paul "Pablo" Johnson of the Santa Monica Athletic Club. In the summer of 1930, while waiting for players to show up for a six-man game at the Santa Monica Athletic Club, Johnson decided to try playing with only the four people present, forming two two-man teams for the first recorded beach volleyball doubles game. The players realized that with fewer players on the court, a taller player's height advantage could be neutralized by a shorter player's speed and ball control. The popularity of the two-man game spread to other nearby beach clubs and eventually to the public courts. The two-player version of the game is the most widely played version as well as the only one contested at an elite level.

Beach volleyball grew in popularity in the United States during the Great Depression in the 1930s as it was an inexpensive activity. The sport also began to appear in Europe during this time. By the 1940s, doubles tournaments were being played on the beaches of Santa Monica for trophies. In 1948 the first tournament to offer a prize was held in Los Angeles. It awarded the best teams with a case of Pepsi. In the 1960s, an attempt to start a professional volleyball league was made in Santa Monica. It failed, but a professional tournament was held in France for 30,000 French francs. In the 1950s, the first Brazilian beach volleyball tournament was held, sponsored by a newspaper publishing company. The first Manhattan Beach Open was held in 1960, a tournament which grew in prestige to become, in the eyes of some, the " Wimbledon of Beach Volleyball".

In the meantime, beach volleyball gained popularity: in the 1960s The Beatles tried playing in Los Angeles and US president John F. Kennedy was seen attending a match. In 1974, there was an indoor tournament: "The $1500.00 World Indoor Two-Man Volleyball Championship" played in front of 4,000 volleyball enthusiast at the San Diego Sports Arena. Fred Zuelich teamed with Dennis Hare to defeat Ron Von Hagen and Matt Gage in the championship match, Winston Cigarettes was the sponsor. Dennis Hare went on to write the first book on the subject of beach volleyball: The Art of Beach Volleyball.

The first professional beach volleyball tournament was the Olympia World Championship of Beach Volleyball, staged on Labor Day weekend, 1976, at Will Rogers State Beach in Pacific Palisades, California. The event was organized by David Wilk of Volleyball magazine, based in Santa Barbara. The winners, the first "world champions", were Greg Lee and Jim Menges. They split US$2,500 out of a total prize purse of US$5,000.

Volleyball magazine staged the event the next year at the same location, this time sponsored by Schlitz Light Beer. In 1978 Wilk formed a sports promotion company named Event Concepts with Craig Masuoka and moved the World Championship of Beach Volleyball to Redondo Beach, California. Jose Cuervo signed on as sponsor and the prize purse. The event was successful and Cuervo funded an expansion the next year to three events. The California Pro Beach Tour debuted with events in Laguna Beach, Santa Barbara and the World Championship in Redondo.

In following years the tour expanded nationally and was renamed the Pro Beach Volleyball Tour. It consisted of five events in California and tournaments in Florida, Colorado, and Chicago. By 1984, the Pro Beach consisted of 16 events around the country and had a total prize purse of US$300,000. At the end of the year, however, Event Concepts was forced out of the sport by a players' strike at the World Championship and the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) was founded. In 1987 the Women's Professional Volleyball Association was founded and lasted until 1997 when the women joined the AVP tour.

At the professional level, the sport remained fairly obscure until the 1980s when beach volleyball experienced a surge in popularity with high-profile players such as Sinjin Smith, Randy Stoklos, and Karch Kiraly. Kiraly won an Olympic gold medal in beach volleyball in its first Olympic appearance in 1996, adding that to the two Olympic golds he won as part of the USA men's indoor team, In the 1980s, the sport gained popularity on the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In 1986, the first international beach volleyball exhibition was held in Rio de Janeiro with 5,000 spectators.

In 1987, the first international FIVB -sanctioned tournament was played on Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro, with a prize purse of US$22,000. It was won by Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos. In 1989, the first FIVB-sanctioned international circuit, called the World Series, was organized with men's tournaments in Brazil, Italy and Japan. The FIVB and its continental confederations began organizing worldwide professional tournaments and laid the groundwork for the sport's Olympic debut in 1996. The first FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships and FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour were held the following year. By 1998, the sport had been added to other multi-sport events including the Pan American Games, Central American Games, Southeast Asian Games, Goodwill Games and Universiade. In 2001, the FIVB began organizing the annual FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championships, with the annual FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championships beginning the following year.