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When Canoe Club and Outrigger Beach set up court in Waikiki Beach, Hawaii in 1915, that was probably the first time beach volleyball was played. Some people though believed that it actually started in Santa Monica, California in 1920.

The original volleyball sport was invented by William Morgan in 1895 in Holyoke, Massachusetts. It was originally designed for professionals and businessmen since it did not require as much physical stamina as basketball, tennis and other more physically grueling sports.

While it started as a form of family leisure and fun, this form of volleyball eventually became so popular that it spread around the world and even appealed to places as far as Bulgaria, Latvia and Czechoslovakia.

During the time of Great Depression, people were finding ways to relax, unwind and release stress – they found the beach as the best spot for it, and thus, they eventually came to know about beach volleyball. California was where the sport started to become really popular. People then would play the game by coming up with two teams composed of two to six players each.

Because of the immense popularity of the sport, beach volleyball eventually gained international status. It was in the era of 1970s to 1980s that it became recognized as a professional sport.

As people became more and more serious about the sport, tournaments from everywhere started to offer bigger and bigger prizes. When the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) was formed in 1983, beach volleyball was finally recognized as a “real” sport.

In 1996, after its first appearance at the Atlanta Olympic Games, another mark was made in 1999, when the PAN American Games finally included beach volleyball as part of the sport events. During this event, the Canada stadium was packed with at least 5000 spectators. It was the men’s Canadian Team Holdem/Leinemann that won the gold medal for the event while Adriana Behar/Shelda got the first place in the women’s division.

Three years after became beach volleyball became part of the PAN American games, the Sydney 2000 Beach Volleyball Event was organized. At the Bondi Beach were the top 24 men’s and women’s teams that competed against each other. There were around 10,000 lucky spectators who were able to witness the spectacular event.

To date, beach volleyball continues to be an international and professional sport. In 2008 at the Beijing Olympics, it was the men’s and women’s teams from the U.S. that won the gold medals for the event.