The City of Manhattan Beach puts it plainly on its own website: this is the home of beach volleyball. That is not civic boosterism. The Manhattan Beach Open has run since 1960, the winners are set in bronze along the length of the pier, and on any given weekend there are more people playing competitive two-on-two on this stretch of sand than anywhere else in the country.
It is also, unusually for a sport with this much history, completely open to beginners. Here is the whole picture, from the Walk of Fame down to turning up alone on a Saturday.
What is the Manhattan Beach Open?
The Manhattan Beach Open is the oldest and most prestigious beach volleyball tournament in the United States, first played in 1960 and widely called the Wimbledon of beach volleyball. It is held on the sand on the south side of the Manhattan Beach Pier, it is the largest event on the AVP tour, and it draws an estimated 60,000 people or more across three days.
The detail that makes it different from every other professional tournament: it is the only pro beach volleyball event where amateurs can play their way in. The Open began as an amateur tournament and kept a pre-qualifying route when it turned professional, so unseeded players can still place into the main draw. Local residents have not only entered but won it, including US Olympic silver medalist Mike Dodd.
What is the Volleyball Walk of Fame?
Winners of the Manhattan Beach Open are memorialized with bronze volleyball-shaped plaques set along the length of the Manhattan Beach Pier. It is free, it is outdoors, and most visitors walk over it without noticing.
It is worth slowing down for. The plaques read as a continuous record of the sport from 1960 onward, and the names on them are the names that built beach volleyball. Kathy Gregory holds the record for most wins by a woman, with seven plaques.
If you want one thing to do that explains why this area matters to the sport, walk the pier and read the dates.
What is the 6-Man?
The Charlie Saikley 6-Man Beach Volleyball Tournament is the other side of the local volleyball culture, and for many residents it is the bigger event of the two. It runs as part of the International Surf Festival each summer, alongside a Junior 6-Man.
Six players a side rather than two, costumes, team names, and a level of spectacle that the professional tour does not attempt. It is competitive and it is also a party, and it is the clearest expression of how this area actually relates to the sport.
The International Surf Festival itself is co-sponsored by Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors and the Beach Cities Health District, and includes lifeguard championships, surfing and bodysurfing championships, a two-mile beach run, the pier-to-pier paddleboard championship, the pier-to-pier swim, dory races and a sandcastle contest.
Where are the courts, and can you just turn up?
Yes, and this is the part visitors underestimate. The beach cities carry an enormous amount of permanent public court space.
| City | Courts | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hermosa Beach | 71 approved beach volleyball courts, plus six beach tennis courts | The 23 courts near the Pier are maintained by the City and are the ones permitted for special events |
| Manhattan Beach | Courts along the sand, with tournament play concentrated on the south side of the Pier | Summer tournaments run through CBVA |
| Redondo Beach | Courts along the beach | Quieter than Hermosa and Manhattan, easier to get on |
Public courts are first come, first served. Nets are up through the season on the maintained courts, and on much of the sand you bring your own net and set up between the posts. If you are new to it, the etiquette is simpler than it looks: ask who has next, wait your turn, and play winners.
For organized or reserved play, and for anything involving a tournament or a large group, permits run through the city. Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach both control event use of their courts, and Hermosa specifically limits permitted beach events to the stretch between 10th Street and 15th Street.
Is it all Manhattan Beach?
No, and the assumption is the most common mistake outsiders make about volleyball here. Manhattan Beach has the oldest tournament and the Walk of Fame, so it gets the coverage. But the sand does not stop at the city line, and each of the three beach cities runs a different scene.
Hermosa Beach
Hermosa has the most courts of the three by a wide margin. The City has 71 approved beach volleyball courts, 37 north of the Pier and 34 south of it, alongside six beach tennis courts. For sheer volume of nets per mile of sand, this is the densest stretch on the West Coast.
Hermosa’s place in the professional history is real. The Hermosa Beach Open was one of the sport’s anchor stops through the 1970s and 1980s, and the tournament still runs, though its status has changed. The AVP dropped its Hermosa stop in 2024. An independent event relaunched in 2025 under the Wedbush Hermosa Beach Open name, organized by Mark Paaluhi’s Day At The Beach Events, with free admission and a purse funded largely by donations through Dig 4 Kids, the nonprofit founded by Olympic gold medalist Eric Fonoimoana. The 2026 edition ran in September.
That is worth stating plainly rather than glossing: the Hermosa Open is currently an independent, donation-funded tournament rather than a guaranteed tour stop. It has run two years in its new form and the people behind it are trying to build a tour around it. Locals should support it rather than assume it.
Hermosa also hosts Smackfest, a coed fours tournament north of the Pier that has run for over thirty years and sells out its entry list in minutes, and the California Beach Volleyball Association tournament that forms part of the International Surf Festival.
Redondo Beach
Redondo’s sand runs about a mile and a half south from the Pier to Torrance Beach, with nets spread along it. The important difference is who runs it: that sand is operated by Los Angeles County rather than the City, so court reservations go through County Beaches and Harbors at (424) 526-7880 rather than through Redondo’s Community Services Department.
Where the City does run things is off the sand. Redondo operates year-round adult coed indoor volleyball leagues through Community Services, in fall, winter, spring and summer seasons, with team signups at 415 Diamond Street. Seaside Lagoon has its own courts available with a facility rental. If you want a league rather than a pickup game, Redondo is the city of the three that actually organizes one.
Beach tennis, and where it actually is
Beach tennis is a separate sport played on a volleyball-sized court with a raised net and solid paddles, and the South Bay is one of its American strongholds. The Beach Tennis Association, founded by Hermosa Beach resident Donny Young, put the first permanent beach tennis courts in the United States on Hermosa’s sand in 2010, with Manhattan Beach and Santa Monica following in 2015 and Torrance Beach in 2017.
Current public courts, as best as they can be verified from the cities and the beach tennis community directories:
- Hermosa Beach. Six courts, the original American site, in the stretch north of the Pier.
- Manhattan Beach. Two locations, at 7th Street and at 26th Street.
- Torrance Beach. Three courts near 289 Paseo de la Playa, with regulation nets but no permanent boundary lines and no lighting, so bring markers and play in daylight.
- Santa Monica. The largest cluster in the county, near Lifeguard Tower 26.
Redondo Beach itself does not have dedicated beach tennis courts listed by the City, the County or the beach tennis directories. The Torrance Beach courts are the closest ones to south Redondo and are a short walk down the Strand from the Esplanade, which is likely why people think of them as Redondo courts.
To actually play, BT Cali Club runs lessons, open play and league sessions in Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach and lends paddles and balls to beginners. Beach Tennis Santa Monica has been running sanctioned ITF BT10 tournaments in Manhattan Beach, so there is a competitive ladder here as well as a social one.
So where does the pro circuit actually stop?
One AVP event is held in the South Bay beach cities: the Manhattan Beach Open, which the AVP classifies as a Heritage Major. There is no AVP stop in Hermosa or Redondo. Elsewhere in the region the AVP runs Huntington Beach, Long Beach and Laguna Beach events, so a South Bay resident has four Southern California tour stops within driving distance across a season.
Below the professional level, the California Beach Volleyball Association is the circuit that matters. It has run since 1962, covers 23 California beaches, and rates players from Unrated through B, A, AA and AAA. Membership runs about $25 a year and it is the normal entry point for anyone who wants to play competitively in any of the three cities.
Where do adults play organized volleyball?
- City classes. Manhattan Beach Parks and Recreation runs beach volleyball classes for youth, teens and adults, at all levels. This is the cheapest and least intimidating entry point in the South Bay and very few people outside the city know it exists.
- South Bay Volleyball, a beach volleyball academy in Manhattan Beach operating since 1997, running adult classes, training, private lessons, tournaments and leagues.
- Hermosa Volleyball League. Tuesday evenings from around 6:15, on the sand north of the Hermosa Pier, best two of three, semi-competitive and explicitly open to all levels.
- CBVA tournaments. The California Beach Volleyball Association runs the amateur tournament structure that feeds the whole scene, including the summer events at Manhattan Beach. Rated divisions mean you play people at your own level rather than getting destroyed by professionals.
How does a complete beginner start?
Three steps, in this order.
- Take a city adult class. Manhattan Beach runs them for all levels. You will learn to move on sand, which is the actual barrier, not the skills.
- Play open courts on a weekday evening rather than a Saturday. Same sand, same etiquette, dramatically less pressure, and people are far more willing to take a new player into a game.
- Enter a CBVA tournament in the lowest rated division. This is the step people skip, and it is the one that turns a casual player into a real one.
The thing to understand about this area is that the standard of casual play is very high, because the person on the next court might genuinely have played the Open. That is intimidating for about two weeks and then it is the reason you improve.
Tournament dates, class schedules, court counts and permit rules change. Details were verified against City of Manhattan Beach, City of Hermosa Beach and tour sources in September 2026. Confirm current schedules with the city or the organizing body before planning around a date.