Beach volleyball legend Randy Stoklos was introduced to the sport by a neighbor while growing up in Pacific Palisades.
Stoklos took to the game right away, rising through the ranks to eventually become one of the greatest players of all-time. He and partner Sinjin Smith remain the winningest team ever in the sport with 116 titles worldwide from 1982-1993.
Randy Stoklos was a force at the net. He and partner Sinjin Smith are the winningest team in beach volleyball history. (Robert Beck photo)
Stoklos and Smith for the last 10 years have been giving back to the sport they love through their youth Beach Volleyball Camps up and down the Southern California coast.
They’ll make their Santa Barbara debut on June 27 with a Sand and Sea Beach Camp followed by a beach volleyball camp for ages 7-15 and an elite performance camp for ages 12-18 on July 11. Click for Web site:
The Sand and Sea Camps (for ages 5-15) will be held at Leadbetter Beach while the volleyball camps will be conducted at the West Beach courts.
“There were no camps for any kind of volleyball, and in 2000 I thought to start Beachvolleyballcamps.com,” Stoklos said. “It’s a non-profit to give the youth a place not only to practice but to compete against their same age.”
Santa Barbara always will have special significance in the careers of Stoklos and Smith.
“Most people do not know but Santa Barbara was the first open (tournament) Sinjin and I played together and, needless to say, it was the first Open we won together. So Santa Barbara is very dear to our hearts,” Stoklos said.
The volleyball camps will emphasize “learning the proper techniques and fundamentals of the game based on the philosophies of Sinjin and Randy that made them the greatest team in beach volleyball history,” says the camp Web site.
Stoklos learned the game at Muscle Beach in Venice, where his neighbor, Bobby Barber, ran a swim suit shop. Stoklos tagged along with Barber and his four kids on trips to Muscle Beach and started playing in a six-person game on the last court.
“I caught on very quickly and worked my way from that court to the main court in a short time during the summer,” Stoklos recalled.
With the help of Barber’s eldest son, Mark, Stoklos started to hone his skills. He won his first trophy at 16, taking third in an “A” tournament at Sorrento Beach.
“I remember running all the way to Muscle Beach — in soft sand — to show Bobby my trophy,” Stoklos said. “When I turned 18 I played with Marco Ortega and took fourth place in the Santa Barbara Open.
“It was around that time I started to get noticed,” he added, “and Jon Lee wrote one of the best articles on me for Volleyball Magazine. To this day, I remember it very clearly.”
Stoklos’ powerful game caught the attention of the big names of beach volleyball, among them legend Jim Menges. The two hooked up and won the 1981 Manhattan Beach Open for Stoklos’ first open title.
He later combined with Smith to form one of the greatest tandems of all-time. Their rivalries with legend Karch Kiraly of Santa Barbara and Kent Steffes, and Mike Dodd and Tim Hovland are epic.
Stoklos has worked privately with some local players to help improve their games. Now he wants reach out to entire community.
“This is our 10th year (of running camps) and our first in Santa Barbara and we can’t wait to teach the kids the secrets to playing great volleyball,” he said. “And we do know Santa Barbara has a reputation for creating some of the best volleyball players ever. Maybe it has something to do with the beaches.”
