Beach volleyball 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. Though recreational games continue to be played
Beach volleyball as a player-run organization. In 2001, the AVP reemerged as a for-profit, publicly traded company that combined the men's and women's professional tours, with equal prize money for both sexes. After filing for bankruptcy again in 2010, the AVP re-emerged under new leadership in 2013 as the main professional beach volleyball tour in the United States. Beach volleyball has become a global sport, with international competition organized by the FIVB. Brazil and the USA are dominant, with 20 of the 30 Olympic medals awarded to date between them, and 16 of the 20 gold and silver medals. But the sport's