Spring Break, Kids just want something FUN to do!

Beach Tennis Tournaments for Spring Break

We had the opportunity to introduce a healthy approach to Spring Break 2009 in Panama City Beach this year. We introduced the Beach Tennis USA Association to the area and began to offer active sports on the beach as a way for students to meet others and have fun in competition. We brought in Pro Tennis players and all of the nets and equipment to set up in front of Sharkys to offer an organized “sport” and play with prizes, t-shirts and most of all FUN.

The play is FREE and we are offering t-shirts to all who play and try the sport. The winners of the tournament have received dinner for two at Sharkys and various tennis related prizes. We have given away tennis racquets as we approached the end of the event to winners who want to continue to play this new sport and have fun.

We have been running tennis tournaments most every day. Two Sundays ago we had 20 teams ( 40 kids) lined up to play at 10:30 a.m.

The students we have met and interviewed just want to come to the white sand beach of Panama City and enjoy the sun and meet others. Every day we had students who were signing up to play, excited to compete and interested in additional sports and activities that will let them be active and meet others. We had repeat students coming back to compete and win better prizes as the week progresses.

We have met students from all over the world including Australia, United Kingdom, France, Italy and all across the U.S., and they have all been excited to have something active and fun to do at the beach rather than just “drink” all day.

Students are much more concerned about their health and wellness these days than in the past and many of them workout, run and exercise. Yes there is a percentage that come just to drink and get wild but the many students we have met over the past 2 weeks are just here to have some fun.

Many of them do not like the concept of a community who makes money offering them “all you can drink” for a set price at a number of bars. In fact many of them would like to have someplace else to go at night rather than the crowded bars.

Accidents happen when people of any age get out of control. The idea of offering all you can drink to any age group provides the basis for danger and accidents.

Does anyone offer all you can drink healthy drinks or provide a choice for the students to do something else to have fun and meet others?

If you look at the ads from many of the establishments to the colleges in the “Spring Break” guide you will see they promote the idea of sex, drinking and wild parties.

The college atmosphere is changing and students will drink and they do want to have fun but overall they want to do something active to meet others. They are becoming much more concerned about the environment and have innovative ideas to drive change.

If you spend the time on the beach and watch the students and ask them questions they are mostly good kids. They also want to pick up their trash but many times the location of the trash barrels are not convenient.

We know they want to play more sports on the beach and hope to develop further programs and ideas to offer for future Spring Break. Has anyone ever done any survey with these kids to really determine how to help the community offer new and fun ideas for the kids to meet others and have good clean fun??

It is a shame to have a few kids that go overboard or in the case of our observation we noticed a local who came to the beach asking kids for beers across the beach. Panama City Beach has an opportunity to work with the students who help make this community profitable and better understand how to change and offer new and innovative ideas to give them fun ways to meet others and the ability to “drink” responsibly.

If we think about it the spring breakers are just our “own kids” trying to become the star in their own lives. We just need to ask a little more in words and our actions because we need each other and can help make this work if we just listen and learn to engage the students and kids with their ideas.

PCB Sand Sports Offers Free Introduction to Beach Tennis

PCB Sand Sports in partnership with Beach Tennis USA will be hosting the first annual Sharkys Beach Tennis Doubles on Saturday March 14th.

This is a FREE tournament to introduce the sport of Beach Tennis to the community and provide local FUN between the Spring Break week.
Did we say Free! Yes this is a benefit to the locals to come out and play during the transition day of Spring Break and have some fun.
If you currently play Tennis or have never played any Tennis at all come out and try it at Sharkys on the Beach.

Registration will begin at 10:30 a.m. and play will begin at 11:00. The first 16 teams to register will receive a “free” Beach Tennis t-shirt.
The tournament will be double elimination or pool play depending on the number of teams as we begin to promote and introduce this “new fun” sport to the community.
We are going to provide the first place team with a dinner for two coupon to Sharkys.

Come out and watch the Beach Tennis tournaments through March 18th daily to see the College vs. College competition.
Or just come out to pick up a few tips from the Pros since leagues will begin at Sharkys In May for Beach Tennis.

This is a great family sport and is growing rapidly worldwide.

For more information email beachresearch@yahoo.com or call 850-769-4802.

Beach Tennis is Here

Beach Tennis is here, along with the pros to help you figure out how to do it. Behind Sharky’s Beach Club two beach tennis courts are set up with a station to “rent” the racquet from along with deflated tennis balls. Rent is free and equipment is provided by sponsors and is actually quite nice.

The concept behind beach tennis is to provide a fun beach-oriented sport that is easy on the knees and cinch to learn.

Here are the rules:

Court dimensions are 30 by 60 feet with the net at a height of 5’10”.
Beach tennis is only played in the doubles format, no singles.
Scoring is 15 – 30 – 40 with no-advantage.
At deuce, receiving team chooses which player will receive the serve.
Only one hit per side. Unlike volleyball, no setting up your partner for the kill.
Only one serve allowed per point. If the serve hits the net, goes over and lands in bounds a “let” (do over) will be played. If the serve hits the net, goes over and lands out of bounds the serving team loses the point.
Serves must go cross-court.
Players change ends at odd game totals.
Touching the net in any way or breaking the plane of the net – that is, reaching over the net with your racquet, even on the follow through – will result in a loss of the point.
Each match consists of one eight-game pro set. The match must be won by two games (e.g. 9-7). If the match score is tied at 8-8, a 12-point tennis tiebreaker (first team to 7 points wins) will be played to determine the winner.
A ball that strikes the line is considered in bounds.

If you want to play, it is free for anyone and everyone. You should get out there and put your skills to the test.

PCB Sand Sports and Panama City Beach

PCB Sand Sports in partnership with the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau welcomed Beach Tennis USA President Jim Lorenzo and Daniel Weinberg Marketing Director along with the EVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour President Ross Balling. Russ Smith hosted the group at the Towne of Seaaven’s Origin as part of the hospitality coop from the local area. Many local properties offered to host these important guests and we appreciate the interest and excitement from across the community.

Richard Sanders, Director of Sports Marketing with the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau discussed dates and tournament schedule ideas to showcase Panama City Beach as one of the host cities for the EVP Pro Beach Tour in Summer 2009. The EVP Pro Beach Tour can bring exposure on Comcast Cable TV Network to more than 70 million homes.

PCB Sand Sports is working with both major beach sand sports associations to present the white sand beaches across Panama City Beach for the launch of a combined sporting event that will showcase “sand sports” . This will include Beach Soccer as we continue to share our vision of how this can help develop the new brand for PCB and grow activities for the local community as well as offer events and exposure to grow tourism in the area.

Rick Dye, President of Regions Bank and a founder of the non-profit Bay Areas Sports Association which is focused on developing sports for the local community by working closely with schools hosted a reception Friday night January 9th at Baja Grill. This provided an opportunity to introduce both sports to the local business community.

We had a great attendance with much interest in the “new sport and buzz of Beach Tennis” and discussion on how to work closer together. Beach Tennis showcased the “ball” used for Beach Tennis and provided t-shirts and hats as part of their hospitality for the attendees.

Dr. Jason Newsome, Director of Bay County Health Department was also in attendance and shared his input on the benefit sand sports can bring to the local community to get citizens out to play.

We discussed ideas to engage the schools within the community to expand opportunities for local leagues along with the tournaments and Pro Beach events for these hot and growing beach sand sports. Beach Tennis is now licensed in more than 7 global countries and can bring International visitors along with Beach Volleyball as the area prepares to open the new airport.