KAHUNA Beach would like to welcome our Resident AVP Pro to the KAHUNA Beach website: Paige Davis!

Hello to all you Kahuna volleyballers!!!

My name is Paige Davis! How ya’ll doing? Gosh it feels good to say, “ya’ll” and know that most of you understand what that means!! I’ve been living out her in California playing beach volleyball for the last few years and I get plenty of funny Texas jokes about my use of the word “ya’ll”!!

Anyways…you’re probably wondering who I am…well here’s a little blurp about me. I was born and raised in Texas (both Dallas and Austin) and that is where I first learned the game of volleyball (indoor of course). I can remember the coaches trying to teach me all the different skills but all I wanted to do was HIT! Haha! But that skill of hitting got me a scholarship to play outside/rightside hitter at the University of Virginia on the east coast. I played all 4 years I was there and graduated with All-American honors my senior year.

I knew I wanted to continue playing but wasn’t sure if indoor was still my passion.  Lucky for me…there is another option…the game of beach volleyball. I had an incredible opportunity to work at the 2004 Olympics and after watching the amazing US women’s team of Walsh-May win the gold medal…I decided I might as well try this outdoor volleyball game.

It makes me laugh now because I think back to the point when I decided to pursue a career in beach volleyball and I remember telling my parents…”Oh it will take a few months to get used to the sun, wind & sand but then I’ll be winning tournament, no problem”…haha, not so much.
It’s a whole new game! There are some similar fundamentals and basic skills but so many new skills, strategies and things to think about. And I bet ya’ll can guess what I wanted to do as soon as I stepped out on that beach court???
“HIT!”…Yep that’s right!

But, I found out quickly that I didn’t jump quite as high on the sand as I did indoor and that the beach game isn’t all about hitting and power…its more strategic, especially with only two people on the court.

Now I could get carried away talking about all the differences of indoor vs. outdoor volleyball so I will just save that for my next blog!

I’m excited to be a new addition to the Kahuna team.  I have competed professionally on the AVP beach volleyball tour on and off for about 4 years now. (I had a few surgeries but we will get into that in another blog as well!)
Most importantly, I’m here for ya’ll! I want to share my knowledge of the beach game with each of you so you have the chance to know what its about and fall in love with it like I have. I sure wish I had played beach volleyball while growing up in Texas or at least had known what it was!

Ya’ll are so blessed to have a club director like JB who is opening your eyes to the endless opportunities in the sport of volleyball, both indoor and outdoor. 
I feel privileged to work with Kahuna/KUSA/KVBC and I look forward to sharing my stories, tips & knowledge of both the beach and indoor game of volleyball.  ** and I look forward to sharing my stories, tips & knowledge of the beach volleyball game with you.  Of course we can always chat about the indoor game as well!

Please feel free to email me with any questions, comments or stories of your own through the Contact Us Form.  I would love to hear from you and will do my best to get back to you as soon as I can. I am currently in season so try to be patient if I’m a bit long in responding right now!

Oh and keep checking the Kahuna Beach website  www.Kahunabeach.net as I will have new blogs for you to read throughout the year!

Let’s start off with a few stats of mine:
Full name: Kimberly Paige Davis (I have always been called Paige though)
Bday: July 27, 1982 (its coming up soon!)
Age: 26-almost 27 (my golden bday is this year!)
Horoscope: Leo
Height: 5’11”
Fav Quote: “Dance like no one is watching, Sing like no one is listening and Love like its never going to hurt!”

AVP Player Bio:

Aloha!
Paige

On April 25, 2009, KAHUNA Beach Volleyball/AVPNext promoters hosted the Lone Star Conference 1st Annual College Beach volleyball tournament at Lone Star/KAHUNA Beach Volleyball Club in Coppell, TX. Five Colleges (MSU, ECU, ACU, ASU & ENM) had 17 college teams entered plus the KAHUNA Beach HAKU team of Maggie Brindock and Taylor Story.

The event was created by East Central University (OK) coach David Thorn to promote college sand volleyball to the conference players. Since the announcement that sand volleyball is now an emerging college women's sport in D1 (already in D2), and it is our goal to connect AVP pros to college players to junior sand players - it was approved to include one juniors team into the event.

Although the day was overcast, there was excitment and great beach volleyball all the way until the finals featuring Eastern New Mexico team Caitlin Murphy (Jr., Amarillo, Texas/Tascosa HS) and Veronica Valdez-Kent (So., Canyon Texas/Canyon HS) vs Maggie Brindock (Jr. Rockwall High School) and Taylor Story (So. Plano Sr. High School).

In a back and forth game, both teams lead at several times of the 30 min battle. In the end, the beach experience gained from multiple years of training helped push the KAHUNA Beach HAKU team of Brindock/Story to 1st place.

"This is a great beginning of our relationship between junior beach training and college coaches/teams," commented JB, Director of KAHUNA Beach and coach of the HAKU teams, "They (college coaches) see the work we are doing to promote Juniors Beach Volleyball in the North Texas Region and will start looking for beach players soon - especially here!"

The NCAA approved "sand" volleyball as an emerging sport for women on Monday and cleared the way for varsity competition in the 2010-11 academic year. The organization will spend the next year developing rules that will govern intercollegiate play, including regulations on financial aid, playing dates and recruiting.

"We are thrilled that the NCAA has voted to make sand volleyball a collegiate sport," said Jason Hodell, chief executive officer of AVP Pro Beach Volleyball. "The vote confirms the momentum behind the sport of beach volleyball, and we are excited to help grow our sport on the college level and create new beach volleyball stars around the country."

Monday's decision by the NCAA applies to Division I; the sport had already been approved by Division II.

"This is great news for any junior that you will have an opportunity to play beach volleyball for a college in the 2010/2011 season," says JB, Director of KAHUNA Beach Volleyball. "Correct training is now critical for a juniors sucess and involvement with KAHUNA Beach Volleyball and the AVPNext juniors tournaments are steps in the right direction."

Join KAHUNA Beach Volleyball (KBV) and the AVPNext ALOHA Juniors Beach Tournaments all summer! Check out the fun highlighted in our KBV video!