It started with a kiss. In 1955, that’s what the best beach volleyball players in the world played for: A kiss from Hollywood star Greta Thyssen. It was a seminal moment for the sport, and the subculture that it soon birthed: Players could ditch the 9-5 work life and instead spend their days on the beach, working odd jobs to make ends meet, doing whatever it took to stay on the sand. 

By 1980, the winners had much more at stake, much more to reach for. Money. By 1990, the top players were making a fortune in winnings, into the millions. In 1996, beach volleyball charged onto the ultimate sporting stage: The Atlanta Olympic Games.

It seemed to be an unstoppable rise, a rapid and smooth ascent from lifestyle sport to a mainstream professional sport. It was anything but. Beach volleyball was a sport built by a rebel culture that had no intention of being tamed. It was volatile, mercurial, a sport run by testosterone-fueled men with an existence that embodied the California lifestyle: Sun, sex, drugs, alcohol, and money. The permanent vacation. Some wanted to keep the sport in America, keep the good times rolling, all to themselves. Others wanted to expand, make it global, push for the biggest spotlight in sport: The Summer Olympics. 

What resulted was a fraught, tension-filled push for beach volleyball to become an Olympic sport. The best two players in the world, Karch Kiraly and Sinjin Smith, former partners and best friends, ultimately became the sport’s biggest rivals. The result was the match of the century, at a sold-out Olympic stadium, an Olympic Medal Ceremony that saw Americans take gold and silver.

The sport of beach volleyball would never be the same.

As told by Kent Steffes, the most dominant player in the history of the game, and Travis Mewhirter, a professional player and the leading authentic voice in beach volleyball, Kings of Summer paints an unforgettable portrait of beach volleyball’s golden era.