“Our summer of 1978, we received some interest in sending 4 players down under to introduce a new recreational sport to the Aussie public.

It was part of their National Fitness Program to get people off there butts at the beach and give them a sport that was mainly played in Southern Cal (at a professional level) and Brazil. The International volleyball federation (FIVB) hadn't come into the picture until 1987 with one event in Rio. Our first US Pro event, with substantial prize money, was in 1975.

In December of 1978, Jim Menges (27), Steve O' Bradavich (23), Andy Fishburn (23) and myself (22) arrived in Perth. Actually, Andy and I came over three weeks earlier and did clinics up and down the West Coast from Geraldton to Rottnest Island. One of the first beaches we played at was Sorrento, in Perth. Ironic, because we have a Sorrento Beach in Santa Monica. Sorrento in SM was one of two locations where the best players in the sport trained. Fishburn and I used to train against Sinjin Smith and Karch Kiraly at Sorrento all the time.

Menges and OB didn't meet up with us until Sydney. A guy named Tony Fitzgerald had set up the whole trip for us and was our guide to most of the locations. Besides Manly, my favourite location in the Sydney area was Palm Beach. Absolutely beautiful! Other beaches we visited were Maroochydore, Dee Why and Narrabeen. We did radio interviews and TV talk shows as well as playing in the shopping malls!

At Manly, we set up a net at the end where the surf lifesaving office was. Great tree lined boardwalk along the beach.

In all, we visited Adelaide, Tasmania, Brisbane, Western Australia and New South Wales for 2 months.”
By Dane Selznick

For more information on Dane Selznick, check out his website - www.daneselznick.com