Life’s quite a beach for Quinn

Richard Dunn

SEAL BEACH - With the European professional volleyball season over,

Newport Beach’s Leland Quinn is back on local sand, but the neighborhood

isn’t quite what it used to be.

After a one-year hiatus, the Association of Volleyball Professionals

Tour will return to Seal Beach Aug. 18-20 for the Paul Mitchell AVP U.S.

Open.

Quinn, among the area products expected to compete with beach

volleyball’s best athletes for the $75,000 purse at Seal Beach, lives

most of the year in Europe, where last season he played in Spain.

While in the midst of a 3 1/2-month spin on the AVP Tour, Quinn has

recovered nicely from a knee injury, suffered when he sprinted to a ball

and crashed into an advertisement sign.

“The doctor said no operation (was necessary), to just stay off it and

rehab it, but it was scary,” said Quinn, who regularly sees Corona del

Mar chiropractor Dr. Jake Pivaroff for most of his aches and pains.

“When I get back to Europe, it’s six days a week, six hours a day, and

your body’s torn up. Sports medicine isn’t the same out there as it is

here, and (Pivaroff) has helped me out a lot.”

Quinn, 28, is playing his sixth year on the AVP Tour, which he said is

changing. The tour once had a contract with NBC and was televised

nationally every weekend with skyrocketing purses in six figures.

But, today, Quinn said organizers are “thinking about turning it into

a pro wrestling thing. They want (players) more animated, like a bunch of

arrogant athletes.”

Quinn, ranked No. 44 on the AVP Tour with $1,625 in earnings this

year, wore Leopard skin Speedo shorts for the last 10 minutes of a match

against No. 9 Mike Whitmarsh and David Swatik. Quinn and partner Pepe

Delahoz lost the match in the season’s second event at Santa Cruz, but it

was at least a memorable 13th-place finish.

“It was the hit of Santa Cruz,” Quinn said. “The crowd thought it was

fun, and it was fun being beat by Whitmarsh, who said he couldn’t even

concentrate. In Spain, everyone wears Speedos.”

Quinn’s attire, though, doesn’t seem to be too far removed from the

ambience of his West Newport ‘hood, which includes a certain former NBA

star with tattoos and pierced body parts.

“We’ve got a place on the beach, but we’ve got (Dennis) Rodman and his

knuckleheads out in front of us, and there’s always some chaos going on

down there,” Quinn said. “There are just groupies everywhere who are all

tattooed.”

Quinn will play at the AVP Tour stop at Seal Beach along with stars

Canyon Ceman, Karch Kiraly and Brian Lewis.

Lewis, who grew up in Newport Beach and now lives in Huntington Beach,

was a volleyball standout at Corona del Mar High and Orange Coast

College. He led the Pirates to state championships in 1987 and ’89 under

Coach Bob Wetzel.