Spike

“Spike”  aka Samuel Raul “beach bum” Gil Serrano has spent the better part of his life in the beach volleyball circuit representing Mexico.  Macabiadas has long been a sport that Mexico has excelled in.  Although beach volleyball was supposedly invented in Hawaii in the early 1900s, Mexican’s have the Aztec tradition of “Aztec Ball” which involved keeping a ball in the air for sometimes an hour or longer using anything but their hands.  The losers, of course, would lose their heads so the motivation to be proficient was very high.   Beach volleyball really hit the scene in 1974 when Mike Brown and his buddy “Spike” started an international tournament in Mexico.  Today the Mexican International Volleyball tournament in Rosarito Beach has been called “The Greatest Volleyball Tournament in the World” (at least by their own website).   You will notice that the picture of Spike that we have put on the cart of his namesake, is of him staring up into the sky looking for something.  If you know Spike, you will often see him strike this pose.  It all began when during a beach volleyball game against the world’s tallest beach volleyball player, Ryan Doherty (7’ 1”) smashed the ball straight down on Spikes poor head.  The ball bounced so high that no one ever saw it come down.  Spike wandered around for days, staring up into the sky looking for the ball to come back down.  Often, he will assume this pose as if replaying this moment, like some sad PTSD episode.    You will often find Spike on the beach keeping his form, setting and spiking and high fiving and staring up…..