Beach Star A Hit for Harvard

In sophomore Erik Kuld’s hometown, you can find ice hockey rinks and maple trees in every neighborhood. Snowy days are just as common as sunny ones and the temperature averages below 50 degrees seven months of the year.

Let’s just say Toronto isn’t your typical beach town.

That, however, doesn’t seem to bother Kuld. He has spent his last five summers playing beach volleyball on the banks of Lake Ontario.

Kuld, an outside hitter on the Harvard men’s volleyball team, started playing beach volleyball after his freshman year in high school.

“A couple of my friends on my indoor club team were playing and one asked me if I wanted to play,” Kuld said. “I fell in love with it.”

The Ontario Volleyball Association (OVA), which organizes the circuit Kuld plays in, hosts a number of beach volleyball tournaments each summer. During the season, two-player teams accumulate points, compete in a provincial tournament, and if they’re good enough, get a shot at a national title.

During the summer of 2006, Kuld and his partner Jonathan Turalinski took first place in the 18U Canadian Beach Volleyball National Championships and earned a tryout for Team Canada last March. At the selection camp, the duo placed third and qualified as the first alternate for the 2007 Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) 21U Championships held in Milan, Italy this past September.

The beach volleyball experience has done wonders for Kuld’s indoor game. He currently leads the Crimson with 4.16 kills per game.

“It’s great for offseason training for indoor because you get tons of touches,” Kuld said. “It requires a lot more control because of sun, wind, and other elements. It also makes you a more well-rounded player because you have to do every skill.”

Since beach volleyball requires proficiency in setting, passing, blocking, and spiking, players must be versatile. This well-rounded play is evident in Kuld’s statistics.

He is third on the team with 57 dugs and fourth in assists with eight.

“Playing beach volleyball is only a positive thing,” captain Brady Weissbourd said. “Beach volleyball is low impact and has less risk of injury. Coaches particularly like players who play beach.”

This past summer, Kuld and Turalinski were forced up into a higher age group on the beach volleyball summer circuit. Though the pair was one of the youngest in the league, the two claimed fifth at nationals and earned second in an earlier tournament. When Kuld won nationals in 2006, he took first place in four tournaments.

Kuld and Turalinski, who plays indoor for York University, will be looking to improve on last year’s result this upcoming season.

The two have a good shot to medal in the 21U nationals, but Kuld may choose not to play—he is currently weighing other options for the summer.

Although Harvard’s outside hitter might forgo this upcoming beach volleyball season, he has thoroughly enjoyed his time in the sand.

“The lifestyle is completely different,” Kuld said. “You’re outdoors, you get to spend a lot of time in the sun, you have a larger effect on the outcome, and it’s a lot more personal.”

This year, Kuld is one four players to have played in all of Harvard’s games and has emerged as a leader on the team. Although he has had success playing inside, Kuld still believes his true strength is beach volleyball.

“The indoor game has become very dependent on height,” the 6-foot-1 Kuld said. “The best teams and players are not only skilled but they’re huge. In beach volleyball you can get way with being shorter and still be great.”

The Crimson players insist that Kuld’s play on the beach has had a positive impact on the team’s success. The versatile star has improved his ball control drastically, increased his vertical leap, and adjusted easily between the sand and the hardwood.

Since beach volleyball features only two people per team, the summer training may also have contributed to Kuld’s offensive assertiveness.

“He has stepped onto our team being a really reliable, all-around player,” Weissbourd said. “His beach volleyball skills and his court sense and ball control have been really helpful.”

—Staff writer Jake I. Fisher can be reached at jifisher@fas.harvard.edu.