NEWPORT BEACH — It’s been seven years since the best beach volleyball players in the world took the sand for an event in the United States.
It’s been even longer since Trevor and Taylor Crabb teamed up for a top-tier international event.
But the Crabb brothers will pair up again this week in Newport Beach at the Elite Beach Pro Tour stop, which begins Wednesday and runs through Saturday.
After going head-to-head in “Crabb Boils” with various partners over the past nine years, Trevor and Taylor became free agents after their respective AVP partners retired from international competition.
So they turned to each other and thought, why not?
“We’re not sure for next year, or later down the road, but right now it kind of made sense for this tournament,” Trevor said.
Similar to fans of the sport, the Crabbs are curious to find out if their reunion can produce the type of results they’ve enjoyed separately over the past decade.
The Hawaiian natives, who came to the mainland to play indoor volleyball at Long Beach State and now live in north Redondo Beach, have combined to win five of the past six Manhattan Beach Opens and have shared three AVP Best Team awards since 2018.
The Crabbs are getting “thrown into the fire” in their first pool-play match on Wednesday at 10 a.m., taking on the German pair of Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler, who won silver at the 2024 Olympics.
Expect the brothers to bring their trademark intensity and emotion.
“Both of us have some chips on our shoulder,” Trevor said. “You’ll see some fiery attitudes, I think, especially with the longer rallies. Some of the international guys, especially the European guys, they don’t like too much confrontation.”
Trevor, who turned 36 last month, was the AVP Newcomer of the Year in 2014.
Taylor, 33, won the same award a year later.
They finished third at the Manhattan Beach Open in 2015 and 2016, but competing, living and travelling together caused tensions to simmer, leading them to go their separate ways.
“We both had a lot of success after splitting up,” Trevor said. “We had success while we were playing together at a young age too, but I think we were a little immature to handle all that together.”
Trevor and Taylor still live on the same property, but they’ve converted it into a duplex to give them their own living quarters. Taylor was also hired as an assistant women’s beach volleyball coach at St. Mary’s last February, so he’s spending part of the year in Northern California.
Trevor said he and his brother have also gotten better at leaving their sub-par performances on the sand.
“Yeah, growing up a little bit, especially now we’re a little older, towards the end of our careers,” Trevor said. “We know that we’re just out there to compete and not take things as personal.”
Trevor, at 6-foot-5, has also adopted a playing style similar to his 6-foot brother, which should give them exceptional court coverage, but might leave them vulnerable at the net.
The Crabbs’ second pool-play match will be against the Brazilian team of Evandro Oliveira, who stands 6-11, and 6-4 Arthur Lanci on Thursday at 8 a.m.
“I’ve moved to defense full-time in the last few years so, basically, we’re two defenders,” Trevor said. “Playing against bigger guys, that’s kind of where our weakness will be, but we’ll make up for it with our ball control, our IQ and everything, so I’m not too worried about it.”
Taylor’s duties at St. Mary’s have also prevented the brothers from practicing together, but Trevor doesn’t expect that to be a hindrance either.
“With him, it’s like we know so much about each other,” Trevor said. “Practicing with each other doesn’t quite matter as much as it did before.”
Looking ahead to next year, when qualifying begins for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, Trevor didn’t rule out maintaining the partnership with his brother, but that still seems miles away.
Trevor narrowly missed out on qualifying for both the 2020 and 2024 Olympics with Tri Bourne and Theo Brunner, while Taylor made the 2020 team with partner Jake Gibb, only to be replaced after testing positive for COVID upon arriving in Tokyo.
Those close calls have left a burning desire.
“You want to be able to call yourself an Olympian at some point, so that’s kind of what drives me,” Trevor said. “It was a huge, huge bummer, the whole COVID thing. (Taylor) is definitely still one of the best players out there, so having him in another Olympics would only be right.”
