BEACH NOTES : Smith, Stoklos Have a Million Reasons to Enjoy Their Beach Life

Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos are stopping by Hermosa Beach this weekend on their way to becoming millionaires.

Smith and Stoklos are beach volleyball’s most recognized names. They’re also the sport’s biggest winners: Smith has 114 career open victories and Stoklos 94.

Many volleyball experts predicted that a siege of parity would settle over the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tour this season, but Smith and Stoklos shattered that myth as well as setting some standards of their own.

--They became the first players to earn $200,000 apiece in a single season, blazing past the marks set by Tim Hovland and Mike Dodd last year.

--They became the first team to capture all three events of the Cuervo Gold Crown--beach volleyball’s triple crown--by winning the event at San Diego’s Mission Bay two weeks ago, although they were 0-for-6 in Cuervo tournaments going into this season.

They accomplished their feats despite the fact that Smith, 33, is the tour’s oldest regular player.

“There are so many great players on the tour now that it’s even harder for Randy and I to dominate,” Smith said. “So many excellent volleyball players are in the game now that you can’t say that any one guy is better than any other.

“But the more we’re pushed, the better Randy and I play. We’ve been able to raise our games to another level when push comes to shove.”

They have been able to win despite the split-up of Hovland and Dodd in July, which resulted in the formation of two more first-rate teams for Smith and Stoklos to deal with.

They were able to hold off Brent Frohoff and Karch Kiraly, who banded together in late May and have won five tournaments.

“There are a lot of scary teams out there,” Smith said. “For a while, it looked like Randy and I might become just another great team.”

Smith and Stoklos have remained on top by using the one weapon only they have--10 years of playing experience together.

“There isn’t any situation on the volleyball court that Randy and I haven’t faced at least once before,” Smith said. “When something unpredictable happens out there, it doesn’t take actual communication for us to react.”

Volleyball’s two greatest legends have parlayed that chemistry into dollars and cents. It’s a kind of athletic alchemy that put Smith and Stoklos at the sport’s forefront--on the court and at the bank.

On Thursday night, Smith and Stoklos presided over the opening of a new restaurant--Randy and Sinjin’s Side Out Restaurant and Bar in Manhattan Beach.

“It’s kind of volleyball’s answer to the Hard Rock Cafe,” Smith said.

The restaurant features beach volleyball memorabilia, including pictures of pioneers Ron Von Hagen, Jim Menges and Jay Hanseth as well as “all kinds of stuff” featuring the sport’s current standouts.

Smith and Stoklos aren’t the owners of the restaurant, but they will receive a percentage of the venture’s receipts by lending their names to the business.

“You could say we sold our names, to be honest,” Smith said.

In either case, it seems that the pair gave up their names in reverse order. In volleyball circles, the team has usually been referred to as “Sinjin and Randy.”

“Maybe it’s because R comes before S, who knows,” Smith said. “Maybe it’s because Randy’s bigger than me.”

Frohoff of Redondo Beach and partner Kiraly have returned to winning ways after more than a month without a tour victory.

Frohoff and Kiraly won last weekend’s $60,000 Seattle Seafair Open with a victory over Hovland and Steffes.

The two had not won a tournament since July 8, when they defeated Hovland and Dodd in Grand Haven, Mich.

In the winner’s bracket final, Frohoff and Kiraly beat Smith and Stoklos, 16-14, to advance to the championship match.

The victory avenged a last-minute loss suffered by Frohoff and Kiraly last season on Seattle’s Alki Beach. And it gave the team--for much of the summer the tour’s hottest partnership--some much-needed momentum going into this weekend’s $200,000 USA Championships at Hermosa Beach.

The final day of competition in the ladies’ World Championships at Laughlin, Nev., last weekend unraveled into a series of upsets.

The top-seeded team of Jackie Silva (Redondo Beach) and Karolyn Kirby was defeated in the winners’ bracket final by veterans Nina Matthies and Elaine Roque.

Silva and Kirby then lost to Angela Rock and Rita Crockett in the final of the consolation bracket and ended up with a third-place finish. Matthies and Roque went on to defeat Rock-Crockett for the title and $50,000.

Silva, who has won more than $41,000 this season, and Kirby ($35,000) are still the No. 1-seeded team in this weekend’s $25,000 tournament in Boulder, Colo.