ON THE BEACH / MIKE REILLEY : He Won’t Need a Passport for Volleyball Tournament in Irvine

Andy Klussmann’s passport has been stamped with plenty of ink.

In six years of competing on the beach and indoor volleyball circuits, he has traveled to Spain, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, Italy, Germany, Canada, France and Switzerland.

“I have a few stamps on there,” he said.

But Klussmann, a former UCLA and Marina High standout, can leave his passport at his home in Ft. Collins, Colo., this weekend.

All he had to do was load his two Australian shepherd dogs--Tank and Riley--into the back of his pickup and drive from Ft. Collins to Irvine for this weekend’s four-man beach volleyball tournament.

“It’s about an 18-hour ride,” said Klussmann, a youth counselor and part-time club volleyball coach. “But if you bring the right music, it’s not so bad.”

Klussmann, a 6-foot-4 swing hitter, will play for Team Club Sportswear at the American Beach Volleyball League stop at, of all places, a restaurant.

The two-day tournament starts at 9 a.m. Saturday at Il Fornaio Restaurant in Irvine’s Lakeshore Towers, with the finals tentatively scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday.

“It seems like there’s no place we can’t play,” Klussmann said. “We played two-man in the (Houston) Astrodome parking lot a couple years ago. We played in downtown Ft. Worth, Tex., and on the river’s edge in Cleveland. They just bring in the sand and set up a court.”

This is Klussmann’s second season on the four-player tour. He also dabbled in the two-man tour and played 1 1/2 seasons in a French professional league.

“I like the four-man tour a lot,” he said. “It allows you to specialize more than the two-man tour. You can have a setter, a big guy to get the ball to, and a couple of swing hitters who can pass. In the two-man game, you have to be well-rounded and do everything.”

The American Beach Volleyball League tour is a showcase for several members of the U.S. national team, including captain Scott Fortune (Team Ocean Pacific captain), Doug Partie (Team Speedo captain), Allen Allen (Team Speedo), Bryan Ivie (Team Paul Mitchell), Carlos Briceno (Team B.U.M. Equipment) and Eric Sato (Team Paul Mitchell).

Among the alternates on the four-man volleyball tour are former Newport Harbor standout Mike Blanchard (Team Op), former Orange Coast College player Matt Lyles (Team Club Sportswear) and Irvine Valley Coach Tom Pestolesi (Team Paul Mitchell).

Jud Buechler, drafted in the fourth round by Club Sportswear, was recently waived by the Golden State Warriors. Volleyball league officials said Buechler is expected to return to the beach sometime after the Irvine tournament.

Irvine is the fifth stop on the 10-city tour, and the tournament will be televised June 10 at 9:30 p.m. on ESPN. Team Op defeated Club Sportswear, 15-8, in the finals at Hermosa Beach Sunday.

Several players from the U.S. women’s national team will participate in four-player exhibition matches Saturday and Sunday. Expected to compete are former Irvine High standout Kim Oden and Caren Kemner, the U.S. team’s MVP.

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Karch Kiraly of San Clemente will return to the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals’ Beach tour this weekend at Austin, Tex., reuniting with partner Kent Steffes.

Kiraly, of San Clemente, decided last month to play on the beach instead of returning to the U.S. national team.

Steffes, of Pacific Palisades, has won two of the first six tournaments this season with Capistrano Beach’s Adam Johnson.

Johnson will play with Ricci Luyties, who had been sidelined with a wrist injury. Johnson and Luyties won the U.S. championships last summer at Hermosa Beach.

Brian Lewis of Corona del Mar won his first AVP tournament last week in Clearwater, Fla., with Pat Powers of San Diego. It was Powers’ 10th career victory.

Rocky Road to Victory: Newport Beach’s Richie Collins has given new meaning to surfing unconscious.

Collins, competing without a sponsor since being dumped by Billabong last season, picked up $14,000--and a few bumps and bruises--in a victory last week at the Rip Curl Classic at Bell’s Beach, Australia.

It was his first victory in nearly three years, and it was far from a smooth ride.

Collins held a big lead over Martin Potter in the finals, but he crashed into some rocks with about 10 minutes left.

Lifeguards helped Collins out of the water and he was taken to the hospital for observation. He was later released and is competing.

Potter went ahead and finished the heat, but he couldn’t catch enough big waves to overcome Collins’ early lead.

Collins, whose last world tour victory was the 1989 Op Pro, currently leads the world championship tour with 1,000 points. It’s the first time he has done so in his career.

He’s followed by Potter (860), Damien Hardman and Gary Elkerton (730), and Tom Curren, Dino Andino, Ross Clarke-Jones and Dave Macaulay (610).

The Op Pro, the biggest surfing contest on the U.S. mainland, has been moved from its regular date in late July to June 22-28 at the Huntington Beach Pier.

Instead of an individual competition as in the past, the format this year will feature team competition, pitting nation against nation, with eight surfers on each team.

There will be one-on-one and two-on-two competition, with points counting toward the team championship.

Because of the format change, the Op Pro will not count toward the Assn. of Surfing Professionals’ world tour points championship.

Some of the top world tour surfers, including Potter, Brad Gerlach and Derek Ho, are expected to compete in the $20,000 Body Glove Surf Bout V May 13-17 at Lower Trestles.

More than 190 surfers are entered in the Trestles event, the third stop on the 11-event Bud Pro Surfing tour. Laguna Beach’s Jeff Booth is the defending champion.

Competition in the four-man heats starts at 7 a.m. each day, with the finals tentatively scheduled for noon on May 17.

Beach Notes

Ten members of the U.S. national men’s volleyball team are modeling beachwear in the May issue of Gentleman’s Quarterly and the July issue of Playboy. Among the models are Laguna Beach’s Scott Fortune and Fountain Valley’s Carlos Briceno. . . . Huntington Beach’s Cammy Ciarelli and new partner Nancy Reno are off to a nice start on the Women’s Professional Volleyball Assn. tour. They finished third and fifth in tournaments at Fort Myers, Fla., and San Juan, Puerto Rico, respectively. Lower Trestles also will be the site of the “No Toll Road” Surf Classic May 9-10. Competition in four divisions--longboard, men’s 30 and older, men’s 29 and younger and women’s--will begin at 6:30 a.m. each day. The entry fee is $30 in advance, $35 the day of the event . For further information call (714) 498-0757.

Beach sports schedule: May 13-17--Pro Surfing Assn. of America tour stop at Lower Trestles; May 23-24--Women’s Pro Beach Volleyball Assn. tour stop at Seal Beach Pier; June 22-28--Op Pro surfing championships at Huntington Beach Pier; Aug. 14-15--Assn. of Volleyball Professionals pro beach tour at Seal Beach Pier.