ON THE BEACH / JODY BERGER : Kidney Injury to Keep Kiraly Out of Manhattan Beach Open

A dominant volleyball force on any beach, Karch Kiraly has always seemed especially tough in the Manhattan Beach Open, a $100,000 tournament that begins today. He won for the first time 14 years ago and, after skipping years to play in the Olympics, he came back in the late ‘80s and preceded to win in each of the last four years.

This year, 30 years after Mike O’Hara and Mike Bright recorded their fifth consecutive victory on the sand, Kiraly was favored to match their record and eclipse one of his own. Another victory at Manhattan Beach would make Kiraly the only player in 34 years to win seven times there.

But instead of competing on the beach, Kiraly will be home recuperating from a kidney injury.

While playing in the June 9 Gold Crown in Boulder, Colo., the 6-foot-2 Kiraly crashed into a courtside banner and landed on his backside, injuring his right kidney. He continued playing and won the tournament with his partner of three years, Kent Steffes.

“I was never in pain,” Kiraly said. “I went to dinner that night with some friends and when I went to the bathroom I saw some colors coming out of me that shouldn’t be.”

Kiraly reported the blood in his urine to his physician and arranged an appointment when he returned home that Monday. His doctor diagnosed a contusion to the right kidney and ordered a CAT scan. The test revealed a healthy kidney with no loss of function, but his doctor prescribed bed rest until the bruise healed.

For two weeks, Kiraly stayed in bed watching videos and working on his laptop computer. It was the first time he had missed beach competition because of an injury.

“I started some light walking on Monday, which was 48 hours after my blood cleared,” Kiraly said.

Kiraly won’t attend the Open even as a spectator because his doctor advised him to stay out of cars. A sudden stop or another jarring motion could re-injure the kidney.

“I think it would be too much torture to watch. It would be much more fun to play,” he said.

Originally, Kiraly thought he’d be ready to play this weekend but the recovery has been slower than expected. Because the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals’ tour goes to Puerto Rico the following weekend and then skips a weekend, Kiraly is considering waiting until the July 22 Chicago Open to rejoin the tour.

“The next event is in Puerto Rico and I’m a possible for that,” Kiraly said, “but I’m inclined to take the most conservative route and wait until Chicago.”

Steffes, who has not played since Kiraly was injured, will play in Manhattan. He will team with Scott Ayakatubby, who won the Baltimore Open last weekend in his first tournament since taking 10 weeks off to recuperate from a groin injury. Steffes and Ayakatubby are seeded No. 1.

Ayakatubby’s Baltimore Open partner, Eric Fonoimoana, makes up the eighth-seeded team with Tim Hovland.

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Add volleyball: Sinjin Smith, who has 135 AVP victories, will compete today for the first time since knee surgeries sidelined him at the beginning of the year.

“I’m not really sure how I injured it. I just know I had problems with my knee two years previous and no one could tell me what it was,” Smith said. “At the end of the season last year, I felt like I was at the end of my career.”

In November, an MRI diagnostic test showed a tear in the quadriceps. Smith underwent surgery the next day to reattach a portion of the tendon to the bone.

After 12 days of inactivity, Smith started slowly working the muscle again. In December, he was riding his bike and took a spill, which prompted a second operation.

Again, Smith slowly worked to rehabilitate the muscle. His decision to play in the Manhattan Beach Open came at the last minute. Teams had to register with the AVP by 3 p.m. Tuesday. That afternoon, Smith was on the beach testing his jumps and dives to determine if the knee was strong enough to compete.

“I felt surprisingly good,” Smith said. “I believe, and the doctor believes, I could recover fully or be even better than I was before the surgeries. The frustrating thing is it’s taken so long to recover the muscle.”

Because of the last-minute decision, Smith registered with Brian Ivey although he hadn’t been able to reach him. The next day he found out Ivey was injured and couldn’t play. Smith changed to team with Mark Eller and received a $50 fine from the AVP.

Eller, a 16-year tour veteran, has won five Open events, one with Smith in 1982.

Smith plans to play with Bruk Vandeweghe in the Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg, Russia, July 23-24, and may face a second fine because the Goodwill Games are not an AVP-sanctioned event.

The AVP has not been able to reach an agreement with the international volleyball organization because of sponsorship clashes (the AVP is Miller Lite-sponsored and the Games are sponsored by Bud Light) and conflicting dates. The Chicago Open is being held the same weekend.

“I’m gearing up for the Goodwill Games,” Smith said. “I feel it’s important to support the growth of the sport worldwide and in the Olympics.”

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Op Pro surfing: Contest organizers for the Op Pro, which begins July 26 in Huntington Beach, have issued a wild-card invitation to three-time world champion Tom Curren.

A Santa Barbara native, Curren was sponsored by the surfwear company in the mid-’80s and was a mainstay in the competition. He finished fifth in the first Op Pro in 1982, came back to win the next two and then won again in 1988.

Although anyone can enter the Op Pro, the wild-card invite assures Curren a higher seeding than he would regularly receive because he has not competed regularly in the last couple years.

Because the U.S. Open of Surfing, the fourth stop on the world championship tour, begins two days after the Op Pro also at Huntington Beach, many of the world’s top surfers will compete in the Op Pro.

A four-star stop on the world qualifying tour, the Op Pro offers surfers points toward next year’s world championship tour and a few shots at the U.S. Open. The top three finishers in the Op Pro who are unseeded in the U.S. Open will be asked to compete in that event, which is invitation-only.

But Curren might surf in the U.S. Open even without topping the Op Pro. The Assn. of Surfing Professionals, which sanctions the world tour and the qualifying tour, holds out one wild-card entry.

Originally, ASP officials planned a surf-off between Curren and the 1985 and ’86 OP Pro winner Mark Occhilupo, but Occhilupo declined.

Notes

The first World Skimboard Championships will be held along with the annual Victoria Pro/Am Skim Contest, July 16-17 at Aliso Beach Park, South Laguna. The deadline to enter is July 9. For more information, call (714) 494-5485.. . . The Malibu Pro, a two-star event on the Bud Surf Tour, begins July 10, the same day as the Reunion Pro on the world tour. Without world tour surfers, Pat O’Connell of Laguna Niguel, Jeff Deffenbaugh of Huntington Beach and other local surfers are sure to be favored in Malibu. Local longboarders to watch include Ted Robinson of Manhattan Beach and Newport Beach’s Richie Collins, who will compete in the surfing and longboarding divisions.