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Meet Dan Palenchar of Life’s A Beach Camps San Diego in Pacific Beach and Mission Beach

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Palenchar.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Dan. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
The story of Life’s A Beach Camps San Diego starts in mid/late 2018. I was getting interested in beach volleyball, I have some friends that played competitively and I would go play with them and get absolutely destroyed! Beach volleyball is a really interesting sport. You play 2v2 (if you’re serious) so if one player is a weak link, it’s very obvious, and you can’t hide any mistakes. So I was just making tons of mistakes, being embarrassed, and wanting to improve.

Beach volleyball is also really communal and attracts all ages and kinds of people, so you meet people all the time on the sand. I met a guy one day looking to play some games. At first, he came off as reserved but confident, the strong silent type. We would occasionally play some games together, and I noticed how he always won easily and it didn’t even look like he was trying. He was the best player on the court by a mile.

Him and I would see each other often at S. Mission Beach and we would play sometimes. He would give me tips, and one day I asked him if he coached. He told me yes that he is actually a professional player on a European national team (Olympic level) and coaches around the world. So I asked if he would train me and he did.

We started training once a week, then two or three times. I got my friends involved and we had a small training group. I started to get a little better every week and he taught me a lot not only about the physical game but the mental part, which is really overlooked, how you position yourself, how you read your opponents, how to be smart and make the game easier.

Beach volleyball had turned into an obsession. I was playing hours a week, training as much as I could even if it was by myself. I was determined to not be the guy that couldn’t hang. My girlfriend became interested because I was always at the beach playing. So I started to train her. Then I started a meetup group to train beginners. At some point, the experience started to add up. Fast forward over a year and the small Meetup group has grown into probably 1,000+ across all socials. I’ve coached hundreds of new and old beach volleyball players and I’m competing with the same friends who were once kicking my ass.

Beach volleyball is an awesome sport for so many reasons. Anyone can play, I’ve played with and/or trained males and females between the ages of 12 and 75. But it is also a really tough sport to learn. The techniques are not normal, it’s not like kicking or throwing a ball, or jumping over a hurdle. Furthermore, you can’t hide in the background and you can’t be an incomplete player. You can be a 7-foot beast, but if you can’t pass or set the ball, you won’t have a chance. You can be an amazing setter, but if you can’t kill the ball you won’t win. So it can be really intimidating when you start because you’re not skilled, you WILL makes LOTS of mistakes, and it WILL be obvious, everyone will see it.

What I love about Life’s A Beach Camps is we welcome these people. We create a really fun and stress-free environment. We laugh at ourselves and learn. And we do some really great training too with drills that I learned from some of the best players at the national level. My goal for LABCSD is to make beach volleyball accessible for everyone. We’ve done a good job so far but as far as I’m concerned, we are just getting started.

Our flagship beginner beach volleyball clinic has been running particularly strong over the last few months. I’m introducing a new program, and want to add leagues, and tournaments and social events, and partner with local businesses and charities to grow the community.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s been a relatively smooth road but the problem is a slow one. When I started, it was really small. A handful of people would come. For months I would run three clinics a week for 1 or 2 people… sometimes 0. At the time, I was influenced by Grant Cardone and his 10x principle, paraphrased it basically means to put a s***load of effort into what you do, and keep pushing so hard you MAKE something happen.

So I did everything I could think of. Started an email list, made Groupon deals, went on ClassPass, did more free events, advertised on social media, created marketing funnels, eventbrite, advertised in the SD reader, Evensi, Fox 5, PB newspaper… I have spreadsheets full of places to post events. I listened to marketing podcasts, wrote new event descriptions, and no matter how many people showed up I gave it my all to show them a great time and give a great training.

Slowly, things picked up. People brought their friends. We got some regular people who came back week after week. All the while, I’m becoming a better coach. I start seeing the same mistakes over and over, I know what to look for now and I know what people need to fix to get from square 0 to 1 to 2 and so on. Furthermore, I’m not a professional beach volleyball player, I never played in college or even high school. Yet, I am now coaching 50-100 people a month. I questioned myself at times. Should I be doing this? I sort of got thrown into this, one thing led to another. I decided not to turn back. I worked on my own game, trained with pros, and learned the sport.

It’s pretty tough when you’re a one-person business. I’ve had a lot of help from friends and my girlfriend, but at the end of the day, I’m the marketing team, the sales team, accounting, operations, research, development, and product delivery. I deal with happy customers, the (few) unhappy customers. I don’t have a business degree…I studied biochemistry and worked in a lab and then behind a computer.

When you’re a one-person business, and that.1 person has a hard day or a week, it affects the business. When you are a person, people see a person. But when there is a business in the front, that humanity can get lost. I’ve struggled with varying levels of depression (not diagnosed/clinical, my own words) for several years. There were some pretty bad months. One day, in particular, I had a clinic planned in the evening at Fanuel Street Park. There are two courts there, normally they are not used much, but this night, they both were.

I asked the people how long they planned on staying, and they both were not gonna leave anytime soon. So, I just cancelled the class last minute. I was already feeling terrible and couldn’t take it. People were upset, they were driving to the clinic and it was cancelled without much notice. I felt bad, but I am human and my emotions got the best of me. So handling yourself and rising above the everyday challenges of just being a person and keeping your mind right can be a challenge.

Now, this community lifts me up. A close family of mine was recently diagnosed with recurring cancer. This was two days ago, on Friday, and I was a mess that day and the next morning. Saturday (today) was the clinic. I got completely lost in coaching the people that came and having a good time with them. I like to put a smile on people’s faces, and I like to help people get better. I’ve never been fully satisfied with myself, no matter what. I always want to be better, do more. And that’s part of what attracts me to beach volley… the skill ceiling is as high as the sky. I’m not even close to where I want to be, but I am working and getting better and bringing everyone along the way that I can.

Life’s A Beach Camps San Diego – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We are San Diego’s Happiest Beach Volleyball Club!!! We teach beach volleyball in a fun and low-pressure environment. If you want to learn beach volleyball, meet new friends, and have some fun in the sun and get some exercise, that’s what we do. We start and end every training with hugs. I work with every person individually to some degree. We adjust every training based on the number of people and skill levels. We specialize in making beach volleyball fun and accessible for all ages, skill levels, shapes, sizes, colors, of people and everything in between.

I’m most proud of the people that are attracted to us. 99% of the people have just been really awesome, positive, fun, happy, energetic humans. We have a 5.0 rating across socials with 25-30 reviews, and we’ve been around for about a year. There are places that have been around for way longer and don’t have this type of engagement. I think our community is strong, and I’ve seen the potential not just in the business and dollars and cents sense but also, and more importantly, the community, and the people. I didn’t start this to make money and it’s not my primary goal for this business.

I put my heart and soul out every time I am on the sand and I feel the positive energy from everyone who is out there taking a chance, trying something new, putting themselves out there even though they can’t pass a volleyball to save their life. And that’s OK and that’s why we’re here is to all get past that together and have a good time making terrible mistakes, and then sticking with it and getting better and getting that sense of accomplishment that permeates your life and opens up new doors.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I can’t say the exact moment, but at some point, things went from, “I am grinding out training sessions for 1-2 people and maybe this is a waste of time,” to “holy shit, there are 10-20 people here every week, people like this, people want more of this.” When people ask me, “are you here every week,” or “do you do other events” it makes me really proud. When I see the reviews come in, and people talk about the community, and how fun it was, and how the training was great for them, everyone makes me very happy.

I just finished a new website (labcsandiego.com) and looking at where this business now and where I am, compared to a year ago, is a big holy shit type moment for me. I have no more doubt and no more questions, it’s just a matter of how much more can I push this and how much bigger and better can this get.

Pricing:

  • Beginner Beach Volleyball Clinic (1 ticket) $20
  • Beginner Beach Volleyball Clinic (4 tickets) $60
  • Beginner Beach Volleyball Clinic (8 tickets) $96
  • Beginner Beach Volleyball Clinic.: ClinicPass (unlimited access) $49/month, no other fees
  • Beginner Beach Volleyball Clinic.: FWB ClinicPass (unlimited access w/ 1 guest per class) $79/mo
  • 6-week shank-to-spike progressive training program (intermediate level): $150 for 6 weeks, limited to 8 players per coach and court.

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
Anita Friedrich

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