FOLLOWUP: Alki Beach’s first permanent volleyball net is up

| West Seattle beaches | West Seattle news | WS & Sports

Story and photos by Hayden Yu Andersen
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

Earlier this week, we reported on Alki Beach’s first permanent volleyball court, scheduled to be installed today. Right on schedule at 9:00 am this morning, volleyball players and representatives from the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department gathered to install the net, declare the court open, and celebrate with a quick game.

“Doing this, right now, is a huge win,” said Alex, who frequents Alki Beach to both play Volleyball and run tournaments. He was one of the community members who helped push for a permanent net and a clearly defined court space.

“It was a struggle at first,” he said, “but after a lot of effort, and a lot of us getting out there and pushing for it, it’s here.”

“It’s nice to see people who are really vocal and want to help us, and fill us in with more information,” said Shalandra Shippentower, Senior Recreation Program Specialist with Seattle Parks.

The Department collaborated with volleyball regulars to create the rules for the new court as a way to ensure that it meets their needs best, according to Shippentower. “Making these things more accessible,” she said, “is always what we’re trying to do.”

The new net/court is at 58th/Alki.

Alki VB Player July 23, 2025 (6:47 pm)

I am SO excited – I think our duty as the beach volleyball community is to USE these courts, and show that there is constant demand for this. The city and Parks and Rec have shown that they are willing to respond to community need. You can bet they’re looking for some impact from this pilot in the form of utilization that will inform future investments in additional courts and ways to make playing more accessible

Bill @ Duwamish Head July 23, 2025 (7:42 pm)

I sure hope this takes off with users. I have been playing volley ball since the 70’s, high school and college ball, and well known sand tournaments in SoCal. I moved to a CO mountain resort with a robust volley ball crowd, even though skiing was the main draw. We had two sand courts, one like this one, is the winners court, with loser going out and next coming in. The second court was our work up court, where the winner on court two, moved in to play the winners on the main court. Loser on main court went to the work up court unless they needed a break. It was a fantastic format, and us locals (town remains nameless) met so many new friends and volley ballers that were just passing through town.

North Admiral Cyclist July 24, 2025 (5:39 am)

Wow! Those new volleyball signs showing the rules are great! The hundreds of cyclists that use the adjacent Alki Trail bike path daily would love to have similar signs posted informing cyclists, pedestrians, illegal venders, etc. about the rules for using the bike path!

Other North Admiral Cyclist July 24, 2025 (11:11 am)

Reply

There is no “Alki Trail bike path”. The asphalt trail is considered a multipurpose trail by the City, not a bikes-only trail. The sharrows in the street are solely for bikes, but I don’t think that’s what you were you were referring to.
- North Admiral Cyclist July 24, 2025 (1:12 pm)
  
  Reply
  
  Other NAC: Yes, I think you are right – many would say the Alki Trail is now considered a shared-use path. Although I don’t know this has ever been made official by city action. In any case, most shared-use paths across the country (outside Seattle) typically post the rules. This helps avoid the conflicts occurring frequently at high use areas such as Alki. Rules such as: everyone (peds and bikes) are to stay to the right, bikes (and e-scooters) yield to peds, 15 mph speed limit, etc.
  - Arch Stanton July 25, 2025 (8:29 am)
    
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    Open to ideas to get the illegal vendors gone! They blast illegal decimal music, cause pileups, and most importantly – take money from our brick and mortar community stores that have to survive all year round! I’m sure it’s dangerous for cyclists too.

momof3boys July 24, 2025 (7:07 am)

This is great! Back in the early 80’s we used to play volleyball on Monday nights with the “South Seattle Fellowship of Singles” our 100+ group of West Seattle singles from churches around the area. Lots of memories and now married (40 years and counting) couples from those long-ago nights!