Bruno OF Ristijärvi
From the village street of Ristijärvi to international playing fields.
Jyrki Nurminen (born 1990), 188 cm
Place of birth: Ristijärvi
Residence: Vantaa
Beach Volleyball Achievements
Finnish Championship – Gold:
2012, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
Finnish Championship – Silver:
2011, 2015
Finnish Championship – Bronze:
2013, 2014
FIVB World Tour (Budapest & Warsaw), 2021: 1st place
World Ranking: 55
More information: https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyrki_Nurminen
Some athletes start chasing the world’s top level already at sixteen.
At that age, I was still riding my moped along the village roads of Ristijärvi.
I was born on November 2, 1990, in Ristijärvi, the youngest of three brothers. My eldest brother Teemu, eight years older, was always something of a role model — but simply too old to be a real playmate. With Juho, who is two years older, we were inseparable, for better or for worse. Our battles got rowdy often enough that our father, Matti, had to step in with a firm hand. Raising three boys requires a good dose of humor.
Our dad values athleticism and competition, and thanks to him our backyard had everything a group of kids could dream of: a football pitch, a volleyball court, a basketball hoop, and even a hockey goal. Our mother, on the other hand, is gentle by nature and not particularly interested in sports or winning. She focused on keeping us well-fed and clothed. To this day, she probably still doesn’t know how points are scored in volleyball. At my beach volleyball games, she often cheers for the opponents as well — “so that someone else gets to win once in a while.”
I spent countless hours playing every possible sport with Juho and his friends. Competing on equal terms with boys older and bigger than me had a huge impact on my development. As the younger and smaller one, I always had to work a bit harder just to keep up.
My competitive spirit was born early. Every activity became a competition. We played until I won — only then did it feel good. And if things weren’t going well, emotions flared quickly and loudly. More than once I stormed off the field or took my frustration out on whatever equipment happened to be nearby.
In Ristijärvi, there were exactly two sports with any kind of organized training: volleyball and cross-country skiing. You could choose freely between them. Neither one fascinated me much at first, but since having a hobby was more or less expected, I started volleyball training at the age of six, practicing a couple of times a week. It surely helped that my dad was the coach, and my big brother and role model, Teemu, played in the Finnish youth national team.
I didn’t play beach volleyball for the first time until I was about thirteen. We played “2 vs 2” on sand in the summers for one simple reason: we didn’t have enough players for anything else. We played purely for fun — there was nothing systematic or goal-oriented about it. Until the age of seventeen, my volleyball training was very minimal: just two guided sessions per week, plus backyard games and casual beach matches.
Looking back, the foundations for my beach volleyball career were quietly laid already in my youth, thanks to a combination of things:
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A broad background in ball games, which made me versatile
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A group of friends who constantly challenged me and pushed me to improve
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The steady learning of basic volleyball skills from the age of six onward
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A grass-covered backyard volleyball court where I practiced diagonal hitting and played countless matches
As a teenager in Ristijärvi, I had no thought of careers, development paths, or any of that.
I was simply living, playing, and having fun.
Kajaani and the First Step Toward a Sports Career
At 17, during my first year of upper secondary school in 2007, we had development discussions after the regional volleyball competitions. The head coach of the northern region told me that I had the skills to become a libero in Finland’s second division. I was disappointed. I wanted more. That moment lit a fire in me — for the first time in my life, I felt a real, powerful drive to train seriously.
Around the same time, a new volleyball team was being established in Kajaani to compete in the First Division. I was one of the most promising players in the Kainuu region who wasn’t already part of a national team program, so I was invited to join the new squad. That meant moving to Kajaani and committing to two seasons in the First Division.
The first season, 2008–2009, I spent mostly on the bench. But practicing every day with older and stronger players accelerated my development. In the 2009–2010 season, I finally earned my place on the court as an opposite hitter — and it turned out to be a breakthrough year. I played extremely well and received multiple “player of the match” awards.
Moving to Kajaani was emotionally easy. I knew many of the players already, and I shared an apartment with my brother Juho. My older brother was also training with the same First Division team, which made the whole transition smooth and familiar.
Decisions
During my military service in Kajaani in the summer of 2010, I received the most exciting phone call of my life so far. Olli Kuoksa, the head coach of Oulun Etta, called and asked whether I would be interested in moving to Oulu to play in the Finnish Volleyball League. For a young player, the question was a huge confidence boost — someone had noticed my game. I had played well enough to get invited to the top level.
The decision wasn’t automatic. I had already been considering staying in Kajaani to study. Most of my high school friends had either already taken that path or were about to. From the perspective of someone from Ristijärvi, Oulu felt like a genuinely big city — a completely new environment where I didn’t know anyone. Staying in Kajaani, however, would have meant becoming more of a hobby-level player, as the town’s First Division project had just been shut down.
I wanted to see how far volleyball could take me. So, encouraged by my First Division teammates and my family, I decided to seize the opportunity. I told myself that if I didn’t at least try, I would regret it one day.
Oulu – “Son, the Sky’s the Limit for You”
In Oulu, truly professional training began. We practiced three times a day: two official sessions plus one personal workout. My motivation skyrocketed after head coach Kuoksa’s comment following my very first practices: “Son, the sky’s the limit for you.”
Kuoksa was an excellent tactical and mental coach. It’s no coincidence that several players have risen to the national team under his guidance. He elevated my entire understanding of the game and of what it meant to be a player. The training culture was tough in all the right ways, with a strong emphasis on winning. You weren’t allowed to let a single ball drop. If a ball hit the floor without a genuine attempt to save it, we ran laps around the gym and did “tigers.” We played a lot of competitive game situations where making mistakes — or losing — came with consequences.
On the tactical side, everything was new to me. Before every match, we reviewed the opponent through images and statistics, analyzing each player’s hitting tendencies. In Kajaani, we had never seen anything like that.
Life in Oulu wasn’t exactly a walk in the park in the beginning. During my first season, 2010–2011, I played under a junior contract and didn’t receive any salary at all. That autumn, I lived off social support. Eventually, I went to the employment office, and they arranged a six-month trainee position for me at the Tuiran S‑market grocery store.
At the end of the training period, I walked upstairs to meet the newly appointed store manager, training calendar in hand. I laid out my practice schedule and asked if I could come in to stock shelves whenever I was free. And that’s how Tuiran S‑market gained the most efficient shelf‑stacker in its history — and how a young athlete earned a few hundred euros a month.
The financial situation didn’t improve much the following season, even though my junior contract had turned into a standard league contract. My furious shelf‑stacking at S‑market continued. Kuoksa summed it up in his dry style:
“You’re an okay opposite hitter… for a cashier at S‑market.”
From the Sands of Hiisijärvi to the Finnish Beach Volleyball Tour
While living in Kajaani, I had started testing my potential as a beach volleyball player in regional tournaments around Kainuu and Oulu. I competed together with my older brother Juho and my friend Matti. The tournaments went well, and we earned podium finishes in both Vaala and Hiisijärvi events. That left a lingering thought in my mind: maybe I could actually succeed in this sport.
In Oulu, I met my future long‑time beach volleyball partner, Pekka Piippo, who played for Etta during the 2010–2011 season. Pekka had already spent several years competing on the Finnish Beach Volleyball Tour, usually finishing in the middle of the pack. In August 2010, coach Kuoksa jokingly remarked: “Go tour the beach tournaments with Pekka.”
A month later, in September, Pekka and I decided to test our chemistry in a local tournament in Pihtipudas — and we won it convincingly. Our plan was clear: the following summer, we would play the entire Finnish Beach Volleyball Tour.
As a junior, I had mostly set the ball using hand setting in beach volleyball. Pekka told me straight away that I should forget about hand setting entirely, because the refereeing on the Finnish tour was extremely strict. So we started drilling bump setting to exhaustion in the Kasarmi gym in Oulu. With a hint of humor, one could say that Pekka’s lively serve receive provided endless opportunities for… diverse passing practice.
It wasn’t always enjoyable in the moment, but just like when playing with older boys as a kid, tough situations forced my performance level to rise.
We were complete nobodies when we entered our first Finnish Championship events in the summer of 2011. In our very first SM‑tournament match, we faced a strong duo: the Viljamaa brothers. They looked at us and said, “Piippo sounds familiar, but who on earth is this Nurminen?”
In the same tournament, the successful pair Marko Peltonen and Teemu Seppälä asked Pekka where he kept finding all these partners. Pekka replied with his typical dry humor:
“From the sands of Hiisijärvi.”
We ended up beating both pairs — a huge achievement for us at the time.
Our success on the 2011 Finnish Beach Volleyball Tour exceeded every expectation. In mid‑August, we stood on the podium with silver medals around our necks. And the following summer, we took things one step further: we captured the Finnish Championship gold in front of a packed crowd at Helsinki’s Railway Square.
So… Are We Just Working at a Grocery Store and Playing Volleyball — or Is There Something More to Life?
The 2011–2012 season with Oulun Etta had ended on a positive note, and the club offered me a three‑year extension. At the same time, the shelves at Tuiran S‑market were filling faster than ever, and I had already submitted my application to Oulu University of Applied Sciences.
But the question lingered: Was this really it?
Working at a grocery store, playing indoor volleyball… or was there something more meaningful I should be pursuing?
Winning the Finnish Beach Volleyball Championship in the summer of 2012 had shifted my thoughts decisively from indoor volleyball to the beach game. I had reached the conclusion that, at best, I could become what you might call a “€10,000 role player” in indoor volleyball. I’ve always preferred hitting the ball into open spaces, finding gaps, scoring smart points rather than relying purely on power.
But at the league level, I realized the ball simply doesn’t die that easily. The liberos are so fast and skilled that to score, you have to hit high and hard, or tool the block consistently. My physical attributes weren’t going to win that battle. There were plenty of players who were taller, jumped higher, and hit harder.
In beach volleyball, however, I believed I had a real chance to succeed even internationally. My strengths were well‑suited to the sport: a versatile attacking game, strong court awareness, and the ability to place the ball precisely where the defender wasn’t. In defense, there are many players in Finland who are faster than me, so I’ve gradually developed game intelligence and tactical awareness to compensate.
Defending in beach volleyball is largely about doing everything you can to make the opponent hit into your mark — and then smiling wide when they do.
The decision became easy when, in the summer of 2012, the Finnish national beach volleyball coach Kai Liukkonen encouraged me to move to Helsinki to play in the league with Korson Veto and simultaneously offered a chance to fully focus on beach volleyball. Liukkonen reminded me that Helsinki had everything I needed: my playing partner Pekka (Piippo), an indoor beach volleyball training facility, and a newly established professional beach volleyball team that sounded very appealing.
Korson Veto also offered a solid playing contract and, as a bonus, a job at an after‑school program with a sports focus. Combined, these opportunities made full‑time training and competing completely possible.
Helsinki – Moving to the Big City to Pursue Beach Volleyball
The 2012–2013 season was spent playing indoor volleyball for Korson Veto. At the after‑school program, I played floorball, volleyball, soccer, and hockey with the kids — basically anything that kept them moving. Our plan for the summer of 2013 had been to start competing abroad in beach volleyball, but our international ranking points weren’t high enough even to enter the qualification rounds of foreign tournaments. We had no choice but to stick to the Finnish tour.
Indoor volleyball disappeared from my life entirely when I started working at the biitsi.fi arena in autumn 2013. For the first time, I focused solely on beach volleyball. That same autumn, I teamed up with Harri Suonikko for the NEVZA tournament in Oslo — my first international event. The tournament featured several Norwegian pairs I admired. Although we performed reasonably well,
I realized that the Norwegians were on a completely different level. The biggest difference was their consistency: their performance quality hardly fluctuated at all. To reach that level, I needed not only more training, but much higher‑quality training partners.
Luckily, Helsinki had plenty of them. Pekka Piippo, Jaakko Keskitalo, Harri Suonikko, Teppo Pulkkinen, and I formed a tight training group. And as luck would have it, young players Santeri Sirén, Anniina Parkkinen, Ida Sinisalo, and Niina Ahtiainen had just moved to Helsinki to study in Mäkelänrinne Sports High School’s beach volleyball program. They had guided morning practices twice a week under national team coach Kai Liukkonen. Since Santeri was the only boy and lacked male training partners, we were invited to join these sessions.
For the first time, I trained beach volleyball through an entire winter — and with the best possible company.
Consistent, structured training paid off. In spring 2014, Pekka Piippo and I finished third at a NEVZA tournament, the first NEVZA medal ever won by a Finnish men’s team. That same summer, we played several tournaments across Europe. And the highlight of 2015 was qualifying for the European Games in Baku.
First Time at a Major Beach Volleyball Championship - European Championships, Latvia 2017
The 2016 season brought two podium finishes and a fourth place at NEVZA tournaments together with Pekka Piippo. These results earned us a hefty amount of FIVB ranking points — enough to qualify directly for the main draw of World Tour events in 2017. To our delight, the Finnish Volleyball Federation also took notice of our success and offered us a competition budget for international tournaments. Our goal was clear: qualify for the European Championships.
The 2017 season with Pekka was historic for Finnish beach volleyball. We became the first Finnish men’s pair ever to reach the FIVB World Tour main draw. In mid‑July, we received confirmation that we had earned a spot in the European Championships in Jurmala, Latvia, in August 2017.
We headed to the European Championships ready to challenge the best teams in the world. Our second goal was simply to enjoy the experience — after all, qualifying for a major championship isn’t guaranteed, especially in men’s beach volleyball, where the competition is enormous and the margins are razor-thin. I told friends and family that if they were ever going to watch us live at a major event, this was the time — there was no telling if there would ever be a next opportunity.
We played two tight matches against world‑class teams. We lost both and didn’t advance from our pool, but it wasn’t a disappointment. The level gap wasn’t huge, and despite the losses, the experience gave us strong belief that we belonged on the international stage.
2017 - 2018 Team TMR Invest & #ArcticBeachBrothers is born
In the autumn of 2017, I began playing with a new partner, Santeri Sirén.
You can read more about our journey together from own page (Team TMR Invest)
Beach Volleyball Skills Built Through Self‑Learning
In indoor volleyball, I received coaching in game tactics and learned strong fundamental techniques that carried over to the sand as well. But in beach volleyball, I never had a coach who handed me ready‑made tactical plans or developmental roadmaps. Like most players of my generation in Finland, I had to figure those things out myself.
It would be easy to think of beach volleyball as a sport reserved only for very tall, highly physical athletes. Yet the last three Olympic gold‑medal‑winning defenders have all been between 185 and 188 cm tall. Since 2011, I’ve been systematically studying the game of every world‑class defensive player under 190 cm by watching match footage on YouTube. I paid attention to how they defend in coordination with the blocker, what kinds of attacking angles and variations they use, and what physical attributes they rely on. Based on these analyses, I’ve set my own goals and learning themes to develop a style that suits my physical profile.
Even today, I start as many mornings as possible by watching international beach volleyball matches on YouTube — with a bowl of oatmeal and a cup of coffee in hand.
A Coaching Path That Strengthens My Own Playing
I took my first steps as a coach already in the summer of 2011, when Petri Nurro — then chairman of Oulun Kisko — contacted me and suggested that my playing partner and I run a beach volleyball camp in Oulu. The camp went well, and over the years it has become a pleasant annual tradition. It’s always nice to visit old friends in Oulu and stop by my brother Teemu’s home — he still lives there with his family.
One particularly memorable moment was in 2011, when a 12‑year‑old Niko Suihkonen took part in our junior course — he later made his debut in the Volleyball World Championships.
I began coaching indoor volleyball in 2014. That year, Teppo Perkinen, then chairman of VanLe, asked whether I would be interested in running a volleyball school for 8–14‑year‑olds — and even get paid for it. Of course I was interested! A bit later, the role expanded into full‑time work when I was selected in 2015 as the coordinator of the volleyball school program, funded by a government grant applied for by Puma Volley and VanLe.
Näin voi käydä, kun sanoo valmennettaville:
"jos selässä lukee Dahlhausser niin saa passata miten huvittaa"
This job continues to this day, and I’m genuinely grateful for it. It’s fantastic to have full‑time work that supports competitive sports and gives me the chance to spend several hours a day with a volleyball in my hands.
I began working at Biitsi.fi in autumn 2013. Although I did plenty of front‑desk work and helped organize events, beach volleyball coaching was a major part of my role from day one. These coaching sessions significantly deepened my understanding of the sport. Especially when designing the content for Biitsi.fi’s training courses, I had to break the sport down to its smallest components and dig up a huge amount of information. I became increasingly aware of the unique elements of beach volleyball — and how different it is from indoor volleyball. In many ways, I was coaching myself at the same time as I coached others.
Over the years, my responsibilities at Biitsi.fi have shifted, and nowadays I work almost exclusively as a beach volleyball coach: running technique courses, corporate events, and individual weekly training sessions.
I completed my professional coaching degree between 2016–2018, when the Finnish Volleyball Federation launched a program aimed at educating 12 indoor coaches and two professional beach volleyball coaches. The training was excellent and very broad in scope. I gained particularly valuable knowledge in strength training and psychological coaching.
In spring 2016, together with Hietsu Beach Volley, we organized Finland’s first dedicated international beach volleyball camp in Alanya, Turkey. Running my own beach camp had been a long‑time dream, and it felt incredible to escape the chilly Finnish spring and coach — and train — in the warmth of the south. The camp has since been held every year, offering beach volleyball enthusiasts a fast‑track start to summer.
Turning a Passion into a Profession
Jyrki Nurminen Beach Volley Oy 2018
In the autumn of 2018, a long‑held dream came true when — with the support of Sanna, Pekka, and Juha — I founded Jyrki Nurminen Beach Volley Oy. The company’s goal in the coming years is to support the competitive careers of my playing partner and me. In the long term, my ambition is to develop the business so that beach volleyball becomes not just a passion, but a full‑time profession and livelihood.
JNB 2019, Club Kastalia, Alanya
The cornerstone of our business in the early phase was our spring training camp in Turkey. By spring 2018, the camp had already grown into a joyful gathering of more than 90 trainees and around 100 travelers. When we established the company, we realized that we should also create an autumn camp, giving Finnish players a chance to escape the dark season for a moment. And so, in October 2019, we organized the very first autumn camp in Valencia, hosting a great group of around 30 athletes. The city offered not only excellent training but also a taste of culture and La Liga football. For Santeri and me, the Valencia camp also served as preparation for a 3‑star tournament in China, which we flew to directly afterward.
The first full operational year of JNBV — spring 2019 — once again brought an incredible group of players to the sands of Club Kastalia in Turkey: more than 170 participants. We remembered how we once looked longingly at the Norwegian beach camp, which hosted about 250 players at the time, dreaming of something similar for Finnish athletes. Suddenly, that dream didn’t seem far‑fetched at all.
After the successful spring 2019 camp, we received yet another pleasant surprise: the Finnish Volleyball Association informed us that Jyrki Nurminen Beach Camp had been selected as the 2018 Beach Volleyball Phenomenon of the Year. Sanna and I attended the award gala grinning from ear to ear as we accepted the trophy.
All in all, the company got off to a very promising start.
Damn, There’s No Room in the Tournaments
The Birth of the Jyrki Nurminen Beach Volley Tour
The idea for launching our own JNBV tour came from my business partners. Pekka and Sanna had been discussing whether our company could take over the management of the Finnish Championship Tour and develop it into something more professional. They presented the idea to me over a cup of coffee in Turkey in the spring of 2019. I approached it with healthy skepticism — especially because of the workload such a tour would bring during the peak international tournament season.
Still, we decided to explore the idea. We received an audience with the Finnish Volleyball Federation in spring 2019 and presented our proposal to take over the SM‑tour. The discussion was positive, but nothing moved forward at that time.
Later that autumn, however, the federation’s CEO requested a new meeting. By then, it was already too late to handle the sponsorship sales required for the SM‑tour. So instead, we proposed taking responsibility for the Open Tour, which we knew frustrated many players because there simply wasn’t space for everyone who wanted to participate. Together with the federation, we developed a cooperation model — and that’s where things truly began.
As a result, Finland’s second‑highest beach volleyball series was transformed into the Jyrki Nurminen Beach Tour.
Our primary goal was to serve competitive players: to ensure that as many athletes as possible could enter tournaments, and that events would be more evenly spread across Finland. In practice, this meant active collaboration with tournament organizers to increase the number of events and expand the geographic reach. At the same time, we updated rules and the ranking system based on feedback from both organizers and players. This work is ongoing.
However, even in that very first season, we learned that even with more events, there still wasn’t enough room for everyone. Recreational and developing players in particular needed a tier of their own. So, in early autumn 2020, we proposed an expansion: creating a new, lower‑level tour. The result was the Jyrki Nurminen Challenger Tour, played for the first time in summer 2021. Its purpose is to provide an easier entry point into competitive play and a clear pathway toward higher‑level tournaments through a shared ranking structure.
In building these tour systems, we were greatly supported by Ville‑Veikko Savolainen, with his magical Excel skills, and Laura Tuomola, who has an exceptional talent for putting things into clear written form. As the tours grow, we continuously seek the best solutions for transitions between levels and for ranking structures — with player and organizer feedback being absolutely invaluable.
We’ll keep refining, adjusting, and imagining new ideas.
Let’s let this all sink in for a moment… and see what we come up with next!
JNBT finaalit 2021, Helsinki, Hietsu
The Silver Lining of the 2020 Pandemic
Time to Develop Domestic Training Camps
The pandemic ruined our 2020 spring camp. Sanna and I had put in a huge number of hours planning training groups, sorting out hotel arrangements, and building the program. It was supposed to be our biggest camp ever: more than 170 players and a total of 220 people were ready to head to the Turkish sunshine. But in mid‑March 2020, when all flights to Turkey were cancelled, we had no choice but to throw in the towel and announce that the camp had to be called off. It was incredibly disappointing — both for us and for the players.
But people took the news amazingly well, and the support we received in such a tough moment was truly humbling.
Once the worst of the spring chaos had passed, things in Finland began to look a little brighter. We thought: If we can’t travel abroad for camps, then let’s make things happen at home! We studied the COVID restrictions, trying to determine what would be both possible and safe. We concluded that outdoor beach volleyball camps were entirely feasible with the information and regulations available. Hietsu — Finland’s most legendary beach — was the natural choice.
Together with Hietsu Beach Volley, we launched both a children’s summer camp and an adult training camp for early summer. Both were held in the mornings and daytime hours, leaving the already busy beach free for HBV members in the evenings. It felt great to offer a domestic camp to many players who had missed out on Turkey because of the pandemic.
Since then, we’ve organized adult summer camps in Finland multiple times each year, and children’s camps every June right after school ends. The children’s camp has become especially important to me. After years of coaching young athletes in indoor volleyball, it’s wonderful to introduce kids to “my home court” — the sand. As a parent myself, I also understand how valuable it is for families to have an active outdoor day camp option for their children.
In addition to the larger camps, I usually try to arrange beach volleyball clinics in cooperation with local clubs during my own vacations or domestic tournament trips. An entrepreneur is rarely able to spend a holiday simply doing nothing — and besides, spreading the joy of beach volleyball is part of the mission.
Lasten kesäleiri 2021, Helsinki, Hietsu
Jyrki Nurminen Beach Talents 2021
In 2021, Finnish beach volleyball coaching took an important step forward as we launched the country’s first dedicated lower‑secondary school beach volleyball program. The program was created in collaboration with the Finnish Volleyball Federation, the Helsinki Metropolitan Sports Academy Urhea, Biitsi.fi, and Biitsi Vantaa — and it was named Jyrki Nurminen Beach Talents.
You can read more about the Jyrki Nurminen Beach Talents program from own page (only in Finnish).
Expanding International Training Camps (2021–2023)
For years, many players had been asking whether we could organize an autumn beach volleyball camp abroad. Since I myself was more than tempted by the idea of escaping Finland’s darkest season for some sunshine, we decided to give it a try. In October 2021, we organized our first ever autumn training camp at Club Kastalia. Around 25 Finns gathered to enjoy Turkey’s spectacular fall weather, which offers warm evenings and gentle sea water compared to spring.
The autumn camps have naturally been smaller than the spring ones — usually 25 to 30 people — which gives them a tighter, more familiar atmosphere. With fewer participants, everyone gets to know each other. For me personally, these autumn camps have a special charm: there’s more free time, more opportunities to socialize, and I often find myself playing with the participants in a more relaxed manner.
Of course, even in these friendly games, losing still stings — and the good‑natured teasing tends to last for months. One of the most unforgettable losses came in 2021 when Robin Granqvist and I were defeated by some unnameable “heroes of the beach.” Robin and I have since had countless conversations — now a running joke — about the importance of the serve, and especially of repeatedly hitting the net cord, for one’s chances of winning.
A second foreign camp emerged almost by accident. For several years, Santeri and I had been escaping winter by running our own February training camp in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife. Usually, a handful of Finland’s top players and the occasional international pair joined us. Since I tend to get a bit restless on training camps and always want “something more to do,” it felt natural in February 2023 to organize a small official beach camp alongside our own training.
Puerto de la Cruz is an ideal hybrid of city holiday and training destination. Its black volcanic sand adds an exotic twist — dramatic to look at, but a fantastic playing surface. As a thrifty entrepreneur, I had already found my go‑to restaurant on earlier visits: Paraquitas, a local culinary marvel where you can get a chicken steak and fries for €3, plus a salad for one extra euro if you’re feeling extravagant.
Naturally, I introduced the camp group to Paraquitas, and we ended up eating there literally every night. It kept everyone’s budget in check and our nutrition surprisingly solid — even if, in true local fashion, the dish delivered to your table wasn’t always exactly what you thought you ordered. By the end of the camp, my meal would arrive without me even asking, which delighted us and the owner equally — no more wrestling with language barriers.
Both the Turkish autumn camp and the February Tenerife camp have been extremely positive experiences. We will definitely continue organizing them in the future.
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Rice a la Cubana — the legendary dish consisting of banana, sausage, rice, French fries, and a fried egg; plus an optional €1 chicken add‑on (the classic dos pollo and uno egg combo).
Base price: €3.20, extras €1 each.
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A Long‑Held Dream Realized – My Own Beach Volleyball Hall (2024)
Alongside playing on the World Tour and running my beach volleyball business, one of my biggest dreams had always been to one day bring my ideas and vision for the sport to life in a beach volleyball facility of my own. After founding Jyrki Nurminen Beach Volley Oy, however, my time was fully consumed by building both the business and my competitive career, so this dream had to wait for the right moment.
In the summer of 2023, an unexpected opportunity arose: a chance to become a partner in Hiekka Beachspot Oy, led by Antti Annala and Juha Nyrhilä. They were in the process of opening a high‑quality, six‑court indoor beach volleyball center — Hiekka Beach Volley Club in Varisto, Vantaa — scheduled to open at the beginning of 2024.
I spent a long time weighing the decision. The financial risk felt intimidating; the amounts being discussed were significant from my perspective, and with entrepreneurship there are always uncertainties.
But ultimately, the possibilities were too compelling to ignore: expanding my business, working alongside Antti and Juha, and taking a major step forward in my coaching and training environment. Signing the partnership agreement marked the beginning of a new chapter in my life as an entrepreneur.
Hiekka Beach Volley Club offers fantastic facilities that allow for a completely new level of freedom and independence — especially during the winter season. For the first time in my life, I have access to my own coaching and training court, even during prime hours, and full freedom to design and run coaching programs, tournaments, camps, and corporate events inside a world‑class indoor venue.
Damn, You Can’t Even Play Tournaments in Winter”
The Birth of the Indoor Tour (2023–2024)
For years, Finland had no official indoor beach volleyball tournament series during the winter. Beach volleyball remained a relatively small sport in the country, and many players who loved the sand spent their winters playing indoor volleyball at various competitive levels. But gradually, both the overall number of beach volleyball enthusiasts and the number of athletes specializing in beach volleyball began to grow — and with that came increasing demand for winter tournament opportunities.
Inspired by this, we proposed to the Finnish Volleyball Federation that we expand our competition partnership by launching federation‑sanctioned indoor beach volleyball tours for winter 2024. The federation gave us the green light, and we got to work on the rules, ranking system, and all the practical arrangements needed to make the tours happen.
The result was two new circuits:
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Jyrki Nurminen Indoor Elite Tour – Finland’s official national‑level indoor series
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Jyrki Nurminen Indoor Open Tour – a broad, accessible series for all competitive players
The very first tournament events of both tours were scheduled to take place during the grand opening week of the brand‑new Hiekka Beach Volley Club in Varisto, Vantaa — on Epiphany, January 6th, 2024.
Now we wait with excitement to see how the beach volleyball community embraces these new winter tours!
Beach Talents Program Expands in 2024
At the turn of 2024, the Beach Talents program will relaunch on a larger and more diverse scale at the Hiekka Beach Volley Club. Instead of the previous single training group, the program will now include four age‑group teams, with a total of 35 young athletes: two boys’ groups and two girls’ groups. In addition to regular coaching, the goal is to provide the athletes with their own camp activities and competitive opportunities.
Sponsors play a crucial role in making youth coaching possible. Biitsi.fi has been an essential supporter by providing training slots for the juniors, and going forward, Hiekka Beach Volley Club will take on that responsibility. The dedicated financial support from Celsius, a partner of Team TMR Invest, as well as several small businesses, is equally vital for enabling these young athletes to train and develop.
I believe it is important that young players with aspirations for a sports career understand the significance of business partnerships. That is why I encourage my Beach Talents athletes to take an active role in collaboration efforts themselves. Their skills have been utilized, for example, on social media channels, and they have also had the opportunity to participate in coaching events organized for companies. In the future, I am confident that the importance of corporate partnerships will only continue to grow.
