Super-Spike 2026: Covering 25 Years of Winnipeg's Biggest Volleyball Festival

Eric Peters
1 day ago
3 min read

TWENTY-FIVE

Event Coverage — Winnipeg, MB ————————

Two days at Maple Grove Rugby Park for the 25th anniversary of Western Canada's largest outdoor volleyball tournament — as Super-Spike's media partner.

Dates

JUL 17-18

Location

MAPLE GROVE

Role

MEDIA PARTNER

Crew

Four

There are events you cover, and there are events you get to be part of. Super-Spike 2026 was the second kind.

For the tournament's 25th anniversary, DIRXECP came on as media partner — two full days on the ground capturing everything from the first serve to the last note of the headline set. Sun, sand, thousands of players, live music, and a park full of people genuinely happy to be there.

We could not have asked for a better weekend to point a camera at.

THE WEEKEND

Super-Spike has always been more than a tournament. Courts run all weekend across every level of play, and when the volleyball winds down the main stage takes over. This year that meant Tyler Shaw and FeFe Dobson closing out the nights in front of a packed crowd.

The weather held beautifully both days — clear skies, warm sun, that kind of golden Manitoba summer light that makes a camera operator's job feel unfair. We shot through the heat of the afternoon and straight into the blue hour, and the park just kept giving us things worth filming.

THE VIBE

If you've never been, Super-Spike isn't a quiet sporting event. It's a festival that happens to be built around volleyball.

Costumes on the courts. Matching kits that clearly took a group chat and several rounds of debate. Coolers, camp chairs, and canopies staked out along the sidelines like a tailgate. Teams cheering for opponents as loudly as their own. There's a competitive bracket running the whole time, and somehow that never gets in the way of everybody having a good time.

What struck us most was how much effort people put in before they ever set foot on the sand. Teams showed up in full themes — coordinated colours, homemade signs, costumes that had to have been a genuine commitment in that heat. The team names alone were worth the walk between courts: puns, inside jokes, references that only made sense to one group of friends and were funnier for it. Reading the bracket was its own event.

None of it is required. That's the point. Everybody chose to do it, and that collective decision to go all in is what turns a tournament into a festival.

Half the fun of shooting a weekend like this is that you're never short of something happening. Point a camera in any direction and something is worth catching.

BEHIND THE CAMERA

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Primary ground coverage. The depth and colour it pulls out of harsh midday sun and stage lighting is exactly why it stays in the bag.
DJI Mini 4 Pro Aerials. Compact and quiet — ideal for a site with people everywhere, capturing the scale of the grounds without ever becoming part of the event.

THE CREW

Big events run on good people, and we had them.

Justin Savage

Visual observer and all-around support across both days — keeping drone operations safe and running, and jumping in wherever a second set of hands was needed.

Devin

Ground crew and visual observer — hauling gear, watching the airspace, and getting solid time behind the camera along the way.

Kenny

Joined for the headline sets, adding coverage for Tyler Shaw and FeFe Dobson so we could shoot the stage from more than one angle.

Three people who made a two-day shoot feel manageable, and who each came away having covered something worth putting on a reel.

OUR FAVOURITE PART

Honestly? The people.

Some of the best material from the weekend came from setup shots with players who were more than happy to run a spike again, hold a moment a beat longer, or reset a point so we could get the angle. Nobody had to be talked into it. Everyone we approached wanted to be part of the videos, and that energy is all over the footage.

You can feel the difference between a crowd tolerating a camera and a crowd welcoming one.

Super-Spike was the second, from Friday evening straight through Saturday night.

Full recap video and stills from Super-Spike 2026 coming soon. Congratulations to the entire Super-Spike team on twenty-five years — here's to the next twenty-five.

PLANNING AN EVENT?

DIRXECP has spent over a decade covering events across Manitoba — festivals, tournaments, concerts, and everything between — combining cinema-grade ground coverage with fully certified drone operations under one roof.