Hawaii-born brothers Riley and Maddison McKibbin — aka “the Beard Brothers” — grew up watching their mother, a Kamehameha Schools graduate, playing beach volleyball. Their mom’s brothers also played beach volleyball, so playing volleyball indoors and out was a natural progression for them. They each played for three state championship teams at Punahou School, then continued their education and volleyball careers at the University of Southern California. Riley was a first team All-American athlete and a member of the USC team that placed second in the NCAA finals in 2009. Maddison was playing for the Trojans when they again placed second overall in 2012.

They’ve since played volleyball professionally in Greece, partnered to play beach volleyball nationally and internationally, and distinguished themselves on the new snow volleyball circuit. They estimate that they traveled the equivalent of three times around the world — almost 75,000 miles — in 2019 alone.

Television audiences are currently watching Riley, 32, and Maddison (who will be 30 on Nov. 16), as they complete in the 32nd season of the CBS reality show, “The Amazing Race.” The first episode showed 11 two-person teams racing from the Hollywood Bowl to the Caribbean island nation of Trinidad &Tobago where they had to roll an oil drum a quarter of a mile, find a uniquely painted wooden fish, play a melody on a steel drum and then run with goats across a finish line.

The team that finishes last is usually eliminated. The grand prize is $1 million.

The show, which airs at 7 p.m. on Wednesdays, was filmed prior to the pandemic when masks and social distancing were not commonplace.

“The Amazing Race” really lives up to its name. Which of the challenges in the opening episode was the most difficult or challenging?

Maddison: The fish challenge was pretty difficult. Riley had jumped in the water, and I had realized that it had to do something with the colors and not just the shape of the fish, and so I was smart enough to point that out, and Riley remembered the combination for the lock, but when we finally made it to the (right) fish I was so flustered that I forgot everything and Riley told me, “Shut up, I’ve got it all in my head and don’t talk” and we got it.

When one of you has to take on a challenge, such as playing a steel drum, how do you decide which one of you will do it?

Maddison: When we arrived (at the steel drum challenge) you could hear the music playing, and although Riley took ukulele lessons for a while in Hawaii, I grew up playing piano. So if we thought it had something to do with music, I would be the one to do it. When I heard the band playing “Day-O,” I was elated because it was a song that our dad would always play and so I knew the tune like the back of my hand. But I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that I would be playing “Day-O” on a steel drum in Trinidad & Tobago.

How do you prepare for a race where there are so many different types of challenges and tests?

Riley: The preparation was mainly binge-watching the show and trying to get into running shape, but it’s almost impossible to train for something like this because there’s so many different ways the race can go. It can be puzzles, it can be playing on the steel drum, memorizing colors or numbers — the possibilities are endless.

Other than your mother and your uncles, were there volleyball players who inspired you? You saw them and said, “I want to do that!”

Riley: The first one that comes to mind was (Hawaii-born Olympic gold medalist) Clay Stanley. I remember watching him at UH and then in the Olympics. That was before we knew that professional volleyball was a thing. When I was a kid he was “The Guy,” which is kinda cool because I ended up playing with his half-brother for Outrigger Canoe Club. That entire family has been intertwined throughout our careers as volleyball players.

Maddison: When it comes to beach volleyball in particular, there was a wave of Hawaiians that did very well in the AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals) and we always looked up to them.

When did you become the Beard Brothers?

Riley: In 2014 Maddison and I got the opportunity to play indoor volleyball together professionally in Greece and while we were there we decided to grow our beards out. In college our coach required the entire team to be clean-shaven. So finally when Maddison had graduated, we both just decided to grow ‘em out. When we got back (to the United States) and decided to try beach (volleyball), we were the only guys on the beach who had beards, and we’re a team. That’s where it started and it hasn’t stopped.

Maddison: It was not a conscious decision or a branding move to grow out our beards because it significantly hurt our dating lives when we came back from Greece. But when we starting playing in the AVP, it caught on and we thought, “Maybe we should keep these, and hopefully we can find girlfriends in the meantime.”

What would you like to be doing five years from now?

Riley: Our careers are constantly evolving. We started off wanting to be great at beach volleyball and now we’ve kind of turned into a production company. We started off making YouTube videos and now it’s morphed into making small commercials and ads for other companies. So for five years from now I think we’d like to explore that a bit further and do more complex and interesting projects.

Maddison: Beach volleyball and creating videos on YouTube take up 50% and 50% of our lives. Riley and I very much enjoy creating content around the sport that we love and the sport that we want to see grow, and honestly every year we roll with — not with “the punches” — but wherever everything takes us. We like where we’re at right now —

Riley: — and we like the direction we’re going in.

Maddison: We’re like just on a good wave right now. We don’t know how it’s gonna barrel or if we’re gonna wipe out, but it’s a good-looking wave.