Saturday, September 2, 2017. (Court Day #65)

So the Bay Area set all kinds of records yesterday for heat. Santa Cruz hit 105°F—the previous high for a September 1st was 102°F in 1955.  San Francisco, about 90 minutes north, hit an all-time high of 106°F.

Before leaving the house, I filled a large plastic water bottle completely with cubed ice, topped it off with water, wrapped it in a kitchen towel and put it in my backpack. It would prove very welcome repeatedly as the  morning progressed. Little did I know that I’d later be using the towel to wipe sweat off my forehead and out of my eyes. I don’t typically sweat much, but this heatwave is something else!

When I got in the car this morning, it read 80 degrees like yesterday, again at 8:50 a.m. I arrived at Skypark a few minutes after 9 to a smattering of people willing to brave the temperatures.


Off at the left, Jerry and Kim discussing the ball feeder. Players in the distance.

I bought a $20 punch card from Mark Dettle. Scotts Valley charges $4 per session on Saturdays. It’s an honor system. One could always cheat, but people that don’t pay hit more balls into the net—or so I understand anyway. (Yes, I’m kidding!)

Jerry Louis and Kim (the Cabrillo P.E. instructor) were up to something with a Simon ball feeder machine. I didn’t witness it in action, but it’s interesting to see the device in person. I only even heard of it this week online.

I warmed up with Barbara. I asked her about her long paddle and she said she liked it. She offered and let me warm up with her paddle to get a feel for it. Engage Encore Blade. It felt slightly heavier than my Tempest Wave paddle. And the balance is noticeably different. When I attempted to return the paddle to her, she said, “Go ahead and play a game with it. I used this paddle [referring to my Tempest in her hand] for a long time.” And I did. Interesting. I’m not so convinced. It’d take some getting used to. Another woman showed me the Selkirk paddle that’s between the two others in terms of length and width. We did some comparison with one on top of the other to see the profile difference. The Selkirk flares out quickly from the handle and is a bit longer than the Tempest Wave. Things to stick in the hat for the future.

I played a game with a shorter woman named Trish. She got better as the morning went on. We played against Allan and Jeanne. I can’t remember the result of the game, so we likely lost. (I tend to flush those out of my brain, unless it’s particularly bad on my part!) I suggested to Trish that she develop her soft game. She’s one with tennis background that smacks everything.

I played a game with a woman against James and a very nice short woman, Mara. I don’t think I’d ever seen Mara before. I think Mara might be of Filipino or Polynesian descent like my neighbor Jill. (James was the tall young fellow in our “battle of the ages” with Stuart, Oleg, and me a month or so back.) He’s a good player who gets around the court quickly and can surprise you with what he’s able to return over the net.

It’s funny. I’m definitely past the beginner stage. I found myself perturbed (at least as perturbed as you can get in a silly game hitting a plastic ball around—I try to keep perspective!) on one shot in that game. My partner has a great forehand. But there was a problem. She wasn’t using drop shots. This is the same thing I used to do as a newbie—drive everything. James isn’t one of those weak net players where you can drive the ball at them and they crumble. James took that fast drive and powered it right into my chest! I was a sitting duck! You have to use drop shots with players like that at the net. Sure, you can mix it up and try it now and then—I got “scolded” by Jerry Louis on Thursday night for testing out a drive against Jack and Larry . . . it failed badly—but you can’t do it with all your shots. We lost the game.

Shortly after, I played a game with Trish again against my former partner and Mara. They lost 11-0, gracefully.  Trish took my advice to heart and started using a “control game”. She turned after one point, “Did you see that? I was dinking!” “And you did a good job too!” Bangers typically hate the soft game. If you can get such opponents at the net dinking, it’ll make it hard for them. I played really well. I didn’t make any errors until we were already up 8-0.

The last game was a tall guy that I had never seen—I think he showed up just before 11 a.m.—along with James against a man named Matt—also that I’d never seen—and me. Matt was a strong player. Kind of like Grita in that he favored hitting the ball hard versus using the soft game and drop shots. But, his drives were so fast he could generally prevent the opponents from taking full advantage of his drives. Matt apologized after a series of errant shots. “Don’t worry…”, I reassured him, “… it’s usually me making the mistakes!” No game against James is easy, but midway through the game it became apparent that Matt and I would win this one. One memorable point was James driving the ball at me already at the net. Block. Drive hard again. Block. Drive hard again. Block. While I can’t recall the finish of the exchange, we won that point. A voice in my head was saying, “That’s how you beat the bangers.” James is a hybrid. He’s got an ok soft game, but smacks it sometimes when a drop would be very effective.

After the game, Matt said he’d been only playing three times. Surprising. James’ partner asked, “Do you play tennis?” “No, I teach it.” Ah. Like Oleg. A natural transition to pickleball.

11:22 and it was a wrap. Walking out I told James that the frames on my sunglasses had snapped. 

I didn’t do anything to them, they were fine when I put them on, but they were broken when I took them off—very odd. James said that sunglasses are bad for you. “The sunglasses affect the mitochondria in your eyes. You should check out Dr. Jack Kruse. He writes about it.”

After I got to my car, I asked my iPhone the temperature outside. 96°.

Kruse

I tracked down a interview with the man James mentioned. There’s a transcript on this page and I did a search for “sunglasses”:
https://www.sott.net/article/304590-The-Health-Wellness-Show-A-conversation-with-Dr-Jack-Kruse
The thing that worries me is that he seems to imply that sunscreen is bad for you. Given that my wife has had surgery to remove skin cancer from too much sun exposure, it makes me a little leery. Reading online, it sounds like he advocates wearing red glasses around . . . something to do with balancing blue light exposure. Dunno.

Here’s an article by someone else also about avoiding sunglasses:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/09/16/sunglasses-myths.aspx

Broken Sunglasses

Later on in the day, I took the defective sunglasses back and exchanged them for another pair with supports that are more flexible and lenses that aren’t quite as dark. I’m not quite ready to jettison sunglasses, but I may try using none. Though aside from just being more comfortable not squinting in the sunlight, sunglasses do provide eye protection from pickleballs to the face—but that can be done just was well with either clear lenses or frames with no lenses.

Highland Games

I’m off to the highland games in Pleasanton tomorrow so no pickleball. But, Monday is a holiday, so Brommer should be hopping.

Number of days on a court: 65
Number of total hours: 185