Friday, August 5, 2022 (Court Day #529)
This morning the back of my hand was aching a little bit as it has been last night. However, I didn’t affect my play at all today and I didn’t even notice it.
This morning I need to make a stop at work and take care of some unfinished business which delayed me a fair amount. I arrived at Brommer Park about 9:50 a.m. and took the very last parking place in the parking lot. It would turn out to be the lighter attendance day, although everything is relative. At the peak there was about 15 people waiting to get onto one of the 8 courts. 8×4=32. 32+15=47. 47 is still a lot of people, but I’ve seen nearly 60 people at Brommer on holidays.
Wind
Things got kind of windy towards later morning and wreaking havoc on some of my shots. Serves going long, opponents’ shots changing mid-flight.
Tournament?
I asked Jason if he plays tournaments, and he said he never has, but he was interested and I got his number.
Today was a mixed bag of play, although overall I left the courts at 12:20 p.m. feeling pretty good.
Where Have the Elites Gone?
Some of the really elite players have not been appearing in recent months. Dan Bliss blames this on ”skill creep” where intermediate players are signing up as advanced and the advanced players getting bored/disappointed with the competition as a result . . . so they stop showing up. I’m not an advanced player in Dan’s eyes, but I understand the problem. I’m pushing the skill level found at Derby Park. There are enough strong players to get some good games, but not enough to make sure weaker players don’t end up mixed in. And often there will only be one player who is better than me. And sometimes, it’ll just be me at the top of the pyramid.
Saturday, August 6, 2022 (No Play)
Greg, A long-time friend of my wife, messaged me from San Diego:
‘Dude, literal headline on the new down here this morning…”S.D. TENNIS COMMUNITY FENDS OFF PICKLEBALL TAKE OVER ATTEMPT.” What the heck?’
Here’s the newscast:
Pickleball players stage takeover of Peninsula Tennis Club to make a point
After looking into it, a local group of pickleball players staged a protest at an Ocean Beach tennis facility, refusing to get off the courts there. The city permit for the facility had expired and the PB players are trying to get the city to convert the courts to pickleball courts. The story goes that San Diego has not a single permanent pickleball court for its population of 1.4 million people. By comparison, locally, Scotts Valley, with a population of 12,000 has four permanent courts. Using the same ratio, SD should have 400 pickleball courts!
On the flip side, consider the City of Santa Cruz has no permanent courts, though Derby Park has six temporary courts and two very sturdy rolling pickleball nets. The City of Santa Cruz has work to do too.
Number of days on a court: 529
Number of total hours: 2,423.5
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