Sunday, July 28, 2024 (Court Day #694)
Today was the day of the locally-famous annual Wharf to Wharf race. I dropped off my son and wife along with two friends near the race course shortly after 8 a.m. and then I drove to Derby Park for what would be my last time opening as the regular Sunday Site Coordinator.
I noticed that there was a new paddle holder added on the fence to provide organization to waiting players. That’s new since I was last at Derby two weeks ago. (Barb covered for me last weekend when I had a lot of relatives in town.)

Vacant Courts
I arrived to Derby at about 8:15 a.m. then messed around on empty courts trying some different serving techniques. Lester and his wife showed up and started dinking on a separate court. Not long after, a regular asked me to warm up with him and I told him that I could until Brian showed up. I would need to show Brian the ropes since it would be his first day is the new site coordinator.
Pass Off
The warm-up lasted about five minutes then I met with Brian, handed off my bin key, the battery charger and battery, and gave him some ins and outs about running Derby Park. Next time, when blowing off the courts, he’ll know to start with the worst areas first since the battery can run out!
Games
I got into a couple of games. I was not playing my best. I was playing against Brandon and woman in my second game with Adrian as my partner. Adrian was far from warmed up. Adrian missed at least three or four serves and was also hitting balls into the net or out. I was not that I was perfect myself, but our opponents liked to hit to Adrian in that game. Brandon got erne off of me. Good job, Brandon! Brandon has his long arms that come with a 6-foot guy. It makes a little bit easier to get those erne shots. He was being very aggressive on the court poaching and generally creeping past the middle.
I checked the time after that second game and it was 9:45 a.m. I figured it was time to head to Brommer Park.
I left Derby in the experienced hands of Val and Ted to guide Brian. There was a decent chance that Rick might appear later to also provide support to the new guy.
New Chapter Opens
As I was on the freeway at 9:57 a.m., it was overcast and 61°F. I pulled into Bromer Park and there were conveniently a handful of parking spots available.
As I walked up to the courts, there were two temporary courts either empty or had only two people on them.
I played a completely unmemorable game. Then Drew came in and asked if I’d warm up with him. Then we played with out-of town visitors Bill and his wife. They were unknowns, so we split them. Yeah, they are 3.0 players. I made an effort to hit more to Drew.
I play just ok initially, but as the morning wore on, my play got better and better.
Over the course of the two hours that I was there, I got into a bunch of good games. Marco, Dan Dewey, Ofer, Jason… it was great.
I played with Jason against Kim and Dieter. Initially, that game was close then we pulled away to win.
Yes, I could see getting used to playing on Sundays at Brommer.
I do need to be more patient when playing with better players. Speedups sometimes work but often they don’t unless they are precisely placed.
There is a guy named William there who—I was told by Ofer—is a very, very good player. He was in a game with Sean and Oscar and Kiko. Evan was there too.
Stuart Howell (part of the local OG) had moved out of state but was back visiting. I played a game against him and a game with him. These days, there’s no question that I’m the stronger player, Stuart isn’t a spring chicken anymore and has had his share of injuries over the years. Though in the second game with Stuart as my partner, I messed up the first few rallies. When I mentioned my failures, Marco said, “You were on fire in that last game.”
I left the courts at 11:59 a.m., I had to get home, eat, change and get to Skypark to teach my two afternoon pickleball classes.
As I left, Jason said, “We’ll let you come back on Sundays!”
Monday, July 29, 2024 (No Play)
Paddle Testing
More USA Pickleball paddle testing, this time testing the “grip” of a paddle face:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-BiEUSteMb
Smack Down
A local player, Terri L., snapped a shot of this sign placed by the County of Santa Cruz at Highland Park:
“PLEASE DO NOT MARK OR STRIPE TENNIS COURTS FOR PICKLE BALL.”
…with additional instructions to contact the county with questions.
I know Jackie, on the SCPC board, has been investigating making pickleball available at those courts at Highland Park. Apparently, the courts there are not in the best shape and not used frequently for tennis.

Jury Duty
I got called in for jury duty. I showed up at 12:30 p.m. and sat in the assembly room with about 70 people. We were shown a couple of videos then were given some verbal explanations about logistics.

They then moved us through security and into a courtroom (“Department 2”) for jury selection. I started in the gallery, but my name along with some others were called to replace individuals who were excused. One woman—claiming to be a professor—who was being really annoying and trying to weasel out of her civic duty, was told she could go. There were some eye-rolls going on after she left!
I was sitting in jury box during the selection process and we had to state where we lived, what our occupation was, as well as if we had a significant other and what that person did for a living.
I said I was a retail store manager and my wife is a first grade teacher.
The amiable judge—who is filling in from Tulare county due to a shortage—said, “Let’s give that business a plug, where do you work?”
I said, “Lenz Arts.”
At that, spontaneous applause burst from the benches full of dozens of prospective jurors. Wow! It was amazing and humbling!
During a break later in the process, a woman came up, smiled, and shared, “That was the best moment of this experience!”
How could I not agree? It’s great to know our family business is appreciated!
In the end, I was selected to be one of the 12 jurors, even after sharing my friendship with various police officials and D.A.’s office employees, and that I went through the local Citizens’ Police Academy. They had time for opening arguments then released us until 10:30 the next morning.
Blast from the Past
I did a search for that Santa Cruz PD program—apostrophe, no apostrophe?—and found a photo promoting the Citizens’ Police Academy (CPA) in 2017. The photo is of my group in 2016, just a few months before I started playing pickleball:

Number of days on a court: 694
Number of total hours: 2,907.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 58.5
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