Tuesday, December 10, 2024 (Court Day #749)

At 11:27 a.m. this morning, Noah Downing, Park Planner for the City of Santa Cruz’s Parks & Recreation Department, sent out an email—following up on the community meeting last week—which in part read:

“During the meeting, it was evident that many community members wish to retain the bike park. In the new year, P&R staff will work with bike park users to enhance the bike park’s design and usability.

Additionally, it is clear that the demand for pickleball continues to grow, and a dedicated facility is needed within the City. Our staff will continue to work on identifying a suitable location.”

That formally closes the book on possible courts at Depot Park. If the bike riders don’t fully use the park, that book may open again someday.

Pickleheads

Continuing on the viral spread of the story of the local saga of Depot Park, it made another appearance in another national pickleball email newsletter.

I suspect that these pickleball email blast people subscribe to each other so they don’t miss anything of interest, but it can also make the newsletters redundant if you subscribe to more than one. Pickleheads also linked to the SFGate article.

Skypark

It was 50°F when I arrived at the courts at 6:50 p.m. Tonight would be my third day in a row playing, so between that, being tired, and the cold, I was quite tempted to just go home after work. But the sirens call of pickleball was too strong to resist!

The signup board was out and it was busy. To stay warm, I jumped up and down in place a little bit and moved around. Matt Babb concurred on my evaluation of the temperature!

Games

I had a completely unmemorable first game with weaker players.

In my second game, Alex and I played against Daniel with the glasses, and the newer guy his name also may be Dan, who’s been playing for about a year, if I recall correctly. Both tall guys. Those two were driving shots hard. They won the game 11–5 or something like that. Alex and I are both happier in a soft game. Between not being warmed up, the cold, this being my third day in a row, and being under your light, it made for a bad combination in that game. It was frustrating and inexcusable. Alex and I simply needed to let the balls go and fly out. Easier said than done for me.

Lucky Tap

In another game, Alex and I were down 1-8. Mo was across the dividing net behind us. I got her attention… “Mo! I need a paddle tap for good luck!” Mo laughed and obliged. Amusingly, we immediately went on a run of 10 unanswered points and came back to win 11-8! I need to tap paddles with Mo more often!

Fan Club

When I walked off the court after finishing the game playing against Brendan, Tim Feickert asked me if I had heard him. I was puzzled so he explained. During my game there was a pop-up by my partner which Brennan attacked and slammed the ball down at me. I successfully returned the ball back over the net, but it wasn’t a perfect reset so he slammed the ball again. This happened four times in a row until Brendan gave up and decided to send the ball away from me at a different angle. My team did go on to win that rally a few shots later. Tim had observed the rally and was cheering me on. I’m getting better and better about handling slams coming down at my legs.

Last Game

In my last game before the lights clicked off, Chris—whom I don’t know well—and I came back after being down 4-8 to win 13-11 vs. Asian Aaron and Alex. 

Breaking Balls

Pickleballs were breaking in the cold tonight. I had one split completely wide-open between two holes. I was in midst of three different games when each ball broke. Someone was saying recently, I think it was Dave Ryan, that the new Selkirk S1 balls hold up better in the cold. While we were waiting for our opponent to retrieve a new ball, I shared that with Chris tonight and he said that they get soft though. I asked, “In the cold?” He said, no, during typical play.

More BMX

At 7:47 p.m., while I was playing tonight, Sean McElhaney texted send a screenshot to club president Mark Dettle and me.

Nearly a week after the community meeting hosted by Parks & Rec, KSBW, a local TV station, is still beating the bushes for a story. As Ms. Nielsen says, “Move on!”

Wednesday, December 11, 2024 (No Play)

I was searching in my email and found a message from John Pacholski from February this year. He shared with the SCPC board some early Depot Park sketches from March 2021 that he had done with Dan Bliss. The pickleball club had been talking the city for, literally, years about putting in courts at Depot Park. Alas.

Thursday, December 12, 2024 (No Play)

It’s a rainy day today. No pickleball. It is practically winter at this point. Less than two weeks to Christmas.

Number of days on a court: 749
Number of total hours: 3,036.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 99.5

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