Thursday, April 24, 2025 (Court Day #794)

I left work fairly quickly and arrived at Skypark at 6:40 p.m. The parking lot was full, but there were quite a number of empty neighborhood parking spots usually inhabited by pickleball players. When I walked into the courts, surprisingly, there were three empty courts. That’s unusual. The Golden State Warriors were playing the Houston Rockets in the NBA playoffs, so maybe that affected attendance.

While the quantity of players was low, the quality was quite good. While my first game wasn’t the best, the rest of the games for the evening were strong.

First Game

The first game was stocky Chris and myself both sporting the Kitchen Blockers protective glasses that made us both look like Batman. We played against Jax and Matt Babb. This is my first game and I did not play my best, but I did still outplay my partner. We got clobbered in the game.

Jax

Jax and I played a game against Spencer and a man named Josh who lives in Aptos. Spencer said that he had been trying to get Josh to come for a while and wanted to play with him.

Jax and I found ourselves down by a significant margin. It was something like 3-7. But ultimately, we tied the game back up at 9-9, however, they did end up scoring the remaining two points and beat us. Spencer is applying some amazing topspin to his shots. It’s impressive. I would like to play more against him. He’s a good challenge. Josh is a good player, but is missing some key strategies, like closing up the middle of the court by positioning tighter with his partner.

I played a game with tall lefty Brenden Zimmer against Jax and Mauricio, that was a pretty close game. (I don’t recall who won.)

The last game was Jax myself against Mauricio and Spencer. We were ahead by two points when the lights clicked out.

Lawsuit

I found out today that USA Pickleball filed a countersuit against paddle maker Joola. Joola had filed a $200 million lawsuit last June against USA Pickleball over the delisting of Joola’s new paddle… after Joola made some changes to the paddle design from the samples that were submitted for certification testing. (Oops.) I hadn’t heard anything about the lawsuit in the last six months and I was recently wondering if it had been dropped or settled quietly.
https://www.timesnownews.com/sports/pickleball/usa-pickleball-hits-joola-with-200m-countersuit-over-gen3-paddle-approval-abuse-article-151489563/amp

Saturday, April 26, 2025 (No Play)

New fancy rolling nets were finally installed at Skypark this morning. Club president Mark Dettle emailed out some photos to the head of Scotts Valley Parks & Rec and the SCPC board… and since I’m the club VP, I got them.

Mark’s photo during club play this morning.

Pickleball Death

A 54-year-old man died in Vietnam while playing pickleball. While he appeared to be in reasonable physical shape, he had a heart condition that could lead to cardiac arrest with strenuous physical activity. Contrary to what some tennis players will tell you, pickleball can be strenuous, as was the case in this instance.
https://news.tuoitre.vn/vietnamese-man-dies-after-collapsing-during-pickleball-game-103250424171142659.htm

It’s good heed the advice of the doctor there quoted in the article:

“Dr. Pham Huu Da, head of the hospital’s cardiology department, advised the public to exercise in ways appropriate to their health and fitness levels.”

Number of days on a court: 794
Number of total hours: 3,132
Number of paid coaching hours: 129.5

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