Double Duty, Skypark Progress, Pickleball Costumes

Sunday, September 14, 2025 (Court Day #852)

Yesterday, my brother John asked to connect up and play today with him and a woman he is seeing named Melissa, who John has been introducing to pickleball. But I told John I wasn’t willing to give up my time playing this morning at Brommer Park, however, I told him that I could probably meet with him this afternoon.

I would’ve been teaching today, however, the Skypark court resurfacing is still not completed and so my classes were bumped yet another week—after already being bumped a month. It has been a complete hassle.

Brommer

It was amazingly sunny and 66°F when I arrived at Brommer Park at 9:55 a.m.

My first game was with Jordan Rein against little Linda in a somewhat regular guy named Paul. I was expecting us to win which we did, 11-1.

Dave Ryan and I teamed up against Shawnté and Jordan. David and I lost a lopsided game. That was my third game of the day. Our loss was a combination of my errors plus Dave trying way too hard and making a fair number of uncharacteristic errors himself. Nonetheless, the game was back-and-forth, despite the final score. We lost something like 1–11 or 3–11.

Dave wanted a rematch and this game was a bit closer. This one we lost 5–11 or 6–11. This was a better game.

One shot that I specifically remember from that second game was a pop-up in the middle. We were doing a good job communicating about shots in the middle and Dave let me have this one. Unfortunately, I let down my partner by hitting that shot about 2 feet long of the baseline. I turned to my right and said, “Sorry, Dave.” Dave was supportive, but I’m sure he was as disappointed—or even annoyed—as I was embarrassed.

Tony

Mexican Tony teamed up with the newbie named Eric. I teamed up with Eric’s friend Jason, who was also a newbie. It was a throwaway game. Then Tony and I switched partners, again splitting the two weak players. Honestly, I have no recollection if I won those games and nor does it matter.

Tony and I then went on to play a game against René and Alex, the bird researcher. The first game was somewhat close with Tony and I winning. I was playing really well.

We played a rematch and this time I think René was kind of done. This game was a lopsided game in our favor. I noticed that René and Alex were trying to hit the ball more to me, and it wasn’t because they thought I was the weaker player, René wanted the best challenge.

More Games

There was a guy named Darrell at Brommer today whom I’d never seen before. He and I played a game against Alex and René. We lost.

In between games, Darrell was asking me strategic advice on how to improve. I told him that he might want to try something other than drives all the time but he explained that he has really strong drives from the baseline.

Juls and I played a game against lefty Greg and Darrell.

Ironically, in that last game, when I was paired with Jules, Darrell drove four shots in a row at me with the fourth one getting returned right to his feet, ending the rally. René, who was watching said to me from the wall, “Why would he keep driving? You were returning all of them right back at him.” I gave a smile and a shrug.

As I was leaving for the day, Jules was asking how I get so much power on my volleys at the net with so little backswing. It has to be wrist.

I left at 12:45 p.m. after 2 1/2 hours of play.

Derby Park

I arrived at Derby Park at 2:20 p.m. to meet John and his friend Melissa. John told me that when they arrived at 1:50 p.m. there was only one game going on. By 2:30 p.m., all the courts were full.

We did a little bit of hitting back-and-forth then I suggested we do some “2 on 1.” I would cover the entirety of one side of the net and they would cover the other. I told him that if they started beating me and I would only cover half of my side of the court. As it turned out, there was no worry. The first game ended with me winning 11–2 or 11–3. We switch sides and played again and this time I won 11–0.

For about 30 minutes, they wanted to work on serve returns, so I was just serving to them over and over and over with no rallies. Then we played again with me covering my side of the court by myself and again I beat them 11–0.

We returned to them working on their returns until John decided it was time to go at 4:15 p.m.

Tuesday, September 16, 2025 (No Play)

Here’s more about that San Diego street closure to accommodate a community pickleball event that I previously mentioned:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNtuNab5Gad/

It’d be fun to do something like this in Santa Cruz. It’d also be fun to visit my mother-in-law in San Diego the next time they do a pickleball event like this and participate myself.

Wednesday, September 17, 2025 (No Play)

Pickleball is returning to the National Mall in Washington D.C.:
https://nationalmall.org/content/nmop2025

Skypark

Work continues at the Skypark courts in Scotts Valley. They originally said that resurfacing would be complete in 4 weeks, but we already passed that. My August pickleball classes were delayed and had been scheduled to start last weekend, Sunday, September 14. But the courts weren’t ready and I was forced to postpone my classes yet one additional week. It was pretty stressful for me trying to coordinate the delay with students and find new students to register and replace students dropping out due to scheduling conflicts.

Thursday, September 18, 2025 (No Play)

This afternoon, to my great relief, Allison from the City of Scotts Valley Parks & Recreation Department contacted me and let me know that the court resurfacing—while it wouldn’t be completely finished—would be finished enough for me to hold my classes on Sunday afternoon.

Allison also gave me the numeric code to the gate lock so I would be able to let my students in. She’s stressed that I needed to make sure to re-lock the gate so that the general public could not get onto the courts. Easy enough!

Friday, September 19, 2025 (No Play)

The courts in Scotts Valley are nearing the finish line.