Local softball player represents Canada at Caribbean tournament

Amber Thorpe’s recent trip to Curaçao was an unforgettable experience. 

Thorpe returned from the Caribbean island last week with a silver medal after playing for Team Canada at an Over-35 women’s softball tournament. The team went 3-and-3 and qualified for the final, where they would face Team Nos Goso from the host country. 

“We did pretty good,” Thorpe tells The Local. “They play a different type of game there, they pitch differently. It took some time, but we adjusted to it. We lost our third game (8-4 to Team Treasure) but crawled back to beat them in the semi-final 10-0.”

The Canadians struck first in the final against Nos Goso, whom Team Canada had beaten 6-4 in their final round-robin game. But Nos Goso tied it up and forced the game into extra innings. Team Canada settled for second place when they could not respond after Nos Goso pushed two runners across home plate in the extra frame to win 5-3.

“It was such a great tournament,” says the Niagara Falls native, clearly grateful for the chance to have had the opportunity to play in Curaçao. “I enjoyed the way it was all set up. They held a great opening ceremony. We had one day off, so we hit four beaches and saw as much as possible in that one day.”

Thorpe, a member of the Niagara-on-the-Lake Pickleball Club, is a tattoo artist, an entrepreneur, and a restless world traveller. Though she lives in Niagara, she operates two tattoo studios in Nova Scotia - one in Halifax and another in Bedford.  

“I took business administration in school,” says the graduate of Merritton High School. “But I was always an artist, always drawing, doing sculptures. I started hanging out in tattoo shops when I was 16 or 17 years old, but I never thought there could be a career in that.”

All that hanging out resulted in a job offer to work the counter at Way Cool Tattoos in Niagara Falls. That eventually led to an apprenticeship with the studio’s owner. 

Once she completed her apprenticeship, Thorpe moved to Calgary, Alberta for a position in a studio there. She eventually became a self-employed tattoo artist-for-hire, freeing her up for her frequent travels, such as her motorcycle trip across Thailand.

Then a vacation to Halifax made Thorpe fall in love with the East Coast. She lived there for 18 years while building her business. 

Thorpe, one of six kids in her family, moved back home last May to be close to her Mom, Juanita, who has had some recent health issues, her siblings and her 18 nieces and nephews. She still owns her home out east and rents it out as an Air B ‘n’ B between her twice-yearly trips back to check on her tattoo studios.

Since returning to the region, she and her partner have started another business, Niagara Boat Tours, operating out of the St. Catharines marina.

“She already had a boat, so we started talking about it,” explains Thorpe, who grew up sailing the Niagara River with her father. “I always saw myself giving tours on the water somewhere down south. She has the same goals as I do. So we thought we would try this here for a while and see if it works.”

Niagara Boat Experiences offers luxurious cruises for up to six on Lake Ontario and the Niagara River aboard a Monterey Sport Cruiser. Packages include sunset cruises and stops at beaches, where they serve locally sourced fare and wines from Trius and Wayne Gretzky wineries. They opened the business last year but 2024 will be their first full season of operation.

She also can be booked as a tattoo artist here in the region.

Alongside her business ventures and countless travels and adventures, Thorpe continued to play slo-pitch softball, a sport she has been involved with since her teens. 

She played on recreational teams for several years but returned to competitive softball in Halifax in 2009. In 2023 she played on a Hamilton Ravens team that won the provincial women’s C Division championship. 

The team that went to Curaçao was an amalgam of women from many different teams. There were tryouts, of course, and once the team was chosen they gathered on Easter weekend for their first practice together before last week’s trip to the Caribbean. 

Thorpe explains the style of play at the tournament as a modified version of softball.

“They use a whip pitch,” explains Thorpe. “It’s in between fastpitch and slo-pitch. It’s not a full windmill like in fastball, you’re only allowed to come up to your shoulder and pitch fast from there. It can get as fast as 30 miles per hour. It’s the original way women played fastball actually.”

The multi-tattooed 47-year-old brings the same intensity and competitive drive to the pickleball courts in NOTL as the softball diamond.

“When we were locked up during COVID (in Halifax) I took up pickleball because the courts were still open,” says Thorpe, who used to play volleyball in the winter. “I started to play in tournaments there. I joined the club here last fall. The level of play here is great.”

She adds “It’s a really unique sport, and I love it, and it keeps me going for my softball. The whiffle ball moving quickly from kitchen to kitchen helps make me a better shortstop on the diamond. I see a lot of similarities between the two sports.”

When not on the water leading tours this summer Thorpe will be found playing shortstop and second base for the Hamilton Valkyrie, competing in the Women’s slo-pitch B Division.

“We’re competing at the second highest level in the country,” Thorpe says. “This team is in a bit of a rebuilding stage, but I know it’s going to be a good summer.”