NOTL Pickleball Club members get around

Australia, the Bahamas, the Caribbean Sea, Costa Rica, Florida, Las Vegas, New York, Pennsylvania, Quebec, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia. No matter where they go, it seems Niagara-on-the-Lake Pickleball Club members enjoy taking their love of the sport on vacation with them. 

The Local reached out to club members and found that for many of them, the game is a big factor in their vacation experience. 

Blair Cribb and his wife Leslee McCabe joined the NOTL Pickleball Club in the fall of 2022. Last February the couple decided to go on a Caribbean cruise. It was imperative to them that the cruise ship they chose offered pickleball courts. 

“We looked at a Celebrity cruise,” says Cribb, a member of the NOTL Golf Club who also curls regularly in St. Catharines, “but they don’t have any pickleball courts right now. So we chose Holland America’s Nieuw Statendam, one of their newer ships. They converted their basketball courts into two pickleball courts.”

Cribb told the Local that the ship had a pickleball pro on board to give introductory lessons to new players. There were tournaments during the week as well. The couple connected with two others of similar skill level and met up every morning before the courts got busy. 

Having only played the game indoors in NOTL, Cribb and McCabe found they had to make adjustments because of the wind. Atop a moving cruise liner, when playing on the upwind end of the court, a hard smash is an excellent strategy, but not so much when on the downwind end.

Holland America, meanwhile, has thrown itself into pickleball mania as the exclusive cruise line partner of the Professional Pickleball Association. All of their cruise ships now feature pickleball courts with top-deck views. Weather permitting, the equipment and courts are available for a match anytime. Complimentary beginner’s lessons are offered, and branded starter equipment kits are now available at their gift shops. 

In the winter, NOTL club member Larry Mantle plays at a multi-sport country club in central Florida. He has learned to make his own adjustments to how the wind affects ball flight, despite outdoor balls typically being heavier, harder, and having more holes.

Everyone at the Florida club is friendly and welcoming, he says, just like in NOTL. And the managing director’s son, five-time US Open champion Kyle Yates, occasionally visits the club there for exhibition play. 

In November, Linda Woods and her husband Marcello Milani played the game for the first time in Naples, Florida, where the East Naples Community Centre boasts 64 courts. She says easy friendships were made there, but unlike the NOTL club, Naples has no online booking system and often their telephone registration system created confusion.

Lucy and Jeff Brookhouser also first learned the game on vacation in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The city’s parks and recreation department offers indoor facilities at two gyms, each with eight courts, and an outdoor location with four courts. The city is currently fundraising to construct eight more outdoor courts in the near future.

The Brookhousers are former tennis players who decided to give the game a try and loved it immediately. They joined the NOTL club when they returned home about a year ago this April. 

“It has been fantastic, it’s a great workout and a lot of fun,” Jeff says. “The people are great, and that’s why the sport has been growing so much.”

They’re not the only Canadians who play there, either. Both Lucy and Jeff say they regularly meet other pickleball players from across Ontario while they are on the North Myrtle Beach courts.

Another NOTL club member, Maggie Babcock, spends winters in Australia where, for the past three years, pickleball has been part of her routine. Christine Bozek has played across Ontario as well as in Quebec City, Las Vegas, Utah and Indianapolis. And Deb Young first learned the game in the Cayman Islands.

Scott Lapointe and his wife, Brenda Haskins Lapointe, have taken their boat up and down the east coast the past three winters, making strategic pickleball stops along the way. 

“I play at a higher level,” says Scott, who is ranked as a 4.5-level player. “So I generally like the places with the most courts, because they allow more levelled play. Places like Hilton Head, Daytona and Naples are some of our favourites.”

In Hilton Head, they often play at a club called Palmetto Dunes. Scott estimates that the island’s reputation as a tourist destination means that as many as 90 per cent of the people they have met there have been travellers on vacation. 

Though she also lists Hilton Head as a favourite, Brenda, a 3.5-rated player, adds that she also loves a tiny island in Virginia called Chincoteague. 

“They only have a few courts there,” she says, “but they really have it figured out. I think the population there is only about 250, but 100 of them play pickleball. It’s lots of fun to play there.”

With NOTL also a tourist destination, club president John Hindle says visitors to town often reach out to inquire about booking a court at the NOTL Community Centre or Central Community Centre

“I get calls almost weekly,” Hindle says. “But we’re caught between a rock and a hard place because of our insurance, and because most of our sessions are fully booked. It was easier when we had the outdoor courts (at the Virgil Sports Park). The Community Centre has been helpful, though, as they will take a single-court booking for $12.”

The staff at the Community Centre stepped up back in early September when two-time Grammy Award winner Kenny Loggins was in Niagara to play a concert at the OLG Stage in Niagara Falls. 

Kim Miller Cantin, who has a home in NOTL but lives most of the year in Santa Barbara, has known Loggins for a number of years. She reached out and invited him and his girlfriend Lisa to come to town a day earlier. 

Miller Cantin planned a carriage ride and a stroll down Queen Street for the singer/songwriter, and then asked him what he wanted to do while he was here. 

“He and Lisa really like pickleball, they play a lot,” she explains. “He travels with his Joola paddles. I googled the pickleball club, and (club director) Joy Sanguedolce called me back. She contacted the NOTL Community Centre and they set it up. They needed partners for doubles, so Joy contacted fellow club member Ryan D’Souza and it was game on. 

“We created a private VIP experience for him,” says Sanguedolce. “It was a lot of fun. And both of them were really good players.”

Hindle can’t recall other celebrities playing pickleball in NOTL.

“No names that I can drop,” he laughs, “but I consider all of our club’s members celebrities.”