SEQUIM — It’s 9 o’clock on a Saturday. The regular crowd shuffles in.
But the old man next to me isn’t sitting. He’s standing.
And he’s drinking water, not tonic and gin.
Far from any piano bar, this is a patch of pavement at Third and Fir streets on a 40-degree day when Sequim’s iconic Blue Hole is zipping itself closed and clouds cling to the Olympics.
Welcome to pickleball, a relative tyro among participant sports that’s especially beloved by folks you might call elders, seniors or seasoned citizens.
Call them diehards.
They won’t mind, especially if you slur over the “die” part and accent the “hard.”
How old are they?
Don’t ask. They’re so full of vim and vigor that they might depress younger folks.
What is pickleball?
What’s pickleball?
Well, toss together tennis and badminton and ping-pong.
Actually, imagine yourself standing on a 20-foot-wide, 44-foot-long ping-pong table, wielding an oversize paddle and batting at a wiffle-like plastic ball that travels at about a third the speed of its fuzzy tennis counterpart.
Richard Cary has started today’s session by squeegeeing the courts with a sort of giant spongy roller that eliminates the worst of the puddles.
Then it’s time for a few warm-up swats before the doubles matches begin in earnest.
“Here, we’re what they call slammers,” Cary confides as he balances on the balls of his feet and awaits his opponent’s serve.
“Some places, they play a little dink game, barely hit it over the net.”
For all their energy, these Sequim Picklers, as they call themselves, still are playing in slo-mo compared to full-ferocity tennis. That’s part of pickleball’s appeal.
Player Beverly Hoffman said she’s seen overweight women and people with scoliosis play pickleball with zest.
One woman today is playing with a prosthetic right hand, though she grasps her paddle with her left.
Still, “there’s some kids over there,” said player Joann Yerkes, gesturing at some neighboring homes.
“They come over here and play with us, so anyone can play.”
Pickleball on short list
Pickleball’s main appeal, however, is to older people, some of whom shop the nation for pickleball court availability before they choose a community where they’ll retire.
Indeed, one of this Saturday’s players, Maryhelen Benapfl, chose Sequim over other Northwest towns when she and her husband moved here from Illinois in October after researching its pickleball friendliness.
Proximity to their children was their first concern; cost of living, second; pickleball, third.
With its five outdoor courts, plus four indoor courts at the nearby Boys & Girls Club, Sequim ranks second on the North Olympic Peninsula to Port Angeles, which boasts six indoor and six outdoor public courts.
The Sequim Picklers hope to one-up Port Angeles — and then some.
Several visited a Sequim City Council meeting in December to deplore the absence of new pickleball courts in the city’s parks and recreation draft master plan for at least another four to five years.
Public hearing
They’ll probably show up for a public hearing on the plan Feb. 23 and lament the mere $30,000 proposed for pickleball courts at Carrie Blake Park — not until 2019-20 at that — versus about $235,000 for new children’s playground equipment by 2020 and a $20,000 reconfiguration of existing playground equipment at Carrie Blake by 2017.
(In fairness to park planners, the proposed budget also has $45,000 for bocce ball and shuffleboard courts while allocating no money for a skate park, a BMX course or a Boy Scout/Girl Scout meeting place.)
The Sequim Picklers number 52 members and about 80 players on their email list, most of them in the 58-to-64-or-older demographic slices of the local population.
That’s not to say pickleball is only for oldsters.
Player Beverly Hoffman’s 9- and 11-year-old grandchildren play with her when she visits them in Oregon.
‘Turn America healthy’
Its appeal across age groups, she says, “has the possibility to turn America healthy.”
Healthy is one word for these players, who arrive wearing fleece vests, sweat pants, scarves, hats and gloves but who soon shuck their outer garments as play warms up.
On a summer day, they say, all five courts would be in use, and a score or more players would be waiting their turn.
The play this morning is competitive but good-natured, with participants congratulating their opponents on good shots, deft saves and hard volleys.
“It’s a social event,” Benapfl said. “It keeps you active.”
Activity is important on this gray morning that’s still far from too cold for zealous players.
Cary says they’ve played in weather so chilly that they’ve cracked the hollow plastic balls.
He says he took up the game after a Port Angeles friend invited him to play.
“He handed me a paddle,” Cary recalls. “Then he said, ‘By the way, that’s 60 bucks.’”
According to pickleball websites — including the USA Pickleball Association’s — paddles cost from $10 each for wooden models to around $100 for aluminum-graphite composites.
Balls range from around $1.33 to $1.50 each.
Cost to play, however, is minimal in Sequim, with only a few dollars charged to defray the Picklers’ out-of-pocket expenses and buy supplies.
“New players are welcome,” Picklers coordinator Jan Tatom told the Peninsula Daily News.
“If you want to learn the game, read the rules online at USAPA.org, then drop by the courts. We will loan you a paddle and get you started.”
________
Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com
