I am addressing you as someone who enjoys playing both tennis and pickleball equally well. Thus, I can see the current debate from both sides of the net, so to speak.
Each sport deserves its own court and ideally, not located in close proximity to one another. Pickleball, unlike tennis, is indeed a noisy sport and for two reasons. First, the loud incessant clicking of the ball as it hits the paddle and second, the rather boisterous chatter among the participants of this more social game.
Painting pickleball lines on existing tennis courts is really not desirable. Not only does it create a rather confusing array of lines on the courts, the idea of having the nets moved up and down for each sport on a regular basis is simply not workable. Each municipality must find a way to keep these two sports on their own independent courts by constructing new courts for pickleball players a reasonable distance apart from any existing tennis courts, and most important, away from people’s homes and other socially quiet locations.
Many former aging tennis players are now resorting to pickleball because of its less impactful nature upon joints and feet, and also because of its more social atmosphere. One day I will be one of them. I can guarantee that once COVID is over, any pickleball courts built by either municipality will not sit there unused.
And for what it is worth, I was one of those who wrote a letter to the North Saanich council asking them not to paint pickleball lines on the Wain Road tennis courts. As you are likely aware, this helped to result in the creation of four new pickleball courts in the same field but in opposite ends away from one another.
I can tell you that on any given day in the warmer months, these four courts are totally filled and there is often a wait in order to play. Regrettably, these courts were located a little too close for comfort for the neighbouring residents, but hopefully, some sort of effective noise-reducing solutions can be found sooner than later.
David M. Bird
North Saanich
