soon become a must-have onboard activity,” he says.“ It is super easy to learn to play, great fun for all ages, and creates camaraderie among fellow shipmates.”
Tino Carrillo, the Volendam’ s Assistant Cruise Director who overseas all of the ship’ s onboard sports— table tennis, shuffleboard, basketball, and pickleball— says the latter has been a hit with the ship’ s mostly older clientele.
“ You typically play doubles, so it’ s less tiring than some other sports,” he says.“ It’ s more accessible for everybody. It’ s something fresh and new that more and more people are enjoying playing.” This particular sailing of the Volendam started in Hong Kong and ended in Shanghai, with stops along the way in the Philippines, Taiwan and Japan.
Many of the ship’ s nearly 1,400 passengers, representing 34 countries, had never heard of the sport. But there was a hardcore group of pickleball fanatics who would show up on sea days for open play or tournaments. And some passengers came out of curiosity to check out a game they knew only for its rather peculiar name.
“ My wife and I are in the early stages of planning our first cruise adventure,” says Thomas.“ We are not even considering ships without pickleball.”
Adapted from Dan Fellner’ s article“ Pickleball at Sea? Cruise Ships with Courts,” which first appeared in the April 8, 2018, edition of The Arizona Republic.
Dan Fellner of Chandler, Arizona, is a faculty associate at Arizona State University, a freelance travel writer and an avid pickleball player. Visit his website at global-travel-info. com.
ONE OF THE WORLD’ S LARGEST COUNTRIES IS HOT FOR PICKLEBALL
ndia has clearly embraced the sport of pickleball. The old and historic city of Nanded, located about 350 miles from Mumbai, is the newest hotbed for the game. With a literacy rate of nearly 88 percent, it’ s a highly progressive city. And this is clearly evident with Nanded’ s eagerness to accept and help grow a new sport like pickleball.
The All India Pickleball Association( AIPA) led by its General Secretary, Sunil Walavalkar, reported that this year’ s State Championship saw the largest player participation to date. The prolific growth of pickleball in parts of India like Maharashtra and across Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Rajasthan and some other states reflects a strong love for the game in all cross sections of society in the seventh largest country in the world. The AIPA, along with its most enthusiastic players, is instrumental in the promotion, development and enhanced enjoyment of pickleball in India. However, the game did not find its way into the country until 2006. Walavalkar, who had an instant affection for the game when he visited Canada in 1999 with a group of young tennis players, returned to his home country and introduced the sport over the course of the next seven years to as many people as would show some interest.
Two of those players were his daughter and niece, and as the two young pickleballers showed tremendous enthusiasm, he started giving demonstrations of the sport at various locales— clubs, schools, campuses and even on open streets. But Walavalkar knew that an official entity was needed to help propel pickleball to the next level. So he approached family and friends to form an organization under which the sport would grow. Some hesitated, but the AIPA eventually became a reality.
Pickleball has become a sport of consciousness in India and is now stretching its sphere of influence beyond the cities and into the rural communities, as well as at the grassroots level. A local tennis player who has now converted himself into a full-time pickleball player feels the sport has the potential to be played throughout the world and become a global sport like so many others.
As one diehard pickleballer in India recently said,“ The game transcends the barriers of age, gender and strata. It brings people to an equal level where they live happily and peacefully. So it’ s definitely a health insurance to all of us.”
India and beyond— the sport of pickleball continues to make an impact whose steady growth is inevitable. •
JULY / AUGUST 2018 | MAGAZINE 53