June 30, 2025 • 28 mins
In this episode of Joyously Free!, Joanie Lindenmeyer talks with Paul Wittenmeyer and Walt Zandt, two passionate pickleball players from Brookings. They share how the sport has brought joy, fitness, and a strong sense of community to their lives. The conversation highlights the inclusivity of pickleball and its benefits for people of all ages. Walt […]
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Episode Transcript
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(00:11):
Hi. Welcome KCAW listeners to one hundred point
seven and kciw.org,
Brookings, Oregon.
Yes. It's time for my radio show joyously
free with none better than myself, Joni Lindenmaier.
Yes. I've been a best selling author, and
I am a resident of Harbor for thirty
four years. I'm glad you're here with us
today, and you know the routine of how
(00:32):
I start every single one of my shows.
And I say, it's a brand new day,
and you respond, never been lived before. Let's
even see if our guests can do that
today. Here we go. Are we ready? It's
a brand new day. Never. It's never been
lit before. Oh, they're on it. See? Look
at that. Smart. Smart. Smart. So this radio
show, also known as my gay d o
show for my LGBTQ
(00:52):
people, talks about LGBTQ stories and tips along
with religion, church, faith, and spirituality. But simply
put, it's joyously free. What makes you joyously
free? That's what we talk about. And, of
course, I hope that that comes with freedom,
encourage, confidence, and collaboration.
It all came from the second book that
I wrote with Elizabeth Ann Atkins, Joyously Free.
(01:13):
You know, part of being joyously free is
is making sure that we don't have hate
speech, no hate behaviors, and no bullying. We
wanna make sure that we're we're at peace,
we're at joy, we're at the things that
that make us happy. Together, we're gonna seek
understanding, think out of the box, and just
respect and appreciate nature, our friends, family, good
(01:34):
times, all here on the gorgeous Southern Oregon
and Northern California coast. We can always be
better, not bitter, for we are spiritual beings
as well as human beings. Let's have a
happy day right here, KCIW listeners.
So before we jump into our routine of
our guest speakers, I wanna let you know
that I picked a slogan for today from
(01:54):
my lip my reflection.
Today is a good day for a good
day. How's that for a reflection? Today is
a good day for a good day.
And I think when I read that and
saw that this morning,
every single day, we have a choice to
make it the best, the best for you,
the best for me. Yes. There's hard stuff
(02:14):
that happens in life, and there's joyful stuff
that happens in life, but it's how we
approach and and go for every single day
to the best of our abilities.
And one way I do that is through
exercise.
One of the exercises I do is not
just a physical exercise, but a spiritual exercise.
So I'm gonna ask you to breathe with
(02:36):
me as we do a little prayer.
Breathe in
with joy
and out with doubt.
Breathe in with happiness
and out with gloom.
Let's bring in breathe in with a peacefulness
(02:57):
from the bottom of our toe to the
top of our head,
thanking whatever name you put on God or
a creator
for our body, for our will,
for our mind.
Be with us, oh god, as we celebrate
today,
making it a beautiful day for myself, yourself,
(03:19):
and all the people around us.
We do this in your name.
Amen.
So related to all that, we have some
speakers here, and they're not just speakers. They're
in their shorts. They're in their sweatshirts,
and they have big smiles on their faces.
I don't think they're sweating too much right
now, but I call this my pickleball church,
my pickleball people. And they are our guests,
(03:42):
Paul Wittenmeyer
and Walter Zant. Woo hoo. Thank you for
being here, guys.
Oh my gosh. I feel like we should
have a paddle and hitting a ball across
the table here, but we don't quite have
that. They are pickleball enthusiasts of Brookings, Oregon,
and we're gonna get to learn a little
bit about pickleball, a little bit about them,
and what's going on in the world. So
first off, Paul, how are you doing today?
(04:03):
I'm doing good, Joni. Thank you. Good. Good.
Good. And Walter? Yep. Very good, Joni. Thank
you. Good. Good. And I thank you for
being here. So way I know you is
from Jill and Mary,
Connette, Allison, Tom, and we can go through
a list of I don't know. How many
people are playing pickleball? How many people are
playing pickleball in Brookings, Oregon right now?
What do you think, Walt?
(04:24):
Probably,
core of at least 35,
you know, and then a lot of visitors
that come through that play. Exactly. So, a
lot. A lot. A lot. And I know
you also play down in Crescent City, California.
Yes. And do they have thirty, forty people
as well? We actually have a 145
members in our pickleball club in Crescent City.
Oh my god. 145.
Yeah. Oh my and I know a few
(04:45):
of them. I know of a few of
them. Doug, Debbie Kravitz. Those are just a
few of them. But Mhmm. Oh my gosh.
Oh my gosh. So let's get into tell
me a little bit about you and how
you got involved in pickleball. Who would like
to go first today?
I can.
It was 2,017.
I remember it, like yesterday.
A friend of mine that has
(05:06):
passed away recently,
John McClain, called me up and said, hey.
Let's, get together and play pickleball. And I'm
like, John, I don't even know what what
are you talking about.
So,
we at that time, there was no pickleball
at Bud Cross Park, which there is today,
and, we met at a building on Railroad
Street. Oh. And my wife, I believe, went
with me if I can remember right. And,
(05:27):
John was there with a friend, so we
had four of us.
And we played pickleball for the first time.
I think that was February.
And it just immediately just hooked me. It
hooked me that sport. You know? I've never
played tennis. I was never a big racquetball
player, but that game the game just it
just it attracted me. And, I just I've
(05:47):
been playing ever since. I'll be darned. That's
great. That's great. Mhmm. How about you, Walter?
Oh, I'm not good with dates, but it's
probably been,
six years maybe.
I was visiting some friends in California and,
Bruce, which is,
you know, a nephew of mine.
(06:07):
He he the first very first game I
went with him Uh-huh. I was at the
very first game I was hooked. Big smile
on my face.
I used to play tennis. Used to still
play ping pong. Okay.
So I had, you know, some racket skills.
So my first game, I was, you know,
competing, and I just it was a game
changer. Just loved it. Right on. Total game
(06:28):
changer. Right on. Well, and I have to
tell you, you know, I love those stories
because I've been playing it for many, many
years. I was a PE teacher for years.
I retired from Donard High School in 2018
after twenty five years at that school. But,
you know, having forty, fifty, 60 kids in
the class, we wanted a sport where they
could rally the ball. It didn't matter if
it bounced or did bounce, you know, but
they were able to keep it going, and
(06:48):
they just lit up when they had so
much fun. There's so much laughter in the
sport as well as the sweats that go
along with it, you know. So there's indoor
and there's outdoor pickleball. Do you have a
preference of either one?
I don't have a preference either way. You
know, if you play outdoors and it's windy,
that can affect the the quality of the
(07:08):
game. Yes. You know, so there that's the
the nice thing about playing indoors.
But I like both. I like both. But
but you touched on it. It's the joy.
It's the people you meet out there. They're
all happy. You know, they're all just they're
doing something that's good for their body, and,
you know, it's just it's just a wonderful,
wonderful sport. Yeah. Absolutely. Totally. Totally. Yeah. Totally.
(07:29):
Well, do you have a indoor outdoor specialty?
Oh, mine's definitely indoors.
If it's a perfect day outdoors, outdoors is
good, but it's usually hard to count on
that, especially here. Uh-huh. If either it's raining,
if the sun's out, it's usually windy.
Indoors is always the same. So for me,
I personally like indoors. Mhmm. Mhmm.
(07:49):
That's that's just your preference. Yeah. Cool. And
that was my first time playing in this
town here, was up at the high school
gymnasium, Brickens Harbor High School Gymnasium. It was
in the dead of winter, and, Jill became
my buddy. She was having some knee issues,
and so we became the knee knockers. You
know? And and again, there's the joy, there's
the freedom, you know? Exactly. One thing about
the outdoor courts that I love at Bud
(08:09):
Cross is, whether it's Kathy or Allison or
whoever it may be, they get there early
and they actually use their squeegees to get
the water off. They get their blow dryers
out, and it was like, oh my gosh.
They are really preparing this courts to make
them safe. Yes. You know? And I think
that's something that I see in the community
of pickleball people. They want everybody to be
(08:30):
safe. Do you wanna make a couple comments
about that?
Well, I I just think that's a wonderful
thing that that people care about each other
out there. You know, there's a lot of
retirees that play this sport, although there is
a lot of younger people playing it now
too. In in the last couple years, I've
seen a lot of younger people playing. But,
you know, I mean, we're us older people
like me, you know,
(08:51):
safety is a big deal. Yes. You know,
like, having
eyewear. You know, when I play pickleball with
somebody and I I see that they don't
have any,
safety glasses on, I I just comment. I
say, hey. This is suggestion. You may wanna
get some glasses because you can't defend that
ball that comes up to your eyes. Right.
You know? But, yeah. I mean, safety is
important, and we all wanna go home from
(09:12):
the pickleball court, you know, not have to
go to the hospital.
So Exactly. You know? And then there's a
lot of bad rap about that because people
say, well, it's bad on the knees and
it's bad on this. You know? And do
you have any comments about that?
I do. Okay. Go for it. Go for
it. As as because I'm a very active
person. Always have been.
In in the beginning,
(09:35):
you know,
especially if you're active like me, you you
wanna sort of push yourself.
Not the thing to do in pickleball. You
wanna sort of take it easy because you
you're using muscles and movement that you've have
never done before. Uh-huh. And so if you
do it slowly,
like in the beginning,
you know, my knees have always been good.
And
I, you know, within the first few months,
(09:55):
my knees started hurting. And I'm thinking, oh,
great. I found a sport I love like
this, and my knees are going bad. So
I started wearing braces,
took my time,
haven't worn them for five years since then.
Wow. And my body feels great. I mean,
once you build into it, your your body
will adjust, you know, it will you'll get
used to the stretches. It's like a lot
(10:16):
of lunges. You Do a lot of lunges.
You wanna play pickleball. Mhmm. For sure. Do
you play, both handed or only one handed?
One handed. One handed. How about you, Paul?
Yeah. Just my right hand. And I have
seen people actually transfer their paddle back and
forth.
Yeah. You know, which is very interesting. Sue
does that. Sue does that. Exactly.
My sister Gail does that too. Yeah. Absolutely.
(10:36):
You know, you you touched on something,
that you've been playing
for a while for a while. Okay? Have
you known people that have been playing for
years?
Oh, yeah.
You
once you've gotten past your first six months,
most people can continue on, you know, for
up until I played against a 93 year
old guy that,
he wasn't the fastest runner, but he had
(10:58):
good good eye hand coordination Uh-huh. And he
always had a smile on his face. Never
forget it. Right on. Right on. Good deal.
Good deal. So let's let's buzz into our
local area. You travel to Crescent City and
play. You play here in Brookings, and I
hear there are tournaments.
Talk to me about some of the tournaments,
and I think you have to have a
rating
(11:19):
skill level wise to play in these tournaments.
Can both both of you talk about this?
Yeah. So there's a couple ways you can
in my understanding, there's a couple ways you
can get ratings.
You can go to a club and and
work underneath a a certified trainer, you know,
and he can put you through some exercises
and and see whether, you know, you you
(11:39):
are a three five or a four o.
Five o is professional level. Oh, okay. Yes.
And zero zero is a starter.
And so that's one way you could do
it. You could go to a club that
has a certified trainer.
Another way that you can get a rating
is by going to tournaments, signing up for
tournaments, playing in tournaments, and depending on the
outcome, how you do in those tournaments, that
(12:02):
determines whether your rating goes up or down
as well. Oh. And see, there's a bunch
of different rating systems. There's USAPA.
There's Global Pickleball Network. There's Duper.
You know? And I think that's one of
the challenges that pickleball needs to figure out
is that they need to standard standardize that
and get to just one rating system. And
I think they're they want to do that,
(12:22):
but it's a work in progress for the
pickleball, you know, community right now. Right. Right.
Excellent explanation. So what rating are you, Paul?
I I am a 4.25.
4.25.
Yes. Congratulations.
Thank you. And think about that. Five is
a professional. So you're almost a professional. No.
That's a stretch, Joe. That is Yeah. There's
(12:42):
a big difference between a 4.25
and a five point o. Trust me. Oh,
okay. Yeah. Big difference. Big difference? Walt could
tell you that. Okay. Walt, you talk about
it for us. What are you? I'm probably
a four in that area. Uh-huh.
But there's a huge difference.
You could it's real easy to get up
to, like, the three five. That that's like
and you're having fun as competitive.
(13:04):
But to go to three five to four
is a is a big leap. That that
takes years. And then the four to a
four five, that takes, like yeah. Unless you're,
like, some special person. But, for most people,
it takes a long time. It's super easy
to play and have fun with. It's very
hard to master. That's what a lot of
tennis players think. It's, oh, it's such an
easy sport. It's an easy sport to play,
(13:27):
but it is very hard to master. Yes.
And there's a lot more to it once
you get going. Yes. You know? For sure.
Well, Jill and Mary and Connette and some
of my other friends, they say, Joni, you're
between a two and a 2.5.
On on your good days, you're a 2.5.
On on your bad days, you're like a
two point o. Well, that's not very nice.
I know. I know. But, you know, and
and I know that you and some of
you played with Jill and Mary. Sure. And,
(13:48):
Jill and Mary have just won an award
for a tournament they were in. Can can
either one of you talk about that? I'm
so proud of them. Sure. Sure.
I I played in the same tournament. It
was early May over in Grants Pass, and
Jill and Mary played together in the four
o, four point o women's doubles.
And I think last year, they I believe
they took bronze or silver, but this year,
(14:09):
they took gold. Gold. They won first place.
Oh my gosh. Yeah. And then Jill played
in mixed doubles with a with a gentleman
over there, and they took gold. Wow. Yes.
And I think that was the 3.5,
mixed doubles. But yeah. Yeah. How fun. Mhmm.
How fun. Oh my gosh. That that is
fabulous. And I'm so proud of them for
that. I know it was posted on Facebook
with their their pictures and everything, which is
(14:31):
great. Yeah. Great. Now, Walt, I know you've
got something going on here in town, and
people have been talking about it for a
long time. There's a building that people drive
by in harbor,
and the the rumors were, oh, this guy
bought this building. He's gonna turn it into
pickleball courts. So is this rumor true? That's
100% true. Oh, talk to us, please. This
is awesome. Talk to us.
(14:54):
Oh, boy. I don't even know where to
begin.
It would probably begin.
I
I I love pickleball. Just just love it.
And I was to the point where it's
like, you know, I'm getting tired of driving
to Crescent City to play indoors out here.
It's you can't play in the wintertime. So
I told my wife, I was like, you
(15:14):
know what? I'm I'm ready to to to
move. I mean, I wanna go into a
pickleball friendly town, and she did not wanna
go. So I started looking at Pickleball friendly
town. I'm sorry to interrupt. I love that.
I love that. Okay. Well, some towns just
are, and they have indoor there's just there's
a big community, and it's just it's just
vibrant, and it's just exciting.
So
we were so then, anyway, I found this
(15:35):
building,
the old, logging company, and,
finally got a tour of it. And it
was
they didn't really wanna sell it. And it
was actually the perfect size for the pickleball
courts. Mhmm. So,
so we decided
to offer so it took almost a year
of just writing to the lady, no responses.
(15:56):
They didn't really didn't wanna sell for whatever
reason. No idea. Anyways, I found out he
died
and,
still kept writing later, no response. And finally,
I'm like, yeah, that's it. You know, I'm
gonna start packing my bags. I'm gonna go
look for some place else. Anyways, they agreed,
and so we end up buying the building.
And so now it is gonna be a
pickleball club.
Five courts.
We're gonna have a yoga place. We'll have
(16:17):
a eventually, a cafe in there as well.
Plenty of room, and it's coming out really
well. We're gonna hopefully open in the next
three to four weeks. Woah.
We're talking summer time. We're talking July, woah.
Yeah. We're hoping mid July. We wanna be
open before Crescent City shuts down for they
shut down for almost they shut down only
for a month, but I think this is
gonna be close to two months because we
refinish their course. We're gonna resurface our course.
(16:39):
So I really desperately wanna be finished by
so everything's everyone's been pushing.
I've been working every day for the last,
I don't know how many,
six months or eight months, whatever.
It's all they do is work there.
Hopefully, it means when it ends. It's getting
more fun now, though, because now I'm doing
the fun stuff. But,
but that that's pretty much the story. So
I'm Thank you. Thank you from the community
(17:01):
here. I mean, that building has been an
appliance center before. It was a furniture store
before. It's right on the corner. And a
homeless camp. And a homeless camp. Yeah. And
it's been used as,
a Halloween haunted house. Yes. You know? And
and it looks so good. The the paint
looks beautiful on it. You could tell. Inside
is
yeah. Wait till we open it. The inside
is really nice. We're on Facebook too. Oh,
(17:22):
nice. What what's the address of that?
Cascadia Pickleball Zone.
Is the name of the the building? Yeah.
Well, that's the name of the the our
club, the pickleball.
I believe my daughter just signed us up
for Facebook. I I know none of the
I don't do Facebook, and so I'm starting
to learn. I'm trying to have to have
to learn, I guess. Okay.
But I'm not
I like being the fly on the wall.
(17:43):
I don't like being in front of a
mic for sure. Uh-huh. So tell me tell
me the name again. Cascadia? Cascadia Pickleball Zone.
I love it. I love it. Okay. So
I think she just posted
the updated pictures.
But we have, like, a a lounge up
on top, you know, so you can watch
to, you know, for a view. It's not
just for pickleball. We wanna have more of,
(18:04):
you know, I think the biggest complaint in
this town, everyone moves here. It's beautiful. It's
great, and they find there's just nothing to
do. There's it's hard to make that social
connection,
and you'll see within three to four years,
a lot of people will just move out.
And me as well, I would have never
moved here. If I was playing pickleball, I
would have never moved here. I never. I
wouldn't even considered it. At the time, I
(18:25):
didn't play pickleball.
So
I I was just I'm just we're trying
to make it a town that I wanna
live in.
Right on. And don't get me wrong. I
love the town. I love the surfing here.
I I love a lot of things, but
I love pickleball too. Right. Right. And and
thank you for doing this. Paul, what do
you think it's gonna do for our community?
Oh, I I hope
(18:45):
it it gets people off the couch, you
know. I mean, and and,
you know, expand pickle the knowledge of pickleball.
I mean, it's such a great sport. And,
you know, I I think, you know, the
30 or 40 people that live in Brookings
that go down to Crescent City to that
club, you know, may wanna do a dual,
you know, get a membership at Walt's Club
as well. I know I'd like to. I
(19:06):
want to too. Yeah. I mean, you know,
I I do love our Crescent City Pickleball
Club, and I love the people down there
that I play with, and so I'll always
be a member down there. But I'm excited
that, that there's, this going on up here.
So, I think everyone in in this community
and around, not just Brookings, but Harbor, you
know, Pistol River, Gold Beach. Gold Beach doesn't
really have a good venue to play pickleball.
(19:27):
Mhmm. Now, you know, they can come down
here. So, it's it's just exciting, and I
think it's wonderful that Walt's done this for
the community Yes. Himself and for the community.
Absolutely.
Hats off to you. High five. I'm gonna
hand I'm jumping over here. That's that's a
high five around the table for that one.
And get a wave going too, you know?
Don't let the name scare you because the
pickleball thing does sound dumb, and I probably
(19:48):
would have never done it had an have
I heard of it first? Uh-huh. But I
was just, like, brought to the park and,
you know, he gave me a paddle and
and I fell in love with it. But
the pickleball thing is it you'll understand it
once you play it. You don't mind the
pickle part, but a lot of people think
it's sort of a dumb name. No. I
I think it's great. I think it's great.
You know? And and and what a thing
for our community, and I can see down
(20:08):
the pike that, hey, maybe we're the ones
hosting the tournaments. Yes. You know? Or we
will be hosting tournament. Yeah. And starting younger
people up. Yes. And it and it could
be a grandmother, grandfather,
grandson, granddaughter
kinda day that you could have, or maybe
I don't know what you have planned for
it, but I could see a lot of
things happening for our community with this. And
with the thing up above that you can
look down, oh my gosh. That's fabulous. Yeah.
(20:30):
If you're in the in the slightest way
unhappy
with your life here or the friends you're
making,
it'll it'll change you. It really will. Mhmm.
It'll it you know, I know a lot
of people. I'm a,
you know, because I'm sort of a loner,
I guess.
I know a lot of people,
because of pickleball.
I have my close friends I surf with,
but
(20:50):
I would've stayed that way. And now I
know a lot of people. I'm invited to
parties.
You know, it it it'll change it'll change
people's lives. Absolutely. And that's that's joyously free.
That's how I look at that. That is
absolutely totally joyously free. Yes. You know?
What were you gonna say, Paul, besides that?
Oh, no.
You know, I I don't travel
(21:12):
a lot of distances to go play pickleball.
You know, I play over in the valley,
you know, Medford, Grants Pass and stuff. But
every venue I go to, I I talked
about earlier, it's the joy and the happiness
that people bring to that, to the to
the pickleball court. You know, it's infectious. Mhmm.
You know, and it's just wonderful to be
around that. Mhmm. You know, and, you know,
like Walt was saying this, you know, this
community could use that, you know, an an
(21:34):
infusion of that. So I'm excited. That is
so cool. That is so cool. Oh, Jiminy
crickets. Jiminy crickets. So when's your next game?
You got a game going on today? Yes.
Yes. I play at 02:00,
down at, at the Fairgrounds in Crescent City.
Yes. And and and how do you register
for that? Or how do you just go
ahead and call up a friend and say,
hey, let's come on down or do you
have a port time? This is part this
(21:55):
is part of my membership at that club
down there. Okay. So when you're a member
of the Del Norte, Pickleball Club down there,
you get a two hour time slot per
week. Okay. That that's part of your membership.
And then there's three other days throughout the
week where there's it's called drop in. It's
where open play, where you can go and
play.
So today happens to be an open play
(22:16):
day for for us. And so, I go
down there and I meet kind of the
same guys I play with that are that
are like skilled level with me, Joni. Right.
You know, because that's fun too. You know,
it's it's it's nice to play with the
beginners too, but it's nice to be playing
with the like skilled level people too.
So Absolutely. Yeah. So that's what I'm doing
this afternoon. Cool. Cool. And so do you
(22:37):
use the app? Because I know I use
the app when, it comes across and says,
hey, we're doing a pickleball
gathering at this time, this place. Is that
how you do that or is it all
through the membership? I think you may be
talking about Playtime Scheduler. Playtime Scheduler. Yeah. The
app. Okay. So that's for public courts. That's
for public court use. Okay? It's a widely
used app throughout the, really, the country,
(22:59):
but we're a private club. So we're not
on that app. Okay. You know, because not
But Cross is. But Cross is because that's
a public, you know, that's a city course.
Right. Yeah. Yeah. Course. So yeah. So yep.
Okay. So and that's the thing about Playtime
Schedulers. No matter what city you go to,
you go you have that app on your
phone. You can find a venue to play
pickleball.
Yes. And that that's so cool. We just
(23:21):
got we just, had a vacation. We went
up to Salem for two weeks. I played
in four different venues up out up and
around Salem. Found some great games up there.
Nice. So yeah. So And new friends. And
new friends. And you'll exchange phone numbers and
stuff. And they're like, hey. When I come
to Brookings, I'll look you up. And then
when I come back up here to Salem,
I'll look you up. So that's what I'm
talking about. That's the the fellowship and the
(23:42):
just the the joy the joy of the
game. That's the church. That's the church. The
church. The church
of pickleball. I do. I love it. I
love it. Fabulous. Fabulous. Fabulous.
So, with with your gym that you're gonna
have here, the Cascadia Pickleball Zone
membership, I'm assuming. Yes. Okay. Do we have
any details of that? Not yet. It's coming
(24:02):
soon, though. Okay. Yeah. I'm actually I'm leaving
in a week or so to go to
Utah for, like, a three day seminar on
how to run it. Oh, awesome. I know
how to build it. I just wanted to
run it. Okay. Very cool. So I need
I need help with that. Cool. And I'm
I'm gonna guess you're gonna have an open
house or somehow the the the chamber and
the community is gonna know more about it.
Yeah. Yeah. We're definitely gonna more right now,
(24:24):
we don't have the insurance to have people
play there. K. We're working on that now.
So we're hoping
hoping soon for all that. Super. So talk
to me, Walt, about the flooring. Because I
know when I've been in that building before,
it was all cement flooring.
What did you do to make the facility
so beautiful for Pickleball Zone? Well, we we
elected well, it was a lot of grinding,
(24:46):
over two weeks of grinding.
But we, we used we're using a cushion
floor. So it's Oh. So it's like a
high-tech thing they're doing now that most new
courts are doing it now because it's
it, it's like, you know, four layers of
of
different size granulars of, like, rubber,
painted on. And then what it does, it
it you know, especially when you're older, it
(25:08):
helps your knee. You can play longer and
your knees will last longer, you know, through
your, like, you know, longevity. Mhmm. So that's
why most of the newer courts are doing
it. No almost no outside courts are doing
it. Right. Although we know some private ones
that have it. But,
you know, it's it just adds another layer
of protection for your knees and also another
layer of cost. But,
(25:28):
you know, you got one chance to do
it. And once you do it, it's there
forever.
You have to, like, resurface to toss, but
never on the rubber part of it. That
stays forever. Cool. Cool.
That's wonderful. And what color are they?
The outer edge perimeter is gray, like a
light gray, and then we have a bright
blue in this in the kitchen,
(25:49):
and then, dark blue on the on the
playing field. Oh, beautiful. Beautiful. You know, one
of the things that I thought was so
interesting when I played a couple weeks ago
down in San Diego area, Oceanside with my
sister, she's just learning. She goes, there's a
difference between an indoor and an outdoor ball?
Oh, yeah. Yeah. It was like, yeah. That's
for sure. Nobody likes indoor ball. Yeah.
For sure. For sure. For sure. Well, we
(26:10):
are down to, like, a minute. How about
some final comments
about anything to do with Pickleball and Joy?
Final comments. What would you say to our
listeners out there?
Try it. You know, Bud Cross Park here
in Brookings, every day between 08:30 and 09:00,
they they play up there. You don't have
to show up there with a paddle. Just
show up with just joy in yourself.
(26:32):
They're welcoming. They will put they will allow
you to play.
So,
get up there. I mean, get out and,
you know, instead of sitting around and and
wondering what to do, get up to Bud
Cross Park at 09:00,
seven days a week. As long as it's
not raining, they're up there playing. Right on.
Right. Good. And how about you, Walt? Final
comments. If you think you're too old, you're
not.
(26:53):
All it takes is a tiny bit of
effort in the beginning and then take it
easy. And in a year from now, you'd
be shocked and and and how your life
has improved. Awesome. Awesome. Oh, that is great.
That is great. Listeners, has this been exciting
and joy filled today? I sure hope so.
We hope you've been inspired, challenged, and then
enjoy all the tips, the hopes, the loves,
(27:13):
and all the information that we are gonna
have right here in our own gymnasium
for Pickleball
Zone. Yes. From the top of my heart,
I wanna thank you, Walter. I wanna thank
you, Paul, for on the spur of the
moment coming in, talking about the joy of
your life. We thank Mike on our sound
system. We thank Candace and Rose and and
Tom Gorse for for Mike Gorse and then
(27:33):
Tom Bozak for making this all happen. It's
a show that we find every week,
09:00,
Monday mornings. And so I thank everybody. Have
a beautiful day. Wear bright colors and have
big smiles. See you on the courts.
Absolutely. Thank you.
Hi. Welcome KCAW listeners to one hundred point
seven and kciw.org,
Brookings, Oregon.
Yes. It's time for my radio show joyously
free with none better than myself, Joni Lindenmaier.
Yes. I've been a best selling author, and
I am a resident of Harbor for thirty
four years. I'm glad you're here with us
today, and you know the routine of how
(00:32):
I start every single one of my shows.
And I say, it's a brand new day,
and you respond, never been lived before. Let's
even see if our guests can do that
today. Here we go. Are we ready? It's
a brand new day. Never. It's never been
lit before. Oh, they're on it. See? Look
at that. Smart. Smart. Smart. So this radio
show, also known as my gay d o
show for my LGBTQ
(00:52):
people, talks about LGBTQ stories and tips along
with religion, church, faith, and spirituality. But simply
put, it's joyously free. What makes you joyously
free? That's what we talk about. And, of
course, I hope that that comes with freedom,
encourage, confidence, and collaboration.
It all came from the second book that
I wrote with Elizabeth Ann Atkins, Joyously Free.
(01:13):
You know, part of being joyously free is
is making sure that we don't have hate
speech, no hate behaviors, and no bullying. We
wanna make sure that we're we're at peace,
we're at joy, we're at the things that
that make us happy. Together, we're gonna seek
understanding, think out of the box, and just
respect and appreciate nature, our friends, family, good
(01:34):
times, all here on the gorgeous Southern Oregon
and Northern California coast. We can always be
better, not bitter, for we are spiritual beings
as well as human beings. Let's have a
happy day right here, KCIW listeners.
So before we jump into our routine of
our guest speakers, I wanna let you know
that I picked a slogan for today from
(01:54):
my lip my reflection.
Today is a good day for a good
day. How's that for a reflection? Today is
a good day for a good day.
And I think when I read that and
saw that this morning,
every single day, we have a choice to
make it the best, the best for you,
the best for me. Yes. There's hard stuff
(02:14):
that happens in life, and there's joyful stuff
that happens in life, but it's how we
approach and and go for every single day
to the best of our abilities.
And one way I do that is through
exercise.
One of the exercises I do is not
just a physical exercise, but a spiritual exercise.
So I'm gonna ask you to breathe with
(02:36):
me as we do a little prayer.
Breathe in
with joy
and out with doubt.
Breathe in with happiness
and out with gloom.
Let's bring in breathe in with a peacefulness
(02:57):
from the bottom of our toe to the
top of our head,
thanking whatever name you put on God or
a creator
for our body, for our will,
for our mind.
Be with us, oh god, as we celebrate
today,
making it a beautiful day for myself, yourself,
(03:19):
and all the people around us.
We do this in your name.
Amen.
So related to all that, we have some
speakers here, and they're not just speakers. They're
in their shorts. They're in their sweatshirts,
and they have big smiles on their faces.
I don't think they're sweating too much right
now, but I call this my pickleball church,
my pickleball people. And they are our guests,
(03:42):
Paul Wittenmeyer
and Walter Zant. Woo hoo. Thank you for
being here, guys.
Oh my gosh. I feel like we should
have a paddle and hitting a ball across
the table here, but we don't quite have
that. They are pickleball enthusiasts of Brookings, Oregon,
and we're gonna get to learn a little
bit about pickleball, a little bit about them,
and what's going on in the world. So
first off, Paul, how are you doing today?
(04:03):
I'm doing good, Joni. Thank you. Good. Good.
Good. And Walter? Yep. Very good, Joni. Thank
you. Good. Good. And I thank you for
being here. So way I know you is
from Jill and Mary,
Connette, Allison, Tom, and we can go through
a list of I don't know. How many
people are playing pickleball? How many people are
playing pickleball in Brookings, Oregon right now?
What do you think, Walt?
(04:24):
Probably,
core of at least 35,
you know, and then a lot of visitors
that come through that play. Exactly. So, a
lot. A lot. A lot. And I know
you also play down in Crescent City, California.
Yes. And do they have thirty, forty people
as well? We actually have a 145
members in our pickleball club in Crescent City.
Oh my god. 145.
Yeah. Oh my and I know a few
(04:45):
of them. I know of a few of
them. Doug, Debbie Kravitz. Those are just a
few of them. But Mhmm. Oh my gosh.
Oh my gosh. So let's get into tell
me a little bit about you and how
you got involved in pickleball. Who would like
to go first today?
I can.
It was 2,017.
I remember it, like yesterday.
A friend of mine that has
(05:06):
passed away recently,
John McClain, called me up and said, hey.
Let's, get together and play pickleball. And I'm
like, John, I don't even know what what
are you talking about.
So,
we at that time, there was no pickleball
at Bud Cross Park, which there is today,
and, we met at a building on Railroad
Street. Oh. And my wife, I believe, went
with me if I can remember right. And,
(05:27):
John was there with a friend, so we
had four of us.
And we played pickleball for the first time.
I think that was February.
And it just immediately just hooked me. It
hooked me that sport. You know? I've never
played tennis. I was never a big racquetball
player, but that game the game just it
just it attracted me. And, I just I've
(05:47):
been playing ever since. I'll be darned. That's
great. That's great. Mhmm. How about you, Walter?
Oh, I'm not good with dates, but it's
probably been,
six years maybe.
I was visiting some friends in California and,
Bruce, which is,
you know, a nephew of mine.
(06:07):
He he the first very first game I
went with him Uh-huh. I was at the
very first game I was hooked. Big smile
on my face.
I used to play tennis. Used to still
play ping pong. Okay.
So I had, you know, some racket skills.
So my first game, I was, you know,
competing, and I just it was a game
changer. Just loved it. Right on. Total game
(06:28):
changer. Right on. Well, and I have to
tell you, you know, I love those stories
because I've been playing it for many, many
years. I was a PE teacher for years.
I retired from Donard High School in 2018
after twenty five years at that school. But,
you know, having forty, fifty, 60 kids in
the class, we wanted a sport where they
could rally the ball. It didn't matter if
it bounced or did bounce, you know, but
they were able to keep it going, and
(06:48):
they just lit up when they had so
much fun. There's so much laughter in the
sport as well as the sweats that go
along with it, you know. So there's indoor
and there's outdoor pickleball. Do you have a
preference of either one?
I don't have a preference either way. You
know, if you play outdoors and it's windy,
that can affect the the quality of the
(07:08):
game. Yes. You know, so there that's the
the nice thing about playing indoors.
But I like both. I like both. But
but you touched on it. It's the joy.
It's the people you meet out there. They're
all happy. You know, they're all just they're
doing something that's good for their body, and,
you know, it's just it's just a wonderful,
wonderful sport. Yeah. Absolutely. Totally. Totally. Yeah. Totally.
(07:29):
Well, do you have a indoor outdoor specialty?
Oh, mine's definitely indoors.
If it's a perfect day outdoors, outdoors is
good, but it's usually hard to count on
that, especially here. Uh-huh. If either it's raining,
if the sun's out, it's usually windy.
Indoors is always the same. So for me,
I personally like indoors. Mhmm. Mhmm.
(07:49):
That's that's just your preference. Yeah. Cool. And
that was my first time playing in this
town here, was up at the high school
gymnasium, Brickens Harbor High School Gymnasium. It was
in the dead of winter, and, Jill became
my buddy. She was having some knee issues,
and so we became the knee knockers. You
know? And and again, there's the joy, there's
the freedom, you know? Exactly. One thing about
the outdoor courts that I love at Bud
(08:09):
Cross is, whether it's Kathy or Allison or
whoever it may be, they get there early
and they actually use their squeegees to get
the water off. They get their blow dryers
out, and it was like, oh my gosh.
They are really preparing this courts to make
them safe. Yes. You know? And I think
that's something that I see in the community
of pickleball people. They want everybody to be
(08:30):
safe. Do you wanna make a couple comments
about that?
Well, I I just think that's a wonderful
thing that that people care about each other
out there. You know, there's a lot of
retirees that play this sport, although there is
a lot of younger people playing it now
too. In in the last couple years, I've
seen a lot of younger people playing. But,
you know, I mean, we're us older people
like me, you know,
(08:51):
safety is a big deal. Yes. You know,
like, having
eyewear. You know, when I play pickleball with
somebody and I I see that they don't
have any,
safety glasses on, I I just comment. I
say, hey. This is suggestion. You may wanna
get some glasses because you can't defend that
ball that comes up to your eyes. Right.
You know? But, yeah. I mean, safety is
important, and we all wanna go home from
(09:12):
the pickleball court, you know, not have to
go to the hospital.
So Exactly. You know? And then there's a
lot of bad rap about that because people
say, well, it's bad on the knees and
it's bad on this. You know? And do
you have any comments about that?
I do. Okay. Go for it. Go for
it. As as because I'm a very active
person. Always have been.
In in the beginning,
(09:35):
you know,
especially if you're active like me, you you
wanna sort of push yourself.
Not the thing to do in pickleball. You
wanna sort of take it easy because you
you're using muscles and movement that you've have
never done before. Uh-huh. And so if you
do it slowly,
like in the beginning,
you know, my knees have always been good.
And
I, you know, within the first few months,
(09:55):
my knees started hurting. And I'm thinking, oh,
great. I found a sport I love like
this, and my knees are going bad. So
I started wearing braces,
took my time,
haven't worn them for five years since then.
Wow. And my body feels great. I mean,
once you build into it, your your body
will adjust, you know, it will you'll get
used to the stretches. It's like a lot
(10:16):
of lunges. You Do a lot of lunges.
You wanna play pickleball. Mhmm. For sure. Do
you play, both handed or only one handed?
One handed. One handed. How about you, Paul?
Yeah. Just my right hand. And I have
seen people actually transfer their paddle back and
forth.
Yeah. You know, which is very interesting. Sue
does that. Sue does that. Exactly.
My sister Gail does that too. Yeah. Absolutely.
(10:36):
You know, you you touched on something,
that you've been playing
for a while for a while. Okay? Have
you known people that have been playing for
years?
Oh, yeah.
You
once you've gotten past your first six months,
most people can continue on, you know, for
up until I played against a 93 year
old guy that,
he wasn't the fastest runner, but he had
(10:58):
good good eye hand coordination Uh-huh. And he
always had a smile on his face. Never
forget it. Right on. Right on. Good deal.
Good deal. So let's let's buzz into our
local area. You travel to Crescent City and
play. You play here in Brookings, and I
hear there are tournaments.
Talk to me about some of the tournaments,
and I think you have to have a
rating
(11:19):
skill level wise to play in these tournaments.
Can both both of you talk about this?
Yeah. So there's a couple ways you can
in my understanding, there's a couple ways you
can get ratings.
You can go to a club and and
work underneath a a certified trainer, you know,
and he can put you through some exercises
and and see whether, you know, you you
(11:39):
are a three five or a four o.
Five o is professional level. Oh, okay. Yes.
And zero zero is a starter.
And so that's one way you could do
it. You could go to a club that
has a certified trainer.
Another way that you can get a rating
is by going to tournaments, signing up for
tournaments, playing in tournaments, and depending on the
outcome, how you do in those tournaments, that
(12:02):
determines whether your rating goes up or down
as well. Oh. And see, there's a bunch
of different rating systems. There's USAPA.
There's Global Pickleball Network. There's Duper.
You know? And I think that's one of
the challenges that pickleball needs to figure out
is that they need to standard standardize that
and get to just one rating system. And
I think they're they want to do that,
(12:22):
but it's a work in progress for the
pickleball, you know, community right now. Right. Right.
Excellent explanation. So what rating are you, Paul?
I I am a 4.25.
4.25.
Yes. Congratulations.
Thank you. And think about that. Five is
a professional. So you're almost a professional. No.
That's a stretch, Joe. That is Yeah. There's
(12:42):
a big difference between a 4.25
and a five point o. Trust me. Oh,
okay. Yeah. Big difference. Big difference? Walt could
tell you that. Okay. Walt, you talk about
it for us. What are you? I'm probably
a four in that area. Uh-huh.
But there's a huge difference.
You could it's real easy to get up
to, like, the three five. That that's like
and you're having fun as competitive.
(13:04):
But to go to three five to four
is a is a big leap. That that
takes years. And then the four to a
four five, that takes, like yeah. Unless you're,
like, some special person. But, for most people,
it takes a long time. It's super easy
to play and have fun with. It's very
hard to master. That's what a lot of
tennis players think. It's, oh, it's such an
easy sport. It's an easy sport to play,
(13:27):
but it is very hard to master. Yes.
And there's a lot more to it once
you get going. Yes. You know? For sure.
Well, Jill and Mary and Connette and some
of my other friends, they say, Joni, you're
between a two and a 2.5.
On on your good days, you're a 2.5.
On on your bad days, you're like a
two point o. Well, that's not very nice.
I know. I know. But, you know, and
and I know that you and some of
you played with Jill and Mary. Sure. And,
(13:48):
Jill and Mary have just won an award
for a tournament they were in. Can can
either one of you talk about that? I'm
so proud of them. Sure. Sure.
I I played in the same tournament. It
was early May over in Grants Pass, and
Jill and Mary played together in the four
o, four point o women's doubles.
And I think last year, they I believe
they took bronze or silver, but this year,
(14:09):
they took gold. Gold. They won first place.
Oh my gosh. Yeah. And then Jill played
in mixed doubles with a with a gentleman
over there, and they took gold. Wow. Yes.
And I think that was the 3.5,
mixed doubles. But yeah. Yeah. How fun. Mhmm.
How fun. Oh my gosh. That that is
fabulous. And I'm so proud of them for
that. I know it was posted on Facebook
with their their pictures and everything, which is
(14:31):
great. Yeah. Great. Now, Walt, I know you've
got something going on here in town, and
people have been talking about it for a
long time. There's a building that people drive
by in harbor,
and the the rumors were, oh, this guy
bought this building. He's gonna turn it into
pickleball courts. So is this rumor true? That's
100% true. Oh, talk to us, please. This
is awesome. Talk to us.
(14:54):
Oh, boy. I don't even know where to
begin.
It would probably begin.
I
I I love pickleball. Just just love it.
And I was to the point where it's
like, you know, I'm getting tired of driving
to Crescent City to play indoors out here.
It's you can't play in the wintertime. So
I told my wife, I was like, you
(15:14):
know what? I'm I'm ready to to to
move. I mean, I wanna go into a
pickleball friendly town, and she did not wanna
go. So I started looking at Pickleball friendly
town. I'm sorry to interrupt. I love that.
I love that. Okay. Well, some towns just
are, and they have indoor there's just there's
a big community, and it's just it's just
vibrant, and it's just exciting.
So
we were so then, anyway, I found this
(15:35):
building,
the old, logging company, and,
finally got a tour of it. And it
was
they didn't really wanna sell it. And it
was actually the perfect size for the pickleball
courts. Mhmm. So,
so we decided
to offer so it took almost a year
of just writing to the lady, no responses.
(15:56):
They didn't really didn't wanna sell for whatever
reason. No idea. Anyways, I found out he
died
and,
still kept writing later, no response. And finally,
I'm like, yeah, that's it. You know, I'm
gonna start packing my bags. I'm gonna go
look for some place else. Anyways, they agreed,
and so we end up buying the building.
And so now it is gonna be a
pickleball club.
Five courts.
We're gonna have a yoga place. We'll have
(16:17):
a eventually, a cafe in there as well.
Plenty of room, and it's coming out really
well. We're gonna hopefully open in the next
three to four weeks. Woah.
We're talking summer time. We're talking July, woah.
Yeah. We're hoping mid July. We wanna be
open before Crescent City shuts down for they
shut down for almost they shut down only
for a month, but I think this is
gonna be close to two months because we
refinish their course. We're gonna resurface our course.
(16:39):
So I really desperately wanna be finished by
so everything's everyone's been pushing.
I've been working every day for the last,
I don't know how many,
six months or eight months, whatever.
It's all they do is work there.
Hopefully, it means when it ends. It's getting
more fun now, though, because now I'm doing
the fun stuff. But,
but that that's pretty much the story. So
I'm Thank you. Thank you from the community
(17:01):
here. I mean, that building has been an
appliance center before. It was a furniture store
before. It's right on the corner. And a
homeless camp. And a homeless camp. Yeah. And
it's been used as,
a Halloween haunted house. Yes. You know? And
and it looks so good. The the paint
looks beautiful on it. You could tell. Inside
is
yeah. Wait till we open it. The inside
is really nice. We're on Facebook too. Oh,
(17:22):
nice. What what's the address of that?
Cascadia Pickleball Zone.
Is the name of the the building? Yeah.
Well, that's the name of the the our
club, the pickleball.
I believe my daughter just signed us up
for Facebook. I I know none of the
I don't do Facebook, and so I'm starting
to learn. I'm trying to have to have
to learn, I guess. Okay.
But I'm not
I like being the fly on the wall.
(17:43):
I don't like being in front of a
mic for sure. Uh-huh. So tell me tell
me the name again. Cascadia? Cascadia Pickleball Zone.
I love it. I love it. Okay. So
I think she just posted
the updated pictures.
But we have, like, a a lounge up
on top, you know, so you can watch
to, you know, for a view. It's not
just for pickleball. We wanna have more of,
(18:04):
you know, I think the biggest complaint in
this town, everyone moves here. It's beautiful. It's
great, and they find there's just nothing to
do. There's it's hard to make that social
connection,
and you'll see within three to four years,
a lot of people will just move out.
And me as well, I would have never
moved here. If I was playing pickleball, I
would have never moved here. I never. I
wouldn't even considered it. At the time, I
(18:25):
didn't play pickleball.
So
I I was just I'm just we're trying
to make it a town that I wanna
live in.
Right on. And don't get me wrong. I
love the town. I love the surfing here.
I I love a lot of things, but
I love pickleball too. Right. Right. And and
thank you for doing this. Paul, what do
you think it's gonna do for our community?
Oh, I I hope
(18:45):
it it gets people off the couch, you
know. I mean, and and,
you know, expand pickle the knowledge of pickleball.
I mean, it's such a great sport. And,
you know, I I think, you know, the
30 or 40 people that live in Brookings
that go down to Crescent City to that
club, you know, may wanna do a dual,
you know, get a membership at Walt's Club
as well. I know I'd like to. I
(19:06):
want to too. Yeah. I mean, you know,
I I do love our Crescent City Pickleball
Club, and I love the people down there
that I play with, and so I'll always
be a member down there. But I'm excited
that, that there's, this going on up here.
So, I think everyone in in this community
and around, not just Brookings, but Harbor, you
know, Pistol River, Gold Beach. Gold Beach doesn't
really have a good venue to play pickleball.
(19:27):
Mhmm. Now, you know, they can come down
here. So, it's it's just exciting, and I
think it's wonderful that Walt's done this for
the community Yes. Himself and for the community.
Absolutely.
Hats off to you. High five. I'm gonna
hand I'm jumping over here. That's that's a
high five around the table for that one.
And get a wave going too, you know?
Don't let the name scare you because the
pickleball thing does sound dumb, and I probably
(19:48):
would have never done it had an have
I heard of it first? Uh-huh. But I
was just, like, brought to the park and,
you know, he gave me a paddle and
and I fell in love with it. But
the pickleball thing is it you'll understand it
once you play it. You don't mind the
pickle part, but a lot of people think
it's sort of a dumb name. No. I
I think it's great. I think it's great.
You know? And and and what a thing
for our community, and I can see down
(20:08):
the pike that, hey, maybe we're the ones
hosting the tournaments. Yes. You know? Or we
will be hosting tournament. Yeah. And starting younger
people up. Yes. And it and it could
be a grandmother, grandfather,
grandson, granddaughter
kinda day that you could have, or maybe
I don't know what you have planned for
it, but I could see a lot of
things happening for our community with this. And
with the thing up above that you can
look down, oh my gosh. That's fabulous. Yeah.
(20:30):
If you're in the in the slightest way
unhappy
with your life here or the friends you're
making,
it'll it'll change you. It really will. Mhmm.
It'll it you know, I know a lot
of people. I'm a,
you know, because I'm sort of a loner,
I guess.
I know a lot of people,
because of pickleball.
I have my close friends I surf with,
but
(20:50):
I would've stayed that way. And now I
know a lot of people. I'm invited to
parties.
You know, it it it'll change it'll change
people's lives. Absolutely. And that's that's joyously free.
That's how I look at that. That is
absolutely totally joyously free. Yes. You know?
What were you gonna say, Paul, besides that?
Oh, no.
You know, I I don't travel
(21:12):
a lot of distances to go play pickleball.
You know, I play over in the valley,
you know, Medford, Grants Pass and stuff. But
every venue I go to, I I talked
about earlier, it's the joy and the happiness
that people bring to that, to the to
the pickleball court. You know, it's infectious. Mhmm.
You know, and it's just wonderful to be
around that. Mhmm. You know, and, you know,
like Walt was saying this, you know, this
community could use that, you know, an an
(21:34):
infusion of that. So I'm excited. That is
so cool. That is so cool. Oh, Jiminy
crickets. Jiminy crickets. So when's your next game?
You got a game going on today? Yes.
Yes. I play at 02:00,
down at, at the Fairgrounds in Crescent City.
Yes. And and and how do you register
for that? Or how do you just go
ahead and call up a friend and say,
hey, let's come on down or do you
have a port time? This is part this
(21:55):
is part of my membership at that club
down there. Okay. So when you're a member
of the Del Norte, Pickleball Club down there,
you get a two hour time slot per
week. Okay. That that's part of your membership.
And then there's three other days throughout the
week where there's it's called drop in. It's
where open play, where you can go and
play.
So today happens to be an open play
(22:16):
day for for us. And so, I go
down there and I meet kind of the
same guys I play with that are that
are like skilled level with me, Joni. Right.
You know, because that's fun too. You know,
it's it's it's nice to play with the
beginners too, but it's nice to be playing
with the like skilled level people too.
So Absolutely. Yeah. So that's what I'm doing
this afternoon. Cool. Cool. And so do you
(22:37):
use the app? Because I know I use
the app when, it comes across and says,
hey, we're doing a pickleball
gathering at this time, this place. Is that
how you do that or is it all
through the membership? I think you may be
talking about Playtime Scheduler. Playtime Scheduler. Yeah. The
app. Okay. So that's for public courts. That's
for public court use. Okay? It's a widely
used app throughout the, really, the country,
(22:59):
but we're a private club. So we're not
on that app. Okay. You know, because not
But Cross is. But Cross is because that's
a public, you know, that's a city course.
Right. Yeah. Yeah. Course. So yeah. So yep.
Okay. So and that's the thing about Playtime
Schedulers. No matter what city you go to,
you go you have that app on your
phone. You can find a venue to play
pickleball.
Yes. And that that's so cool. We just
(23:21):
got we just, had a vacation. We went
up to Salem for two weeks. I played
in four different venues up out up and
around Salem. Found some great games up there.
Nice. So yeah. So And new friends. And
new friends. And you'll exchange phone numbers and
stuff. And they're like, hey. When I come
to Brookings, I'll look you up. And then
when I come back up here to Salem,
I'll look you up. So that's what I'm
talking about. That's the the fellowship and the
(23:42):
just the the joy the joy of the
game. That's the church. That's the church. The
church. The church
of pickleball. I do. I love it. I
love it. Fabulous. Fabulous. Fabulous.
So, with with your gym that you're gonna
have here, the Cascadia Pickleball Zone
membership, I'm assuming. Yes. Okay. Do we have
any details of that? Not yet. It's coming
(24:02):
soon, though. Okay. Yeah. I'm actually I'm leaving
in a week or so to go to
Utah for, like, a three day seminar on
how to run it. Oh, awesome. I know
how to build it. I just wanted to
run it. Okay. Very cool. So I need
I need help with that. Cool. And I'm
I'm gonna guess you're gonna have an open
house or somehow the the the chamber and
the community is gonna know more about it.
Yeah. Yeah. We're definitely gonna more right now,
(24:24):
we don't have the insurance to have people
play there. K. We're working on that now.
So we're hoping
hoping soon for all that. Super. So talk
to me, Walt, about the flooring. Because I
know when I've been in that building before,
it was all cement flooring.
What did you do to make the facility
so beautiful for Pickleball Zone? Well, we we
elected well, it was a lot of grinding,
(24:46):
over two weeks of grinding.
But we, we used we're using a cushion
floor. So it's Oh. So it's like a
high-tech thing they're doing now that most new
courts are doing it now because it's
it, it's like, you know, four layers of
of
different size granulars of, like, rubber,
painted on. And then what it does, it
it you know, especially when you're older, it
(25:08):
helps your knee. You can play longer and
your knees will last longer, you know, through
your, like, you know, longevity. Mhmm. So that's
why most of the newer courts are doing
it. No almost no outside courts are doing
it. Right. Although we know some private ones
that have it. But,
you know, it's it just adds another layer
of protection for your knees and also another
layer of cost. But,
(25:28):
you know, you got one chance to do
it. And once you do it, it's there
forever.
You have to, like, resurface to toss, but
never on the rubber part of it. That
stays forever. Cool. Cool.
That's wonderful. And what color are they?
The outer edge perimeter is gray, like a
light gray, and then we have a bright
blue in this in the kitchen,
(25:49):
and then, dark blue on the on the
playing field. Oh, beautiful. Beautiful. You know, one
of the things that I thought was so
interesting when I played a couple weeks ago
down in San Diego area, Oceanside with my
sister, she's just learning. She goes, there's a
difference between an indoor and an outdoor ball?
Oh, yeah. Yeah. It was like, yeah. That's
for sure. Nobody likes indoor ball. Yeah.
For sure. For sure. For sure. Well, we
(26:10):
are down to, like, a minute. How about
some final comments
about anything to do with Pickleball and Joy?
Final comments. What would you say to our
listeners out there?
Try it. You know, Bud Cross Park here
in Brookings, every day between 08:30 and 09:00,
they they play up there. You don't have
to show up there with a paddle. Just
show up with just joy in yourself.
(26:32):
They're welcoming. They will put they will allow
you to play.
So,
get up there. I mean, get out and,
you know, instead of sitting around and and
wondering what to do, get up to Bud
Cross Park at 09:00,
seven days a week. As long as it's
not raining, they're up there playing. Right on.
Right. Good. And how about you, Walt? Final
comments. If you think you're too old, you're
not.
(26:53):
All it takes is a tiny bit of
effort in the beginning and then take it
easy. And in a year from now, you'd
be shocked and and and how your life
has improved. Awesome. Awesome. Oh, that is great.
That is great. Listeners, has this been exciting
and joy filled today? I sure hope so.
We hope you've been inspired, challenged, and then
enjoy all the tips, the hopes, the loves,
(27:13):
and all the information that we are gonna
have right here in our own gymnasium
for Pickleball
Zone. Yes. From the top of my heart,
I wanna thank you, Walter. I wanna thank
you, Paul, for on the spur of the
moment coming in, talking about the joy of
your life. We thank Mike on our sound
system. We thank Candace and Rose and and
Tom Gorse for for Mike Gorse and then
(27:33):
Tom Bozak for making this all happen. It's
a show that we find every week,
09:00,
Monday mornings. And so I thank everybody. Have
a beautiful day. Wear bright colors and have
big smiles. See you on the courts.
Absolutely. Thank you.
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