Who's right? Who's wrong? The RICH win the fight, leaving San Fran pickleballers unhappy

Welcome back, picklers

Read time: ~5 min

Last week, pickleballers in San Francisco fight to save their courts while the rich fight to save their sanity.

Plus, the OWL paddle review I teased last week is in. (All thanks to a fellow subscriber)

Let’s get into the newsletter, shall we?

How to read The Pickle Talk:

1. First, don’t click any links just yet. Read it all the way through, and then send it to a friend you think might benefit too.

2. Next, come back and dive into the links that caught your eye.

3. Last, go play some pickleball and stir up conversations with your newfound knowledge.

Enjoy :)

TODAY’S BANGERS:

• Pickle Talk: Court shut down scores front page of Wall Street Journal

• Bite-Size Pickle: DUPR receives $8 million funding, ChatGPT for pickleball is here, MLP Challenger event-cancelled

• Golden Pickle: Pickleball from 6 years ago. Oh, how the game has changed.

PICKLE TALK 🎙️

1/ Court shut down scores front page of Wall Street Journal

Deets: Remember Holly Peterson? The lady who allegedly blamed pickleball as the reason her and her husband’s now $29 million mansion wouldn’t sell but had a private court built on her property?

Well, the city sided with her and other petition signers, and as of recent, 6 of the 12 courts pickleball lines were removed and turned back into tennis courts…

Displacing the pickleball hub of San Francisco, where 100’s of players meet to play every week.

According to the San Francisco Standard, the final decision was not a diplomatic one and decision was made without hearing out the players.

So last week, pickleballers protested and took things into their own hands.

Players crowdfunded roll-on nets and continued playing pickleball in protest, even after officials warned them that the nets are not permitted on the tennis courts.

There is currently an online petition to “delay any changes to Presidio Wall until a proper neighborhood notification and outreach process has been conducted and mutually accepted alternatives are in place.”

WPAS:

Here’s what a Presidio Heights player had to say on Reddit:

While another sympathized with the wealthy:

Opinion:

This is a tough one. But let’s think about this logically, shall we?

While I understand the hypocrisy of the situation and don’t like how it was handled, I do believe the residents of Presidio Heights make a fair argument.

The WSJ states that the city performed noise tests and reported the sounds coming from the courts to produce sounds that equate to the sound of a hair dryer (between 40-92 decibels.

And with the courts opening at 7 a.m. and closing at dark, I would not want to hear the sound of dinks all day long.

In addition, I noticed that people were attacking these residents and using their status against them. I don’t believe the residents should have to accept the noise just because they are "rich.” There is no logical basis to it and the argument doesn’t fair well with me.

As a pickleball player myself, though, I do hope that the city of SF does something to balance the noise issue while still opening up more courts.

—

TL;DR: The wealthy residents of Presidio Heights have won after the ongoing pickleball noise complaint dispute. 6 courts have been shut down and replaced with tennis courts, but pickleball players find workarounds by setting up their own roll-on nets.

***

2/ UPDATE: What’s up with the new “quite” OWL paddle?

Deets: Back in November 2023, OWL released the first approved “quite” pickleball paddle. Backed by celebrities like Drew Brees, I was curious to see if it lived up to their endorsements.

Thankfully, a subscriber and fellow Redditor bit the bullet and reported back with their personal experience playing with the paddle.

Here’s what I wanted to know:

1. Is the surface a felt material?

2. Are there any noticeable advantages/disadvantages to the paddle when playing?

3. How were the control and spin-ability?

4. How was the sound when it was playing?

5. Was it worth the $149-$169 price tag?

And the final verdict:

There you go, folks.

Quieter? Yes. But there is a cost.

Hopefully, future iterations will solve some of these issues. Fingers crossed!

Thanks again to Reddit u/Open-Year2903 for sharing!

*BITE-SIZE* PICKLES

1/ ➜ Happenings:

DUPR (Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating) announced today that the company has received $8 million in funding to “further advance its mission to unify the fast-growing sport with innovative technology and a dynamic global rating.”

Even with the messy situation going on at MLP, David Kass, an owner of the MLP, has been named the new owner and chairman of DUPR.

Others include 8x Grand Slam Champion Andre Agassi, Raine Ventures, and Jay Farner, among others.

***

2/ ➜ Happenings:

Pickleball and ChatGPT?

A new GPT Pickles has hit the AI chatbot realm. Represented by a raccoon and hosted on OpenAI’s ChatGPT…

Pickles will answer your questions about pickleball rules, strategies, gear, and more and is “honing my virtual skills to achieve a pickleball rating of 4.0.”

Pickles is only available to ChatGPT Plus users for now.

***

3/ ➜ Happenings:

 If you are a MLP fan and viewer, this one’s for you, and it’s not good news either.

If you weren’t up to date, the MLP and PPA merger still has not been finalized.

And now, according to The Dink Pickleball, sources are saying that the first MLP Challenger event of 2024 has been canceled.

Whether or not there is a correlation between the two, I am not sure. But it wouldn’t be surprising, as MLP hasn’t even paid its players under contract.

I wish I could tell you more, but the truth is, neither side has come out with concrete details.

Stay tuned….

GOLDEN PICKLES

🎫 MUST READ: Indiana pickleball company known as Pickleball Rocks caught conducting fraudulent investments. A cease and desist order was issued.

🎫 Video: Pickleball from 6 years ago. Oh, how the game has changed. (video also included in Snap Shots)

🎫 Ad: Selkirk announces new pickleball technology. My question is…what do the smaller holes do?

🎫 Watch: Man with Parkinson Disease playing pickleball during treatment.

🎫 Pickleball player shows off his vocal skills on television show I Can See Your Voice.

🎫 Previous newsletter: Goodbye, pros: Recent tennis-to-pickleball converts are beating out seasoned pros

Snap Shots 📸 of the Week

No pickle left unturned 🥳

What did you think of today's email?

Your feedback helps me create better emails for you!

• I loved it 💛💛💛 

• It was okay 💛💛

• It was a struggle 💛

Thanks for reading!

Until next time, picklers.

Jonathan W.