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Dominique Hamel shuffles along the small court with ease, swinging what looks like an oversized Ping-Pong paddle and thwacking a yellow plastic ball with a crisp “tock.”
She rallies with a partner — lobbing, volleying and backhanding the ball over the net in rapid exchanges.
Three years after discovering pickleball, this Monday afternoon session at a new indoor court has become part of the 58-year-old’s routine. She plays three times a week and has no plans of stopping.
“I’ve done many sports in my life and I love doing sports. But this sport is special. There’s something that hooks you the first time you play. And I’m not the only one,” Hamel said.
Combining elements of tennis, badminton and Ping-Pong, pickleball saw a surge in popularity across North America during the pandemic that has continued to grow ever since.
The craze has officially come to Montreal, and the demand for courts designated for the sport has spiked.
Across the city, public tennis courts are being shared with pickleball players and small indoor courts are cropping up, but Hamel says it’s not enough to satisfy the demand.
That’s why she’s thankful to have found Centre Pickle, a new 14-court indoor pickleball centre located in the Mercier—Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough.
“Now we don’t have to share. We can play all day long,” Hamel said.
More young people playing
The centre opened its doors to the public at the start of November, and its co-founder Valérie Lapointe says interest has exceeded her expectations.
“We did an open house … and we had 600 people coming in two days. So that was insane,” she said.
The 14-court indoor pickleball centre opened its doors to the public at the start of November. (Sabrina Jonas/CBC)
Lapointe says it was a family project that she started in March with her husband and two young kids after discovering the sport only two years ago.
“Pickleball was always in the background, so we knew about it, but we never tried it because it was kind of like, ‘Oh, that’s for old people,'” she said.
But after a road trip to the U.S., the family was floored by how the sport has been embraced there. “It was so young, so dynamic, huge communities. So it’s when we basically fell in love with the sport,” Lapointe said.
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