Pickleball picking up on Maui
Residents and visitors play pickup pickleball on the new dedicated courts last week at the Lahaina Civic Center courts. The West Maui Parks division installed four new public pickleball courts, which are open daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. The Maui News / DAKOTA GROSSMAN photos
Pukaball Maui ambassador Laurie Loney joins in on the fun Thursday morning.
Renwick Adriano waits for the serve during a pickup game of pickleball on Thursday at the Lahaina Civic Center courts.
Residents and visitors play pickup pickleball on the new dedicated courts last week at the Lahaina Civic Center courts. The West Maui Parks division installed four new public pickleball courts, which are open daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. The Maui News / DAKOTA GROSSMAN photos
Pukaball Maui ambassador Laurie Loney joins in on the fun Thursday morning.
Renwick Adriano waits for the serve during a pickup game of pickleball on Thursday at the Lahaina Civic Center courts.
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LAHAINA -- Pukaball Maui ambassador Laurie Loney smiled while playing pickup pickleball at the newly-opened West Maui courts.
"You don't know how long I've been trying to get it over here," Loney said at the Lahaina Civic Center Tennis Courts last week. "I've been looking for an ambassador out here for a couple years now."
Current pickleball court locations include Kihei, Kahului, Kula and Makawao, but the Department of Parks and Recreation West Division added four more courts in Lahaina.
The Westside courts are open daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., with a group playing at 5:30 p.m. on Thursdays and 8 a.m. on Saturdays. All levels of experience are welcome.
"There aren't a lot of residents right now, but we're hoping it will grow locally because we have a lot of visitors playing," Loney said. "But we've been needing a pickleball venue on this side for a long time, so this makes us very happy."
Between all locations, Loney estimated the game on Maui has about 190 participants.
"It's very popular among the baby-boomer generation, but young people are getting into now," she added. "One of our best female players is 12 years old.”
On Maui, they call it Pukaball, which was a term derived by Loney's father after pickleball was introduced to the island in the late 1960s by co-inventor Barney MacCallum.
Her father quickly fell in love with the sport and built a court.
"We had one of the first courts in the state of Hawaii," she said. "So that's pretty cool, there's a lot of history of this game on Maui, but only in the past three to four years has it really started to pick up here."
Loney described pickleball as a combination of tennis, badminton, ping pong and volleyball. The game is played on a tennis court, but the area is much smaller.
"It's ridiculous, this sport is growing so fast," she added. "We are happy to teach new players how to play, us ambassadors or other players."
Like tennis, pickleball can be played as a singles or doubles game, and is typically played to 11 points, but must be won by two.
The serve must be hit underhand from behind the baseline to the adjacent service box. In doubles, each player serves until a point is lost before the other team gets the serve.
The ball must bounce once after the serve before the component can begin hitting it. Then, after the ball has bounced once on both sides of the net, the ball can be hit without bouncing as long as the players are outside of the painted no-volley zone, which is seven feet from the net.
If a serve hits the no-volley zone, then the serving team and/or player loses a point. If the ball goes out of bounds or double bounces, the opposite team is awarded a point.
Pickleball can be played indoors or outside.
A Summer Slam Pickleball Tournament is scheduled for Aug. 24 at 4 p.m. at the Lahaina Civic Center. It's a free event open to the first 32 players who register by the Friday.
There are also tournaments and clinics set for September and December.
"It's about bringing the community together, that's what it's really doing," said Renwick Adriano, 20-year Makawao resident who now resides in Honolulu. "By the end, you don't know who won or lost because it's about the fun we had."
Adriano said that he started playing pickleball because it was an exciting and challenging activity, but not too challenging. Over the last few years of participating, he said it has helped him to get back into shape.
"There's all walks of life playing this game," he said. "People are so happy to play a sport again."
His granddaughter, a freshman at Maui High School, also decided to play pickleball as part of the physical education curriculum. Kalama Intermediate school and Carden Academy have also added the sport.
"I was excited to hear that she chose this," he added. "I guess I'll have to go buy a paddle."
To learn more about pickleball on Maui and how to sign up for classes or join pick up games, visit pickleballmaui.com.
* Dakota Grossman is at Dgrossman@mauinews.com.