Padel in Ericeira - who needs surf?
Joooking, calm down surferboyzzz. Sorry, but I just like people who prioritise padel over surf 🙃 On a random spring day in April 2023, I took an Uber with ma fav Uber driver, Flavio. I asked him if he has been playing some ping pong (as I played a lot during that time in Ericeira). And he's like nooooo, but I started playing padel. Me: What? - Him: Padel. - Me: What? Him: .. Opening YouTube and showing me my fav new hobby ..
Since then, people have occasionally accused me of greeting them and then asking within the first 5 sentences to join the next padel match. My way of small talk 😂 If you and me ever end up playing padel together - I am very happy to also deep talk with you afterwards and discuss all my wild theories about padel kens and padel barbies. But now first the practical bits.
CoolGym's Ericeira padel prices
There is one major padel place in town called CoolGym CoolPadel, and one minor padel place called Santa Marta Park (but that one has an ocean view). Padel is played with 4 people on one court, 2 people on each side; similar to tennis.
Once you have 4 people together - the easiest way to book a padel court at CoolGym is to WhatsApp them. Second-easiest way to book is by getting the app Tie Player and see at which times courts are still available.
Padel Ericeira prices for CoolGym (5-9pm):
€30 per court (4 people) for 1h - rackets included
€38 per court (4 people) for 1.5h - rackets included
Overall a very cool team: they even wear shirts with “cool staff” written on. You can also have a post- or pre-padel-gym-session and shower there. Let's not talk about post- or pre-padel-beers. But yes, you can have those as well at their lil cool bar. You really that naive to think people join padel to play padel and not purely to have post-padel-beers??
Santa Marta Park's Ericeira padel prices
Easiest way to book the Santa Marta Park's ocean-view padel court is to go there in person during the office opening hours and pay with any Portuguese or international credit card.
Opening hours of the office to book a court:
Monday to Friday: 10am - 1pm and 3pm - 7pm
Saturday: 9am - 1pm and 3 - 6pm
Padel Ericeira prices for Santa Marta Park:
€25 per court (4 people) for 1h + €2 per racket
Fun fact 1: On the first day I started working on this website, I went for my first ocean-view padel game in the evening (to get my brain off this addictive stuff). Fun fact 2: I could see the ocean-view padel court from my last flat (circled in red) 😎
No padel mates (yet), no cry
You have nobody to play with? Lemme add ya to the padel gangs 🤓💃🔊🎾 While the private padel gangs are sometimes active, sometimes not, the padel tournaments which CoolGym organises do happen all the time & quickly get booked out. They are happening:
- Fridays 7:30 - 9:30 pm men & women mixed padel tournament for €13 with snacks included at the end (I've heard they maybe have some tiny beers as well)
- Wednesdays 1 - 3 pm men & women mixed padel tournament for €11.50 with a drink at the end. Plus they prioritise signups from women, if they sign up before Tuesday 1pm (ruuuules are rules - even though the CoolGym team is not even German?!)
Padel in Ericeira: more of a social sport
Some people say padel is “more of a social sport” - and yea, if you're not playing against people who challenge you, you might not move too much and rather chat in between. The most social aspect of it is, actually, that most people can learn it pretty quickly.
If you're an absolute padel newbie, you probably worry about the basic logistics: Do not. At both padel places in town, when you rent a court, you also can borrow a racket. So whenever you're gonna turn up to your first padel match, bring water and normal sports clothes - that's it, no racket or anything else needed :) Btw, the picture below is me, on the day that I built the first pieces of this website.
Padel addiction diagnosis criterion: you can't wait to play padel after work
Actually, I correct myself - the most social part of the game is, that you can annooooooooy people so badly. Like, my focus reaches its highest level if I want to “corner” a certain person. Which means hitting the ball in a way that it hits the glass in the corner, and they have no chance getting it 👹
No joke, that's what I look forward to during work, when I know padel is on tonight. I think about how badly I will annoy my friends. Aaand how flowy it will be to dance in between - because we're listening to hip hop or 2000er dance hits while playing.
Padelmeplease = challenge me please
While everyone can learn it pretty easily, at the same time, you can improve soo much in it, learn so many techniques and challenge each other. I took padel lessons for a year at CoolGym, and most of the time I had that amazing feeling of “ohh I don't want the lesson to be over, I want to keep learning”.
Vasco, the padel teacher, is a star. The 1 thing he will teach you: Slice, don't smash. He is indeed a master at slicing and playing sneaky, and what can I say, he is just right. I've heard people gossiping Vasco is the “most wanted man in town”, because padel and padel lessons are sooo hyped, he's sooo booked out.
It's so much hyping that you can play it now everywhere. Even in tiny Taghazout in Morocco, a 5-star hotel built a new ocean-view padel court. Berlin is a nightmare and all the evening spots are booked out way in advance!
I love padel - why did I never try tennis before?
Usually people (men) who played tennis before, are pretty good in padel. Just as furniture maker Richard, who has been a tennis coach on Fuerteventura in his past life. Tennis somehow never gave me the impression that it's easy and quick to learn, although turns out it's not tooo difficult to grasp either. I joined the Cowork & Tennis at BreakPoint a few times and enjoyed it :)
Graphic-design-Laura and dog-sitting-Laura is btw also a tennis-girl aaaand a padel-girl as you can see below (but mainly a running-girl).
For a proper sweat: workout or run, don't padel in Ericeira
I admit it, sometimes padel is not giving me an ultimate sweaty endorphiny high. For a guaranteed exhaustion high: join the workouts. Orrr are you happy being the skinny padel guy? Well, if you think workouts are wayyy too boring and robotic, start with running to feel at least something burning.
To feel my lungs burning, I have ma Monday 6:30 pm running + ocean dip + sparkling water (maybe a tiny beer) gang. When I'm completely sweaty after running with all the marathon pros - then dipping into the ocean almost feels like a warm baby bath. The endorphins afterwards, aiaiaiaiai 🐳
