Pickleball players who choose Lang Park in Laguna Beach as their spot to play have paid more than $100 each to switch to quiet paddles, but they say it’s worth it.
The paddles, sold by the city at cost, are required at the South Laguna park as of Thursday, April 10, after the City Council approved a law that fines people for using the noisier traditional paddles. The Police Department’s Park Rangers will enforce the new law, city officials said.
The city has another set of six outdoor courts at Alta Laguna Park and two inside courts at the city’s Community and Recreation Center on South Coast Highway, where the quiet paddles are not required.
The decision followed several years of other efforts to deaden the game’s pop, pop, pop sound that neighbors in a nearby senior community say has ruined their quality of life.
In 2023, the city installed sound barriers around the courts, which were tennis ball courts since converted for pickleball as the sport grew in popularity.
Councilmember Sue Kempf said the city also offered to install double-pane windows for one of the neighbors most impacted.
But complaints from the Vista Aliso community continued, and the city began limiting the hours pickleball play is allowed. Presently, no matches are allowed on Mondays or in the afternoons on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
When neighbors had previously complained the noise was still a nuisance, the council tested out a prototype quiet paddle and found it helped deaden the ping-pong of constant sound,
In February, the council unanimously agreed to require the quiet paddles, and last month it voted to put the new law in place. The limited hours of play will remain in place.
Kempf said the city in the long term will still consider moving the pickleball courts further away from the community.
Susana Cruciana said she and the other residents who live in the 71 units located in five buildings just feet from the courts have been seeking quiet for years.
“I started advocating at 68, and now I’m 75,” she recently told councilmembers. “When you reduced the hours last year, it gave the residents some quiet time.”
She told the council that residents in the community who live on the ground level and second floor have been subjected to “obsessive pops” comparable to the sound of firecrackers.
She is still petitioning to have the courts moved entirely.
“The real problem with their proposed ordinance is that it does not reduce sound levels,” she said. “Residents lose control over the sounds in their home.”
“Why pass an ordinance that does not solve the problem?” she asked.
Another woman at the recent council meeting said she plays with a small group of about 12 women three or so times a week and agreed that quiet paddles are a solution. She also suggested using quiet balls.
“They play almost like regular balls,” she said.
Another north Laguna resident who plays regularly said she was bothered that the city had implemented so many restrictions on the players.
“I’d like to see my hours back. We’ve come to the point as pickleball players where enough is enough,” she said. “This is our community, too, and 140 people attend Lang Park.”
Another speaker asked, “Why do people have to have this kind of noise for other people’s play? I work out, I’m in shape, but my workout doesn’t make other people sick.”
On Wednesday, when play is allowed all day, two of the three courts at Lang were in use.
All but one player had already purchased their new paddle — paying about $120 for each. The city had sold 220 paddles as of Wednesday, Kempf said.
“I was expecting it to feel different,” Daisy Firebaugh, of Laguna Niguel, who plays regularly with the group at Lang, said of her new paddle. “I resisted for a long time. I was surprised it didn’t impact the game.”
Kerry Satterthwaite, of Laguna Beach, said she thinks the paddles are definitely quieter than the regular ones.
“It takes a little while to get used to them,” she said. “Part of pickleball is the noise.”
Both women spent more than a hundred dollars on their new gear, but they said it was worth it because they love the courts at the South Laguna park.
“When all 12 are playing, no one has complained,” Laguna Beach Gail Taleisnik said, nodding toward the nearby neighbors.
Dee Cannata of Laguna Niguel was the sole holdout without the new paddle, but said she was going to get her’s ASAP.
“I like playing here,” Cannata said about her upcoming purchase. “That’s the only reason I’m getting one. I don’t need it where I play in Laguna Niguel.”
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