by Kelly Campbell
The summer season is heating up, the courts are filling up, and pickleball players everywhere are looking for new ways to take their game to the next level.
This year, there’s one upgrade we’re particularly excited about: being able to take our pickleball paddles on the open water. InflatableIsland.co now offers a first-of-its-kind floatable pickleball court. Talk about an epic summer activity for pickleballers.
Read on for everything we know about the inflatable court, plus more unique pickleball court offerings. We hope you can use this as a jumping-off point to add more fun to your pickleball game this summer.
More on the Floating Pickleball Court
When we first heard about it, we had a lot of questions. Is this a pickleball-adjacent gimmick or an actual court for serious players? Can you really play an honest game of pickleball on a body of water? While we haven’t had a chance to try it ourselves, it looks like the answer is yes.
The floor is built from DWF material, the same high-density material used in professional stand-up paddleboards, which keeps the surface rigid, stable underfoot, and firm enough for an authentic bounce. The playing surface comes in at the official 44 by 20 feet and has all the court lines you’d expect, including the baseline, service boxes, and non-volley zone.
We’re hopeful that these courts will become more prevalent at summer rentals, beaches and all of the places where pickleball courts and offerings are already becoming increasingly common. The floatable court could actually make pickleball more accessible in these places, because they require less construction and aren’t permanent.
If you want to get your hands on one of these now, you’ll find more information and variations of these courts on the InflatableIsland.co website. There are three configurations to choose from; the Standard is an open concept at 59 by 29.5 feet. The Large adds a front entry base for easier player access at 66 by 33 feet, while the X-Large maxes out at 72 by 33 feet and includes full perimeter netting walls for a more enclosed setup.
All three products work on lagoons, lakes, pools, and calm ocean water, and a land-based version is also available for events and venues without water access. You can also get them custom-branded. The court inflates in 60 to 90 minutes, and comes with an anchoring system and a two-year warranty. Courts are made to order with a 60 to 90 day production timeline, and they ship and get set up as two separate pieces (a bottom float base and an inflatable top). If you go with the X-Large, the perimeter netting walls are functional and actually keep balls in play so you’re not chasing shots into the water every five minutes.
If you’re looking to buy one of these yourself for private use or for teams, events, and larger venues, you can expect to spend $24,000-40,000.
Pickleball’s Recreational Reign: Why Getting Creative Is Good for the Game
While the price tag for the inflatable court might be a little too steep for the average player to own, hopefully, there will be more demand and implementation at other resorts. In general, we hope it serves as inspiration for more recreational pickleball development.
Pickleball’s explosive growth is inspiring a whole new wave of creativity that’s making the sport more fun and exciting for everyone. The floating court is a perfect example of what happens when the pickleball market gets big enough to inspire innovative designs like this one.
This floating court and the press it’s getting are all great recruiting tools for pickleball. It’s a lot easier to convince your non-pickleball friend to give the sport a shot when you’re not just dragging them to the community court. A lagoon court in Miami or a rooftop with a skyline view is a much better sell.
Beyond the cool factor, courts like this one open up real commercial opportunities across the board. From resorts, summer camps, lake houses, and corporate retreats to municipalities that don’t have the budget or space for permanent infrastructure, pickleball is accessible in places it never was before. More venues means more players, more players means more equipment sales, more visibility, and more investment flowing back into the sport, creating a great cycle for pickleball longevity.
Unique Pickleball Courts + Ways to Dink this Season
For both professional and recreational players, it’s important to shake things up once in a while to keep your game at its best. There’s no better way to do that than changing where and how you play pickleball.
Check out some of these unique courts and pickleball setups, past and present.
New York City Pickleball: In one of the most iconic cities on the planet, there’s now no shortage of pickleball courts that are surrounded by spectacular views and offer creative layouts to fit amongst the city landscape.
- Wollman Rink at Central Park: Now a summer season staple, Central Park’s Wollman Rink is transformed into a pickleball paradise each year. The venue is surrounded by skyline views and all of the beauty Central Park has to offer.
- Brooklyn Bridge: Picklers can find courts at Pier 2, previously a barren stretch of land in Brooklyn’s Dumbo. The courts sit underneath the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, and offer a dual purpose: repurposing underutilized city space and creating pickleball courts with spectacular views.
- The Edge: In 2024, an iconic pickleball court was built atop this NYC observatory, 1,000+ feet above Manhattan. The pop-up offered unparalleled 360 views.
Cruise Ships: Dedicated pickleball cruises like Pickleball at Sea run sailings on Royal Caribbean ships with daily on-court time, skill-based instruction from professional players, and port stops at destination venues like Baha Mar Resort in Nassau, Bahamas. Celebrity Cruises offers pickleball on 12 ships, including Edge-class vessels where courts sit at the open-air Rooftop Garden with panoramic ocean views. And for something truly unexpected, AmaWaterways introduced the first full-sized pickleball court on any river cruise ship on the AmaMagna, the largest vessel on the Danube and nearly double the width of a typical river ship, meaning you can rally your way through the Austrian countryside between stops at medieval towns. It’s pickleball on the water, just not quite as directly as an inflatable court.
Baseball Fields: The Pickle4 Ballpark Series brought pickleball to Fenway Park’s iconic outfield, hosting over 1,000 hours of gameplay, 936 competitive amateur matches, and a pro showcase aired on CBS Sports Network. Twelve temporary courts were set up across the outfield, available for anyone to rent in 80-minute increments. The series also stopped at Oracle Park in San Francisco, proving that baseball’s most legendary venues are more than happy to let pickleball take over for a weekend.
PA Manure Tank Pickleball: A totally different vibe from the extravagance of the city skyline or floatable court is this converted manure tank pickleball court in Pennsylvania. Farmer Arlin Benner in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, converted an idle manure slurry tank on his father’s Rocky Acre Farm B&B into a regulation pickleball court, complete with LED lights installed at the top of the tank for night games. The tank had been sitting empty for 12 years before Benner resurfaced the floor with a fresh layer of concrete and transformed it into a court.
Sources
http://InflatableIsland.co/products/floating-pickleball-court
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