Padel Playing Foreigner

                                                                                                                  Earlier  in January  this year, I was fortunate enough to visit some of my team in Jakarta. I currently work at a startup where b usiness travel is a rare occurrence given how responsible you have to be with budgets, but if you plan ahead (and make sure to spend the company’s money as if it’s your own), it’s definitely achievable. Not only would this be my first trip to Jakarta, it would be the first time I was meeting my extended team in person. Needless to say, being able to see firsthand how things are run locally , seeing the team face to face, being able to have work (and non-work) conversations around the desks and spending time together outside of the office over a delicious meal was an invaluable experience. Outside of office hours, though - the team had commitments which meant most of my nights would be free, so instead of being cooped up in my hotel room all nigh

As was mentioned in my first post , Padel is growing at a crazy rate across the world - and Singapore is no exception. It feels like there are clubs opening up every few months which is an exciting prospect for current players, as well as becoming more accessible for those interested in trying the sport.  So when the newest club in Singapore launched a mere 8 minutes bike ride from my house - I made sure I was one of the first to try it out. Prime Padel opened it doors to players on 3 May and I booked my first match for 8:00pm that evening. The club is situated on the 6th Floor of the Grand Copthorne Hotel and offers 3 open air courts of the highest quality. Besides the proximity to my house, another benefit was that during play it felt cooler than most outdoor clubs I have played given how breezy it was on the night, it's location on the river and being so high up.  A few pics of the club, and their iconic club logo featuring the Calao bird The club boasts 2 of it's 3 courts

One of the benefits of living in Singapore, is it's proximity to all that Southeast Asia has to offer. You can hop on a plane and after a ~2 hour flight, you can find yourself in exotic destinations like Bali, Cambodia, Borneo, Vietnam and the OG of tropical destinations, Thailand.  I've been fortunate enough to have visited Thailand a number of times since 2006 when I first holidayed there, and to this day - it still offers so much in terms of it's beauty, things to do and delicious food! So when a close friend in Hong Kong suggested we meet in Thailand for a Padel weekend - I was all in! Thailand, like so many other countries in the last 2 years - has seen Padel explode and this has led to increased investment to build world class facilities to attract players. To this end,  I had heard of a mythical Padel Club that neighbored a water theme park in Bang Tao (a district in Phuket) so naturally - I was super keen to try it out! I'm of course referring to  Padel Phuket a

Back in July 2023 - I woke early on a Thursday morning to an email with the subject title " Marco, Your Role at   XXX Company ". After opening the email  the body went on to inform me that my role had been impacted and I was being laid off . Naturally this   sucked , but once the dust had settled and I had a few days to process the news - I did what any normal, sane and addicted Padel player would do. I booked a week in Bali to go play Padel.  A somewhat of an " Eat, Play, Love (Padel) " trip for me if you will. While in Bali, and not having to worry about emails piling up in my inbox, deadlines and the usual stresses of having a job - I really wanted to take the opportunity to refine my game. So alongside joining a few matches each day, I thought of no better way to do this than to book private lessons with a coach. So I did. That was the day I met  Jesús  - one of the resident coaches at  Jungle Padel  in Canggu, and the person that helped me significantly improve

As mentioned in a previous post, I'm in the fortunate position that my wife loves Padel ( almost ) as much as I do. She comes from a tennis background and has a real competitive spirit to do well in all aspects of her life. On 16 April, we entered our first Mixed Couple Tournament (held at Singpadel ) where we came second 🥈. My wife had previously played in other mixed tournaments when I couldn't so we were both really excited that we could play together and we were so happy to have made it to the final. The other couple deservedly won but we had so much fun on the day itself, and of course - socializing in the pub afterwards 🍻 The finalists from left to right (1) Me, (2) Jess, (3) Namrin and (4) Pablo. Guest appearance by our little Lola. There was a great turnout with 14 teams signing up. The teams were split evenly into 2 pools and each pool was allocated 2 courts. Teams could self manage their schedules as long as every team played one another at least once until each tea

  Ask any Padel player in Singapore where they would consider the “Mecca of Padel” in Asia, and 9 (if not 10) out of 10 would give you the same answer. Bali. Also known as the Island of the Gods, Bali is no stranger t o popularity given its be autiful scenery, hospitable people and overall affordability. Tourists have been flocking there for years, until of course COVID-19! Needless to say, this hit Bali pretty hard, bringing the tourism industry (which makes up around ~80% of Bali’s economy) to a complete halt.  One "positive" C-19 did have around the world was it helped transform how people work, where they work and how they structure their days. Companies and employers alike were open to hiring talent in remote locations, they created work-from-anywhere policies and this in turn provided flexibility to the traditional 9 to 5 working days. It also led to a BOOM in the digital nomad culture. Right about now you may be asking - “But why is this important? I’m here to rea