On Sunday afternoons, small crowds gather around two pickleball courts at Mother Waldron Park in Kakaako. The popping sound of hard plastic echoes off nearby buildings adorned with street-art murals. A dozen or so paddles lean on the chain link fence between the courts in neat groups of four, ready for the next doubles match. Most belong to casual pickleball players, regular people just trying to have fun, be outside and stay active. But one of them belongs to Keven Wong.
Even in casual play, Wong seems to know where the ball will be before it gets there. He's measured and balanced, but also free and fluid enough to go for difficult, unorthodox shots: behind the back, between the legs, around the sides of the net. It's textbook form with back-of-the-class playfulness.
"I've always loved doing trick shots and fancy shots," he says. "If it goes in and I win the point, it's an awesome thing for people to see. It's not always the smartest shot, but sometimes it's the only shot I have." His willingness to go for high-risk shots belies his patience on the court. He weathers opponents' barrages with maddening composure, calmly returning attacks with the smooth automaticity of a supercomputer.
Wong, 33, is Hawaii's top local player, ranked seventh overall in the Western region-the only one in the top fifty not from California. He's won every major doubles tournament in Hawaii, and when he isn't sharing the court with top-five pickleball pro Riley Newman or tennis Hall-of-Famer Michael Chang, he can be found in parks and gymnasiums across Oahu, trading volleys with whoever happens to be there.
(ABOVE) If you can’t find a city court, then build your own. The backyard of Bee’s family home is dedicated to the sport—as is his entire family, who host tournaments on their home court. (BELOW) 13-year-old pickleball phenom Kona Bee smashes a shot. Bee is among the new generation of players who’s a pickleball native; he didn’t come to it, like most older players, from tennis.
Like most of the best pickleball players in Hawaii and in general, Wong came to the game after a lifetime of tennis. Following a successful college career in California, he returned home with little interest in the game he'd played since he was seven years old. "I just got tired of it," he says. "I maybe played one more local tournament after college, but I was burned out. It wasn't something I wanted to keep doing."
He kept himself busy with other sports: basketball, volleyball, even spikeball. Then in 2017, friends invited him to play a new game with a goofy name. It was love at first serve. "Everything in pickleball is what I loved in tennis," says Wong. "Everything quick, everything with control, everything at the net. And I don't have to serve overhand anymore."
It's not hard to see how tennis skills transfer to pickleball, but there are also some key differences. As Wong says, pickleball serves take place at waist level, making them less of a weapon than in tennis. The court is smaller-you can fit four pickleball courts in one tennis court-and since pickleballs have holes in them, the game is slower, making it less of a physical grind than tennis.
Perhaps the biggest difference, however, is the "kitchen," a non-volley zone stretching seven feet on either side of the net. You can enter the kitchen only after the ball has bounced in it. The kitchen dictates the overall strategy of the game. In tennis, most rallies consist of full-court groundstrokes with lots of spin and pace on the ball, but the goal of pickleball is to drop the ball into the opponent's kitchen and get to your own kitchen line. From there, opponents trade light volleys called dinks into each other's kitchens until an opportunity to smash it arises. Tennis rewards pace and power; pickleball prioritizes placement and patience. "I don't have any intention of playing tennis again at this point," Wong says.
The sentiment is surprising given how many tennis players there are in pickleball, but it's also exceedingly common. Pickleball has the tendency to crowd out other interests. Once people start pickling, they're often unable to keep a lid on their enthusiasm. "I didn't think I'd fall in love with pickleball the way I did," says Xiao Yi Wang-Beckvall. "I wasn't expecting to be so passionate about it. It's an addicting sport."
Wang-Beckvall, 23, has been playing pickleball for less than a year, but she's already one of Hawaii's top up-and-coming female talents. That's saying something: Whereas Wong is the only regionally ranked player from Hawaii on the men's side, there are three Hawaii players in the women's top fifty in the West region. Wang-Beckvall is expected to join them sooner than later. No pressure.
She started playing tennis when she was four years old. After a promising high school career at Iolani School, she received a full-ride academic scholarship to Hawaii Pacific University, and although the school has a strong tennis program, she opted instead to focus on the thing that paid her tuition. When she graduated in 2022, however, a familiar drive stirred.
"I missed playing sports, missed being competitive," she says. "I heard the buzz about pickleball and that tennis players were having good results when they switched over. I figured, why not give it a shot? The first time I played, it was humbling but also incentivizing. I felt like, 'I know I can do so much better than this.'" She was right. After playing for only a month, she entered the Hawaii State Pickleball Championships, one of the biggest tournaments in the state. The tournament is divided by skill level divisions, with 2.5 at the low end and 5.0 at the high end, with different divisions at 0.5 intervals. Wang-Beckvall went home with gold medals in 3.5 singles, another gold in 4.0 women's doubles and a bronze medal in 5.0 mixed doubles-against the best male and female players in the state.
Talk of tournaments and rankings and medals-it's all pretty new. Pickleball is in the middle of a commercial and professional transformation, and players like Wong and Wang-Beckvall are dinking on the edge of a revolution. Up until recently, pickleball was seen as a frivolity, a game better suited for elementary school PE classes and elderly workout sessions, more akin to tai chi than tennis. Created by a trio of families in 1965 on Bainbridge Island in Washington state, pickleball was originally meant to give bored, mopey kids something to do. The game was cobbled together using a badminton net, table tennis paddles and a perforated plastic wiffle ball. The name is a reference to that jerry-rigged quality; in rowing the term "pickle boat" is a last-minute crew assembled from whatever rowers are available.
(ABOVE) There aren't many courts dedicated to pickleball, plenty of players are. Most games are played using portable nets like the ones seen above at Kaneohe District Park on Oahu. The Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation has announced plans to add sixty-seven more courts. (BELOW) Much of the appeal of pickleball is the way it brings people together; it's common for men and women, boys and girls of all ages to play with and against each other. After the games at Kaneohe District Park (above), it's time for a kani ka pila (jam).
It slowly spread from the Pacific Northwest the same way it continues to spread now: through the force of enthusiasm. Hawaii was one of the first states to catch pickle fever when, just a few years after it was invented, a family from Bainbridge Island brought the game with them on a Maui vacation. Pickleball was then lobbed from one island to the next, and it's been here ever since. By 1990, pickleball was being played in all fifty states, despite almost no media coverage or advertising behind it. Coconut wireless with nationwide coverage.
Now the game that was little more than a regional novelty not long ago is undergoing a big money makeover, fueled by billionaires, celebrities and celebrity billionaires. A list of pickleball investors would make an enviable guest list for a presidential campaign fundraiser: Steve Kuhn, Thomas Dundon, Mark Cuban, LeBron James, Tom Brady, Heidi Klum, Michael Phelps and Patrick Mahomes, among dozens more. There are hundreds of paddle manufacturers-including once-reluctant tennis companies-and multiple competing professional tours. Prize money has also ballooned: The first national championship tournament in 2009 offered a total of $7,000 in prize money. This year it's $150,000.
Where money flows, possibility abounds. The professionalization of pickleball means it's no longer just a hobby for the unathletic. It can be a legitimate livelihood. As Wong began to cement his position in the Islands, sponsorship opportunities came, from gear and apparel company Engage Pickleball as well as Day One, a CBD-infused water drink. He made the decision to leave his job as a speech pathologist and rehab director at a geriatric care facility to commit to pickleball full time-while his wife was pregnant with their second child. She had some reservations.
"There were a lot of hard conversations with my wife," he says. "Pickleball is still pretty new, and it's difficult living in Hawaii and raising two young kids." She ultimately acquiesced, and so far it's been working out. Because she also works part time, the logistics of raising two infant children means Wong hasn't yet been able to compete in Mainland tournaments, where the competition is tougher and the prize money is bigger. "It's something I hope to do in the future," he says, "but right now I've been leaning into teaching." Wong teaches classes at the Nuuanu YMCA and the Oahu Pickleball Association, and recently he was hired at the Waialae Country Club as its resident pickle pro. He also offers private lessons, his most notable pupil being tennis champion Michael Chang, whom he helped prepare for an ESPN showcase tournament that also features Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and John McEnroe.
Wang-Beckvall is a little more ambivalent about going pro, but she hasn't ruled it out. "It would be fun to play in Major League Pickleball," she says, "and I'm a competitive person, so I want to see how far I can take it. I want to be the best player that I can be, but if it becomes something that is giving me more frustration and stress than enjoyment, I need to step back and reevaluate. At the end of the day, I want to keep playing for a long time, and I want it to be something fun."
Pickleball's mainstream emergence also spells change for the game itself. The current best players are all former tennis players, but a new generation of pickleball natives is on the rise. Kona Bee is one of Hawaii's most dynamic young players. The 13-year-old has been playing for two years, mostly against adults. And he isn't just playing against them. He's beating them. "I like playing against adults," he says. "It's challenging. They hit hard and they're taller. I don't want them to go easy on me. Then I don't improve and they won't know my skill."
One of his weapons is his ambidexterity, making every shot a potential forehand, which is almost always a stronger shot than a backhand. "I was playing around and using my left hand instead of my backhand," he says, noting that he normally writes left-handed. "I noticed that it helped a lot to get balls that were farther away." Bee has medaled in tournaments on Maui and Oahu, including one run by his family, who constructed a pickleball court in their backyard. He also plays for his school team at King Intermediate, one of the first middle school teams in the state. If his creativity and tenacity are at all representative of his peers, the future of pickleball in Hawaii will be as exciting as it will be surprising.
Despite the real-time evolution of pickleball, it is still, at its essence, the same joyful game that brings people together. You'll see kids playing with adults, men with women, gym rats with dad-bods. That dynamic isn't just possible, it's normal. Pickleball is a game of radical inclusivity. Now the challenge isn't getting the word out about the game so much as finding a place to play. There are only ten dedicated pickleball courts on Oahu. That's set to change soon: The Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation has announced plans to add another sixty-seven, with permanent nets.
Though there aren't many courts dedicated to pickleball, there are more than enough players who are, and the pickleball community has thrived even if they depend on portable nets. More than anything, community is what keeps people coming back. "You can improve your lifestyle, meet new friends, make better relationships with people, just by coming together and playing pickleball," Bee says. "It's a very rewarding sport to play," says Wang-Beckvall, "and if you've never picked up a racket or a paddle before, you'll still have a good time. You can't say that about many sports."
