Special Q&A With the Owners of Mexico’s First Pickleball Resort, Sally and Paul!

"Twelve years ago I agreed to go for lessons and brought Sally with me. I personally learned pickleball by holding a paddle in my right hand and wearing flip-flops. After that two-hour lesson on bringing up stuff like ‘the kitchen’ and ‘the dink’, we were thinking ‘what is this?’ That same night we ran to San Jose and bought running shoes,” said Paul.

“We saw a need for a facility and we loved the game. Like I said, one of the reasons that made Tres Palapas what it has become is that we came from having no racquet experience of any kind and we built a place that we wanted to be at,” said Paul.

“We are different because we put pickleball first. We were built all around pickleball and it wasn't until this year that we actually opened rooms. There is so much more that you can have other than people coming to fill rooms. Other facilities are missing a huge part of the business. They are missing what you can bring to the community. Establishing a facility like Tres Palapas, has really refined how to be viable,” said Sally.

“DUPR is getting very good recognition in the pickleball world. Now players are telling us, 'Here’s my DUPR,' and we get questioned if we use DUPR for registrations for our tournaments. Other than that, it's a huge motivator for the individuals who come in the door, and at the end of the day, it's great for the club because people have a greater investment in pickleball. Our players go from participating in events and clinics to becoming a greater part of the community,” said Paul.

" All that DUPR needs to know is the scores at the end of the game and who you were playing against. So being a resort, we've got our locals here, expats, as well as a lot of tourism. As an overall, we get a lot of different people coming in. It gives us a base to give people good quality play, especially for our round robins, our ladders, and leagues,” said Paul.

“The first international junior tournament, which at the time was the largest junior tournament ever held, took place here at Tres Palapas in 2018. Some of the kids that were in that tournament are now running their own facilities in Mexico. DUPR makes their jobs easier and more possible. It gives them a solid foundation of something that's reliable. San Jose, our little tiny airport here, receives 7 million visitors from the United States alone every year, and a lot of them play pickleball. They need places to play and DUPR is helping out,” said Sally.

“The pickleball boom is on in Mexico. We're almost ten years into this now. We've had half a million paid entries through the gates. We have spawned so much pickleball in Mexico, and it's just at this point where it's starting to take off. You know, for us, we're the cornerstone in Mexico. Everybody still looks to us as to how they build their future. So hey, the next pickleball boom is right here. Mexico is it!” said Sally.