Santa Barbara Pickleball

Our family was able to take a nice vacation this summer up the California coast a little ways and we were able to visit Santa Barbara for a few days along the way.  Santa Barbara is one of my favorite California coastal cities and we love to vacation there whenever possible.  On this trip and different from previous trips to the area I told my family ahead of time that I had to add Santa Barbara Pickleball as one of the activities I wanted to do, and thankfully they agreed to let me play.

I researched the area before we left and found two pickleball court locations that interested me, Santa Barbara Municipal Courts and the Goleta Valley Community Center.  Luckily, just by chance I was able to get our hotel reservations within a short drive of the GVCC courts so now I knew pickleball court time would happen since we were so close to these courts.

Pickleball in Santa Barbara appears to be a small but very dedicated community of players that are passionate about the game and are devoted to playing as often as they can.  Before we left for our trip I had spoken to a friend that had played in Santa Barbara previously about what it was like to play pickleball in Santa Barbara. 

When he played there, he had several conversations with players from the area that explained to him how the Santa Barbara pickleball community is a tight knit group of mostly regular players.  The reason for this is not too many people can afford to move in to the Santa Barbara area so you tend to see the same faces all the time at the local courts.

How Many Pickleball Courts Are at Goleta Valley Community Center?

The Goleta Valley Community Center (GVCC) has 5 pickleball courts at their facility.  I read about these courts being very busy so I made sure to learn about what hours are open play at the GVCC courts.  Open play at the GVCC courts during the time we were there was 4 pm – 8 pm on weekdays and 8 am – 12 pm on weekends. 

We made it over to the courts during our visit to Santa Barbara and saw just how crowded these courts can get.  The nice thing about the GVCC courts is the player rotation system at these Santa Barbara pickleball courts was well established and followed by all players.  I felt like the games moved quickly and I didn’t think there was too much waiting time in between games even though the courts were very busy. 

We noticed how several people brought their own chairs and coolers as they planned for their downtime while waiting for their next turn to play.

The competition was solid with some very good players playing pickleball at these courts.  We were able to play twice on our visit to Santa Barbara and I wish we could have played more.  We had some pretty competitive games with some of the locals and we got invited to return the next night so we could “run it back” against a couple of teams of locals that we played. 

We had such a fun time playing pickleball in Santa Barbara.  If you will be in the area for any length of time, I highly suggest you get over to the courts and play.  The locals were very welcoming and friendly, and I wouldn’t hesitate to return to play once again. 

Santa Barbara Pickleball Courts details:

If you plan to visit Santa Barbara and you are hoping to play pickleball while you are there, these are the two court locations I found that appeared to be the best opportunity to play.  There are actually a couple of other pickleball court locations around the city, but these were the most convenient and close to hotels and tourist spots. 

The most important thing for me when I was looking for Santa Barbara pickleball courts was to pick the locations that offered the most courts at each facility as well as regular open play time.  That way we had a reasonable shot at getting on a court on the days we planned to show up and play.

Enjoy your time in Santa Barbara and have fun playing pickleball during your travels.  With the perfect coastal weather Santa Barbara is a perfect place to play pickleball.