A Discovery Hidden in the Archives
When Toronto researcher Jon de la Mothe combed through Pickleball Canada's archives, he uncovered something remarkable: a grainy photograph from the early 1980s showing a shirtless man with a mustache and Chevron cap, wooden paddle in hand, playing on what appeared to be a rooftop court. The location? 1050 West Pender Street in downtown Vancouver, atop the Daon Development building.
This wasn't just any building. It was the headquarters of a company led by Jack Poole, the visionary who would later bring the 2010 Winter Olympics to Vancouver. And on its roof, hidden from street level, was a thriving pickleball community that most Vancouverites never knew existed.
The Rooftop League That Time Forgot
By 1984, the rooftop courts at 1050 West Pender had evolved into something extraordinary: a 48-team pickleball league. Players would take the elevator to the top floor, then climb stairs to reach the courts where the Vancouver skyline stretched out in every direction.
The game played on those rooftop courts looked different from what you'd see on modern pickleball courts today. Wooden paddles were the standard equipment, their solid construction producing a distinctive thwack with each hit. The soft game, the dinking rallies that define contemporary pickleball strategy, was almost unheard of. Players favored power shots, the ball rocketing back and forth across the net.
The early 1980s photograph captures this era perfectly. The player's casual attire, the rudimentary equipment, the makeshift court lines painted on the roof, all tell the story of a sport finding its footing in Canada, far from its birthplace on Bainbridge Island, Washington.
How Pickleball Found Its Way North
The game itself was barely a teenager when it arrived in Canada. Invented in 1965 by Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum on Bainbridge Island, pickleball grew slowly at first. The first official court wasn't constructed until 1967, and for years the sport remained largely unknown outside the Pacific Northwest.
Canadian "snowbirds" changed that trajectory. Throughout the early 1970s, these winter migrants returned from Arizona and Florida with stories of a new game they'd discovered. Part tennis, part badminton, part ping-pong, it could be played by people of all ages and skill levels. They wanted to keep playing when they returned home.
There's no definitive date when pickleball officially arrived in Canada. The sport's growth was organic, spreading through word of mouth and informal games. Players set up courts wherever they could find space, from community centers to school gymnasiums. And in Vancouver, someone at Daon Development had a brilliant idea: why not use the rooftop?
A Building With Olympic Dreams
The timing of Vancouver's rooftop pickleball league intersects fascinatingly with the city's larger sports history. While players competed above West Pender Street, Jack Poole was building the career that would eventually position him to lead Vancouver's successful Olympic bid.
The 2010 Winter Olympics would transform Vancouver into a global sports destination. But years before the world's eyes turned to Whistler and the city's Olympic venues, a different sport was quietly taking root on a downtown rooftop. The players of that 48-team league couldn't have known they were part of early Canadian pickleball history, or that the building beneath their feet was connected to someone who would bring the world's biggest winter sports event to their city.
The Courts That Vanished
The rooftop courts at 1050 West Pender continued for decades, outlasting the 1980s league and serving subsequent generations of players. But like many pieces of sports history, they eventually disappeared. When the building's roof needed resurfacing, workers painted over the court lines without understanding what they were.
The building's stewards never knew the lines marked a pickleball court. To them, they were just mysterious markings on aging asphalt. The sport had grown so much that its humble Canadian origins, including these pioneering rooftop courts, had been forgotten.
It took an archivist's careful work to bring this story back to light. The photograph that de la Mothe discovered serves as one of the few remaining pieces of evidence that these courts existed at all.
What This History Means for Canadian Pickleball
Canada's pickleball story is still being written. The Pickleball Canada Organization wasn't formally established until April 2009 at a Spring Okanagan tournament. By then, the sport had grown from those early snowbird imports and rooftop leagues into a nationwide phenomenon. Today, according to Pickleball Canada's participation survey, over 1.54 million Canadians play the sport.
Understanding where the sport came from, how it adapted to Canadian spaces and communities, adds depth to the modern game. The wooden paddles have been replaced by graphite and carbon fiber. The power-focused play of the 1980s has evolved into the strategic dinking and third-shot drops that dominate competitive matches. Courts are purpose-built now, with proper surfaces and permanent nets, not painted lines on a downtown rooftop.
But something essential remains the same: the spirit of finding space to play, of building community around a simple game with a net and a perforated ball. Those 48 teams who climbed to the roof of 1050 West Pender understood what makes pickleball special, the same thing that draws thousands of Canadians to courts across the country today.
Preserving the Stories
The Vancouver rooftop courts remind us that sports history isn't just about championship matches and famous players. It's also about the everyday people who fell in love with a game and found creative ways to keep playing. It's about the spaces where communities formed, even if those spaces were unconventional.
As pickleball continues its explosive growth across Canada, stories like this one matter. They connect today's players to the sport's Canadian roots, to the snowbirds who brought the game north, to the league organizers who convinced a development company to let them paint lines on a rooftop.
The next time you step onto a pickleball court in Vancouver, or anywhere in Canada, remember those rooftop players with their wooden paddles and power shots. They were playing the same game you are, loving it just as much, writing the first chapters of a story that continues every time the ball crosses the net.
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