A hurricane-resistant padel court has been installed in Miami by Spanish company Padelgest.
With climate change bringing increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather conditions, the glass walls of outdoor padel courts are vulnerable to damage and even collapse.
Nowhere was this better illustrated than here in Great Britain in October, when Storm Ciaran devastated the state-of-the-art Island Padel club in Jersey, wrecking their courts and forcing the club to close for the foreseeable future.
Thankfully, no-one was hurt by the collapse of Island Padel’s courts but such incidents pose a clear safety risk whenever they occur.
The hurricane-resistant court, which is able to withstand wind speeds of 180mph (for comparison, Storm Ciaran reached a maximum of 125mph), could therefore be a game-changer.
Padelgest – founded in Barcelona in 2003 and manufacturers of the first World Padel Tour court –
undertook extensive research into where the highest wind speeds occur. They then looked into what materials and methods could be used to build a sufficiently resistant padel court, without compromising panoramic design.
Last September, Padelgest successfully installed the first 100% panoramic anti-hurricane certified padel court in the most exposed area of the world, Miami, Florida (where padel has exploded in popularity).
The court is the first not to require the removal of glass panels in the event of a tropical storm, which saves inconvenience and extra cost.
A Padelgast statement said: “This is a padel court for the future which not only considers factors beyond design but also can provide functional solutions to a changing, constantly evolving world.”
