The concept of floating padel has already hit Sweden, Finland and Dubai, with a spectacular looking project in Miami coming soon. Now it can be revealed that nautical padel is also coming to the UK.
Ville Leisti, the Finnish founder and CEO of Floating Padel Oy, and Tytti Sirola of Bluet Floating Solutions have partnered up with Gareth Evans of Cheshire-based Padel Ventures and Paul Danson of Imagineering Global to build the UK’s first padel court on water.
Evans said on LinkedIn: “Our collaboration with these companies brings end-to-end design and build, floating solutions to the UK’s waterways. Activating lakes, docklands, marinas and seafronts with wellness centres, swimming pools, hotels, restaurants, multi-sport facilities and residential schemes. Our sustainable and feasible schemes are the future for operators, developers and investors… It’s an honour to be working together with the global gurus of floating solutions.”
Although the location and further details of the first British floating padel court (or courts) have not yet been released, UK padel fans can allow their excitement levels to build by studying Leisti’s portfolio.
He built the world’s first ever floating padel court in Espoo, Finland and was involved in the construction of the padel court in Dubai’s Jumeirah Lake Towers. He has upcoming projects in central Europe, the Middle East and the USA as well as the UK.
Leisti told The Padel Paper: “A couple of years ago when padel was booming in Finland it was difficult to find a place to play because every court was fully booked. I thought, ‘Damn, I can build floating restaurants, marinas and swimming pools, so I can definitely build a floating padel court!’
“I started to engineer that with my team, then we built the project for a client in Finland. There is a padel court in the middle, water sports activities and a marina for 10 boats. But when it was launched, the court was immediately fully booked so I still had issues playing padel!”
Seeing its success in Finland, where daylight and summer are relatively short, Leisti was quickly convinced of the potential for floating padel courts in warmer climes.
His current project is the stunning Ultra On The Water in Miami (see top image) and early images have caused a flutter amongst the US padel glitterati.
Julian Wortleboer, Chief Padel Officer at Ultra Club in Miami, told our sister title The Padel State: “We’ve got really good traction on the floating court, and it’s going to be super, super exciting. It’s a new concept and a whole new gaming environment. And it’s going to have astounding water views. Our vision is to build floating courts and move them every few months to new locations.”
Floating courts remove the padel operator’s standard headaches of expensive groundwork and time-consuming planning applications. Renting space on water is also usually far cheaper than on land. Leisti says simpler floating padel courts can be installed within a day, with courts requiring stronger concrete platforms and bigger boat moorings taking up to three days.
He added: “You can create a whole different type of service concept on water. This type of solution allows you to do courts and projects in locations where it’s otherwise not possible. Land is very expensive and limited in many places so by doing it on water it gives you multiple opportunities.”
