Aloha Pickleballer You Should Know: James Douglas

Aloha Pickleballer You Should Know James Douglas, with his awesome car

Honolulu: Mystery solved.

Within weeks of taking up pickleball lessons, I began seeing the same white pickleball-themed car everywhere.

At the shopping center one day, and parked alongside the road on another.

I thought it was the Othello Principle in effect…you know, when you start noticing the things that have suddenly become important to you. Those things have always been around, but you just never noticed them before.

Turns out the pickleball car has been around in my neighborhood for years, and thanks to pickleball friend Michelle, I got in direct contact with James Douglas—the owner of the mystery car!

James serves as a USA Pickleball Ambassador and takes care of the Diamond Head Courts, where “taking care of the courts” sometimes means cleaning up garbage and some pretty unsavory stuff. He ensures that aloha prevails at the Courts, provides lessons and has his own line of apparel and gear @pickleballHI.

Learn more about James Douglas, our Aloha Pickleballer You Should Know!

James at his “home” court at Diamond Head

Let’s start out with the “Hawaii” question…where did you grow up and what high school did you go to?

I grew up in Milford, Connecticut, and I went to the Milford Academy. I spent a lot of time in Florida, after that, for undergrad/college, then back to Connecticut…I worked at Yale for a while where I did a lot of research because my background is in science and biology, and then I moved to Hawai’i five years ago.

Tell me about Pickleball HI:

Yeah, that’s just my little hobby, I do some shirts and some hats and maybe some dri-fit towels soon. It’s what I operate under, it’s my social media tag…I’m really trying to use it as a way to keep everybody in Hawai’i, and even on the mainland, informed about what’s going on here, like what tournaments are upcoming, what big events are coming, how you can donate, or how you can join USA Pickleball and become a member. That’s really our #1 duty as a USA Pickleball Ambasssador—to get people to sign up.

James’ stack of demo paddles, and his Pickleball HI gear

What paddle are you currently using?

My go-to paddle is the Legacy Pro. I have a pretty good working relationship with those guys in Alabama…I was one of the early adopters of those paddles and a reseller.

There’s a new paddle that’s out…Honolulu Pickleball Company has a series of new paddles. I just started working with them and I really like the way those paddles play and feel. They’re local guys and they’re really good.

What I really try and promote, is not so much the high-end paddles, especially with my students and people just entering the game…I try to give a “best value”, the best bang for the buck.

So, not always the big names—the Ace Club right now is a good value paddle, the Vatics are great value paddles, the Ronbus is a great value paddle. I deal with all those companies and try to put the best deal in everybody’s hands. I always try to keep my demo bag stocked with what I would consider to be a good value paddle.

The paddle rack he installed at the Diamond Head Courts

James agreed to chat with me on camera about what he does out at the Diamond Head courts, how he discovered pickleball, and what keeps him going when the going gets rough. Without further ado, please enjoy the video conversation with James!

Connect with James on facebook and Insta: @pickleballhi and on the web at: www.pickleballhi.com