Tennis Technology Tuesday
In the early rounds of televised tournaments, I find that I am frequently more interested in the matches on the outer courts than those assigned to the stadiums and grandstands. The broadcast “main feed” tends to myopically focus on the matches placed in the show courts. As a consequence, during the early rounds of tournaments, I tend to do most of my tennis viewing via the raw streams from the outer courts. It is simply where the most compelling matches are played.
It rained during the early rounds of the US Open this year. I was completely disinterested in the two matches in progress on the courts in the covered stadiums at that time. Rather than switching over, I left the stream rolling on the rainy court. It was peaceful. For inexplicable reasons, I enjoy watching rain fall on a tennis court — as long as I am not the one actually waiting to play.
The US Open uses court drying “Zamboni” like machines. When the rains stopped, the Zambonis appeared. I love the intricate ballet of what I am sure is a carefully calculated optional drying pattern. It is a mesmerizing and calming rhythm.
A short time later, the my meditation on the court drying cycle of life was punctured by short bursts of wind noise on the on-court mics. The leaf blowers had arrived. In a true Fiend at Court moment. I was super excited to discover that the US Open uses the exact same leaf blower that I use for drying courts. It is the EGO Power+ Backpack Blower.
A short time after play resumed, I was kicking myself for not taking a screen shot capturing the US Open usage of the EGO blower. It was my intent grab an image of the device in action the next time it rained. That opportunity never came, as it did not rain during the day session for the remainder of the tournament. You’re welcome, US Open.
I purchased my EGO Blower in in the middle of a team league season where the team I captained had seven matches impacted by rain. In Texas. That approaches a “Noah, build an Ark” level of improbability. In the course of that season I dealt with all manners of court drying frustrations. A lot of facilities in my area have shockingly low numbers of squeegees available and in insanely poor maintenance condition.
I play a lot at public courts where unattended court drying implements would be inadvisable. Thus, bringing my own personal device for drying courts is somewhat essential. Brooms and squeegees are not all that easy or practical to transport in a personal vehicle. Gasoline powered leaf blowers are also messy and cumbersome.
The great thing about the EGO leaf blower is that it is powered by a lithium ion battery. This makes it incredibly easy to transport. While battery powered leaf blowers have been on the market for some time, it wasn’t until fairly recently that they packed enough power to be as effective as gasoline powered models. The following link demonstrates my EGO leaf blower in use.
The downside of lithium ion battery powered devices is that the batteries can be quite expensive. To me the convenience of not having to deal with a gas powered device passes the cost-benefit analysis. At the same time I recognize that there is an inherent degree of insanity in the Fiend at Court household that may not be as prevalent in other corners of the tennis playing universe.
To me, it makes sense to buy the “bare” unit that comes without a battery, and then to purchase the largest capacity battery/charger combination that is reasonably within the remaining budget. The EGO Power+ can also be bundled with a battery, which might be a better deal in some cases.
The simple fact of the matter is that we use our EGO blower a lot. I have even used it to… follow me closely on this… to blow leaves and other debris off courts. The only issue is determining who has priority on the use of the device when members of the Fiend at Court household are playing at different sites on those days with scattered showers. Probably we should own two.
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