Street Paddle – Venice Paparazzi | Venice Beach CA, Photo Agency, Community Info, News, Events

Today the Venice Paparazzi spotlight shines a light on Street Paddle!

Venice Paparazzi’s “In the Spotlight” is an interview series that highlights people and organizations in the Venice community. The purpose is to shine a light on all the positive things being done by the fantastic folks in our town! Find your community!

Let’s get to know about Street Paddle!

Who are the founding members and key players?

Our Founding members are Daniel Wulff and Andrea Carrano. We have assembled a team of amazing community members who are involved with different facets of the sport. You can see our full team on streetpaddle.co/our-team

Tell us about the your organization?

We hope StreetPaddle will be every players go-to page for all things paddle. However, we realize that most paddle players are complex, passionate beings, so we’ve created an environment for the whole community to be active at any level that fits their life. We also are working to find ways preserve our courts.

How long in business, and how did you get started? Where did the idea or inspiration come from?

Daniel Wulff and Andrea Carrano are the owners and founders of StreetPaddle. They met each other on the paddle courts in Venice Beach in 2018. Being ex tennis players and sharing a passion for surfing and other outdoor activities, they became friends. As the friendship grew, the two started obsessing about paddle tennis and the sport’s potential, dreaming about what it could become. Daniel has been running local tournaments for the past few years with great success, and Andrea has been there to support when needed. On a surf trip to Maui 2021 they started seriously discussing creating an entity that would unify both the sport and the community. Hence StreetPaddle was born, with the concept of “The Tour” serving as the main event hub of the organization. The Tour will include all other paddle organizations, span 10 months, work to establish a legitimate ranking system, as well as to build community, and create a master calendar for all the paddle events across the country. The launch of the Streetpaddle.co has been a dream come true for the founders.

Photos courtesy of Street Paddle

Tell us about the programs you run.

We are running a few different programs, all based around Venice paddle tennis.

1. We started an all gender paddle doubles tournament that has different skill divisions and happens every 10 months. It culminates with the top 8 players in each division playing a final tournament with prizes.

2. We have a variety of lessons and clinics for players of all levels 7 days a week.

3. We have a social event every month with a different theme. These events are posted on our site: streetpaddle.co/calendar – you can also see pics of past events on our photo gallery : https://streetpaddle.co/photo-gallery/

4. We have 4 tournaments during the year for players of all levels. These can also be found on our site : streetpaddle.co/calendar

What are the benefits or what can one expect from joining your community?

We hope that by signing up with StreetPaddle you will have lots of fun while meeting new people and improving your paddle tennis game.

What accomplishments are you most proud of?

There are two accomplishments we are proud to have achieved in a short amount of time.

The first is having over 400 members join StreetPaddle. This gives us validation for all the hard work we put in. The second is our ” Fill the Holes” project. We are raising money to cover the holes in the fences of our Venice courts. This is the first of many projects with the intention of preserving our courts and giving back to the community.

Meet the team! Andrea Carrano (co-founder) , Adam Schoenfeld (Director operations) , Manolya Adams (Apparel Designer) , Daniel Wulff ( co-founder), Brian Wan (head Pro) , Becca Weissman (pro), Fred Zhang (Editor – Paddle Legends), Fernando Wulff (Director of e-commerce), Aaron Bencid (designer), Christine Lee (Editor – The Paddle Times), Mike Payne (liaison)

Photos courtesy of Street Paddle

Any take aways or lessons learned from Covid 19 & lock downs?

We have learned to appreciate every minute of time spent with friends and playing the game we love. Our endeavor started during the pandemic and was in response to what both us personally, and many community members, had been dealing with.

Any mantras or quotes that your organization lives by?

Connecting humans through sports.

What support do you need? How can one help your organization?

We are always looking for local businesses and individuals to help our cause, whether it is through partnering, sponsorship, or lending your skills as an individual. StreetPaddle was created and built through local Venice community members donating their time and efforts to create something special.

Venice Questions:

Describe Venice! What do you love about Venice?

Besides the beautiful beach view, we love that it’s a melting pot of different backgrounds, ethnicities, and social standings. In Venice, we are all unified by our way of life, whether you are a sports enthusiast or a beach lover.