The tournament, held last weekend, had over 130 pickleball players hustling into the multisports centre to get their pickleball fix in in whatever way they felt.
Competitors were divided among age brackets and skill levels, with a gendered and then mixed competition, giving everyone from the casual fan to the seasoned pickleball pro something to vie over in the 11 separate events.
The sport is one of the fastest growing sports in the United States, found its way on to New Zealand shores in 2015 and quickly became very popular.
Tournament director Dan Hinkel said the tournament had been growing since it first began three years ago and he was very happy with the turnout this year.
"It was fantastic. We’ve had [people] from Queensland, Canterbury, Hawke’s Bay, Northland, Otago, Wellington, people coming from all around, it was a really good tournament," he said.
Pickleball uses a ranking system to figure out match-ups called "Duper" with A grade, B grade, and then social and 60s-plus, which Mr Hinkel said was a great way to let everyone play at a challenging but not uneven level with one another.
"You have your top dogs, but also your social guys. But everyone can turn around and have a bit of a play around, have a good time," he said.
Pickleball, despite maybe not being quite as established of a sport as some others, is growing at an unbelievable clip and Mr Hinkel said almost every month, a tournament could be found and played in around New Zealand.
For down South though, the Southern Slam has been one of the larger tournaments in the region, and one Mr Hinkel said was a good way to get the word out about Gore.
"We’re just trying to do our best down here in the South, try to represent. We’re just really happy we could do this. It’s good for Gore, good to get people down to see what it’s all about, that’s a great bonus for us," he said.
For anyone interested in trying the fast growing sport, Pickleball open nights are held at the Multisports Centre on Thursday nights, and Monday nights are dedicated for in-house tournaments for the Gore pickleballers.
