It’s a hot and balmy Friday evening in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida and the courts are starting to fill. The gentle indie soundtrack playing over the club’s speakers is drowned out slightly by the dull clunks of disks colliding and the scraping of metal poles on the court. Every so often, a cheer of victory rings out across the smooth green playing field from beneath strings of lights.
I’m at St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club, the oldest and largest club of its kind in the world. While possessing the world’s largest outdoor shuffleboard court may seem like a strange claim to fame for St. Pete, it is as intrinsic to the city’s DNA as its beaches, state parks and famously glorious weather.
The club has been in existence since 1924, in the days when Florida was opening its doors to a growing influx of visitors as the domestic tourism market was beginning to boom. During the heyday of the roaring ’20s and the Gatsby era, people were drawn to St Petersburg as a city of leisure, a city of pristine white beaches, palm trees, the cultured Mediterranean architecture and the luxurious hotels like the Don Cesar and Vinoy. For these upmarket visitors, the newly created game of Shuffleboard – the rules were developed at St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club – was seen as a leisurely way to while away the afternoon.
As the sport has only just started to make its way over the pond in a tabletop form at bars such as the London Shuffle Club in Shoreditch and Leeds’ own Electric Shuffle, we enlisted the help of one of the club’s experts, Steph, to teach us the rules. For the uninitiated, shuffleboard is played 52-foot long, flat courts. Players push (or ‘shoot’) heavy plastic disks (or ‘biscuits’) across the court using a metal pole (a ‘tang’), hoping to land them in the triangle on the opposite end. Different sections of the triangle have different points values associated with them. If you push too far and end up in the bottom section of the triangle – the ‘kitchen’ – you lose 10 points. The first team to score 75 points wins the game.
Sadly, as the great depression hit and people began to vacation less, Saint Petersburg’s popularity waned, as did shuffleboard’s. At its peak, the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club was the world’s largest with over 5,000 members, 110 courts and even a covered grandstand that would be packed with crowds for weekly tournaments. By the end of the 20th century, the club’s membership has declined to 20 or 30 people. The courts were in desperate need of repair and the clubhouse, a beautiful, white art-deco building – was at risk of being torn down.
For decades, the game became synonymous with old age pensioners and cruise ships. But recently Shuffleboard, and its birthplace in St. Pete, has seen a resurgence.
On the night that I visit, the club is thriving. Almost every court is occupied by a mix of teens, young hipsters and family groups and the outdoor setting give the night the feel of a social event as much as it is a sporting one. It’s a beautiful place to spend an evening; the white-washed, historic clubhouse and the grass-green courts bathed in the wash of the hanging lamps; the humid Florida air cut with the breeze flowing from Tampa Bay, the sound of laughter and triumphant cheers over the music.
It’s hard to say what has sparked the resurgence in the club. Partly, it is due to the local authorities approving funding to fix the deteriorating club house and to redo the courts – there are now a total of 73, many of them with newly-installed lighting to allow for evening play – generating much local interest in this historic landmark. Another factor is the revitalisation of St. Petersburg itself. In recent decades, downtown St. Pete has become a creative and cool hub, filled with boutiques, excellent cafes and restaurants, breweries and a burgeoning art scene. Young professionals are choosing city centre living over the suburbs and the Shuffleboard Club is the perfect, local hangout.
One thing that has certainly helped the club regain popularity is the weekly Friday night shuffle, a night when St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club opens its doors to non-members between 7pm and 10pm. It is free to play and visitors are welcome to bring their own booze and food. Just a word of warning, Fridays are the club’s busiest nights, usually resulting in a 250-person turnout so getting a court means planning an early arrival.
Lucky for me, we manage to snag ourselves a court so that I can spend the evening, shop-bought beer in hand, pushing biscuits. If shuffleboard shedding its geriatric stereotype and becoming increasingly cool, I better get practising so that I don’t get left behind.
Information
Where: 559 Mirror Lake Dr N, St. Petersburg, FL 33701
Membership: You can become a member of St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club for $35 a year. Members can play any day of the week for no additional charge and can bring up to three guests with them.
Non-members can play between the hours of 6pm and 9pm Tuesday – Thursday for a $5 fee and can play for free each Friday night between 7pm and 10pm at the weekly Friday Night Shuffle.
More information is available on their website.
Where to Stay in St. Pete & Clearwater
Wyndham Grand Clearwater Beach
There are myriad luxurious hotels lining Clearwater beach, but the domineering dual glass towers of the Wyndham Grand stand out. Offering 343 guestrooms, many of which offer views out into the Gulf of Mexico, the Wyndham has spa and pool facilities and is just a few metres from the sparkling sands of America’s best beach. It is also home to a restaurant featured on this list: Ocean Hai. Serving Asian fusion cuisine and spectacular sushi, Ocean Hai is one of the best seafood restaurants in Clearwater.
The Don Cesar
Built in 1928 during the Gatsby era, people were drawn to St Petersburg as a city of leisure – pristine white beaches, palm trees, the cultured Mediterranean architecture – and the Don Cesar gained renown as the playground for America’s pampered rich. Its grand ballroom has even hosted extravagant parties by the likes of Scott F Fitzgerald and Al Capone. Sitting beside the pristine sands of St. Pete beach like a pink, art deco behemoth, the beautiful Don Cesar remains one of St. Pete’s most exclusive resorts.
I visited Florida as a guest of Visit St. Pete & Clearwater. However, all views are my own.
