There’s about to be a new player in Boulder’s racket sports scene: padel.

The city’s first-ever padel club, Smash Padel, is set to make its debut around Thanksgiving. The five-court indoor facility will repurpose a 25,000-square-foot former warehouse space at 6455 Spine Road in Gunbarrel.

For the uninitiated, padel is a hybrid between tennis and squash. Although it’s not exactly a new sport — padel is said to have originated in Mexico in the late 1960s, and it’s reportedly become popular in Spain, where there are more than 20,000 courts — it has seen a recent surge in popularity, along with tennis and pickleball.

Padel is played on 66-foot by 33-foot walled courts, smaller than the courts used for tennis but slightly larger than those used for pickleball. It’s played in doubles pairs, but never singles; it uses the same scoring system as tennis, though the game has a different set of rules; and padel balls are comparable to tennis balls with a little less air pressure inside.

But padel uses unique, stringless rackets that look like paddles with holes throughout. They are usually made of a carbon fiber or fiberglass frame with a rubber core. And because padel courts are enclosed in glass and metal cages, players can ricochet balls off the court walls, much like in squash.

In addition, padel is easy to learn and is more “exercise-intensive” than pickleball, says Smash Padel CEO Jonathon Maine.

“You get quite a good sweat, which a lot of people love. They get to run around a little bit more and have plenty of fun,” Maine told the Daily Camera. “… The ball stays in play a lot as well. Unlike pickleball, you don’t have to go running around and chasing off your ball after a point has been won or lost, which is a plus for a lot of folks, because it’s kept inside the court.”

The Boulder club will be Smash Padel’s inaugural location. Maine said he “couldn’t think of a better place” to set up shop.

“It’s such a vibrant community full of folks who just love sports activity, being outdoors and trying new things,” he said.

Maine also noted that there are many racket sport enthusiasts in Boulder. The city’s tennis and pickleball communities have vied for time and space to play as courts in town have remained scarce.

Boulder officials have long-term plans to add more courts in the city, but it may take years for the city to add them all.

The tennis community, especially, has felt squeezed this year, as the 15 tennis courts that used to sit at the Millennium Hotel site have been demolished. A dozen more courts in the city will be removed during work on the South Boulder Creek flood mitigation project. And, not long ago, a proposal to create a new indoor-outdoor tennis facility in Gunbarrel was starting to gain traction, but the applicants for the project tabled the idea amid fierce community pushback.

There are signs the tennis community may be receptive to the new padel club, though. Maine said he didn’t have any trouble getting city approval for Smash Padel, which he believes may be because he’s moving into an existing warehouse space instead of adding a new building. And he said the community feedback he’s heard so far has been positive.

“The folks that we’ve been chatting to so far, who are traditional tennis players, are incredibly excited about coming and joining us and getting in on the fun. And some of them have already played padel before and have been familiar with it (from) playing in other parts of the country and other parts of the world,” he said. “So (we’re) excited to be able to help feed their padel addiction.”

It’s not clear yet exactly when Smash Padel will open its doors, but Maine said it will likely open in late November or early December, before the holiday season.

The club will host tournaments, clinics and special events. Community members will be able to rent courts for play, but they will not need to pay membership or sign-up fees.

Smash Padel will likely start with a soft launch, Maine said, and then announce a grand opening around the middle of December.