Hello, Sorry to start another thread but I will be in SF during the week of Dec 5 to 9th for a conference and will be staying downtown (as in Union Sq). Probably wouldn't have a car available so would be interested in playing baddy some place close by or meet up with some of BF'ers here for some games (will have to hitch a ride). My evenings are probably free except for Wed (Dec 8th) as the conference has some stuff organized.
WWC, welcome to the bay area! there are many places all over the bay with badminton available. as you are staying in SF downtown, i am not familiar with that badminton scene in that area. i will let other BF'ers fill you in on that. i know a few BF'ers (including myself) live in the south bay. around an hour's travel from SF by train (similarly by car). if you are interested in coming down for an evening of badminton, i will love you bring you to the gyms down here. when Cheung was here, he stays in my place in the south bay and travels up to SF everyday for his conference. let us know what your daily schedule is like. we will try to figure something out for you!
WWC, Depending on your schedule, we might be able to work something out (i.e. catch a ride with me) so that you could travel down to the Southbay to play. I work in Daly City and commute down south to Mountain View, not far from Kwun (and Bintang the gym). Several other BFers play at Bintang, so it would be fun for you if you played down south. I could also give you some info on the train, if that works out better for you travel wise. If you want to stick to SF, there is open gym in chinatown, sunset, south san francisco, and daly city. I'll see if I can dig up some schedules and times for you. cheers, prophet
Kwun/Prophet, That would be great. An hour each way, Wow! Hahahah...shouldn't be a problem. I'll be attending Oracle Openworld and I belived that I probably will have to get in Sat evening (Dec 4th) and probably leave end of day Dec 9th (if not, then the 10th). Prophet, Nice of you to offer giving me a ride. I wouldn't want to take you out of your way so let's see how the schedule works out.
My conference was near Union Square - in that really big convention centre Moscone. Only a 15-20min walk to the station down South. There's a wine shop on the way there which was quite nice to browse around. Whatever you do, do not fall asleep and go past your stop. The return train takes ages to come. :crying: The only trouble is getting back to SF from South Bay. Trains are not that frequent at night past 10pm....if any :crying:
You'll be here during the week of my bday, so I'll be expecting a present . I'll be up for a bit of playing, but I can't say for certain that I will be there because I have my finals during that week too.
FYI, locations near San Francisco where you can play Badminton: Saturday 5:30-8pm at UCSF Milberry Union gym, 3 courts. Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday 6:30-9:30pm at South San Francisco High School gym, ~14 courts. Players at UCSF gym are a mixed group of recreational to intermediate level. People at SSF-HS are a little more competitive. From downtown to get to UCSF gym you can take the N muni line. To get to SSF-HS it is about 20 minutes drive.
I still have to firm up my schedule but it might be that I have to come in on Saturday (as there are conference sessions on Sunday) and also Wed evening is out since there is a big event planned. So, depending on everybody's schedule, I would like to take a trip down to BinTang to play and the evenings available are probably Sat/Sun/Mon/Tue evenings. Will try and confirm as soon as possible.
WWC, FYI, Bintang opens till 10pm on weekend and 11pm otherwise. Sat/Sun/Mon are better as they tend to be more crowded on other days and i think the students BC'ers are more available on weekends.
My schedule (still tentative)... It looks like my schedule will probably go like this... Arriving Sat (Dec 4) - not sure of the time...Haven't got the flight details yet and not even sure which hotel other than it's close to Union Sq (hence the Moscone Convention Centre). Sunday (Dec 5) conference session in the morning but free in afternoon and evening. Mon - Thurs, sessions up until 5pm so I would probably be free after 6pm on Mon/Tue & Thurs...probably will fly back Friday morning. First day of baddy is probably going to be Sunday PM and since this is the day with the most free time, it might be worth to try and get down to south bay and meet up. For Mon & Tues evenings, maybe I will try some of the gyms close by (e.g. Chinatown) as suggested by prophet.
WWC, Sunday is the best choice. assuming you leave before lunch, you should be able to start badminton around 2pm-3pm. then you have the choice to stay until 10pm when Bintang closes. there is a simple shower in Bintang where you can freshen up. afterwards, we will drive to you the train station to catch your train back to SF. sounds like an excellent plan!
I've checked Caltrain website and it looks like the last train back from Sunnyvale to SF is at 9:19 pm on Sunday so probably will have to leave the gym by 9:00 pm. Figured that if I catch the 2pm from SF and get to Sunnyvale by 3:20pm, that's almost 6 hours of play time.
WWC, try looking for the bus schedule as well. I recall that there is only limited service at that time as well but best check to see if any other options so that you can stay at the badminton courts for longer One thing about the CAL train, try to get the return ticket beforehand. That way, you won't have to get stuck behind a queue of people trying to get their tickets from the ticket machine at the last minute. It also safeguards against one of the machines being broken down at exactly the time you don't want that to happen (i.e. the train about to set off) with an even longer queue. The train is very accurate with timing so don't miss it!
WWC, Wow, 6 hours on Sunday! Nice to hear it. Here is some additional information for you, if you do decide to stay in the city (San Francisco) to play on Mon-Thurs nights. (The closest gyms are Soma and maybe chinatown). SF parks and recreation home page: http://www.sfgov.org/site/recpark_index.asp or search by activity (badminton): http://216.103.100.45/ParkRecFacilities/SearchByActivity.aspx These places are all free, but the drawback is that the hours are short and the competition level is on the lower side. You also only get to play in 20 minute sessions (at least at the several places I've visited) and then you rotate another 4 players. If you can somehow get yourself (taxi?) to South San Francisco, the competition level is higher and the time to play is longer. You also get to play 2 games before you rotate. (There is another thread about SSF). I would say that the competition level is highest at Bintang. If you decide to come down to Bintang (sunnyvale) on any weekday to play, maybe you could crash at someone's house (kwun? ) and go back to your conference in the morning. Caltrain has a faster bullet train that operates M-F in the mornings and early evenings that takes less than 45 minutes (versus 1.5 hours) so that is a nice option. Good luck, if you need any more info, let me know. peace, prophet
Thanks Prophet, I am assuming that at BinTang that everybody provides their own feather shuttles, right? My flight has been booked but not the hotel yet (haven't received confirmation) but will be coming in at around 2:30pm or so and probably will check in and I'm thinking of heading down to BinTang after. Anyone from BF interested in getting together?
I'll try to stay a while longer at Bintang on Sunday, but I'm not sure if I can. If you happen to play at Bintang any other time during that week, then I'll be able to go.
Yep, but there's a small pro shop with a decent variety of birds (non of the Winex variety tough ) http://www.bintangbadminton.com/
Places to play in the Bay Area Hello, Welcome to the Bay Area. You can get more badminton information in the Bay Area at : http://www.uswebcity.com/badminton.html -Alanng
Alan, Thanks for the info. It seems that there are two places to play, one of which is BinTang. So I think that I will most likely go down to BinTang. Now I'm scheduled to arrive at SF International around 2pm and figured that I will be able to check into the hotel before 3pm (taking BART down to Union Sq). So if I'm lucky, I can then try and catch a train down to Sunnyvale getting there around 4:20-ish. Would anyone be interested in giving me a ride from there to BinTang (I'm told that it's only 3.5 miles from the train station to BinTang). Apparently the Caltrain runs every hour. If all goes well, I might also do the same for Sunday too.
