4 large clubs in the SF bay area, can we fill them all?

Discussion in 'USA West' started by kwun, May 16, 2005.

  1. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    you missed bintang2, which just got announced.
     
  2. drowsysmurf

    drowsysmurf Regular Member

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    wow... opens in november... i live right between bintang and bintangII -_-;;; they couldn't open it closer to me? =P
     
  3. Dummey

    Dummey Regular Member

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    I want one in San Leandro =D
     
  4. Qidong

    Qidong Regular Member

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    It's only 20 minutes from bintang1 to bintang2. That means it's only 10 minutes for you to go to either one. You are asking for too much. :rolleyes::cool::D:p:eek::(;)
     
  5. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    totally agree. i used to travel 30+mins to go to badminton. i can't believe ppl are complaining about 10-15 mins... ;)
     
  6. shreky

    shreky Regular Member

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    30 minutes??? i travel 60 minutes to play badminton .... 90 minutes if i take the train ... :( .... someone told me before that some even travel 2 hrs just to play badminton. i believe they guy works in a farm in cali and obviously there is no badminton in their area ....
     
  7. remix441

    remix441 Regular Member

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    Out of the clubs in the bay area which one do you guys think has the best badminton training program. Which ones helped you improved the best, and helpful. SmashCity, BinTang, UBC.
     
  8. illusionistpro

    illusionistpro Regular Member

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    i travel 25-30 min to play when im up north and almost 45 min when im down south. a socal car trip can EASILY take 2x as long so 1:30 -2 hrs to play, good thing sgvbc is 24 hrs :p cant wait til bbc opens up :D
     
  9. remix441

    remix441 Regular Member

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    I've recently paid a visit to all 3 gyms in the Bay area. SmashCity, BinTang, UBC. All 3 gyms were pretty good.

    Bintang i liked the computerized system that they had, it made it easy to play some court games especially the singles court/doubles. It had a great atmosphere the pepople there were friendly, but the thigns i didnt really like was the ceiling was a bit low, everytime i would try to hit a clear it would hit one of those post in the cieling. But thats no big deal, it would be great if there were water fountains there. I loved the mats there were not too soft nor too hard. Overall an enjoyable place and feel for badminton.

    SmashCity i feel is a very-large place. They put the courts so that there is alot of room in between, so poeple can watch or walk around without any nuiscanes. I like it because it is very big and spread out. It has out of the 3 gyms a larger variety of badminton gear, and items. I like the fact that it has water foutains, but it seems there were no queing system for court games. It was more like first-come first serve. Whenver i go there, people just hop on courts and play and until their tierd they leave. However great place

    UBC is a godo place in a desolate area. It looks great on the outside, the ocurts are nice but i find them a bit too soft. I liked the computerized system on BinTang more becasue it was easier to use. The UBC computerized system felt a bit complicated. But still it was nice that it was there. It was easy to find pick up games there. Great place but need more courts

    Out of the 3 i think i SmashCity becuase of the spacious areas. However i like BinTangs system of court games. In SmashCity i find it hard to find a partner to play, becuase most people have their partners and want to play with themselves. Overall great experience
     
  10. shreky

    shreky Regular Member

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    remix ... have you tried Golden Gate Badminton (GGBC)? they have good floors like Bintang but better lighting (in my opinion).

    i agree the UBC courts are too soft. someone i played with in cali told me that they have carpet underneat the floors and that is good for training purposes (i think it makes you work harder because the mat kinda slows you down - not really sure).

    layout wise, smash city is the best. but the floors are too hard. lighting is great as well.

    i believe there is a water fountain in Bintang (i think it is near court 11). i always bring my own drink so i don't pay much attention to them.

    but hold on, 3 more gyms are on the way. BBC and GGBC2 are opening soon. Bintang2 will be in November .... 3 more reasons to move to cali :D
     
  11. shreky

    shreky Regular Member

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    traffic in socal is crazy .... i thought NY/NJ area was bad until i hit socal
     
  12. remix441

    remix441 Regular Member

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    nope, i havent tried GGBC, yea SmashCity layout wize is the best everything is spaced out the only thing is just courts are hard. I heard it is layed on top of concrete. It feels someowhat like concrete. But Bintang is better if you dont got a partner becuase u can just play on the singles court and things. Anyone feel that SmashCity doesnt have a queing system it is just who jumps on a court first?
     
  13. shreky

    shreky Regular Member

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  14. remix441

    remix441 Regular Member

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    the layout of apac kind of reminds of bintang, but more spacious
     
  15. skunklover

    skunklover Regular Member

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    i personally prefer UBC, i just show up, and i will always see sumone from my HS there at some time during my visit, and i usually spend like 10AM to 5PM, stop only for lunch
     
  16. hybridragon

    hybridragon Regular Member

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    My two favorites are APAC and GGBC at the moment. I've been to Smash City and it looks nice but I haven't played in it, so I can't judge it at the moment.

    APAC is good for me mainly because it is convienent to get to for me and the floors are not bad. The lighting is also decent (I've played in almost every kind of lighting, so I'm okay with almost anything), and it's quite spacious. People there are also pretty friendly. Getting a court usually isn't that hard, but when it's busy, some people don't like to rotate out even when their time is up. Or they sign up for multiple courts or multiple times. I think APAC still needs to fix up its rules so that such loopholes don't exist and ensure equal playing time for everyone. But other than that problem at peak hours, I think it's a fine gym.

    GGBC is pretty nice and has probably one of the better floors that I've played on. Lighting isn't also bad, and the queuing system they have ensures equality in playing time. Downsides for me is that during the day, the gym is too humid/hot, but at night it seems good enough. Another one would be that it's too far for me, but with GGBC2 opening, it'll be much closer to me.

    UBC isn't bad, I like the players that goes there, but I don't like how most of the courts are taken for 'training classes' and if you don't know when they have practices, you pay to get in, and then you wait for an hour or two just to play. I also don't like their inner courts that have 'bumps' on the flooring mats.

    I haven't been to Bintang, but I'm looking forward to visit it at least once despite its distance from me.
     
  17. remix441

    remix441 Regular Member

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    yea, UBC seem to have one court that has a huge buble bump.
     

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