Orchard Commons Tables
A Brief Introduction…
Players arriving at Orchard Commons Tables are greeted by two stone ping pong tables in a pit of undulating pea gravel surrounded by tall gleaming marble clad buildings. On the day we visit, tables baking under a cloudless sky, the sunken venue feels more like a gladiator arena than a ping pong oasis. Other than pea gravel instead of asphalt –a design choice by someone who’s never played the game – it’s not a bad place to play your fave game. It’s quiet, almost serene, and lifting your eyes beyond the pea gravel, you’ll see a beautifully designed modern landscaped space as the centre-piece of an amphitheatre defined by the semi-circle of modern buildings. Nudists who also play ping pong, it’s less than one kilometre to Vancouver’s famous nudist haven, Wreck Beach from Orchard Commons Tables.
Ping Pong In Vancouver's Evaluation
Damn nice, these stone tables! With a surface that’s slightly abrasive like 400 grit sand paper the table may be just grippy enough to have an affect on spin. We could not tell, absorbed instead by the incredible height of the bounce off the dense surface of aggregate stone. Did we mention that these superb ping pong tables are surrounded by a playing area of pea gravel?
Our intrepid editors have played on concrete, asphalt, grass and now, today, it’s pea gravel. Before actually playing, we considered it another challenge to be overcome, another dimension of difficulty added to the game. But soon it became apparent that playing ping pong on pea gravel was like playing volleyball on a sand court: adding that extra dimension of challenge but solid enough to accommodate quick footwork and keeping it fun. Who knew? One big problem with the pea gravel is the holes, the deep pits excavated over time at the end of each side of each table by moving feet. You actually lose 3-4 inches of height when you move into the pit close to the the table and you gain 3-4 inches in height when you back away 6-8 feet. The pits on each end of one of the tables were filled with rain water. Consider the puddles to be just another challenge to overcome when playing at Orchard Commons Tables.
We see a pattern here at Ping Pong In Vancouver after so many evaluations of outdoor ping ping sites: tall towers funnel winds, breezes in these spaces change constantly. The playing field is even under these conditions, both players gain and lose in equal measure when visited by capricious winds. Such are the breezy conditions here at Orchard Commons Tables.
This would be a great place to put on a rocking demo by world-class players to a large pumped-up crowd. We envision seating for at least several hundred here should that time arrive. But at this moment, on a sunny and fresh spring afternoon during a plague year, there were no other players, no spectators. Just the wind, the sound of birds, and the fragrant smell of springtime unfolding in Vancouver.
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Coming Soon: Vancouver’s First Dedicated Table Tennis Court
Good-bye Vancouver Parks and Recreation! We’ve moved on to work with the Vancouver School Board, and specifically Windermere Secondary School, to fundraise and help plan Vancouver’s first dedicated outdoor table tennis court. The proposed court has the support of Windermere PE Department Head Brad White, the visionary behind the Windermere Community Fitness Park, phase one of which was completed in July of 2022. In Brad White’s opinion, it was a no-brainer to see that the remaining undeveloped strip of the new fitness park would be a perfect fit for a table tennis court, the first of its kind in Vancouver but common within the big cities of Asia and Europe.
Moody Park Tables (New Westminster)
It’s great to see examples outside of Vancouver of table tennis tables safely located within the leafy green confines of parks. This latest discovery is located in Moody Park in New Westminster, and this past September when the Ping Pong In Vancouver crew checked out the two tables nestled under the canopy of big trees, we found a small community of players who meet to play nearly every day.
Lonsdale Table
Someone recently contacted PingPongInVancouver.com to tell us about a public outdoor table tennis table in North Vancouver near First and Lonsdale. We don’t normally include tables in municipalities other than Vancouver unless the installation is an example of what was done right (i.e. Edmonds Tables in Burnaby) or what was done wrong. An initial glance of this installation (via Google street view) showed what appeared to be an example of where NOT to put in a public ping pong table. We hopped on our bikes on a fine summer afternoon to see for ourselves what a dangerously placed table looks like…
Edmonds Park Tables (Burnaby)
While this table tennis table installation is in Burnaby, it’s worth mentioning because, 1) it is a table tennis installation in a park; and 2) it’s a table tennis installation added next to existing tennis courts in a recent park redevelopment. The Edmonds Park Tables are the closest local example of a municipality adding table tennis infrastructure to an existing park. We ask: we can’t this be done in Vancouver?
K8 Strings for Ping Pong Gear!
Since the launch of Ping Pong In Vancouver, we’ve searched for a local table tennis gear store we could promote and send readers to who want to buy brand name entry-level ping pong gear at a good price. We contacted all the big players nationally as well as a few local stores, all of whom ignored our offer for free advertising. Too good to be true, we suppose. But we found a tiny gem of a shop at Renfrew Street and First Avenue, and to make things even more auspicious, the shop’s about one mile from the best outdoor ping pong tables in town, Empire Fields.
The Players Directory
Ping Pong In Vancouver has finally created a players directory, one of the three main goals we set out to accomplish when we launched the website. We list places to play table tennis and we advocate for ping pong infrastructure in Vancouver parks (although all of our efforts so far to connect with Vancouver Parks planners has been completely ignored). Now we connect ping pong players with partners!
Kits Beach Table
The Vancouver Rotary Club recently unveiled a ping pong table at Kits Beach. Situated behind the buildings along the main promenade of the beach, surrounded by trees and grass, the ping pong table itself is great. It’s got a beautifully finished aggregate concrete top yielding a superb bounce, a fine art-quality metal net, a sturdy, immovable concrete base…but there’s real danger underfoot, literally.
Save On Table
The Save On Table is a really lively and generally awesome stone aggregate table but… it’s right in front of the busy entrance of a large grocery store! The Foosball table and nearby benches suggests that this set-up is someone’s vision of an outdoor rec room…
Oxford Place Tables
In the heart of downtown, the Oxford Place Tables is a peaceful ping pong oasis. Two tables are positioned on a small shady plaza just far enough away from busy Hastings Street. Pedestrian traffic is minimal, and the playing area is ample and without any significant objective hazards. Ball containment is pretty good with walls and low barriers in most directions. This is a very nice place to play!
Building Awareness Of Our Goal
Ping Pong In Vancouver advocates for public table tennis. Our goal is to bring safe, permanent public ping pong installations to Vancouver’s many parks. There are a lot of ping pong players out there who’d love to play their fave sport outside within the safety of a park. Our main problem so far has been trying to get the attention of city officials and bureaucrats. The people who make decisions. We have pursued the recommended routes of communication over the past 4 weeks, since the launch of this website, but so far our efforts have been unsuccessful…
Table Tennis Players Need Room
Ping pong is actually a sport. The sport is table tennis. It is the second most popular sport on earth. Players begin by playing ping pong, but as skills sharpen, ping pong players grow into table tennis players, and table tennis players need room to play the sport safely.
Back and Forth Bar
From Google: Cocktails, craft draft beer & snacks offered in a hip, upbeat space with Ping-Pong tables & games. The Back And Forth Bar has 6 ping pong tables for recreational and serious players, board games (Cards of Humanity, Jenga, Checkers, What the Meme), a TV dedicated to Nintendo Classic, beer and wine on tap, a small selection of spirits, snacks and friendly staff who want to make you feel at home in comfortable surroundings. Play and hang out!
Survey Results
We ask you where you’d like to see ping pong tables in a park near you. Our goal is one hundred surveys. If you love the sport of table tennis and you want to play on safe, permanent, outdoor ping pong installations, complete the quick anonymous survey now. Add your voice to the chorus of table tennis players who are asking for the opportunity to play our beloved sport safely outdoors.
Let’s Take Ping Pong Player Safety Seriously
Ping pong players playing on any of the public ping pong installations we’ve reviewed on this website face objective hazards. Public ping pong tables are currently offered as “afterthoughts”, haphazardly placed, without much regard to a player’s safety, in busy pedestrian areas around the city. In Vancouver, there are no ping pong tables situated in safely within the grassy regions of a park as in the standard in the UK and Germany. Ping pong players deserve for no less than the safety considerations afforded our sister sport, tennis.
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You’ll read riveting stories of regular people just like you whose lives have been profoundly changed through playing the world’s most exciting sport. You’ll gain insights into the big picture of local public ping pong power politics as we profile the movers, shakers and ball-breakers, all with big stakes in the game.
Public Ping Pong Survey
Besides becoming a go-to listing for places to play ping pong in Vancouver, we want to be a voice for promoting public ping pong in Vancouver. Specifically, we would like to see ping pong installations in Vancouver parks consisting of a slab of asphalt or concrete with a table in the middle, surrounded by a safety barrier of lawn, a recreational installation very common in European parks from Derbyshire to Berlin
Bryant Park Tables, New York City
From the film’s description: “In the middle of New York City, tucked away in the corner of Bryant Park, sit two outdoor ping pong tables where anyone is free to play. Young or old, rich or homeless, it doesn’t matter. During the day, the park provides paddles and balls, but after 7pm the regulars show up, armed with their own. Every night they come together to play each other and battle the elements, playing in the wind, rain and even snow. And out of this shared love of the game, a bond was formed between an unlikely group of people. Filmmaker Jon Bunning profiles the many lives these tables have touched, including the former gangbanger who helped put them there.”
City Hall Tables
All things considered, this is a nice spot for playing ping pong. And a nice gesture by the city to place public ping pong tables this close to the corridors of power. It gives a ping pong fanatic hope that public ping pong is within the purview of city officials who need only to look out their north windows and gaze down onto the plaza, where two tables, one great, the other so-so, become a momentary focal point for joy, exercise and friendship…
Cambie Bridge South Tables
Two of the four weather-sheltered public ping pong tables in Vancouver are located under the south end of the Cambie Street Bridge. The other two are under the north end of the bridge. The Cambie Bridge South Tables, like the tables under the north end of the bridge, are the German-made Tiger Ping Pong Plaza model: a great design and a lively bounce. Situated among picnic tables in the middle of a slightly cambered pedestrian plaza, there’s enough room to play safely. Keep in mind the several objective hazards like the boulder field about 15 feet behind the east side of the table, and the roadway and bike lane just a few feet from the tables. Some may call this unsafe; we call it multi-tasking.
Cambie Bridge North Tables
There are two excellent table tennis tables sheltered from the weather under the Cambie Street Bridge on the north side. Like the pair on the south side of the bridge, these tables are the Tiger Ping Pong “Plaza” model, and they are positioned on the brick plaza under the infrastructure of the bridge in an east to west orientation. One ping pong table is a bit better positioned; that is, sheltered better from the rain, but both tables are club-quality outdoor tables and on a fine day this location, with all of the recreational activity going on around, is inspirational and will bring out your best game.
Adanac Bike Route Table
This funky ping pong table is located at the Vernon-Adanac Plaza, a blocked-off section of Vernon Drive, right where the Adanac-Union bike route takes a wee jog north one block from Union Street onto Adanac Street. It’s an interesting location for a ping pong table to say the least, and it’s easy to see the hipster connotation in locating the table on a bike route…
A Call For Public Table Tennis In Vancouver Parks
Unlike parks in other western countries like Germany, parks in Vancouver, despite the vast unused lawns available, do not contain table tennis playing areas by default. In fact, not a single ping pong table installation exists within a Vancouver park. We are late to the game when compared to our European friends. But what potential we have given our numerous parks for ping pong installations within the safety of a public lawned area. Ping Pong In Vancouver has written this post to help define a standard for a table tennis playing area within any public park.
Empire Fields Tables
The three steel tables at Empire Fields, in the shadow of Vancouver’s beloved wooden roller coaster offer the ultimate outdoor table tennis – ping pong – experience in Vancouver. For the breathtaking setting alone, this is the #1 place for free outdoor ping pong. Big open sky, breathtaking mountain views, an historic setting where the tables are nestled between the one of north America’s last remaining vintage roller coasters and the track where the first sub-four minute mile was won. The Beatles played mere metres from where today, right now, you can play on melodious metal tables…
Stonehenge Tables
Stonehenge Tables, are three tables in the Concord Pacific play area in the expanse of asphalt north of Science World. Named for the large arranged stones embedded in the grassy knoll immediately east of the tables, Stonehenge Tables offer the best of outdoor table tennis in Vancouver. These are stone tables with a great bounce. The area behind both sides of the tables is bounded by a low continuous concrete wall serving as a long bench, providing a stopper for most balls that pass your opponent.
