Recreation in San Diego : GROWING PAINS : Racquetball’s Gurnoe Matures With Sport

Seven years ago, racquetball was hot.

San Diego, with its dozens of courts and local equipment manufacturers, was a racquetball mecca. Everyone, it seemed, was eager to get into a small room and smash a blue rubber ball against the walls.

Seven years ago, Leo Gurnoe was a racquetball bum. He spent six to eight hours a day playing the game. A single father, he traveled to professional tournaments throughout the Southwest, bringing his three young children with him. When home in San Diego, he virtually lived at Another Racquet in Encinitas.

Nowadays, Gurnoe spends his days painting houses, and he plays racquetball from 5 to 7 every evening. His tournament play has been cut back to once every few weeks. This weekend, he will be competing in the third annual Coors Light/Marty Hogan tournament at the Escondido Athletic Club.

“I guess you could say I had a late maturity,” said Gurnoe, 40. “When I hit about 35, I decided I had to get a real job.”

Like Gurnoe, racquetball also has matured. A young sport--according to the American Amateur Racquetball Assn., it was born in 1968--racquetball boomed in the late 1970s. Investors, hoping to cash in on the craze, saturated the market with courts.

“Racquetball was overextending itself,” said Luke St. Onge, executive director of AARA. “The sport peaked in 1980, and since then there’s been a shakeout. The clubs that haven’t adjusted to a full-fitness environment can’t compete.”

Although a few San Diego clubs remain havens for hardcore players, most survivors have successfully shifted to multi-activity facilities. Another Racquet, now North County Athletic Club, has reduced its court space by more than 30% in four years, adding a weight room, aerobic center and tanning parlor.

“I’ve seen courts turned into everything from gyms to baby-sitting rooms,” Gurnoe said. “San Diego is a particularly rough place for the sport because there is so much else to do here.”

Yet Gurnoe, one of an estimated 7.5 million current racquetball players, is optimistic about his sport’s future.

“The sport has settled back to where it should have been realistically,” he said. “I think this is the beginning of the second phase for racquetball--a more sophisticated phase.”

Gurnoe speaks from the vantage point of more than 15 years of racquetball experience. He started playing in Santa Cruz in 1971, in the crude days of wooden rackets and inadequate courts. Despite the equipment, Gurnoe caught on quickly. He was soon beating everyone he played.

“I just immediately clicked with the sport,” he said. “I turned from a surf bum into a racquetball bum.”

In 1974, Gurnoe moved to San Diego because of its status as the country’s racquetball capital. For the next 10 years, racquetball was the focus of Gurnoe’s existence and he devoted his energies to tournament competition in the professional and open (one level below professional) divisions. He supplemented his tournament winnings by teaching racquetball and working at Another Racquet.

The sport’s boom in the late 1970s didn’t surprise Gurnoe.

“It’s a terrific game,” he said, dripping with sweat after an hour-long workout. “Some sports like surfing or volleyball you can’t even enjoy until you’ve been doing them for a year and a half. But racquetball is really easy to learn and really addicting.”

Experts say an hour of racquetball burns 600 to 700 calories. Avid players say they prefer the sport to jogging or aerobics because of its competitive nature.

“It’s an incredible release,” Gurnoe said. “It’s like opening all the faucets and letting it all pour out. I’m convinced I wouldn’t be as mellow, or as good a parent, if I didn’t play.”

The sport is played in a 20-by-40-foot court with a 20-foot-high ceiling. The sound of the ball banging against the walls and wooden floor can be deafening, but Gurnoe enjoys the “language of the sport.”

“I’m like a rock musician that has gotten used to the amplifiers,” he said.

The game is played off all six sides of the court, including the ceiling. Games are usually played to 15 points, and matches are the best two out of three.

Though the game is relatively simple, its tools have become sophisticated. Racket frames have evolved from the wooden models to graphite composites to ceramic fiber blends. Head shapes have grown from small, rectangular sizes to large oversized heads.

“An oversized racket can add 25% to the speed of a player’s hit,” Gurnoe said.

Because of that added power, more racquetball players----like tennis players----are favoring the more expensive, oversized models, according to Mark Truver, a salesman at Frontier Pro Shop.

“I have guys come in here after they’ve gotten beaten by someone who had one,” Truver said of the oversized models. “They feel they need them to be competitive.”

Racquetball continues to be a male-dominated sport. Ektelon, a local equipment manufacturer, estimates that 65% of all players are men, and most of those are between the ages of 18 and 35.

Vicky Rosi, manager of the Court House Racquetball Club, said her clientele has an even higher ratio of men to women, and that most players are in their mid- to late 30s.

“I still see a lot of the same faces I saw playing 10 years ago,” she said. “We attract hardcore players. We don’t appeal to the new generation that wants fruit bars in their clubs.”

Though pure racquetball facilities may be more sparse than health clubs, Gurnoe and others give racquetball some of the credit for the current fitness boom.

“It provided a central location for fitness,” he said.

Gurnoe also thinks the sport is attracting new players, who are exposed to it when they attend clubs for other activities. In addition, the AARA----which hopes the sport will gain Olympic recognition by 1992----is actively recruiting new players by organizing programs at the high school level.

“I think we’re beginning to see genetic players who were born into the game,” Gurnoe said.

Gurnoe’s own children, he said, suffered from overexposure to racquetball. Because they spent almost every weekend of their childhood at courts, they cringe at the thought of racquetball.

“But I’ve seen other kids who were babies at the old tournaments who just naturally knew how to play,” he said.

Gurnoe thinks he can hold his own with the new generation of players. Though he qualifies for the 35-and-up senior division, he still also competes in the open division. In this weekend’s tournament, he expects to win the senior and do well in the open.

“I’ve been lucky to be very successful,” he said. “I don’t like to jog. I wasn’t a very good tennis player. People tell me they want to be out in the sun. But if they just take an hour for racquetball, they can spend the rest of the time in the sun and earn some caloric joy.”

For Gurnoe, racquetball is still hot enough.

The Facts on . . . RACQUETBALL

WHERE TO PLAY: About 20 fitness facilities in the San Diego area have racquetball courts. Many are full-facility fitness centers, such as Family Fitness Centers and YMCAs. Others, such as the Court House Racquetball Club and the La Mesa Racquet Club, are geared mainly toward racquetball players, but may offer some weight equipment, saunas and hot tubs or fitness classes.

COST TO PLAY: Most clubs have annual memberships that vary in cost according to the facilities available and the number of people included in memberships. Many private clubs make their courts available to the public, rented for an hourly fee. Fees during prime hours (generally Monday through Thursday from 4-9 p.m.) range from $5 per person to $6.50 per person. During non-prime hours, fees drop to $3.75 to $4 per person.

RESERVATIONS:

Reservations are usually required during prime hours. Most clubs give priority to members, allowing them to reserve courts from two days to a week in advance. Non-members are usually allowed to make only same-day reservations.

LESSONS:

Most facilities offer racquetball lessons. Prices range from $15 to $25 per person for an hour lesson. Many clubs conduct free or inexpensive clinics for members.

EQUIPMENT:

Most racquetball facilities rent equipment for a nominal fee ($1 for a racket, 25 cents for a ball).

RACKETS:

Like so much athletic equipment, rackets are becoming increasingly high-tech. Rackets have evolved from the metal or fiberglass frames available 10 years ago to graphite blends and, more recently, ceramic fiber blends. Shapes range from the smaller rectangular and teardrop face to oversized rackets. Many racquetball players, like tennis players, favor the oversized rackets because of their larger “sweet spot” and greater flexibility. Prices range from $20 for less-flexible, more-durable metal rackets to $120 for an oversized graphite racket. Good midsized graphite rackets are available for $40 to $50.

BALLS:

About $3 for a can of two blue rubber balls.

EYEWEAR:

Eye protection is generally required in tournaments. Though usually optional at fitness clubs, most serious players wear some sort of eye guard to protect against racket-inflicted injuries such as detached retinas. Eyewear comes in a variety of styles from wraparound, anti-fog treated goggles to thick plastic frames without lenses. Prices range from $10 to $25.

SHOES:

Racquetball shoes have rolled edges for lateral support and all gum-rubber soles that will not mark court floors. Prices range from $35 to $50. However, racquetball also can be played in basketball or tennis shoes. Aerobic or running shoes are to be avoided because of their lack of lateral support. Check the bottoms since many courts do not allow colored soles because of scuffing.

CLOTHES:

Racquetball fashion has remained fairly unsophisticated. T-shirts, shorts and socks are adequate. Experts recommend thick cotton shorts, rather than nylon running shorts, both for increased ventilation and protection from floor burns. Sweatbands and headbands are recommended.