Starting The Volleyball Floor Project

So this whole thing started ’cause my buddy Tom jammed his knee bad during a beach volleyball game last month. Saw him limping for days. Felt awful. Got me thinking – what if we could make a portable floor with some bounce? Like shock absorption for cheap. Decided to try building one.

First thing Monday morning, I dragged my old measuring tape outta the junk drawer. Stared at my empty garage space thinking: “Gotta keep this simple. Dirt cheap.” Measured a tiny 3×3 meter square where I’d cram everything later. Sweaty work just moving cardboard boxes aside.

Scrap Hunting & Brainstorming

Dove into the woodpile behind my shed. Found some warped plywood sheets – perfect for testing since they’re basically trash. Laid ’em flat on the concrete floor. Jumped on one corner. Felt like stomping on bricks. Ouch.

• Problem 1: Needed cushion under wood
• Problem 2: Must fold small for Tom’s pickup truck
• Problem 3: Can’t weigh a ton

Drove to the dollar store hunting foam pads. Got 4 kids’ play mats – the puzzle-piece kind. Blue with smiley faces. Looked ridiculous but hey, $1.25 each. Also grabbed a box of industrial velcro strips from the hardware clearance bin.

Assembly Chaos

Cut the ugly plywood into nine 1×1 squares with my jigsaw. Dust everywhere. Wood chunks flying. Fit the foam pads onto the plywood chunks. Looked like giant toddler sandwiches. Slapped velcro on every edge – that’s when disaster struck.

Velcro wasn’t strong enough. Floor pieces ripped apart when Tom jumped sideways. Foam shot across the garage like a cupcake squeezed too hard. Laughed like idiots for ten minutes straight.

Pivoted hard: Yanked off the velcro. Stabbed rusty metal hinges into the wood with my drill. Wood cracked twice. Swore loudly. Third time worked. Connected all pieces into three foldable sections.

Final Beating Test

Slapped the hinged monsters together. Threw a volleyball high. Spiked it HARD on our franken-floor. Two amazing things happened:

• Got actual shock absorption! Knee-friendly bounce instead of concrete slam
• Disaster number two: Smiley face foam blew out through wood cracks like fake snow

Tom danced around catching foam chunks while I jumped repeatedly. Left knee didn’t ache like before. Called it “good enough”. Broke it down in under three minutes. Hauled the sections to Tom’s truck bed. Drove straight to the beach for beers and testing. Worked until midnight. Sand everywhere, foam still escaping – but our knees felt great next morning.

Total cost: $11.75 plus scrap wood. Still finding blue foam bits in the garage. Worth it.