Issue One
The Alborán · 1st July 2026 · ISSN 3153-7235
From the EditorThree Days in BarcelonaA dispatch from the Padel World Summit, and what it told me about the publication you are holding. The CourtThe Next Diamond in the RoughEveryone is looking at the United States this summer. Three markets nobody is watching are the more interesting bet. The CourtMixed everywhere but the topThe mixed pair is the most ordinary thing in club padel and the rarest at the top of it. A look at why, from a box league in Bristol to Premier Padel. The CoastlineA Villa Called the AlboránGili Air, a villa that shares the name, a Sasak kitchen we returned to, and a padel court on a coral island. The TerraceBarcelona, by way of GràciaWe went to Barcelona for the Summit and stayed in Gràcia for the breakfast. On Cal Boter, the esmorzar de forquilla, and a neighbourhood worth choosing. The ArchiveA machine for leisureHow the Marbella Club manufactured the Costa del Sol, why padel was the smallest thing it produced, and why our story begins here even though the game did not. The ArchivePádel vs paddle: the missing letterHow an English word lost a letter and became a Spanish sport. The BodyThe Sport You Can Play at SeventyThe first column from The Alborán’s new Body columnist: on why movement is not a project for later, and a seventy-year-old in Huelva who understood that before I did. The SessionsEpisode One · George ModlerFilmed at the Padel World Summit in Barcelona, with George Modler of the Padel Directory.