Longtime Rockridge residents Barbara Dunne and Joan Martin have their own version of “the marriage of land and sea”—or surf and turf.
Dunne is a Masters professional pickleball player who also excels in volleyball, handball, squash, and tennis—all land sports. Martin is a bodyboarder who additionally competes in open water swim meets and describes herself as a “water-grrl.” Yes, grrl!
“Bodyboarding is a water sport where riders catch and ride ocean waves on a flexible, rectangular foam board (also known as a boogie board or belly board),” according to Surfer Today.
When we met in the sleek and spacious living room of their 1940s mid-century modern home, Martin had recently completed the 2.7-mile Donner Lake Swim and then flown to Hawaii for the 2.4-mile Waikiki Rough Water Swim. And Dunne was back from a weekend pickleball tournament in Phoenix at which her Coachella Valley Scorpions Masters Squad (age 60-plus) took first place.
Both turned 65 this year and are retired. “We are trying to grow older gracefully—or recklessly—depending on how one views these types of activities,” Dunne said. But Martin wants this to be clear: “I’m a contender, Barb is the professional.”
Although they were in the same graduating class at St. Francis High School in Mountain View, they went their separate ways, only to run into each other 22 years later, completely by chance.
Martin had recently moved back to the Bay Area from New York City, where she was the longtime business manager for Roberta Flack, the legendary singer and pianist who died in 2025, while also earning an MBA in business and finance from Columbia University. She is still a co-executor of Flack’s estate.
Stopping in at a San Francisco Jamba Juice, she recognized Dunne, who, as the company’s operations manager, was making the rounds of the now-rebranded Jamba outlets.
“She looked the same,” Martin said, “only adding a few pounds and some wrinkles.” They became friends, and then more. They have now been married for 24 years. “We had a similar history. It was very easy,” Dunne said.
Both were raised, Martin said, in families that emphasized education, morality, service to others, kindness, and fun.
Fun, for Dunne’s family, revolved around sports. “I come from a family with a sports culture,” she said. Her late dad, Mike Dunne Sr., is a United States Handball Association (USHA) Hall of Famer.
“My dad won the world title in doubles handball with Joe McDonald in 1994 at the 8th World Handball Championships in County Clare, Ireland,” she said. “He also won over 10 national USHA titles.”
Two of her brothers, playing together, captured 12 national doubles handball championships, and a third brother also won a USHA Open Doubles national title.
For Barbara, it was initially a choice between tennis and volleyball as to what she should pursue as college loomed. “I would hit (tennis) balls for hours on our garage door.” But then “I willed myself into volleyball,” playing in high school and on early club teams, training with the United States national team, and winning a volleyball scholarship to UC Berkeley, where she majored in physical education.
So how did she end up as a professional pickleball player? After managerial positions at Macy’s and Just Desserts (“I’m a classic retailer”), she retired from Jamba in 2009. That’s when Martin gave her a membership to Rockridge’s Chabot Canyon Racquet Club.
“I played USTA (United States Tennis Association) from 2010 to 2020,” Barbara said. But when she took a tennis racquet with her on a trip to Hawaii hoping for a pickup game, she was invited to try pickleball. “I said yes, and from that point on, I was hooked.”
As for Martin, now retired from Deal Matters, the company she founded to work with small to medium-sized businesses on strategy, finance, and operations, she has loved water sports since childhood.
“Over the hill to Santa Cruz and into the waves, probably before I could walk,” she said.
She swam on teams, worked as a lifeguard, and gave swimming lessons through high school, then took up bodysurfing and bodyboarding. It took the pandemic to introduce her to rough water swimming. “They closed the pools, but the bay was open,” she said. Now, to keep up her fitness, she swims with local US Masters Swim Teams.
Rockridge homeowners for 22 years, they moved from Lower to Upper Rockridge three years ago even though it was a bit farther from their favorite haunts, La Farine and Market Hall, Zachary’s (Martin) and Belotti (Barbara).
“I saw this house 15 years ago, I kept driving by it,” Barbara said. “It finally went up for sale.” “From day one, our neighbors were over here talking to us,” Martin said.
And it must have been karma because they discovered that four immediate neighbors have Barbara’s same birthday.
Speaking of neighbors, Rockridge resident Karen Gee and Barbara played together at the Chabot racquet club. They won the silver medal at the 2018 Paris Gay Games in women’s doubles tennis, where Martin took a bronze in swimming. “Barb is great,” Gee said.
“Her athleticism transfers from one sport to another. We took up pickleball together and Barb took it to a whole new level.”
Gee, who is friends with both women, added, “Joan is one of the funniest people you’ve ever met.” And, Gee said, Martin’s financial know-how is off the charts.
“They are the most delightful people in the world,” said Annette Floystrup, who was their next-door neighbor in Lower Rockridge for many years. “They are dear friends who have become family. It’s such a lovely thing when good neighbors become friends.”
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