Sports in Fort Lauderdale

On the home turf of top tour pros and two national tournaments, tennis titans battle across Lauderdale Tennis Club’s 20 meticulously groomed Har-Tru clay courts and unwind in the club’s many luxurious amenities. Situated in a gated community minutes from downtown, the club’s lush, garden-like setting provides ample space for expert racket swingers to perfect their forehands and for jealous rookies to perfect their backhanded compliments. Eight of the club’s 20 courts are lit year-round for night play, ensuring the cross-court action continues during evening hours and any unforeseen solar eclipses. Patrons can relax with the club’s many additional amenities, such as the large swimming pool, hot tub, and a recently revamped clubhouse with all-new locker rooms and showers, a pro shop, and a well-stocked fitness center. With two dining options, patrons can keep up with volleys on the patio bar overlooking the center court, or fill up on comfort fare and NFL action at the satellite-equipped sports bar.

Fun Rentals leases motorized excitement with four-hour scooter and ScootCoupe rentals, encouraging joy riders to explore beach and street alike in an expedient fuel-efficient cruiser. Like a domesticated velociraptor, the two-seater scooter is small, speedy, easy to park, and lasts all day on one dollar of gas. With a ScootCoupe rental, driver and passenger can sit side-by-side in the stylish three-wheeler as they jet about town at up to 40 miles per hour. The coupes are iPod–ready, allowing tech-toting motorists to roll to the sounds of classic rock or an audio-book biography of Millard Fillmore.

Best Boat Club and Rentals is now entering its 15th year of fostering aquatic adventures with a fleet of luxury rental boats. Play skipper for four hours as you and your loved ones recline on a comfy 21-foot Polar Dual Console or the 24-foot Cuddy Cabin. This nautical navigator features plenty of storage, a beverage-chilling cooler, a fish/depth finder, and a bikini top for protection from the sun's rays and incessant knock-knock jokes. The 150-horsepower Yamaha engine makes canal cruising a breeze, and allows for the creation of treasured fishing, waterskiing, and dolphin-racing memories.

Rob—a licensed Coast Guard captain and PADI-certified master scuba diver trainer—is affectionately called Captain Rob by his clients. His eponymous company helps the uninitiated to explore underwater with PADI-certification classes that focus on open-water dives in open water. From his 27-foot boat, a Grady White called Little Bugga, the captain launches expeditions beneath the waves. His encyclopedic knowledge of the area's ecology, which includes marine life, shines as he explains it in detail to divers. He also uses his decades of experience to teach new boat owners how to fish or captain their vessel through turbulent waters and car washes.

Perched on the Dania Cut-off Canal, Thunderboat Marine Service center's three separate marinas and dry-dock facilities harbor, rent, repair, and sell vessels as large as 50 feet in size. For customers, staff rents out sleek Bayliner Bowriders for all-day, self-piloted voyages of Florida's scenic Intracoastal Waterway. Concierges wash and fuel boats at the marina's slips, and technicians at the certified Mercury and Yamaha dealership repair troubled outboard engines, mend broken fiberglass hulls, and scare off stowaways from the steerage by waving a broom at them.