178. BnB Loco 2, UPA-A Boulder Opal, & Enhance Turbo Armor Grit Update

[00:00:03] All right, what's up guys? We are back with another podcast episode. I think this one is going to be a fun one this week. There's a handful of paddles that people really wanted information on. And there's also just like a crazy amount of like I was checking throughout the industry. The amount of paddles that are on pre-order right now is actually mind blowing. But anyways, we'll get we'll get to all that. And then in the kitchen, we'll have some Q&A. We're also going to talk about tournament experiences, which leads perfect into my question.

[00:00:30] of the week. Since we talked about indoor facilities recently, I just want to know what makes a tournament enjoyable for you or maybe even better yet, what makes one not enjoyable? Maybe answer both of those. Because I think it's probably a little different for everyone, but there's probably some universal things that everyone kind of wants or expects from a tournament to make it a good experience. You and I have played a lot. So I feel like it'd be kind of fun just to talk about that a little bit. For sure. So okay. First of all, I just want to talk about some upcoming paddles because I feel like every year it's always around the same.

[00:01:00] first time of year where everyone which makes sense, you know, Black Friday holidays, you want to gift paddles, whatever makes perfect sense for companies to release paddles. But holy moly, there's so many. So six zero has the coral pro USAP version. I don't know exactly when that's coming. But I saw that got approved. The proton series one v two, I believe was approved on USAP and UPAA. The Holbrook fused with Vantagritz. We don't have that one yet. But I believe that's coming up soon. And then this one is technically officially out

[00:01:29] now. But the radius pro five, which for those of you who haven't been in pickleball for very long, you'll actually launched with this shape. And it just looks kind of like a ping pong paddle. It's extremely round, very short handle. It is not a paddle that I would probably recommend to most people. But for the niche demographic of people out there who want a short handle and something really fast in the hand that I don't have one, but I guarantee you that is Yola's fastest paddle in the hand by a long shot. Like I wouldn't be surprised

[00:01:59] if the swing weight is under 100 on that thing. Oh, yeah. I mean, minimum under 105. We've hit one. Yeah, we hit one at the pro five event earlier this year. And it's just kind of fun because the sweet spots big on it. And it's just really fast in the hand. So for any of you who want a short handle because there's not many of them out there and like a wide body or you just have like a table tennis grip that paddles probably about as good as it's gonna get pretty goofy looking. But yeah, very niche crowd for sure. Yeah. So those were some and then as far as the pre sales, and I might even be missing some here.

[00:02:29] But here were a handful gearbox with the pressure X, the loco, the Jade, the Volare command, and then Vatic Pro. I think they're kind of redoing their thing. I don't know if exactly on pre order, but like, just feels like there's been a lot of paddles way more than I've seen in a long time that are up for like a pre order or there's like batches like I think Honolulu still doing batches of the J6 CR, which is crazy because it's been out forever. I don't know how it could still be sold out. I think the mark unmarked is has to do batches. They're smaller. So that makes sense. But

[00:02:59] Yep. Just like every company seems to be on pre order right now. Which is crazy. I get why they have to do them, but they kind of suck. It's just like, okay, what's going to be out by the time I actually get this thing?

[00:03:09] Mm hmm. You know, I mean, in this industry, things move so fast. Yeah, so you just never know. But okay, let's talk about one of the first things that everyone is going to be excited to hear about. The loco to boom. Yeah, good luck with that hybrid. It is not standing. Was giving me problems earlier.

[00:03:29] So if you're watching the podcast, you'll notice, you'll notice something. There's only two shapes on the table, an elongated and a hybrid. I already talked about this, but we're going to flame them again. We're going to bully them until there is a wide body on this table. It is pretty much been confirmed at this point that there's not really any plan for a wide body loco, which is insane to me. But that's where we are. So you know, if you just want to like shoot their customer support an email and say, hey, where's my wide body?

[00:03:59] Chris Olson sent me. Feel free to let him know that we want the freaking wide body. Look, as much as I typically do not endorse the purchase or use of a wide body, it is a little I get why they are doing it. I understand. But at the same time, there is an audience that do like standard shape or wide bodies. So yes, you got to get used to a hybrid or elongated.

[00:04:24] I mean, look, I like hybrid so I can get over it. But it's just like, man, the wide body last year was so good for the loco. So I'm just really surprised that they at a minimum didn't do like a small number of them. You know, I know they have to get a dual certified and that, you know, costs a lot of money. Having more SKUs. But yeah, shoot them an email. Let them know we're going to get that wide body. Think of it this way. Think of it this way. You like the wide body loco so much. You used it for the Chasing 5-0 series.

[00:04:51] Yep. You didn't hit 5-0. Imagine if you used an elongated loco for the series. That must have been it. You probably would have hit 5-0. You know, maybe I'll try it again this year or next year, I guess rather. And we'll see if it works. I think it will. Okay, so let's talk about the paddle. First thing, we actually have a funny story about this. Oh my gosh. So I am going, me and Isaac are about to leave to go to a facility to do some testing.

[00:05:18] And as I'm leaving, I see the FedEx truck. And I'm like, oh, I know the loco's on that truck. So I turn right back around and I'm like, yes, we got the paddle. And I'm feeling the bag and I'm going, there's only one paddle in this. I was like, why is there only one? So I open it. It's only a hybrid in this thing. I was like, where's the elongated? The hybrid's not even approved yet. I was like, why do we have this? And then you didn't have the package at your house. Yep. I looked before I left, wasn't there. So then I just headed off to the facility. And then as soon as we get there, we found out that it was at your place.

[00:05:48] They just shipped you the elongated because you usually use it. I usually use the other shapes. But it was shipped to my old apartment address, not my new one. Which thankfully, he can walk to that building. They're very close. They're right next on the same street. They're very close to each other. And the numbers are similar. So I can understand like packages get misdelivered all the time. Yeah. Unfortunately, the person shipping the package just didn't know which was my current address and shipped it to the old one.

[00:06:14] And so because of that, I called my wife because I live close to Isaac. It's all very close. She just happened to have the day off. And I was like, hey, can you run over to this building and grab this package? We need to get some testing done on this thing. And she's like, yeah, no problem. So she goes and the package just isn't there. But from the time it was delivered to the time my wife got, there's probably 20 minutes. If that. If that. 15 to 20 minutes. Package gone. And there was a picture of the delivery. Like we can see exactly where it was placed. Just completely gone.

[00:06:43] And now the apartment I used to live in, not the world's greatest apartment. There's definitely some porch pirates. Sketchy things are happening at that place. Isaac had a taillight smashed one time. Yeah, it wasn't the world's greatest apartment. So the package was just gone. And so we let Brett and Butter know. And then they must have done some coordinating. Pickleball Blast is another reviewer in our area. And they hit us up and they're like, hey, he has the elongated. He's probably not going to use it. You guys can go grab it from him. So we coordinated basically all that to say.

[00:07:13] Big shout out to Bobby from Pickleball Blast getting us this elongated. We really appreciate it because it would have actually delayed things probably quite a bit because the hybrid not being approved yet. I think there's some anticipation that it won't be that long. Who knows? Maybe in a week this is a non-matter. But it wouldn't really have made sense for us to put a lot of time into a paddle if it ends up failing and then whatever. So really appreciate Bobby because now we have the elongated. But it was just kind of a wild story. The package was just delivered. How does someone already take it?

[00:07:43] I know. And then I went over there after we were done hitting, tried to ring their door. Nothing. I left a note on the door with my phone number. Never got a call. Not surprised. So someone out there in our area. I was joking with a friend. I was like, I'm going to be checking Facebook Marketplace. Yeah, you should. If it's on there. Because yeah, somebody out there is probably one of the first people to get a Loco 2. And a porch pyro is like, ooh, Loco 2. A big fan. I heard that was paddle of the year last year.

[00:08:11] Or they look at it and go, hmm, something expensive. And they're like, what is this? Yeah. Yeah, like a big ping pong paddle? Yeah. So anyways, we don't. Unfortunately, I would love to give you play thoughts. But because this came yesterday and we were already testing other paddles, the only thing we have done was get the grit and the spin numbers on the hybrid because we got the elongated like after our workday. But the spin on the hybrid was very good.

[00:08:39] It was, I think, 24, 45 RPM. So that's a good upgrade from last year's Loco. And I think you and I said it last week. In my opinion, all the Loco needed, all it needed was better grit. Long lasting grit that spins well. Yep. Which we don't know if it lasts yet. But if it does, elite. Theoretically, if it does last longer, why change the wheel? It does not need anything else.

[00:09:06] I know there are some people saying like, oh, it doesn't have any new tech and it's old stuff. Like why did it need, you know, why only just new grit? If something works so well, why change it? If you have a three-star Michelin restaurant, change the interior and the design of it. Don't change the recipe. Don't change the menu. Like why would you do that? That's what got you there. I think the only thing that I'm thinking about from last year that there's maybe two things

[00:09:32] that if I was to add in like two cents on what could be better, but it's not even really changing the paddle. Maybe one of them is. One, the elongated Loco, a little bit on the heavier side for specs. I think this one came in at 120. Okay. So that elongated, what was the hybrid? Do you remember? 112. Okay. So honestly, the hybrid's fine and the elongated, that's a little bit lower than last year's. I feel like they were kind of 122, 123, but a lot of elongateds I feel like are kind of hovering that like 116, 117 these days.

[00:10:01] So that could have been nice. But again, anytime you do something like that, something else comes out of it. So is a trade-off. It might've played worse. So if it already played well, it's like, okay, give it the grit. Boom, we're good. So I don't know. My opinion is it didn't need more. And you know what? Make different versions. You want like an MPP Loco or something? Like, go for it. But just do this one how it was. And the other thing I was going to say is maybe, well, first of all, give me my dang wide body.

[00:10:29] I was going to say, the only thing is like, maybe you could make like a flat top hybrid since, you know, everyone seems to be really enjoying those this year. But let's get the wide body before we do a flat top hybrid. If I get a flat top hybrid of the Loco before I see a wide body, I will have pitchforks. I will be in my B costume with pitchforks in the street. I will have signs everywhere. Doug's going to have a B smoker at his door waiting for you. Oh my gosh. So the grit is interesting.

[00:10:57] I know some people were saying that they were thinking it was going to be like the, like Honolulu's crystal blue grit. I would say it's not, not the same. Definitely feels different than Honolulu's grit. Can we grab that? Yeah. The Honolulu off the wall there? Let's see it. I don't know. Slightly similar, but I don't know. In my opinion, this feels different. I don't think it's. Feel. I feel like they feel kind of similar.

[00:11:27] Sure. Yeah. Um, yeah, just texture wise, I feel like, and like friction, they feel kind of similar, but well, I guess we'll have to see if it holds up. I mean, let's just say it is and I'm wrong. Yep. Then great. Cause so far the crystal blue grit's been holding up. So yeah, that's one I haven't really gotten to do extensive testing on yet since coming back. So if this isn't the same, well, it's like, oh cool. Well now I have an idea of how the Honolulu holds up. Yeah. Uh, so yeah, that's what we have on the, the loco so far.

[00:11:57] Um, really looking forward to hitting this. I feel like it's, you know, I probably has potential to be really good again this year. Uh, cause just durable grit, but, uh, yeah, we'll see durable grit as we know has had a lot of issues and we'll get to some troubles here later. If it holds up, potentially that is what I'll be using at worlds. Okay. So we're not going to talk a lot about this paddle. I was actually planning on having us talk quite a bit about this paddle this week. Uh, that is the Neonic, uh, FLX or flex line.

[00:12:26] So they also added a durable grit to this, uh, spin numbers were looking great on it on both our hybrid and wide body. They were actually pretty much exactly identical. They were with like 10 RPM apart. So I was like, that's great consistency. And their grit numbers with the stare at were also very consistent. So that's awesome to see. Uh, but the reason we're not going to talk about it other than that, I think it will be an interesting hundred dollar paddle when it releases is that we got the paddles.

[00:12:52] And then I got an email that was like, Hey, uh, there's like some small stuff with the handle that needs fixing. So we're going to fix that and then send everyone new units. And I was like, okay, well, even if it's, let's just say it's small, you know, right? Like I'm sure it is small, whatever they're about to do to it. I'm like, well, we've seen that change of paddle quite a bit before, like the black opal. And I was like, I'm not going to put time on a paddle that is potentially going to change. Uh, you know, so I did want to talk about this though, because durable grit, a hundred dollar paddle.

[00:13:22] Awesome. And then the FLX line is stupid light. The elongated 108. Insanely light. Hybrid 109. Crazy that the hybrid's somehow heavier, but whatever. Ridiculously light. Probably the lightest elongated we've ever tested. I can't think of three. Yeah. I can't think of anything else. Uh, like only thing would be like the quanta last year. Those were really light too. What was the elongated in that though? It was somewhere between like 109 and 111. It was really light.

[00:13:52] So yeah, when we have the final units, we will talk about this more because you know, everyone is waiting for that a hundred dollar durable grit, a great option though. I think it kind of already exists and maybe I'll talk a little bit more about that later in this episode, but I'm looking forward to trying this paddle because even just from the brief hits I did do last week, it felt solid. Obviously that was only like, you know, 20 minutes of hitting, but I think, I think this one's got some potential. So, okay.

[00:14:20] Uh, next paddle only you can talk about cause you hit it yesterday while I was putting some more time on the spitfire. Yeah. You were having a great time while we were testing this paddle yesterday. Oh my gosh. Okay. Go ahead, Isaac. Tell them to, first of all, we're talking about the six zero Boulder Opal, the UPAA rough version. Yep. Uh, what are they, does it have the name? Is it the shark skin grit? Yeah. So this might just be the greatest paddle ever created apparently.

[00:14:47] Uh, because I think during our testing, I hit about half a million neck cords and was absolutely destroying you. I have never, ever. I mean, I've drilled with Isaac so much. And there's even a video last year with him using a pickleball apes paddle where he hit the neck cord so many times. You can find the reel somewhere on my channel. He hit like double the amount yesterday. And I swear I was about to throw my paddle.

[00:15:13] I could not believe how many neck cords you were able to hit. It was like, not just one neck cord every few points. It was like two, three neck cords in a point, every point. Yeah. Like every other point. It was insane. I had drives, hands, dinks, doesn't matter what shot I was hitting. It's hitting. I was so close to just taking the ball and smoking it at you. Like just take it, throwing it out of my hand and just hitting it. Cause I was like, this is insane. I cannot believe. Yeah. It was pretty crazy.

[00:15:41] But to get to the actual paddle, um, still 14 millimeters. The handle is still classic six zero, pretty chunky, which I'm not a huge fan of, but I can, I don't know. I can get over it. The shape of it is, is good. So I like that. Um, but very. Very, very poppy, very powerful, similar to the black opal, but I would actually say a little bit easier to control. Yeah. I would agree. Um, and like slightly softer.

[00:16:09] I didn't have a original black opal to hit it next to, but from what I remember, this feels slightly softer and this one, I'd really have to have one next to me to hit them side by side. I'd almost say slightly less neck flex. No, I would definitely say it. So that was a huge upgrade. In my opinion. I'm not a person who likes neck flex. So this having less, much better.

[00:16:34] Um, also the spin, uh, is definitely an upgrade from the smoother bolder opal. So the smoother one, I was getting around like 2000 average RPM. And then on the new rough bolder opal, it was like 2300. Yeah. No spin was, spin was great. Had your drops were really good. Drops are crazy. It's probably some of the best drops I have seen you hit. Yeah. It was drops were nuts. I was having a good time with drops. Yeah. Um, sweet spot is not the best. Yeah.

[00:17:03] Uh, definitely suffers still kind of like the original opal. It's almost Yola FX like, but honestly a little better than the Yola FX. Okay. Um, now that was stock with no weight. Do you have the specs of what, uh, what it was stock? I actually don't. I'll check while you talk about it. Talk about your weight setup and I'll go low. Yeah. I thought maybe I got the specs on it the other day. Um, one 13 swing weight, six twist weight. Okay.

[00:17:33] So like typical hybrid, um, played with the stock for a little while, had no issues. Wasn't loving drives with its stock. Like it was okay, but I wasn't a huge fan. It wasn't, you know, impressing me or anything. Then we got these, uh, five gram strips, really long five gram strips of tungsten weight from Bodie pickleball. Uh, these are kind of cool. Just slapped it goes up across pretty much the entire side of the pack. Um, and spreads out the weight a little bit.

[00:18:00] And then it felt even softer and power went up. It felt really good in hand. Still. We didn't get swing weight on this now with this setup, but still feels very light. Drives felt much improved, uh, still hitting that cord. So that was great. Um, but, but yeah, the sweet spot was slightly improved, but still not like, not like a loco, not like a Viesel or a Spitfire. Yeah. Not up with the better ones. Yeah.

[00:18:29] Definitely still going to have a slightly smaller sweet spot. Uh, but if you're someone who likes to feel off center shots, then I'm sure you'll, you'll love this. Um, and again, we talked about this when we covered the original bowl. Uh, yeah. The original smoother Boulder Opal. But to me, unless you really like a paddle with neck flex, to me, the Boulder Opal is just a better black Opal. Yeah. Like maybe it hits a little less hard, but you gain a little bit of sweet spot.

[00:18:55] I feel like you gain, uh, also better control just because the face feels a little bit more consistent or more predictable. Uh, yeah, I just, I'm still just bummed that it's a 14. Yeah. But I think the reason they did that is they were saying the foam core that they're using for this, cause it's not EPP or MPP would apparently just be too heavy. That's well, that's what Dale was telling me when the original Opal, I was like, so why didn't you make a 16? And he said, if they did, it would just be too heavy. So, but I'm curious, what is too heavy?

[00:19:25] Yeah. Like, okay. If it's a hybrid that goes up to like one 22, then okay. Yeah. Probably people aren't going to want to buy that. But if it was a hybrid that went to like one 16, definitely on the heavier side. I guess think about it though. This is a 14 at one 13. That loco is a 16 at like, what would we say? 112. So maybe as a 16, that's, you know, decent bit more material for the whole core. For sure. I mean, it would definitely go up, but I'm just curious. Yeah. So that I'm, cause typically I'm not a huge fan of 14 millimeter paddles.

[00:19:54] So this would not be my first choice, but if you are someone who likes 14 millimeter paddles and you didn't really like the black opal, then this one might fit what you like. I think, I actually think this was in my opinion, for me, a big upgrade from the black opal. And now you have the, and again, it's the rough one is UPA only. I don't know if they plan to also do a dual approved, like there seemed to be working on with the, uh, coral pro. Uh, but yeah.

[00:20:23] And then obviously don't really have any thoughts on how durable, um, the shark skin grit is right now. Cause we haven't gotten anywhere near far enough to know that. Yeah. But, uh, yeah. Big fan of the white design. Um, design looks good. The heat map, um, pattern on the face is cool. I think six zeros always had pretty well-designed paddles. So yeah, I just saw that they had released a gold, uh, double black diamond to celebrate four years, uh, as a company. And I was like, I'm really tempted to buy that.

[00:20:52] I was like the, the double black diamond half for that time period. It was such a good battle. That was your, that was your original. I feel like I just want it as like a shelf piece. Centerpiece. Yeah. I think that would be, that would be pretty, pretty sick. Okay. Let's talk about some accessories before we get to some more grit, um, conversation. I guess first thing we'll talk about is these Bodhi pods because we just mentioned them. Yeah. I saw they posted these on Instagram and I was also due for getting us more weight anyways. Yep.

[00:21:19] And so I just thought this was really interesting because a couple of things. One, lately, uh, I have been, I would say even for the last year, I've been a much bigger fan of at least one gram per inch weighted tape, or even just using the much, uh, more concentrated weight on the slice sliders half gram to me. I feel like even when I use quite a bit of it, since I'm stretching it out over such a

[00:21:46] far area, it feels like it makes less of an impact to the paddle than what I want to feel. Like, I think really what I'm wanting is a certain zone of the paddle to get a lot better. And so concentrating the weight achieves that versus kind of spreading it out and maybe making most areas just a little bit better. And so when I saw Bodhi had these, uh, weighted strips, I was like, well, first of all, it's nice. I don't have to cut anything. That's great.

[00:22:12] Uh, and two, it's one gram, five inches. I was like, it's, it's, these strips are almost like the exact length I've been using on a lot of paddles lately. I think this might actually let me hold it up. I wish I, I, it's funny how we've like flipped. You used to not be a fan of more concentrated weight and use longer strips. I always use like the three gram pods and was more concentrated. Now we flipped. I, you like spreading it. I spread it out more. Like I use one gram.

[00:22:42] I like heavy paddles. So I use one gram print tape, but usually it's like five to eight inch strip depending on the paddle. So I almost wish they had longer versions of these strips. They spread it out more. Which I get most people probably aren't using that much weight. Yeah. So yeah, fine. So yeah, I mean, I, uh, we tried them on the Boulder Opal. I plan to use these a lot more. Um, I don't have a discount code with them. I should probably try and get that set up, but, uh, I like this so far and they do, they

[00:23:11] have it in a bunch of weights. So I think the other one we bought were three gram strips, which are longer than the typical three gram pods. So if you did want to spread it out a little bit more, you could do that, but they have, I think it's five, three, two and a half, one and a half and one. I might be a little off on some of those numbers, but they have like a lot of different pods now. So depending on how like nitpicky you wanted to get, I, I am a big fan of these. I like how simple it is. They're very clean.

[00:23:40] You don't have, it's one tiny logo. Yep. One logo in the center. You don't have to cut anything. The edges are uniform. It makes it just so much, especially for us because now this is very unique situation. We're constantly waiting up tons and tons of paddles. Yep. This just speeds things up a ton when we're out at the court trying to do different weight setups because I rip off a strip on the back and slap it on versus having to measure and cut and make sure things are even because kind of OCD. But yeah, this, this is great. Yeah.

[00:24:10] I'm a big fan of this product. Yep. I am. I agree. Definitely a fan of it. Would highly recommend right now buy it in, you know, whichever weight, weight setup you prefer. Um, and then next thing I want to talk about quick, let me just make sure. Yes, it is this ball. So, uh, we're only going to talk about this a little bit here, uh, because we tried it yesterday and we want to try it in some actual games before we give you guys like, uh, some in-depth thoughts on it.

[00:24:36] But this Selkirk Q1 quiet ball is supposed to be 30% quieter than a regular ball. And we actually bought this ourselves. I didn't know this was out until it got mentioned, uh, to me like a couple of days ago. And I was like, Oh, I like, I have said for a long time, why are we trying to fix the paddles when you could just fix the ball? Now there's a lot of different trade-offs with that, right? There are some paddles like a boomstick, which are just extremely loud. And then you have other paddles.

[00:25:06] Let's take a Friday or a pro, which I would say are quite a bit quieter, not a quiet paddle, but something like an owl never made sense to me. So I'm like, you really want everyone to buy another $200 paddle that plays quite different from everything else to solve the quiet problem instead of fixing the ball that everyone can buy for a couple bucks. So I was curious if this ball would play decent enough and actually be quieter because I feel

[00:25:33] like, you know, some balls like this in the past, like some of the 3d printed balls we tried, they're like silent, but they don't play very well. No, those things suck. Yeah. So it's like gamma had like a foam ball, which that doesn't even feel like pickleball. I don't even think that was meant to be played with. That was meant more as like a wall thing. Now this ball does have 40 holes on it, but the holes are like very large. I think this is, it's like an indoor ball size, size hole. Yeah. And it'll definitely like, if you press into it, it for sure compresses more than a regular ball.

[00:26:03] It's a much, much softer material than like a Franklin or a lifetime. Uh, it's, it compresses a lot, but now listen to this sound difference between them. Hopefully this comes through on the microphone. So we'll start with a spitfire and a regular ball piercing my ear. Okay. Now here's the Selkirk quiet ball.

[00:26:33] I mean, to me, that is like that to my sound perception sounds like more than 30%. It's, it's a much less, uh, it's a much lower pitch. It's not as high pitch and piercing. And it, it sounds like as if you're bouncing a rubber bouncy ball on the paddle. Yeah. That's kind of the sound it makes. And yesterday, like we hit it very briefly, I would say for maybe like three minutes, but then we went back to our regular paddle testing. To me, it's definitely different than a Franklin.

[00:27:00] Like if your expectation is, oh, it's going to play exactly like a regular pickleball. No, I don't think that's correct. But I feel like if you were in an area where you had to be quieter or let's say the courts are going to go away or you're just not allowed to play unless you have something quieter. I feel like I would rather play with this than that go by like an owl. Yeah. Yeah. To me, it was close enough to regular pickleball in the brief hitting that we did that I was like, okay, I, that's the route I'd rather take.

[00:27:29] I think the biggest feel thing on this ball is, I mean, pickleball is already very low impact. Like when you're hitting the ball, you don't really feel it a ton, but because lifetime balls and others are pretty rigid. I mean, you still feel a crisp shot. But with this, it compresses so much and it's so soft that sometimes just feels like you're hitting air. Yeah. It's yeah. It's like you drive the ball at me and I just block. It's like, did I hit a ball? Yeah. It's just very soft for sure.

[00:27:59] So at some point we're going to try and get some games on this thing and actually do a little bit more testing. Maybe our opinion changes with some deeper testing. But if you are someone that needs like a quiet ball, this might be something to consider. I think, let me go pull up the website. I think we paid like 13 bucks for a three pack. Yeah. 12 bucks for a three pack. So, you know, seems reasonable enough to me. And it seems like it does the job. Like I, we need to test this in our house. It's never going to crack. Yeah. It definitely doesn't seem like a ball that'll crack.

[00:28:26] Like definitely doesn't seem like what I'm curious is because it's so soft. How's it going to play when weather now is starting to get colder when it's like 40 degrees and a lifetime ball is a rock. Yeah. And it's like, you don't really want to play. I'm curious how that will play. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Okay. Let's move on to two other things. First, we'll go over just the bags we've been using recently. Just because one, you're a big duffel bag lover. So you've been huge on the Selkirk duffel bag.

[00:28:54] Uh, and then because we were going to talk about that, I figured I'd talk about my bag. So I, as you can just start, uh, let's, let's hear your elevator pitch for the, the duffel bag. Cause I am not team duffel for a pickleball bag. Team duffel is, is the way to go. I should have, it's in my car. I should have brought it down. Um, it's still great. The materials of that bag are holding up really well. Um, I'm still a huge fan of using a duffel bag. Honestly, some of my favorite features are the accessory pockets, the, especially the

[00:29:22] one with the magnet, just making it so easy to put sunglasses, keys, wallet, phone, and just throw it in my bag without putting it into a large pocket and it falling into the dark abyss and not being able to find my stuff when I need it. Um, the only downsides I will get into quickly with, uh, with that is the, the magnetic flap. I think I mentioned this the first time only has like a magnet in the center, not the edges.

[00:29:47] So when the bag doesn't have a lot of stuff in it and it kind of bends around the, the sides of the flap kind of bend a lot and bend up. Does it just open a little bit? Basically, it's not that it's open. Even when it closes the, like the mag magnet is latched, the edges are just kind of bent upwards, almost as if like, like you bend a piece of paper and it's stuck there. Oh, I see. It's, it's bent up. I wouldn't say it's damaged. I could probably bend them back. Just kind of annoying. Sure.

[00:30:15] Um, but if I want to fix that, close the zipper, latch down, I'm sure we'll go back to normal. Uh, still a huge fan. The magnet design of the main pocket is great. I rarely ever have it zipped up. Like almost never. I just latch it with the magnets and go. And then tons of space I can carry. I mean, this is why I like duffels. The main compartment opens so wide. It's easy to take things in and out and pack and you can just fit so much stuff in a duffel bag.

[00:30:42] I'd went on a golf trip and I packed all my stuff, shoes, clothes, uh, toiletries, everything in that duffel bag. Phenomenal was great. Uh, and just carrying one around with the sling is, is nice and easy. And plus like a lot of times when we travel, I have a camera backpack. Okay. Well, I'm not going to carry a camera backpack and a pickleball backpack at the same time so I can throw my camera bag on and then just throw my duffel bag over my shoulder.

[00:31:10] I got my pickleball stuff, my clothes, my cameras. It just makes life so much easier carrying a lot of stuff around. Yeah. That's why I'm, I'm big on the duffel bag. And they're just so light. They're so light because it's not a ton of material. Yeah. That's a big reason why I like them. Don't think you're ever going to catch me with the duffel. I, you know, I'm trying, I gave you, I gave you my sales pitch and I don't think it's going to work. I do think there are things about duffel bags that are appealing, but for some reason

[00:31:39] when it comes to like bringing it to a pickleball court and the funny thing is the two bags I'm going to talk about, cause I feel like I use two, uh, the forward ranger V2 is kind of my, I'm going to play pickleball bag. Like I'm not doing a lot of work stuff or even my tournament bag. I love the little front paddle sleeve. Well, let's say I actually do like that bag a lot. If I'm going with a backpack and I don't need to carry a ton of paddles, like a duffel, that's probably my favorite backpack. Yeah. The ranger V2.

[00:32:07] And real quick before we move on, I do just want to say one big thing, and this is more of a personal thing. I'm sure there are people out there who will use it. But the shoe pocket, not for me. I don't ever use it in the duffel bag. I don't put my shoes in there. I just, I found it kind of annoying to get my shoes in and out of that pocket. It's just a little tight. Um, and I, everyone who listens and knows me knows that I just like to carry my shoes separate in another separate container. Yeah.

[00:32:35] Um, so that's probably the biggest for me downside. Cause if it was up to me, I would just remove it. Sure. Yeah. Makes sense. But yeah, that forward ranger V2 bag. I mean, I think I've been using it for like a year now. Uh, still going really strong, not the V2 specifically. I had the V1 last year. Now I'm using the V2. Um, I think all that was really changed on the V2 was an extra water bottle pocket and then like a laptop compartment. But, uh, it's been great. I mean, the quick access is very nice. I love that for my keys phone wallet.

[00:33:03] The paddle sleeve on the front for tournaments is very nice just to get my paddle in and out quick. Uh, yeah, I really have no complaints with that bag. Uh, it's just nice. The, I guess the only complaint, but this kind of applies to almost every backpack unless you do a clamshell. And I really don't like clamshells is stuff at the bottom. It's just like, if you have a lot of stuff stacked on top, it's like, you're really reaching to get to the bottom. Um, but that's kind of a problem with most backpacks in general. Pretty easy when you have a duffel. Yeah. Yeah. You and your duffel.

[00:33:34] And then the second bag I want to talk about, cause this has kind of been the work bag when I need to go do a lot of spin testing because it will hold all the balls that I'm using for spin testing. It holds my radar gun. It holds the tripod. It holds, I would say can hold probably up to about eight paddles when my main compartment also has all the other stuff I just mentioned. So it, did I even say the bag? I don't think I said the bag, but the Franklin tour bag. Yeah. That it's, it's great. If you think about it, yeah, I know what you're going to say.

[00:34:04] You're going to say it's kind of close to a duffel. If you think about it, you squint your eyes a little, if it it's, you're not technically wrong. You're not technically wrong, but yeah, that bag has been great. Uh, it just holds so much. Like if I didn't put, you know, the radar gun and stuff in there and the tripod, I mean, you could, I bet you could put almost 20 paddles in that bag. Yeah, for sure. It's just gigantic. I bet you could. So if you're one of those people that's like, I'm going to stuff everything in this, like I'm living out of it.

[00:34:34] You could definitely do it with that Franklin bag. And I don't think the price on that Franklin bag is bad. I think after a code, it might be in the one thirties, one twenties. It's not bad. So I feel like, uh, for a big bag, that is seems like it's held up to durability wise. Yeah. No issues. I mean, yeah, it's been great. So those are some of the bags we're really liking right now. Um, one's a small bag. One's a duffel. You can probably skip the duffel, but I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I know some of you out there like duffels. Um, okay. Let's talk about, uh, the Pila sunglasses.

[00:35:03] So I've had a lot more time on these now, and I just kind of wanted to give you guys an update as I start working on my review now. So if you did not catch the first podcast where I talked about these, first of all, we'll do a quick recap. These are the eyewear that a lot of pros are currently wearing, which is I kind of feel like why they're, they're getting attention. Just suddenly all these pros were wearing it. And I was kind of like, why are you wearing that? Uh, and they have a very distinct look with their visor look. So it's kind of hard to miss.

[00:35:30] When I first saw these, I would classify myself as a grade A hater. I would, I literally bought these going in expecting to not be impressed and basically be like, these are probably not great, especially because of the price. I spent my own money. These were not sent to me. $1,800 on two frames and six different lenses. So I could compare all the different lenses and that's still not all of them, which is insane.

[00:36:00] Uh, but yeah, I was going in expecting to be like, look, just go buy other stuff, which small spoiler that may still kind of be the conclusion. But what I will say is you will not complain if you buy these about performance. There is nothing about these that I go, oh, the performance or the quality is not good. I think it does, it checks all the boxes in terms of that, like swapping the lenses very easy.

[00:36:27] It just kind of snaps off like this if you're watching and then you can attach a different lens. It's very quick to do that. Uh, I would also say if you're, if you plan to buy some of these, I would, I can't remember the name of this, but whatever the side ear pieces, I would not get the one with the like dual tip. It's funny. Cause I think this is where we differ. Okay. I can't wait to hear your opinion on that, but I, the straight regular, the, the, the regular earpiece, like regular glasses. I would take this a hundred times over the other one.

[00:36:56] Well, the problem is I think when I wore them with those normal earpieces, uh, they kind of fell off my face a little bit depending on the nose piece. Uh, yeah, with those one, the, the, the lenses you're holding right now, that nose piece did not really fit me very well. The only one that fit me was the blue lenses. Yeah. And for some reason that nose piece is slightly different. I keep meaning to email them and ask them why it's different, but I would agree.

[00:37:24] I think the blue technically fits me a little bit better, but I don't have a huge complaint about this one. The black nose. So, I mean just different shaped head. So it's, it's going to be different for everyone, but if you like, it's a weird feel. So these, like, if you're just wanting normal feeling sunglasses, then the, the current earpieces you have would be the way to go. Yeah. Uh, so that would be my recommendation. I just feel like with a hat, it's too tight on my head or the hat gets in away a little bit and then I have to loosen the hat and it's just not how I want to wear it. Blah, blah, blah.

[00:37:52] Uh, but yeah, so I've been playing indoor quite a bit and I have three main indoor lenses. So again, we talked about this on the podcast where we first covered these, their naming is extremely confusing. And I think I'll be able to break that down a little bit better in the full review, but the three that I have are the 92 CIL. That is the main indoor lens that I believe all their pros wear. Then the one I'm holding right now, which is a pink one is the 82 CIRG.

[00:38:21] And then I cannot remember for the life of me, the other model name, but it's like the 85 C I W A. It is like the worst naming. They couldn't make it more confusing if they tried. The number is just how much light is supposed to be let in. So 92 would be 92% of light. 82 is 82% of light. So technically the ones I'm holding let in a little bit less light, but here's what I will say. The 85 and the 92 are both like yellow tinted lenses.

[00:38:49] And for whatever reason, for me, I do not like them indoor. Mr. Colorblind. Our only theory is I am like partially colorblind. And my main issue with certain colors is like yellow and green. If they're next to each other, I can sometimes get them a little mixed up, but it's like very specific shades. It's not like I look at a green pickleball paddle and I'm like, oh, it's yellow. It's like very specific shades. So I'm not fully colorblind.

[00:39:16] But the yellow tint to me just makes it harder to see the ball indoors. Like I don't feel like it is more clear. I'll have to try those because I haven't tried the yellow ones indoors yet. Yeah, it's not terrible. I could play pickleball with it, but I think if I had the choice between completely clear lenses and those, I'm taking the completely clear lens. Interesting. I cannot for the life of me play indoors with clear lenses. I refuse. Like it makes everything just look fuzzy no matter how clear it is.

[00:39:44] Even if they don't fog, I can just tell that everything looks a little less sharp if it's not tinted. And that bothers me. Huh? So what I will say is this pink one, basically the way I would describe it, if any of you are video people out there or know anything about photo editing this, I mean, as you would guess, it just like magenta tints everything. And I feel like indoors where there's a lot of like fluorescent style lights and kind of will green cast some things. I feel like it makes indoors look a lot more clear with these.

[00:40:14] And even though they are a little bit darker, I personally heavily prefer this lens over the 92 CIL. Yeah. I think it just looks way nicer. The balls pops a lot to me. I really like how it looks. So my recommendation currently, if you were trying to pick for an indoor lens would be the 82 CIRG. But if you are in a pretty dark facility, my guess is these might be a little tougher. I personally don't think they're that dark. Like if I put them on in here.

[00:40:43] I really don't think it gets so much darker in here that it's harder to see. But if you are already in a facility that was a little dark for you, then this is only going to make that a tiny bit worse. Yeah. The other thing I will say is I have noticed, even though this has some vent holes to prevent fogging indoor play where I have been like pretty hot recently, I have noticed them fogging, not like every point. But if I'm like between points and I'm like breathing really heavy, I've noticed them

[00:41:11] start to fog and then I have to like pull them away from my face and then it'll quickly dissipate and then I can push them back and I'm good. So it hasn't bothered me during a point. It's always after. But I just thought I'd mention that if you're someone who like heavily fogs lenses, which I'm normally not, then you might have some issues. But yeah, mostly been good for me. So yeah, I think my general thought right now is they are good. You'd sure hope for the price that they're going to be good.

[00:41:40] But I have some Oakley's and I'm about to start trying some of the Breottis. The brief testing I've done, I would not say there is such a quality gap that I would be telling someone these are worth an extra 250, an extra 300, maybe even 400 depending on the model that you buy. I think optically all the lenses from Oakley, Breotti or Pila is good. Like I haven't looked through any of them and gone, ah man, the optics were just, they

[00:42:09] were definitely better on that other one. Yeah. Well, I mean, while we're on the topic of Oakley, I've got these sunglasses, which I talked about the last time we were talking about the Pila's. These are the, um, uh, Houston squared lenses, uh, glasses frames. And so I figured out the lenses in these ones are the prism bronze. Yeah. Yeah. Prism bronze lenses and they're very dark. So you unfortunately cannot use them indoors, but the color of these lenses I have said by

[00:42:38] far the best lenses for pickleball I have ever used. I absolutely love these lenses. Now, if a guy we talked to who works at Oakley sends us some of these glasses and I was like biggest downside is these obviously aren't, you know, like athletic lenses. Um, the frames are a little light and I feel like they could crack if I got hit in the face. So he sent me some more athletic design frames. I think they're the Sutro frames.

[00:43:03] Um, and instead of these lenses I tried, he recommended the prism golf, uh, dark golf lenses. Um, cause I was talking about how much I like how the greens pop with these lenses and I like them quite a bit. I think, uh, those frames are awesome. They are very comfortable. I forget they're on my face. I probably still prefer the prism bronze lenses though. Uh, I think the golf lenses are good, but just the way that these bronze lenses make the greens pop is crazy.

[00:43:33] Yeah. I looked through yours and it is pretty insane how much it pops, which would be the, for the equivalent for Pila would be the 26 C I E D. But I feel like your, the prism bronze like goes up another notch and like really just specifically just the color green. Yeah. Makes everything look so saturated and so vibrant. It is like impossible for me to miss the ball. Yeah. It's wild in terms of like vision. Not, you can't like make contact.

[00:44:00] But, um, the other downside is you have less tinted indoor lenses. All of these Oakley's are pretty dark, would be difficult to use them indoors. Yeah. Oakley mostly has like their indoor style lens would just be a clear lens. Yep. So I feel like the thing with Pila is while it is annoying that there's so many lens options because it's kind of confusing. The bright side is depending on whatever condition you're going to be in, there's probably a lens to fit that. Yep.

[00:44:29] Whereas I feel like something like Oakley or maybe even some of the Brioters are mostly clear. Briotie does have different options, but I think they're different options. If I'm recalling correctly, primarily apply to outdoor style play. So I think Pila wins on the indoor side of options, but outdoor, you know, the same prism golf lenses that you're talking about. I think they're good for pickleball. Uh, you know, I would call them pretty equivalent to the 26 C IED and then you can get it in

[00:44:55] different frame options where Pila is going to be only like this visor style look, which I've kind of gotten over that. I don't really mind how it looks anymore. I've played enough in them, seen pictures of myself. And while it's maybe not my preferred frame, I'm like, whatever. I, the performance is good enough that I don't really care. Yeah. So it is really funny that you're now wearing these because I remember, I mean, the new lens, the frames that got sent to me, the Sutro, I think I want to say that's the name of them. I'll have to check that.

[00:45:22] Um, you needed to borrow some, you like, we were on a trip. It was one of the chasing five O's. You forgot your sunglasses and you had to borrow mine, which was those frames. Yeah. And you were like, gosh, just, I think I look so silly wearing these. And now you're wearing those. I know. Which is like even more extreme. I, yeah, I know. I know. Trust me. I know. Literally, I said it on the first part. You guys can go back a couple of pods. I said, I was like, people are going to pay $500 to look dumb in these. Like that's, that's how ridiculous I thought these looked.

[00:45:51] And then I just kind of got over it, I guess. Um, but yeah, so I, I think it's a, they're good. If you have money to spend and you just don't care, like the people who are out there, like bro, three 33 for a boomstick. That's a steal. If you're one of those people and you got that kind of money, then look, yeah, the PILAs are good. Uh, but the, just remember my customer service story was not so great with them. Took like four times to get ahold of them. And if you're spending this kind of cash that should never, ever, ever, I should never have

[00:46:19] to email you or call you that many times to get ahold of you. Honestly, that is like almost a deal breaker for me. Yeah. A company having that bad of customer service is, is kind of a killer. Yeah. That's, that's pretty insane to me. Also, it is the Sutro light frames for the Oakley's. That's, those are the ones I really like. Gotcha. Okay, cool. So yeah, I am digging them. It's just a like, okay, you know, some of the Oakley's that I am using, or I'm about to try the Briotis when they're 200 bucks.

[00:46:48] It's like, even if it's a little bit better, it's like a diminishing return thing, right? Like, let's say this is the ultimate in performance for pickleball eyewear. Let's just give it that assumption for right now. Is it so much better that you'd spend an extra like 250 to $300? No. So here's, here's the thing. The answer is no for 99% of people. But let's just say that you find a pair of lens that works for you.

[00:47:14] Like how I did with these bronze lenses and it gives you a 2% edge for most people. That sounds like I wouldn't pay anything for that. But if you're someone who's playing for money and playing pro 2% difference, even if that's one point of match, cause you could see it better at people will pay for it. Yeah. It just comes down to what, what level are you playing at and how much does it matter to you? Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

[00:47:42] So yeah, that's, that's some of my thoughts on the, the PILAs right now. We'll, you know, I'll have a full video on them probably hopefully within the next like couple of weeks would kind of be my goal now that I've used them quite a bit, but I ended up liking them a lot more than I thought I would. Yeah. It's funny that you don't like the design of them cause I actually kind of do. I mean, I'm warming up to it now, but initially I was like, I just like, I can't believe people are wearing these. Uh, so, okay.

[00:48:09] Now that we've kind of got through some accessories, let's talk about the topic that won't go away. Why? So this is, you know, like the third podcast we're doing about this and it's probably not going to be the last one. So getting old. I have been doing a nauseating amount of work on grit stuff. One, I've been beating up a spitfire, checking its grit, checking its spin, but I'm also still having to do this for a lot of other paddles.

[00:48:35] So I wanted to walk through what the whole testing method is so that you guys have a full picture of everything that's being done. One, because I feel like I do a lot of work behind the scenes that I don't always talk about because I feel like a lot of you guys listening to our pod are not, there is a lot of overlap between you guys who listen to us and also listen to John. But John is like, you know, when you go to John, you know what you're going there for, you know, you're going there to get a lot of like in-depth information.

[00:49:02] And I feel like when you come here, it's, you can have some of that, but also it's like a little bit more fun. So I try to keep those details out because I think most of you don't care. But I think for all this grit stuff, it's important to talk about because I do so much work for this stuff and I don't just go get like one result and then go, oh, yep, that's the result. Like, I guess let's just, let's just sink this company because they got one bad result. Like there's a lot of work that goes into it. So I want to talk about all of it.

[00:49:29] So, uh, when I get a weird result for a paddle, my first thought is not, oh, there's the result. Let's just go publish that. Like that's, we're good. We did, we did the work. We're fine. As soon as I get something that feels abnormal or wrong, I immediately start going, how can I prove this wrong or what other things are going to back up what just happened? So we'll kind of get to all of that. But like, I think it's important to understand that I'm trying to get multiple data points

[00:49:59] to confirm or deny what's happening before I talk about them. Because I think that is really important to be fair to the companies that are putting in a lot of R and D work, right? Like you don't just want to go like, oh, I hit one top spin drop and it was bad. Guess it gets bad spin. You know, like that's not fair. Right? So, uh, my methodology, when we get the, the paddle brand new, the first thing that happens is we measure it with a stare at SR 160.

[00:50:25] And now the way that I measure it is I take the stare at and I move it all around the sweet spot of the paddle where the majority of the strikes are going to be being hit. I don't do the bottom of the throat. I don't do the very edges of the paddle because you're not supposed to, that's not where most of the wear is going to be. And now when USAP and I believe, uh, UPAA do their test for the stare at, they do it one reading in six directions.

[00:50:49] So it's one reading in the North direction, one reading South, one reading East, West, diagonal right, diagonal left. Okay. So only six total readings for RZ and RT. What I do because there is some variance in paddle grit as well as the stare at itself is I do all six of those directions, but every direction it's in is 15 readings and it's not 15 readings in the same spot.

[00:51:16] It's like, okay, here's a paddle. I would put the stare at right here, right here, right here, here, here, here. Like I'm doing all around the sweet spot. By here, he's basically, it's a night, a three by three grid. Yeah. Essentially. It's, you know, middle set or like center, right, left, and then top bottom for all of those. Exactly. And so that's 15 readings in all those different spots.

[00:51:44] And then that's just the North direction. Then I do it South 15, East 15. So it is a total of 90 RZ readings and 90 RT readings. And then all of that is averaged to have a, like a tighter grouping of data. Because with the stare at, I feel like originally when I started doing this, I was doing, I think, three readings in each direction. So 80 data or 18 data points to average. And then I was like, I think it needs to be higher.

[00:52:14] And now that I've moved to 15 per, I feel like the data is much tighter and feels good in the results I've seen so far. So that stare at testing alone is like 30 minutes per paddle for one paddle. We're getting like every shape of a paddle, like multiple times a week with all this new durable grit. So like there's a lot of time purely just getting the stare at data, right? Yep. That's the stare at. Oh, and we mark which side is because you and I both hold the same orientation, which

[00:52:43] side is a forehand and which side is a backhand. So it's not like we're beating up the forehand side and then measuring the backhand side. Yes. It's I'm always measuring the forehand side of the paddle. So there's that. Then for the actual spin testing, I do 20 serves that are averaged together. And that again is to make the data tighter because there is human variance here, right? A human's never going to be perfect. And what I've also started doing recently is taking a paddle.

[00:53:10] In this case, it has been a brand new elongated Spitfire that has only been used for spin testing. And before I start measuring a paddle, I will measure with that paddle to make sure that I'm getting the numbers that I expect to get, which is on that paddle, it's in the like 25 to 2700 range. And so I'll do a bunch of serves with that. And once I know like, oh, okay, yeah, I'm getting those results. My arm is now less of the equation, right?

[00:53:37] Because if all of a sudden I was getting 1800, 2000, 1900, I'd be like, okay, something's wrong here. Either the radar gun is having issues or I'm having big issues. And so I've been doing that just to eliminate variables. And so far, every time I've done it, I've gotten exactly what I expect, which no surprise. That's kind of how it's been for a couple of years now. But it's good to have more confirmation of what is happening. Then the measurements are measured with a Stalker Pro 3S radar gun.

[00:54:07] And if outliers happen, like an extremely high outlier or an extremely low outlier, I will toss those out. Like, let's say I've done seven serves and I'm getting 2400, 2500, 2600, 2650, 2400, right? And then suddenly I get 1600. Yeah, it's pretty safe to say that I mishit that ball or somehow the radar gun had a misread, right? So those get thrown out.

[00:54:34] So that, again, the data is like more tightly clustered. If you were averaging 2100 and then suddenly you get a 2900, it's like, okay, I probably didn't actually just put 2900 RPM on that if I've been averaging for the last 12 hits, 2100, right? So again, trying to eliminate a lot of different variables. And then if I am getting an abnormally crazy result with the radar gun, which really doesn't

[00:54:58] happen for me, I will then go verify it with a slow motion camera to again confirm or deny what is actually happening. Because again, if you're seeing something you don't expect to happen, it's probably good that you verified in more than one way. And then the last thing, which is, you know, we've been hitting paddles long enough in the real world. We'll often just feel if something is really off, right? If it's like small, right? If we're talking 100, 200 RPM. Yeah, that's probably hard to notice when you're actually playing.

[00:55:28] But if something's off by 5, 600, suddenly serves are going in the net, drives, drops, like it just, you're like, well, this isn't what should be happening. So like we have all of these different ways to verify. Is grit going down with the stare? Is spin going down on the stalker? Is, or does it feel like in the real world, our play is actually getting worse because of this, right? So those are all the kind of different ways that I feel I can verify. And now we're going to talk about what's been happening.

[00:55:56] And we got the new enhanced turbos, right? And so I measured all three of our new shapes for grit and spin. And I noticed that spin was a little weird on a couple of them. And I will also preface this with this. Because this has happened multiple times now, I think people need to understand what is happening here. Let's take the VADIC, for example. Some people were having a great experience. Some people were having a very bad experience. We had three paddles for ourselves that all had bad.

[00:56:27] Just because ours is bad doesn't mean everyone's is bad. At this point, the variance, I think, in manufacturing is so all over the place that you very well could get a good one. Another reviewer could get a good unit and we could get a bad unit, right? Even with all three of the units we have, we're going to be talking about one here. This is only one unit that we've measured pretty well at this point and started having issues. Next week, we'll try and have more information for you. But I want to be clear that our other two could be fine. And maybe this one is having issues.

[00:56:56] But this one was so abnormal that I thought we should talk about this now because the paddle just came out. Yep. So we still have a little bit more homework to do. I don't think people should base everything off of this one result. But the fact that the prior batch had issues and now we have another one that's having issues, that's kind of odd. It's all right. I'm going to talk. You just don't want to have to gamble, though. So that's the downside is, okay, just because there are some that are good. Yep. Like, do you want to make that gamble when you're buying a new paddle? Are you going to get a good one?

[00:57:25] Are you going to get a bad one? Have to deal with customer service? So yeah, I mean, that's why we're doing this. This is going to be very boring for some of you. But there's a lot of numbers I want to talk about to, again, explain and show to you guys the homework was done on this. Yeah. So we're going to talk about some RZ and RT data. And for those of you who don't know, RZ and RT are measurements from the Starrett.

[00:57:51] Basically how this little thing works is it's a little device that drags a stylus across the face of the paddle. And it's going up and down based on the grit. You know, it hits a peak. It goes up. And when it hits a valley, it goes down. And it's measuring the distance at like a very, very small level to get these readings. So RZ, my understanding is that it is the average of the entire needle drag over that area. So it averaged. Okay. There was one peak this high, then another really high, then low average.

[00:58:21] And it just averages all of it. RT is across that entire drag. What was the biggest peak to valley that it found? So RT is kind of telling you here was the tallest peak. And then RZ is an average. And then again, it's all being averaged a bunch more by my data. So the wide body turbo had a 40.5 RZ and then 64 RT.

[00:58:48] The elongated turbo had a 40.4 RZ, so nearly completely identical to our wide body. And then a 63.9 RT, which again is almost entirely identical to our wide body. And then the hybrid was 42.4 RZ, a tiny bit higher, but not a lot. And then 63.38 RT. So across RT, they're almost all of the exact same when they were brand new.

[00:59:16] Out of the box, but even RZ, they're essentially identical. So we know there wasn't some weird thing with the RZ and the RT with the Stair when they were all new. Okay. Now I'm going to talk about some other paddles just to show you how consistent some of the readings have been on paddles that have been good and bad. So we'll start with the VATIC. We all know these ones had issues. When our bloom was brand new, it was 37.78 RZ, 56.53 RT.

[00:59:45] And after 30 games, it dropped to 30 RZ and 44 RT, which is a 20% drop for both of those numbers. Now let's take our Spitfires because I think this is to show that paddles that are performing well are not dropping crazy like this. And thankfully, both you and I have been beating up a Spitfire. And we've actually been at like the same pace for the amount of games we've been putting on it, which is awesome. So the Spitfire. This, I believe, was the, yeah, the wide body.

[01:00:12] So the one I've been hitting started at 33.1 RZ and 51.2 RT. When I got to 49 games, I remeasured. And it dropped to 31.1 RZ and then 45.2 RT. Then I remeasured at 67 games because it was after a tournament. And, you know, tournaments are pretty intense. So I was like, oh, maybe I should see if there was a big drop from, you know, pre-tournament. Pretty much the exact same.

[01:00:39] 31.4 RZ and 46.1 RT. So from brand new, it's only a 5% drop and a 9.9% drop. Now let's talk about your paddle. At brand new, it was 34.1 RZ and 53.6 RT. After 50 games, yours dropped to 31.6 RZ and 47.2 RT, which is a 7.5% drop for RZ and basically

[01:01:05] a 12% drop for RT, which now I would expect that you would have a slightly higher drop than me because you hit harder than I do. So they're not the exact same, but the fact that you're a better player and hit harder, I would hope that you're wearing, well, maybe not hope, but I would expect that you're dropping the paddle quicker. But that's two paddles, two different people with very similar readings, right? And same thing with the vatic. We saw big drops with two different paddles.

[01:01:33] So I'm saying all of this to show you multiple paddles, some that perform well, some that perform worse, and the pre and post RZ and RT readings. It's not like I got 5% on my Spitfire and Isaac got 20%. And then you're going, oh, either the stair is broken or something's wrong with the paddle. We're seeing very consistent results across all the paddles that we're testing, right? Now let's get to the turbo. Well, let's tell the whole story here.

[01:02:02] So first of all, when I was doing spin testing on the different turbos, I just noticed the results were kind of weird. So again, I started with the Spitfire, getting 25, 2700 RPM. Okay, cool. We're good to go. I do the wide body first. Every single result was over 2000 RPM and averaged like 2100. And so I was like, okay, like maybe not elite, but that's better than the old ones we had. So I was like, okay, they fixed the issue.

[01:02:30] Then I get to the elongated and I noticed the spin is kind of weird. I think the spin was like 2084. And there was a lot more variance in some dropping below 2000. So the wide body, nothing under 2000. And then all of a sudden the elongated is like some in 2000, some under. And I'm like, I'm hitting some in the net, which is usually not a great sign. And I was like, that's weird. So I'm like, okay, that spin was kind of low, but whatever. We'll move on. Go to the hybrid. Elite spin.

[01:02:59] Like everything that I feel like Enhance has been advertising. The hybrid nailed that. It was like 2492 RPM with not a single reading under 2300. And now again, you're thinking, okay, so Chris, your arm is just off. So I grabbed the Spitfire again. Same type of average that I'm getting. So I'm like, okay, something's up with the paddle. But I'm like, whatever, let's just start testing them. So yesterday I have you hit the MPP turbo elongated. How long did you hit it for? 15 minutes maybe? Yeah.

[01:03:28] Because you were switching between the original and this. Yep. So somewhere around 15 minutes and when we were dinking, the spin was good, right? That's what we started with. Yeah. No issues. Was getting plenty of spin on top spin forehand dinks. I felt I had no complaints. And then you start hitting. Maybe 10 minutes of that because they didn't do much baseline. Yeah. Because that's where I started noticing issues. Moved from 10 minutes of dinking just to the baseline. And I'm not kidding. The first five drives were in the net. Could not get.

[01:03:57] And this was me after or after me hitting the. Sharkskin. The sharkskin opal where my drives are great. And then, yeah, could I was really struggling to hit a half decent drive. And so I was like, okay, that's weird that like, you know, your spin suddenly started getting worse. So you did that for a little bit. Then I think I hit it a little bit. And, you know, I went back and hit some drives and I was like, ah, it just feels a little bit weird. And so I was like, okay, I'm going to bring this home and I'm going to run some more spin testing on everything just to see if something's weird.

[01:04:27] And I think I only did around 15 serves just in the backyard just as a quick confirmation. Oh, that's another thing I forgot to mention earlier. When I do like the official spin testing, it's always indoors. I might do some stuff outdoors just as like quick checks. But if I'm actually going to log a result for like final results, it's always indoors to take away variables. Yep. So I bring this thing outside and it's averaging like 70. Actually, I think I have the average right here.

[01:04:52] I think out of 14 serves that I hit, the spin dropped to 1758 RPM. And so I'm like, okay, that's not good. Let me go get the Spitfire and the hybrid again. Still getting 2500 on the hybrid and the Spitfire still getting 2500 plus. So I'm like, okay, the only paddle here that dropped is the one that got used for 15 minutes. And then I was like, okay, let's bring it inside. Let's run the Starrett on it. Starrett result was not great.

[01:05:21] So brand new. Do I have this in here? Did I forget? Okay. So just as a reminder, because we've set up a jillion numbers. So I'm sure everyone's forgotten and their eyes have glazed over and they're falling asleep while they're driving right now. The elongated turbo brand new was 40.4 RZ and 63 RT. The same as like all the other paddles. That's a very high reading. Okay. After that, let's just call it be generous and say 30 minutes of play between spin serves and your testing. Yep.

[01:05:50] It dropped to 33.7 RZ and 54.7 RT, which is a 16.5% drop in RZ and 14% drop in RT. And not really intensive play. Yeah. It's not like we were going super hard. Just hitting some dinks and then some drives. It's not like we were playing games. Not like I was hitting overheads or anything crazy or ripping serves. Like it just wasn't really intense play versus.

[01:06:20] And then think so that's 16% and 14% versus 50 games on the Spitfire for me, which is 7.5% and 11%. Yeah. That's a pretty big difference. That's a gigantic gap. And so like, I mean, once I started doing the stare at, I like almost couldn't believe it because there's just no way. Right? Like that's insane. But, you know, I had just checked my Spitfire the day before and that was still like I've done two readings for a grit on that in the last handful of days. And they were like identical.

[01:06:49] After 49 games, it was 31 RZ. After when I got to 67 games after the tournament, it was still 31 RZ. And the RT was 45 and then 46. And that's small variance going up a little bit. That's just what I would attribute to the variance of, you know, the stare at or whatever. But so basically it didn't change in that time frame. And then you're telling me in even less play, this dropped 16%. So like I know it's not the stare at. I know it's not me.

[01:07:16] And then as one more final check today, I went outside and I brought the slow motion camera out with the Spitfire, the hybrid turbo, and this elongated turbo. And I didn't get a single reading with the slow motion camera on the elongated turbo over 2000 RPM. And then the hybrid and the Spitfire were well over 2400 RPM.

[01:07:37] And as a side note, for anyone using slow motion cameras out there or people who get into reviewing eventually, 240 FPS is honestly not good enough anymore to measure spin in my opinion. I think with how paddle technology has gotten and how high of RPMs you can generate, there's not enough frames at 240 to get a really precise reading. In my opinion, you probably need a minimum of 500. Up to 1000 would probably be the most ideal, to be honest.

[01:08:06] But again, another form of verification. We have the radar gun. We have the slow motion camera. We have the stare at. We have the real world play. Like there's I don't know what other way I could even verify that something is wrong here. Yeah. But something is wrong with this elongated paddle. And look, it sucks. I was just telling you yesterday. I hate talking about this. I hate being like, oh yeah, like this company, it didn't work again. Like we like the guys at Enhance.

[01:08:36] They're cool guys. We're not picking on anybody. But like there is a problem. Yes. It has happened to us twice now in a very short amount of time. Yep. And so what we're going to do is I'm going to give our hybrid and our wide body to some other people I know, have them put some games on it. I have a guy right now that actually plays with an original MPP Turbo. And he's really been looking forward to this. I'm going to have him play with it. Okay. So small little update here. The guy that I was just talking about on the podcast, I was actually able to bring him

[01:09:05] over before this podcast was going live. And we were able to get some drilling done on the wide body Turbo that we were mentioning giving to him. So he drilled with it for about an hour. And then for the last 30 minutes, I started using it just so I could see if the spin felt weird to me or if anything felt off. And then I brought it inside to run some stare at testing on it. And the results are pretty interesting. And this is why I think it's important to understand that there may be some reviewers that have

[01:09:34] a better experience with this paddle because what it seems to be happening, at least with the units that we have, is kind of like what happened with the first batch. Some of them seem to be good. Some of them seem to be worse for whatever reason. Because if you'll remember from just a couple minutes ago, the elongated Turbo lost like 16% of its grit after, you know, let's be generous and say 30 minutes of hitting with it.

[01:09:59] And for the wide body Turbo, an hour and a half worth of hitting with very minimal breaks. I think there was maybe one, one and a half breaks to pick up some balls. The grit only lost 7% for RZ and 8.6% for RT. Now, to be fair, that's still not awesome considering that the wide body Spitfire after 50 and 67 games

[01:10:25] still only lost about 5% of its grit on the one that I have been testing. But the 7% is a whole lot better than the 16% that are elongated saw. And I didn't get to run any spin testing on it before my friend took it. He's actually going to run even more testing until next week's podcast. And then I'm going to run some tests on it and see how it performs. But at least while playing with it, the spin didn't seem problematic. We ended up playing some skinny singles and I focused a lot on drives and more aggressive

[01:10:55] drops and dinks. And I wasn't noticing anything that felt really abnormal like it did on the elongated. So my guess is that the spin was probably still decent enough. I'd imagine it was still over 2000, but I don't have an actual measurement to verify. So popping in here with one more update, I had decided to delay the podcast upload slightly. So that way I could check on the turbo elongated one more time. I was going to knock out some spin testing this morning on the Loco 2 elongated.

[01:11:25] And I wanted to confirm if anything was funny. Was it me on the day? Was it not me on the day? You know, whatever. So as I was saying, I started with the Spitfire elongated, still confirmed that that paddle was getting over 2500 RPM before I started logging any results. Then I went to the Loco 2 elongated and that was averaging in that 23 to 2400 range. No issues. And then I busted out the turbo elongated.

[01:11:49] And again, having a lot of issues in the full 20 serve average, I did not get a single reading over 2000 RPM. In fact, the average over the 20 serves was 1751 RPM, which is a 16% drop from when it was brand new. So again, I have a paddle that I have been consistently comparing every time I go to spin test. It continues to get the same spin result each time. Then I have another brand new paddle that I had never tested, the Loco 2 elongated.

[01:12:18] It's getting great spin. And then the turbo elongated, which has consistently been showing wonky results in real world, the Stairit and in the radar gun, continues to show really weird results. So at this point, guys, if you were planning on buying this paddle, I would just hold off. These were supposed to be the fixed units that didn't have issues anymore. And we're consistently seeing some weird problems, at least with our elongated unit. It's going to take a little bit more time before we see any results on our wide body and our hybrid.

[01:12:46] But this to me is just not acceptable if the problem was supposed to be completely fixed. I've tested in every way that I currently have the capacity to test a paddle in. And in all of them so far, this paddle just hasn't been doing well. Beat it up for, you know. Talking about David? Yeah. His is EPP. Oh, his is the EPP. Oh, so that'll be interesting. He might not like this one as much. Yep. Now, what I will say is, outside of the spin, we were hitting this next to side by side with the original MPP. Oh, yeah.

[01:13:15] Doesn't even feel remotely close to the same paddle. I know you're going to say, oh, man, it's kind of... No. Not even the same zip code. If you liked the original, there is a chance that you wouldn't like how this one feels. It's a lot stiffer. The original is as soft as an Inferno. Donkey, soft, typical MPP feel. Yep. This one is like boomstick level stiff, if not more.

[01:13:45] It is stiff as a board. And I was not a fan. Yeah. Like, such a drastic change that I went from, I like the feel of this paddle and would play with it, to I don't think I would use this for... You're talking the original MPP versus the new one? Versus this one, yeah. Yeah. I definitely felt like it was stiffer. It actually, to me, almost even felt more dense. Like, it did not feel nearly as hollow. I don't know that I feel similar to you that it's like boomstick stiff.

[01:14:13] But like, it is one where I think if you gave someone the original and you gave someone this, they would be like, I... They wouldn't just immediately go, oh yeah, this is better. If they were blacked out and you couldn't tell which was which... Yeah. You would think they're different paddles. Yeah. I can see that. You would not say, oh yeah, these are the same. Yeah, for sure. I would agree with that. So, yeah, it's... I don't know what's going on. Again, maybe we're going to test our other two units and they're going to be fine. But even with the spin being like...

[01:14:42] There's two things going on here, right? Originally, it was, is the spin actually good? And we're seeing like weird results where the hybrid is being really good in the 2400 range. But then the elongated was low 2000s and then had some results under 2000. But then the wide body was pretty consistently over 2K. But it still wasn't as high as the hybrid. So it's like, what's going on there? So there's the actual spin part. But then there's the durability. John will probably have a much better picture of durability when he does his Canon test. He can probably report on that a little bit better.

[01:15:11] But even for ourselves in a short amount of time, we're seeing some abnormal spin and durability issues. So we will report when we have more information to tell you guys. But I wanted to bring this up because the paddle just launched. I know a lot of people are really excited for this paddle. And I don't want people to get it and then have this whole like, oh, the spin's not good. And I guess the last thing I'll say, an interesting thing about a lot of these different paddles lately is touching this face.

[01:15:38] The elongated one that is kind of dropped a lot of spin. Because the RT is still so high and RT, I think, is a lot more of what your fingers are picking up on. Like, is there, you know, sharp, tall peaks? It doesn't feel bad because that number is still, what was it, like in the 40s or 50s? I think 50s. It's still very high. So it feels rough to the touch. But it's not actually getting good spin anymore. So again, hand touching your paddle is just not a good proxy anymore. It could still be good. It could still be bad.

[01:16:08] But like doing this would tell you nothing. If I gave a random person this paddle and said, hey, does this still feel rough? They would tell me yes. And I mean objectively, based on the start, it is still rough. Just not actually getting spin anymore. Yep. Or good spin. Yep. So yeah, that is definitely a bummer. I'm curious to see what the other reviewers find. Maybe some other people are going to be fine. But I feel like I have verified in every way that I can even measure myself right now. And it's not what I expected. Yeah. So okay.

[01:16:37] Let's move on to the kitchen here because we're probably already at a gigalong pod here. And our entire audience is asleep. Wake back up. We got questions here in a minute. Okay. Let's go into the tournament experience. So we've played a lot of tournaments. What to you makes a tournament experience good or bad? And I think it's also important, at least on your side of things maybe, I think there is definitely a difference in what the higher level people expect and what everyone else expects for a tournament.

[01:17:07] Yeah. 100%. It's going to be way different. A lot of it, some of the things that matter to me, and I'm kind of thinking, I wasn't thinking about this question a minute ago. So I'm going to take a little bit of time here. Depends on the venue for some of it. But in terms of how the tournament actually runs, one thing that really matters is downtime. Agree. Tournaments that have way too much downtime that are just running inefficiently, which

[01:17:37] has been a little while since I've been at a tournament like this. Agree. Is extremely frustrating. I have been at tournaments where in between my first and second match is over an hour wait time. And that is just absurd. It's way too long. I practically need a full warmup again. Yeah. I've lost the, like, unless you really stay locked in, the tournament mindset and like competitive mentality can just fade away, which matters a ton.

[01:18:05] And so runtime and how smoothly the tournament operates is probably up there as number one, in my opinion. And then also, I don't care about, I know a lot of local tournaments do this. I freaking hate pool play. I don't want pool play. This is where I think a lot of people will differ. This is the big difference. Yeah. I don't want to waste time. Like, it doesn't matter to me. Yeah. I don't even care about the seating. It's amazing.

[01:18:32] Like, if I'm in a tournament that has pool play, put me at the bottom, put me at the number one seat. I do not care. It doesn't matter. I just want to go into bracket play. Either single elimination, double elimination, doesn't matter to me. Because I really only care about the main draw. Yeah. So that's a big one for me. And I think it's important for, at least for people to have context of our local area, because I think it is a little bit different than a lot of the other areas we've seen.

[01:18:58] I mean, our open division tournaments pretty much never have Duper entered into them. So no one's competing for Duper in it. Yep. There's usually money on the line. And a lot of these people, again, you know, if you're playing for money, you don't want to waste energy on pool play when your only objective is I'm going to win this tournament or I'm going to lose this tournament. And so, you know, like you're saying, double elimination, single elimination is just like, okay, let's just play and have it work towards progressing the bracket.

[01:19:26] Whereas if the bracket's big enough, let's say, you know, you have 18 teams and that means you have three pools of six. Each pool is playing five games. That only goes to seating. Like you might just be a little bit more tired by that point. So, and this has been pretty universal. All the high level guys here, like forget pool play. We don't care. Just start the bracket. Yep. That's, we all feel the same way. Now, other things that just don't really matter to me.

[01:19:51] I think like turns to have like snacks and fruit, like bananas and other stuff. I don't really care. I'm usually bringing my own snacks and food to prep and get ready. I would rather the money that's being put into that be put into having more fresh balls because I have been at some tournaments where they're using Franklin's and they're very stingy. They wouldn't give us one to warm up with. We had extremely used Franklin's the entire tournament that were being used across all divisions.

[01:20:19] So, the open play division was later in the week and all the balls had been practically destroyed throughout the tournament. And we had cracked one and I went to the desk and asked, hey, can we get a new one? And they made us verify that we did not have another ball to use before they gave us a ball. So, I would rather have that money be put into being able to have more fresh pickleballs for each match. Yeah. That's way more important to me.

[01:20:47] Because unlike you, I like to have a brand new ball for each match. Don't give me this used beat in crap. No, I'll take the used ball. That is so wrong. I'll take the used ball every day of the week. So, that doesn't really matter to me. And then other things that are just, it's more venue. Like lounging areas, water stations. Like we've been at some tournaments that have really poor water stations. Yeah. Where you have to like travel to the other side of the venue and you're getting a text message and now your match is on the other side or bathrooms are really far away.

[01:21:16] So, that stuff obviously isn't always, you know, can't change that a lot of times based on the venue. So, I'll give a little bit of leeway there. But that's something that matters to me a lot is being, having easy access to cold water is really important. I'm trying to think if there's anything else that I can think of. You start talking. I'll see if I can think of anything else. Yeah. So, I think it depends on the type. So, first of all, I would say my like preferred tournament format would be a double elimination

[01:21:46] bracket. If I'm picking from top to bottom, that is going to be my preferred. And then second would probably be pool play. And then last would probably be a single elimination. I think for me, I am getting to a point where pool play does not annoy me because I do like, especially if there's duper, I actually don't mind having pool play because my objective is I just, I want to get more games in to boost up my duper, right? You know, if you're doing double elimination, you might not get as many games.

[01:22:13] So, I like it when duper's on the line. If duper's not going to be on the line, then I'd rather have a double elimination. And then single elimination to me is just kind of like, there really aren't any tournaments that do that, to be honest. There really aren't. It's pretty much just qualifiers. Yeah. So, like, I guess I'm not even going to count that as a format because it's really not relevant to like 99.9% of players. But yeah, it would be double elimination and then pool play because pool play does feel like sometimes if it's a really big pool, like I think I've had pools that were seven

[01:22:42] games and it is like, man, by the time I get out of this, I feel like I just played a whole tournament and now I'm starting the thing that actually matters. So, I'm 50-50 on that. Kind of just depends because I like the duper aspect. Yeah. For me, I do like having snacks, but I always come prepared with my own stuff. It's kind of just nice if I run out, you know, have some bananas or something or like a granola bar. I do like having that. I wouldn't say it's mandatory for me.

[01:23:08] I definitely think tournaments, they need to have a tech system. I don't really, especially if a venue is bigger and they're announcing things, not a lot do that anymore, but it's so much better to have a tech system if the venue is not small enough to where everyone can hear it from basically wherever you are standing. Yeah, I was kind of just assuming that most tournaments now use a tech system because I don't remember the last time I've been in one that didn't. Yeah. Um, but yeah, if it doesn't that I have been a tournament. So that becomes a problem.

[01:23:38] Yeah. Especially if it's really loud and it's just hard to hear. You're like, I just, I didn't hear my match and you know, that can be kind of frustrating. Um, but otherwise for me, I think not overselling a tournament too, depending on the venue you're at. Uh, I don't see this a lot. It used to happen more with PPAs. I feel like, but there would just be way too many people and divisions would be going all day long. Sometimes they'd be going into the evening. There'd be these massive delays and I feel like it would be so much better of an experience

[01:24:05] for the players to have less people or capped at what you think the reasonable limit is for you to run the tournament on time than to be like, okay, we got everyone in, but now the tournament experience sucks. People are waiting an hour and a half between matches. Well, I pay, I remember playing a five Oh PPA with, with will pickleball. And now there was a rain delay, but even if the rain delay wasn't there, there were so many teams in the bracket. It went on. We were playing into the night. Yeah. Um, and I remember someone we know who works at the PPA came up to me or chatting. He's like, so what did you think?

[01:24:35] How did like things go today? Blah, blah, blah. And I was like way too many teams. I think it was 50 plus teams in one bracket is way too many. Yeah. Yep. So I think capping can be good just to ensure a better experience. Like you want enough people to where the bracket is competitive. You know, you know, no one wants a five to eight person bracket. That's too small in my opinion. But once you start going like 50 plus, it's just like, dang, man, that's unless you have a ton of courts, that is going to be a really long day.

[01:25:01] And most places don't have access to a ton of courts, especially when you're talking about the three Oh, the three five and the four Oh divisions and all these other divisions running alongside that. Right. It's never just one division running at a time. So that, that can matter a lot. But yeah, I feel like those are some of the big things for me. Uh, I think if it's outdoor, you know, you can't control weather. That's just the, the unfortunate nature of doing outdoors. Sometimes you're going to get an extremely windy tournament and that's probably not going to be very fun.

[01:25:30] So I do think tournaments that are indoor are generally a little bit better, but with the weather's good outside, I like a good outdoor tournament for sure. I have no issue with it. Uh, trying to think what else, um, I feel like those are kind of the big ones, clear communication ahead of time, you know, knowing the start times, uh, what the format is going to look like. Is it pool play? How many teams are getting eliminated? When information is unclear to me, that's just kind of frustrating. Yeah. I would agree with that because think pool play, for example, whether you hate it or you love

[01:25:59] it, if you have to play, you want to know, are all the teams going through or are all the teams not going through, you know, that's a big difference in how you might approach pool play. If everyone's going through, okay, you can play it a little bit more laxed, but if people are getting cut, you're like, okay, I got to try a lot harder just to make sure I don't get cut. Yeah, for sure. So yeah, it may be not as long on that as I was actually expecting, but I would say those are some of the, the, the bigger ones for sure. It's just like, make sure it is running smoothly. That is number one.

[01:26:28] I don't think that I've got any other big complaints or anything that I can think of that's like important to me. That's pretty much everything. Yeah. I do think this is again, very venue dependent, but having areas that are great for spectating, like one of our better tournaments here that's held at pines and paddles, it's just so easy to spectate the tournament. And I think that just makes the tournament experience a lot more lively because people are willing to stay and watch. If you're looking through fences and looking through windscreens, it's like no one wants to watch.

[01:26:55] We've definitely been a lot of tournaments where it gets like the finals and people are just leaving. Still going. That's a good one. That's a good, that's probably our best local tournament. I would agree. So, okay. Let's breeze through some Q and A's here. Q and A. So first question was some players drop duper so they can stay at lower tournament brackets for an easier win. Is this okay or not? See, I've made this joke a ton, but I've never actually seen it happen in the real world.

[01:27:25] I'm sure it does happen, but how often? Yeah, I can't. I don't personally know anyone I don't think that has done this, but my opinion would be if you are doing that, one, yeah, it's probably unfair to the people in the bracket, but also I'm like, well, what's your objective here? Because most of the time, like a local tournament or a PPA, all you're getting is a little medal. It's not like you're getting money most of the time. So I'm like, okay, cool. You're a better player and you want to go beat up on some lower level.

[01:27:54] Like, what is fun about that? I mean, I could drop my duper before worlds. My partner's a 4-7. Sign up for 4-5. Destroy you. Bro, I'll be hitting up the PPA so fast. I'll be like, I've got proof. This guy just said it on a podcast. I've got proof he's sandbagging. But yeah, I just think it's always silly. I mean, we've talked about this in the past where people in open play, they want to play up and play with better players. And they're like, oh man, it's so frustrating that better players won't play with me.

[01:28:22] And then for tournaments, they're like, yeah, I want to play the lower level. I want to beat up on some. It's like, what's the point? Like my whole tournament experience, if I've won or even podiumed, podium might even be a little too early to be honest. But as soon as I've won a division, I go up to the next one because like I want to get better and I want to play better people. There's no point in just winning the same division over and over again. If you're winning 4-0 tournaments, why wouldn't you just play 4-5? Exactly. And sure, maybe you're not winning 4-5 immediately. But isn't that kind of the point?

[01:28:51] You're trying to play better people and get better at the game. So I don't know. I've always just thought it's kind of a, I don't know why you would want to sandbag your duper. Like maybe if there's money on the line, but even then I'm like, dude, have some pride, bro. Like what are you doing? You boosted your duper and then you just want to drop it to win some money. Yeah. So I mean, I see in the question is saying, is it okay or not okay? Obviously I would say like, I mean, no. No, but like how often is this happening?

[01:29:16] Again, at least in our local area, I don't see anyone purposely trying to drop their duper to play down. Everyone I know, including lower divisions, because obviously the people I play with are all open division, are all trying to move up and want to play the next division up. So I don't know. Maybe different local areas are experiencing otherwise, but I just don't see this happen. Totally. Next one. Would you be better than Isaac if you didn't have to test paddles all the time? I read this question. Uh, let's hear, let's hear your answer.

[01:29:45] I'm curious what you're going to say. I mean, there's obviously only one answer to this and the answer is a definitive heck yes. I would be way better than Isaac if I didn't test paddles. Absolutely not. Because I'm also testing all these paddles as well. I'm hitting all the same paddles you are. But see, here's the thing. You had a longer period of time. My job, this has basically been my job since I got into pickleball. You didn't start till like 2020, like mid 2023. I was still like a 4.0 back then.

[01:30:14] Brother, I just beat you up with a Z5 on camera. You guys can go watch the Power FX for me if you want to see that. That was pretty funny. That was pretty funny. So, I mean, look, you might say yes. I'm going to say no because I still test all kinds of paddles. Bro, hold on. While we're on this topic, let me just tell a quick story recently. Did I say this last week on the pod? The Skinny Singles? No, because it didn't happen yet. It hadn't happened yet. That's right.

[01:30:44] Okay, this is a perfect example. Quick story time. So, I have a friend who loves Skinny Singles. And we have a really small local tournament at a local park that's run every year. And the guy who runs it likes to do a Skinny Singles event. Kind of goofy. Pretty fun. Not a ton of people signed up. But there were good players. A lot of 5-0s. So, I'm hanging out with my buddy that day. And I go with him just to watch. I'll warm him up. Cheer him on. Watch him play. Not expecting to play at all. Didn't bring my bag.

[01:31:13] Didn't bring any gear. I'm wearing sweatpants. Like... You're in slides. I'm in UFO slides. Just watching. The tournament director goes, Isaac, after I warmed up my buddy, we had a guy not show up or kind of drop out. Do you want to play? And I joke, I was like, well, I'm not really prepared. I don't have my stuff. I'm playing in slides. But I could. And so, he asked around in the bracket, like, do you guys mind if Isaac jumps in? And everyone was like, yeah, that's fine. So, I'm like, all right. I'm playing a tournament in slides.

[01:31:43] And I was like, well, I don't have a paddle. So, my buddy, his girlfriend, I grab her very used, extremely old boomstick from like the first batch. Edge guard's coming off pretty much around the entire paddle. It's a wide body and has zero grit left. I'm talking this thing is smoother than a Z5. First match, I win 11-1. Second one, I think I win 11-3. Third one, who's a very good singles player.

[01:32:11] Like, he plays 5-0 singles tournaments all the time. I beat him 11-1. Then my next match is 11-0. Unfortunately, I did end up getting fourth in the tournament. The guy who won, I lost to him in bracket play and then went to the third place match. And then, unfortunately, I lost there. It was just kind of running out of steam. And it was getting cold. I could not shape the ball at all. Like, drives, not even a point. Like, I could not hit anything with spin.

[01:32:38] So, again, not my paddle, not shoes, still doing well. So, I'm just saying right now, I would not lose to you that badly in skinny singles with you in slides. I have a plan. We'll go do it right now. We can do it sometime. We can do it for the next pod and we can report back. I'm not losing like that. There's no way. Go get that boomstick again just so we can make it exactly how it was. So, my whole entire point of telling that story is I can play with anything. And my point is,

[01:33:08] I'd be better than Isaac if I didn't do this job. Anyways, I thought that question was funny. That was a funny one. Okay. What is the point in talking about a paddle without durable grit at this point? This is an interesting question because I think it's tough, right? Like, I would agree, but it's so tricky. I think there are segments of the market where durable grit really matters. And I want to do a whole video about this at some point.

[01:33:36] And there's another segment of pickleball players where it, in my opinion, borderline does not matter. I really think that between 3-0 and 3-5, that grit does not matter that much. I'm not saying that there are not people at those levels that cannot put spin on the ball. There are 3-5 tennis players or were good tennis players and they come in and they're having a hard time adjusting to pickleball. They can hit a great drive and they can shape it.

[01:34:05] But there are 3-5 because of other aspects, right? But I really think for the mass market, most of those players are not putting a lot of spin on their shots. Even recently, I've played with a lot of different levels and I'm watching them play. And I'm going, whether you had a smoother paddle or one that could produce 2,700 RPM, it wouldn't really matter which one you're playing with. Now, I think as you go up, it can matter more, right? You start getting to 4-5, you start getting to 5-0,

[01:34:35] generally you're hitting with a lot of topspin, maybe some slice and other different things. And it does start to matter. We had a small technical difficulty. We had to cut there for a second because we thought our cameras were not on. They're on, we're good. But the point I'm trying to make is that at higher levels, generally speaking, you're going to be putting more spin on the ball. You know, more like backhand flicks, backhand rolls, topspin drops, slice drops, and it's probably going to matter more. And having your paddle be consistently good matters because if you can hit great spin one day, but the next day it's gone,

[01:35:05] well, now you're changing your game and it gets really difficult. But even within that, you and I both know some players that are 5-0s that the way they play is just not very spin heavy. And so whether you give them an 1,800 RPM paddle or a 2,500 RPM paddle... Doesn't change how they play. It really just isn't going to make a big difference. Maybe on a couple shots here or there, it's like, oh yeah, okay, I got a little bit more spin. But the vast majority of their game is just not built around spin. So I'm saying all of that to say that,

[01:35:33] yes, I hope all companies move towards it and releasing a non-durable grit option today is probably going to come across lazy and probably not going to perform very well. But you like the Friday Aura Pro. It has raw carbon fiber. There's going to be a lot of people who would really like that paddle. And if you're in like the lower demographic of play, like 3035, you might love everything about that paddle and spin just might not matter that much to you. Yeah. Well, and I was going to say,

[01:36:02] I think all extremely valid points, but also I don't know if we've really covered the entire spectrum of feel profiles with what durable grits we have. Yeah. And so there are still paddles that feel really good, that play really good, that don't have durable grit. Again, the Aura Pro being one of them, I would take that over a lot of durable grit paddles we have if I'm going to play a competitive match. Yep. Yep. So I think there's just a lot of, there's simultaneously,

[01:36:31] there is an overemphasis on grit and an underemphasis on grit because for certain players, it's going to be really important. It might be their number one most important thing. And then I think there's other people where they're hearing about all this durable grit and they're going, okay, it's really important. I really need it. But then you watch them playing, you're like, you really actually don't need a durable grit. And that's not a bad thing. That's not a knock on that player. It's not saying you're bad at pickleball. It's just the stage of pickleball you are in right now is almost a good thing because you don't have to worry about all this nonsense that's happening.

[01:37:01] Yeah. Use whatever you want and it's great. So I think if you know spin's really important to you, then sure. Okay. But I do think if I gave a good chunk of people like a 2,400 RPM paddle and then gave some other people like 1,900, I think there's a lot of people that couldn't tell me the difference. I really think that. Yep. So just kind of depends how in tune you are with gear and what level you're playing. So all that to say, I think there is still some validity in talking about a paddle without durable grit. But hopefully, you know,

[01:37:30] as the year goes on, just everyone will have it and there hopefully won't be issues and then it'll all be good. You know? Next one. How to get out of your own head when playing intense competitive matches. This is an interesting one because I feel like I had this somewhat recently, but actually I'll just tell this story. So when we were playing at our house the other day, we had the three better. I was the worst player of the group. It's been a while since I've played in a group like that.

[01:37:59] And for like the first game or two, I just wasn't playing that well. And I started like getting in my head. I was like, oh man, like I'm playing bad. Everyone's going to be thinking about me playing bad. This is kind of embarrassing. I was like, I know I'm a better player than this. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then at some point, I was like, it just doesn't matter. Like I'm friends with all these people. No one's like, yeah, maybe they'll make a joke or two. But like at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. And then I saw this reel on Instagram the other day. I think it was Rory McIlroy or whatever. He had done like a press conference.

[01:38:28] He's a pro golf player. And he was talking about kind of a similar question. Like how do you get out of your head? Or when you're having a bad day, like what do you do to fix it? And one of the things he was talking about was he was like, he would start thinking to himself, well, what's the worst that could happen? Okay. I shank the ball and it goes over by the water. What's the worst thing that happens? I have to hit another stroke and I am a good enough player that I can probably get out of that situation. It's not like anyone's going to die. Yeah. So I guess it depends

[01:38:57] like what part of in your head you're thinking about. But then I started thinking about that. And I was like, okay, if I was in a tournament, because I've had a lot of times where I will feel like embarrassed while I'm playing the tournament. I'm like, I'm playing so bad. This is embarrassing. I have friends watching. Like I wish I was playing better, but it's like at the end of the day, what's the worst that's going to happen? Your friends are probably still going to be friends with you. You'll play another tournament. It'll be fine. You know? So I think for me, I just kind of started thinking about like, it's just not that big of a deal. Yeah. That's yeah, for sure. I think that's good. And I mean,

[01:39:26] that takes it to a pretty extreme on in, in my head, in terms of like in the middle of a match, routine is probably the biggest thing. Having a, and this is even if you're not in your head, just for getting better at pickleball, I think having a routine matters. If you're having a bad streak in a match, you've lost a bunch of points. First of all, take a timeout, just take a breather, slow the momentum down, reset mentally,

[01:39:52] and then having a routine just kind of reminds your body of like what you're about to do. Body's very smart. Your muscle memory matters. So like I have some breathing patterns and stuff I do, you know, like you'll see a lot of players go to the back fence and like tap the fence with their paddle, like small things like that. Just having a routine changes kind of the mindset of your body and getting back into that competitive setting. That, that has been the biggest thing for me. I also think if you are getting like,

[01:40:22] if you're someone who gets upset, like little burst of anger and then gone, like it's over, like don't let it build and get even more frustrated. I think, you know, like a little slap on your leg, something like that. And then boom, you're not mad anymore. Let it go. I think that's, that's really important. Yeah. I think those are good thoughts as well, for sure. Uh, all right, next one. What could be the next big advancement in paddle tech or has it reached its limit? Well, first of all, has it reached its limit has been said multiple times over now. When gen two came out,

[01:40:52] everyone thought it couldn't get better. Then when gen three came out, everyone thought it couldn't get better. And now the same thing is happening with foam and durable grit. So I'm not even going to make a prediction or say that we're at the limit because I'm sure somehow it'll get better. But if, or when it finally does reach its limit, it's like, okay, what can people work on? To me, one of the biggest things still missing quality control, things breaking, like, yes, quality control is an issue in every industry,

[01:41:17] but it definitely feels like pickleball has a very abnormal amount of issues that should not happen on equipment that is this expensive. So once performance is a non-issue and everyone has a great durable grid, everyone knows what makes a good power paddle, control paddle, whatever. And that's kind of solved. I hope that QC and build quality is like the next frontier because it's crazy to me that every review feels like you have to have a caveat of like, well, the edge guard came loose. There's always something.

[01:41:46] So that's what I hope it'll be when it's reached its limit. Yeah, I agree. I also don't think we've really reached a limit in performance, but I do think we need to fix these small things. Yep. Agreed. How do you know when you're ready to come back from an injury? I thought this was a good question because I just had this happen. I feel like depending on the injury, there are a number of things. One, if it's a very minor injury, you'll probably just kind of know if you've had like a chronic issue, kind of like what I had.

[01:42:14] I think it is less about knowing a single moment like, oh, I'm good enough to play. And it's going to be a lot of small moments where you just notice it keep getting a little bit better. So let's say you're in a lot of pain and you start doing all these exercises and you reintroduce play slowly. Let's say you start with 15 minutes of just like dinking and you're like, okay, that felt good. That didn't hurt. But you know, an hour hurts, right? Start with 15 minutes. Okay, I'm good. Then later you try 30 minutes. Okay, I'm still good. Or maybe it's a little bad and you're like, okay, I'm going to ease off.

[01:42:43] I'm going to go to 20 minutes. And then you keep building up. And once you pass the threshold that you know would hurt you, you're like, okay, Hey, I'm doing better. And then you add a little bit more time and you keep adding time. And that's kind of what I'm finding for myself right now is I am better, but I'm not perfect. After the tournament this weekend, I felt great actually the whole evening. And then randomly my back just got really tight. And I was like, Oh no, here we go again. And the next morning I was still tight. So I took it easy. And then the next day I was fine.

[01:43:10] So clearly like a four or five hour tournament is still tough for me, but you know, a two hour session, I'm making it through those like pretty okay these days. So to me, it's not a, Oh, Hey, I'm fixed. I'm back. It's like a, I'm continuing to work on this and trying to build capacity. Yeah. And I think that's how it would be for a lot of people with like a chronic wrist injury, tennis elbow, shoulder injury, knee injury. I think a lot of it depends on how bad is your injury? Yeah. And then also like, okay,

[01:43:40] is this affecting you doing something less physical than pickleball? Then obviously don't play. Like if you're doing day to day stuff and it's bothering you, then you're probably not ready to come back and play competitive games. Yes. But if you can go through your day to day life, you know, carry things, pick heavy stuff up, do whatever. It doesn't matter what your injury is. Walk around if it's knee problems. Yep. And that's fine. Then yeah, I'd probably start reintroducing, you know, more physical play. But yeah, I think you gotta, gotta be able to get through,

[01:44:09] get through the day without pain first. Agreed. All right. Last question. We'll wrap this up with thought this was fitting with the loco. So I'm going to harp on this again. Cause I'm not letting this go. Someone said, is the wide body shape slowly dying? Unfortunately, it feels like the answer is yes to that question, but I would like to make that answer. No. So this is going to be like, you know, it was like a, uh, like local politics. It'll be like, go contact your representatives,

[01:44:37] go contact all the companies you enjoy and let them know. We demand more. I, if, uh, if one more company that makes a good paddle drops, the wide body, I will make it my sole mission in pickleball. You can have a really small demographic, a lot of people with really loud voices. Okay. Uh huh. You can have all your, your people, your little group, you know, send these emails. But at the end of the day,

[01:45:05] people vote with their wallet and guess what sells the best. E long gated. So here's an interesting thing on, on a more serious note talking about this. I'm, I'm curious what you think of this, because I really feel like, like, look, you know, for, let's just say for high level people, elongate is the best shape. Like, look, I'll give you that. I think the high level players, they're very in tune. They know what they like. That's fine. I'm not even going to argue that, but I really feel like with the different shapes,

[01:45:32] like look how much hybrid has increased in popularity over the recent years. For sure. Especially with like a flat top hybrid. It doesn't look that different from an elongated, but you are getting a better sweet spot on almost all of the hybrid shapes because they're a little bit wider. And I think we're seeing a lot of players that are going, you know what? I'm actually okay with a hybrid, even if they liked an elongated paddle. So I'm really starting to, and I think a lot of that is because it looks similar to an elongated. Like, I really think a lot of people's hold up with a wide body versus an elongated

[01:46:00] is how it looks because it does just look a little bit more goofy, right? Like there are some wide bodies that look really odd. Some of them look like frying pans. And I think that trips people up. So part of me really wonders if let's say everyone 4-2-5 and below, if for a year all they could play with was wide body, and then let's just say you could bring elongated back. I am really curious if people gave a wide body a truly fair shot, if people at the end of that would feel like, oh, you know what?

[01:46:31] If the masses would still say, oh, I prefer an elongated. Because I really feel like for 4-0 and below, there are huge advantages to a wide body. Yeah. Like the sweet spot being bigger is a big advantage in my opinion. So I just, I think there's a lot of holdup on, they see their friends using elongated and it is the most popular. So you're like, well, that's what I'm going to buy because I see everyone else using it. And I really wonder if we could just do an experiment. I think if let's just say that you,

[01:47:01] you did that where everyone had to use a wide body, of course, everyone's going to be able to get used to whatever. You're just going to have to change how you play. Right? So yeah, if everyone had to use a wide body, people would adjust and get used to it, but you wouldn't be able to hit a lot of the same shots. In my opinion, I would, I have to change my play style quite a bit when I play with an elongated, elongated versus a wide body. There are a lot of attacks and volleys,

[01:47:29] speed ups that I would not pull the trigger on with a wide body that I would with an elongated. So now let's think about this. I would say the vast majority of players are probably, man, what is, I wish I had the duper stats in front of me right now, but 80% and below are of the population is probably four on below. Do you think them using a wide body versus elongated drastically alters how they would have to play? Right. I agree. No, I don't think so.

[01:47:58] I think they're just going to play their game. Now I agree amongst the lower level people. Again, man, that just sounds so, it sounds so harsh. I don't mean that in an assault insulting way. Yeah. Right. Like, please, no one think I'm, I'm trying to be rude when I say that. Um, I don't think that's going to change how, what shots they hit, what they go for. It really does mainly apply to realistically five Oh plus. Yeah. Um,

[01:48:25] I just think starting with an elongated is the way to go. Okay. But if you took three Oh's to four Oh's, do you think curious? Sorry to cut you off. Yeah. If we took someone at that level who is not already in tune or used to a particular shape, correct? How much worse are they going to play? Say the sweet spot. Yeah. The sweet spot is smaller than elongated. How much worse are they going to play and how many more shots are they going to make unforced errors with in elongated? Mm hmm.

[01:48:54] How big is that difference going to be? Yeah. Right. Nope. Obviously can't say. Yeah. No, right. There's no, no, I think there are advantages for lower level people to use wide bodies, especially if you haven't played for a long time. Maybe your, your, your wrist strength isn't quite, um, yeah, built up or used to the weight of an elongated paddle, even though they are getting lighter. Yeah. Um, and it's just easier to swing, uh, a wide body because they are lighter. Um, there are definitely advantages. I just think again,

[01:49:24] for maximum performance and competitive play, you just cannot argue elongated. I don't know. And the wallets tell it all. The wallets tell it all. The wallets do tell. I don't know. It's a, it's a very interesting thing. Like I've, it has made me wonder how much of elongated being the most popular is due to everyone just seeing people with it and go, okay, well that's what I got to buy. And why body is looking a little funny because, you know, I used to also be an elongated player,

[01:49:53] like for most of, uh, playing pickleball. And then when the double black diamond came out, I was like, Oh, hybrids are actually kind of sick. Like I really like the idea of a hybrid. And then I started dabbling with wide bodies and I was like, Oh, I actually really liked this a lot. So I kind of had the, you know, reverse, uh, journey or whatever, but I don't know. It just makes me wonder. It's like, I, I think it's unfortunate how little the wide body does sell for companies because I feel like the benefits are really understated. Like,

[01:50:20] I almost feel like there's this feeling amongst a lot of players that if you were playing with a wide body that people are almost like looking at you weird, like, Oh, you're not using an elongated or something. And I feel like that almost stigma. Yeah. Like a stigma type of thing. And I'm just like, man, I don't know. I think it would be better for some people, but look, if you're already used to one shape, I'm not saying, Hey, switch and you'll just automatically be better. Yeah. You know, if you're used to it, you know, stick with whatever you like or whatever, but I do think people should, you know, give it a shot for sure. Yeah. I also think a lot of, uh,

[01:50:50] wide bodies need less tuning with weight. That too. Stuff. Yeah. So for, for people who don't want to mess around with that, that is, that is a plus. Yeah. Um, but again, I just, I just think hybrids are getting better. Sweet spots across the board are getting better. Like let's take elongated. I would say elongated sweet spots now are better than wide body sweet spots. Of, of a gen two, you know? Right. So like, I think sweet spots,

[01:51:17] if you're used to a gen two wide body sweet spot and you go to an elongated foam paddle, you're probably going to think it's even better on that. Right. So I think sweet spots have gotten so much better that it's hard to say, Oh, well the sweet spot and elongated is just so bad. Yeah. Right. It's like, they're not really that bad anymore. Yeah. I just kind of feel like, I guess the other thing I'm thinking about too is, I guess it kind of goes both ways. I guess there's multiple ways you could look at it. If, if you have a lower mobility,

[01:51:47] elongated would be nice because you get a little bit of extra reach. But then my, I guess, counter argument would be how often at a three Oh to four Oh level, or even up to four to five, let's say, how often are you truly reaching in and you need that last half an inch. And that at that level is the reason you made the ball or didn't make the ball. Maybe sometimes, but like, it's not like at the five, five level or something where you're literally eking out every, like quarter inch you can get to hit that ball.

[01:52:17] And so it feels like to me, the benefit of having more reach is maybe not huge outside of maybe the demographic of people that have less mobility. And then I'll, I'll give it to you. You, that reach probably is important. Yeah. You know? Yeah. I don't know. I mean, maybe not a ton of huge advantages for, for the majority of people, but I think as you get better, those advantages start to make a bigger difference. Yeah. I'm a, I'm going to have to start a campaign. Start a campaign. I'm going to start a campaign for the wide body, bro.

[01:52:47] look at the wall. I'm about to go on a mission. Look at the wall right now. I'm seeing more elongated on this wall. Wide body, wide body, wide body, wide body. I don't know. I think your eyes just fixated. I think your eyes just fixated on wide bodies. So, I mean, look, uh, look, so Selkirk is going to be dropping it. Bread and butter is dropping it. I think there's a, going to be a trend in the industry here. We just need Yola to drop it. Bro. There's no way they do that to their like Anna bright. No, they won't.

[01:53:17] They won't, but it'd be hilarious. I'm just, I'm just going to put it out here now. Maybe, maybe, you know, I'm being nice guy. I'm trying to be logical and give people reason why they might want to use a wide body. Maybe I got to start making threats. Maybe I got to start saying, if you, if your company doesn't produce a wide body, you're just blocked by pickleball studio. Maybe we shoot a video where I, I play in slides with a wide body and you play in shoes with elongated and we see who wins. I'm winning with either shape if you're in slides. Okay. This is probably a super long podcast.

[01:53:47] If you made it this far, the word of the week is wide body. Thank you very much. Uh, but if you made it this far, we appreciate you listening and we will catch you guys next week. Hope you have a good one. Peace.