PBD:S4:E10: Team Canada Plural

[00:00:03] This episode is brought to you by Anivia Pickleball, your premier destination for high quality pickleball paddles designed to elevate your game. At Anivia they are committed to providing players across Canada with innovative, performance driven pickleball paddles crafted for durability, precision and ease of play. Irene and myself are currently using their Gen 3 Pro Paddle and if you head over to Anivia.com and enter the code AGORMAN15 you get 15% off your order. That's AGORMAN15 at Anivia.com. Alright, on with the show.

[00:01:02] Hello everyone and welcome back to the Pickleball Diaries podcast. I am your host Andrew Gorman and joining me back again now is my partner in crime and certified pickleball referee Victor Chan. Vic, how is the cleaning up the house going? Look at that. So for people on the audio obviously you don't see it so I'll describe it. Right at the back usually it has like all my paddles or whatever. Right now it's a blank sheet of wall. There's absolutely nothing right now.

[00:01:32] At the back Andrew is laughing. What is going on over there? Unfortunately I am selling my house because I'm preparing to move. So if you're in the hunt of a house in Edmonton please give me a shout so I can sell you my house so I can get out of Edmonton as soon as I can. Not that he wants to leave. Even though I don't want to.

[00:01:54] Yeah, not that he wants to leave but you know military duty is what it is so and then but people in Ontario you get to be graced by a really good referee and a really good pickleball pundit so when he gets there so. But yeah, so aside from that I've been a little bit busy with work and also hence why Vic has been unable for the last two. Yeah, I've been just so busy trying to clean the house up. So I was like Vic, you worry about the house I'll handle the CPL recap. Thanks Andrew. Sorry about that.

[00:02:23] Yeah, it's so it's so empty in the house that we can we can hear an echo when we're talking sometimes at the house. So you're like what the hell why am I hearing myself? That's so empty the house looks like. Yeah, exactly. Anyways, we do have a pretty loaded slate for this one so we'll jump right into it.

[00:02:47] So first thing is we mentioned this two episodes ago, but how you and you he were named. What was it senior vice president of global expansion and director of global expansion in the APP Asia tour while the Asia tour obviously got announced and they have there. We don't have exact dates, but we do have the month and the locations for the Asia tour. So in July in Penang in Malaysia, October is the China Open.

[00:03:17] Also in October is the Bangkok Open in Thailand. Nice. Two events in November, one at Taipei City in Chinese Taipei and one is the India Open. And then December is the Ho Chi Minh. Am I saying that right? Ho Chi Minh. Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam. Yeah, which yeah. Anyway, go ahead. Sorry. Yeah. So, oh no, that's okay. So, yeah. So that's the that's the slate.

[00:03:42] So obviously the proper dates will be coming up really soon as July is right around the corner. The July one might already be even announced for what the actual date is. I haven't. I think I saw that they announced because you went to China already. I saw the post. Let me check. Yeah. You talk while I'm checking. Oh, you has been all over the place. Like he was like I think he was like in Malaysia. He was back in Canada for the CMPL Eastern split.

[00:04:10] Then he went back back again to somewhere in Asia again. Him and him and you here all over the place are now like we said before hardest working people in pickleball. But obviously we're super stoked about this. No, they haven't announced the date yet. They just still just a month at the moment. Just a month at the moment. Yeah. Yeah. But more than likely we'll have some of our CMPL pros go into that. Like I wouldn't be surprised if you see Ernesto at some of those.

[00:04:37] Ernesto goes down for a lot of APP events and he's also signed with APP. Yeah. And I wouldn't be surprised, especially if it's in Asia, if you don't see a Conor go for some of those. Maybe Christina Chin. China. Yeah. At least like China, Vietnam, Malaysia. Those are very accessible events. Now on top of that you have Bangkok and Taipei. So it makes it even like I would say it depends on their schedule, right?

[00:05:05] If their schedule permits, I think that they will make a lot of waves, obviously. Yeah. So yeah, it'll depend on when the July event is if they can make that one. Because obviously there's the CMPL metropolitan. Yeah. I have a feeling they're probably favoring the October, November, December because usually it's more quieter in Canada.

[00:05:26] So if they can make it now having those events in Asia, I think is much easier and accessible for them to go there. Especially with UAE's connection and everything, right? Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, like the next thing is with, aside from the July, with everything else being October post. Yeah. CMPL is over at that point. All the main Canadian events are over at that point. So it's just, now it's like.

[00:05:54] Yeah, the very last event is the PPA in Ottawa. The PPA opened 250, I think, in Ottawa in November. And that's the only like considered as major one. Yeah. Yeah. So and I wouldn't be. Yeah. So you might get some of our like the Ontario and Quebec pros going to that. But like any of the pros out in the West. I'll be there for sure. Yeah, there you go. Exactly. I'll be close now. Yeah. Maybe go ref and get some money out of it, Vic.

[00:06:24] Yeah, probably. Well, I'll probably do both. I'll see. I'll see. I'll probably do both for sure. Nice. But yeah, so that's the APP stuff so far. Of course, it's all part of that global pickleball tour they got going on with the DJ League, Australia, CMPL, all that stuff. So they're all working together to figure out. So everything lines up. So maximum pro players can go. So make sure you guys check that out.

[00:06:52] And hey, if you're going to go, if you want to try an APP and also get an Asian vacation, we just give you a good list of events. If you want to spend a month in like between China and Thailand, you got two events to go to or Chinese Taipei and India. Right. So that's awesome. Hey, everyone. We want to give a big shout out to one of our sponsors, Kling Pickleball Compression Wear.

[00:07:18] They're a Canadian-based company that is made specifically for pickleball players by pickleball players. I personally love their compression socks. I use them all the time when I'm in tournaments. However, they are also the designers of the CMPL Northern Lights jerseys, which you can get at their shop. Irene also loves their ladies compression tops, and she wears those when she plays in the tournaments as well as the socks as well. So head on over to clingpickleball.com and check out what they got in stock for you. Back to the episode.

[00:07:47] So let's get right into the title of this episode, which I funnily named Team Canada, plural. We have two Team Canadas announced. One is the unofficial official one. The other one is the technical official one by Pickleball Canada. And that's the one picked from the Steve Deacon Combine that was in Calgary a couple weeks ago. So our team is McConnor Dye from BC, Kim Layton from Alberta, Kyle Hormetz from Ontario.

[00:08:16] Ryan, we're going to say, is from Ontario, but he lives in New Jersey. But yeah, Canadian citizenship, right? Yeah. Jordan Vigna. And then Rosie Johansson, who's the only one I wasn't familiar with. She is from BC, but I think she lives in North Carolina on the regular. And taking a quick look at her duper and a quick look at her Instagram page, she is a former tennis player switching over into pickleball.

[00:08:44] And has been doing decently well at the different events she's been playing in, like the North Carolina area, kind of bigger leagues and stuff like that. So definitely probably brought in for, I would assume, singles and stuff like that. If they get into that, same thing, like I would take a guess for our men's group. That's actually pretty, because McConnor is such a good right side. I mean, I would go with probably Ryan and McConnor to start.

[00:09:13] But then you also have Kyle, who's a very good player in mixed, especially. But then you also want to save McConnor for singles, right? So depending on how it goes. But that's a really good team. If you're wondering why other pros weren't named, there was a lot of pros that weren't there, because it was in Western Canada. So a lot of the... I say that, but then, of course, you look at Ryan, Kyle, Jordan. Well, and some of them are... Has commitment with CMPL, too. So that's a problem, too. Right? Yeah.

[00:09:43] Well, yeah. And the thing with the MLP event that this is going to be, because it's the mid-season tournament for the MLP, and it does not actually conflict with any CMPL events. Okay. But I think there was players who didn't go, like, say, if you're asking, oh, why wasn't Ernesto at this? I'm pretty sure Ernesto was over playing somewhere else at the time. Same thing with, like, Christina Chin, Anne-Sophie, like, all those other players who would be, you know, if they go...

[00:10:13] And so if they didn't attend the Combine, they weren't eligible to get picked on the team, right? So... Yeah, for sure. I did talk to a couple people who did go to the Combine. It was a little expensive, 500 bucks. Oh, yeah. It was expensive, for sure. But so, like, for the pro players to go and make the team, you know, 500 bucks well spent for some... And I noticed that it did get opened up to some people who weren't above 5-0, because originally the stipulation on that was 5-0 and above.

[00:10:39] And I did talk to some people who, you know, roughly the same rating as you and me, Vic, who went just because they obviously wanted people to fill the spot. So, you know, for me, 500 bucks is a little pricey. You did get a Combine with Steve Deacon leading the charge, but when I found it, it was 500 bucks. Now, me and Irene were already busy somewhere else, but I was like, I don't know if I would have spent 500 bucks to drive down to Calgary, get a hotel as well, and then do a Combine where I know for sure I ain't getting picked for the team, right?

[00:11:08] Yeah, that's the problem is, like, if you know your skill already and you look at the lineup, you're like, like, me, chances of getting picked is pretty slim. Like, why am I picking 500 bucks in order to try and even play in there? Unless, well, if you have money, obviously, yeah, go ahead because you have chances to play. Oh, you get to play some really good pro players, right?

[00:11:33] You got to play with the pros, but if, like, us as a price conscious, you're like, ugh, maybe not. Yeah. But regardless, nonetheless, super stoked for our team. Hopefully, they're going down playing against the 20 MLP teams. There's also, what is it, a Team Australia, a Team Europe. Europe. And is it a Team Asia or do we actually have, like, a specific country? I think there is a Team Asia. Yeah, I'm trying to remember. I did see something in, let me, give me a quick, quick second.

[00:12:05] Oh, no, College All-Stars. Sorry. Oh, College All-Stars. Here we go. Yeah, so, yeah, so Team Australia, which, like, if you're talking about featured pro, like, Sarah Burr is on that. Team Europe. I'm trying to think of someone I recognize right off the bat. Kate Morris I recognize. There's a couple other ones there who I've seen play in other events. And then College All-Stars. So, some of the top players from College All-Stars.

[00:12:31] And actually, give a shout-out to Lauren from Utah Tech. Irene actually played with her when Tracy Bennett did that USA versus Canada women's event. Lauren was one of the U.S. that came up for that. And she's a really, really good player. So, shout-out to her for being on that college selection team for that MLP event. Nice. But, yeah, so, that's still a really strong team for our Team Canada there.

[00:13:00] Super stoked for them. Also, awesome that they got the backing of Pickleball Canada, which is nice. Too bad Pickleball Canada can't do it for this other team we're about to talk about. But, yeah. But, yeah. So, it's like, obviously, they're going to be in tough because you're playing against, like, you know, Ben Johns, Annalie Waters. Oh, yeah. And all that stuff. So, some of these really, really good players. But it's going to be a great experience for them nonetheless. Mm-hmm. For sure. Right. And, you know, who knows?

[00:13:28] They can maybe upset some of those teams coming in like that because they're going in with no pressure. The other teams are the ones who are going to have pressure. It's like, oh, we have to beat these teams that, in your head canon on paper, we shouldn't lose to, right? So, all the pressure is on the MLP teams, not on Team Canada. Oh, yeah. For sure. Looking forward to watching some of the video footage from that. Good luck to all of our players. Represent the crest well. And we'll be cheering for you guys. Oh, yeah. It's going to be a...

[00:13:57] I think it's going to be an amazing experience playing against those teams, especially at the highest level, right? They're going to... They already... They already been playing nonstop almost for the past few weeks, those MLP teams. And you might be able to catch them a little bit tired, I think, because they have been playing almost kind of nonstop.

[00:14:24] Obviously, not all the teams, but some of the teams might be a little bit more fatiguing, more than most. And then some team actually... I've been following MLP quite a bit. So, there is some team or... Like some of the memes already said, like from what Marshall Lynch... I'm just there just so I'm not getting fined. There's already a team like that. I'm actually talking about the Carolina Hogs.

[00:14:52] They're just like just a freaking dumpster fire team. The owner... Like as soon as a player plays well during one of their... We call split, but it's more in one event. They got traded to get cash to another team. So, it's like freaking dumpster fire. Whatever. Oh, so the owner is just intentionally like tanking. Kind of. Kind of. Exactly.

[00:15:19] And the owner is the owner of... Who is Tom... Tom... Tim Danton from... He owns also the... What was it called? The Portland Trailblazer from NBA. And also has the same problem because I think when they went to playoff... People also accusing him saying... Like usually you travel... The whole team travel, right?

[00:15:49] But now they... But some of the players that you have subbed during the regular season... They didn't bring them to the playoff because if you bring them to the playoff... You're going to have to cost more. So, both of the team will do it because they... Those subplayers help the team to make it to the playoff. But that... This is a... Sorry. A cheap owner. He doesn't want to do it. Oh, boy. Just freaking dumpster fire.

[00:16:17] We call them dumpster fire hugs. Perfect. So, hopefully Team Canada can kick there, but that will be awesome. For sure. Well, I'm not saying for sure, but at least it will be... It will feel great. Yeah. Exactly. But more so not... Not to put the players in their place, but put the owner in their place. Oh, yeah. Like... I was like... Well, obviously, Steve Deacon is also a manager of one of the team, right? The Las Vegas Night Owls. So... Yeah. So, yeah. So, looking forward to watching that.

[00:16:47] Once again, good luck to all the players. Hey, everybody. We want to give a shout-out to our sponsor, Tyrell Pickleball. I'm holding their Velocity V shoe right here. It's the orange and teal one. It's awesome, and I love using this on the court. So, for a pickleball shoe that delivers stability, breathability, comfort, and durability, head over to tyrellpickleball.com and enter agorman20 at checkout to get 20% off your order. We want to give Tyrell a big shout-out. Thank you so much for supporting us. Better grip. Better balance.

[00:17:17] Better game. Designed for the way pickleball is actually played. Back to the episode. Now, Vic, we're going to move over to the team that were super hardcore backing. The unofficial official team, Canada, for the Pickleball World Cup, which is going to be in Vietnam this year in Da Nang. So, they announced a bunch of the staff. They announced the starting four roster.

[00:17:44] And it's funny because I kind of want to give Ricky a little bit of crap here. Ricky, you didn't make a post about yourself of what your actual role is. So, I can't have a picture of you up here. Right? So, he's going to have something for sure. Oh, no. Yeah. I mean, it could be social media or whatever or social media organizer or whatever it could be. But, so, yeah. GM, obviously. UEC Lau. Once again, one of the hardest working people in pickleball.

[00:18:10] Director of player personnel, Brett Shepley, who is owner slash GM of the York Yeti. And then the Athlete Selection Committee, which, like we said, has already selected the starting four. They still need to select the two subs. They still need to select the senior team. And they still need to select the junior team. But the Athlete Selection Committee consists of Commissioner Mike from the CNPL. Brett Shepley, again, from the York Yeti. Tim McVinney, who was the coach of the senior team last year.

[00:18:38] Caitlin Sirocco, was coach of the drive and of the open team last year. Alex Sherman, coach of the junior team last year. And Carolina Hack, who was also coach of the junior team last year and a player last year. Nice. So, really good group for the selection committee. And then, of course, we get to our starting four. And now, like we said, there was no cap this year. So, we were literally able to do an all-star team.

[00:19:07] So, we have Ernesto, of course, as team captain. Ryan Torrenson, Ansofi Courto, and Jada Buey. Jada Buey being, right now, the only returning player from last year. But we'll see who the subs are. We'll see who's on the junior team. We'll see who's on the senior team. Stuff like that. But this is an insanely good starting fourth lineup. That's what you should be dreaming of as a team Canada, right? Exactly.

[00:19:34] No notes on the selection committee. There's basically no, like... These are literally your top performing. Even if we're just looking at just CMPL, this is literally kind of your top performing Canadians right now in the CMPL. Not even CMPL. You just go on Duper or whatever. Oh, no, yeah. By Canadian result, there's no doubt about it, basically.

[00:20:01] Yeah, but say, for example, for people who don't look at Duper and maybe only look at CMPL, these are the ones running the show right now in the CMPL. And the nice thing is, if you're talking about team chemistry, Ansofi has played mixed with both Ryan and Ernesto. So, you already have familiarity there. Of course, she won back-to-back championships with Ernesto in the CMPL. She's currently playing with Ryan on the Smash this year. Yeah.

[00:20:26] I'm pretty sure Ryan and Ernesto have played together at a tournament in the States at some point. I remember them taking a picture here. I don't know if they actually played together or if they just... No, I don't think they played together. Or if they just ran in, but... They're just bumping into each other. But they're definitely going to play well together. Because I would assume, to start, you'd probably stick Ryan on the left. Because Ernesto is able to play both sides very, very well. Is what my guess would be. And then, of course, Jada killing it last year, especially in singles.

[00:20:54] Just destroying everyone she ran up. I think she was almost like... Every time they went to a tie-break, it was like 6-0, 6-0, 6-0. Oh, yeah. Like, just destroying everybody. And, of course, she's just getting better as the season goes on. So, her and Ann-Sophie, both... Like I said, very similar trajectories starting in the CMPL as coming off that tennis background. Starting off with, yes, very strong drives. Very good singles. Had to work on their short game a little bit.

[00:21:21] But then, as the season went on, you could see the short game coming. And then, by the end of the season, just both powerhouses. Just one season after the other between the two of them. So, it'll be interesting to see who takes left, who takes right for the two of them when they play together. But... I don't think they're... I'm not too worried about... I'm not too worried about... I'm just interested to see how they line up. Because both of them have a killer drive. Both of them are very, very aggressive players.

[00:21:49] So, I could see them just almost being like an onslaught. Going against the other female teams in the World Cup coming up. So, Vic doesn't have his on because his is probably in a box somewhere. I'm still looking. But if you're watching on the thing, I got my Team Canada Pickleball shirt on that I bought. I think they still have them for sale at the Pickleball or P-Ball website.

[00:22:17] And part of the proceeds to go towards supporting Team Canada with that. If you head over there and buy it. Also, if you're watching this and you have a company and you want to sponsor, get a hold of Ricky. That way, you can either tag him on... DM him on Instagram. Or I know they have the Team Canada Pickleball website. I'll put the link in the description below. If you want to head over there and be a sponsor. Me and Vic don't really have any money.

[00:22:44] But we are going to be verbally and covering them on this. But we would totally be backing this. Yui had asked if we could attend this year in Vietnam. Obviously, Vic with moving can't really do it. And I did not have enough RTO remaining. Because I had already booked a family vacation. And me and Irene are going to nationals. So, I was short by, I want to say, like three days to have a manual e-lift.

[00:23:13] Or I would have possibly been able to at least go and be there in person and support and do some coverage that way. But we will support them from here. I'll be bugging Yui and saying, hey, as soon as you get there, make sure there's a link we can look at either to watch the games or follow along that way. And that way we can kind of report as the tournament goes on. But I'm super stoked for this team. We'll try our best.

[00:23:39] Obviously, this year is just going to be a big difficulty for me. Yeah, exactly. All good. But yeah, so hopefully we can get some of the players on for an interview on the podcast. So we can kind of do almost like a mini-series of, hey, meet Team Canada. Maybe we can get some of the selection committee or some of the other staff members on. We've had, of course, Caitlin Soroka on the podcast before. We've had Yui on the podcast before. You've interviewed Ernesto before.

[00:24:09] So need to get some more people on there. But yeah, we're going to be super pumping the tires of this team. Because unfortunately, once again, they are not being supported by Pickleball Canada. Yeah, I know. What makes me mad about that is, Vic, is that they asked them last year and they were like, oh, it's too short notice. We don't have funds put aside. It's like, okay, well, they went and did it off their own dime and through fundraising. You knew the World Cup was coming again. Yeah.

[00:24:39] And you still didn't work with them. And you're part of the Global Pickleball Federation, which is what is running this. Yeah, I don't. I don't. I really don't. I don't understand how Pickleball Canada can be part of the Global Pickleball Federation. And you're not supporting the Team Canada that is representing Canada at the Pickleball World Cup. Like, it doesn't. It is my. It doesn't make sense to me.

[00:25:01] I don't know if they have an issue with someone who is on staff and this is just like backroom crappy policies or something like that. But it's like, if that's the case, get off the board. Yeah. Like, if there's someone on the board who's pushing this down because maybe they don't like you or maybe they don't like Mike from the CMPL or whatever the heck it is, get yourself off the board. Your job isn't to push your own agenda. Your job is to promote the growth of Pickleball in this country.

[00:25:31] And you're already doing it with Steve Deacon for the MLP team and everything, right? Like, why? Like, it almost feels like. It feels like favoritism. Either favoritism or either it's just doesn't like it's double standard. I can almost say that. Yeah. But it's super frustrating with it.

[00:25:55] So it's like this team went, this team and this group of people went and represented the country last year, finished top eight in the open, fourth in juniors and got bronze in the senior. Senior. Yeah. And with the group we're sending this year, just already looking at our starting four for the open, I don't want to be like overly cocky, but I want to say at least a podium finish. Oh, yeah. At least another top eight finish, for sure.

[00:26:25] If you don't put it on your, like, you don't have money to support it or whatever, but just like at least promote them on Instagram or something. Yeah. We had this conversation before with the CMPL. It's like, hey, if you can't, if you don't have money put aside, anytime the CMPL posts something, how hard is it to follow? Just repost. Or repost the post or like add it to the story. It's like, hey, come watch some of our amazing Canadian pro players here. Like, same thing.

[00:26:53] The next CMPL event is at the Good Games in Guelph at the end of the month. There we go. Is Pickleball Canada promoting that at all? No, no, for sure. I haven't seen them promoted at all. So, same thing. You're not even promoting the Good Games, which Pickleball is a part of. Yeah, I know. Right? It's just like, it's just, it's so frustrating. It's like, it's funny because there was that announcement.

[00:27:12] I can't remember if it was Malaysia, but it was one of the Asian countries where the national sports authority has suspended or whatever the pickleball thing. And they're investigating them for not appropriating funds and stuff properly. I don't remember that. That's what you want to go. Or like, yeah, but basically they're calling them out on not properly promoting the sport for what they're basically supposed to do.

[00:27:39] I can't remember if it was Malaysia or if it was one of the Asian countries around that area. Because you even re-shared it type of thing, right? Because it was like, yeah, it's a good thing that the government is actually stepping in and fixing that. Well, it's almost getting to the point as, hey, Minister of Sport for Canada, you need to step in and see what the hell Pickleball Canada is doing because they're clearly not doing a good enough job with what they're doing.

[00:28:03] And like we said, I love the league thing, the pilot program that they're doing for the league thing. I love that idea. I even love the idea of doing that. What was it? It's like the development program for upcoming players. Like the pro development thing. But then they put like the stupid like stipulations on it where you have to play in provincials or at the nationals.

[00:28:31] Basically, you have to play in like two major sanctioned events and half of our pros can't make both. Like definitely any of the pros playing in the CNPL can't make nationals because it's the same weekend. I know a couple of our pros can make Alberta provincials because their particular team isn't playing in the, I think at that point, it's the metro split. It's the same weekend as the Alberta provincials, but there's a couple of our pros. Their team isn't playing like Kim Layton's playing in provincials because the owls are not playing in the metropolitan split type of thing. Right.

[00:28:59] So it's like, so she's got that one down and I guess so Kim Layton will be available now because she did the Steve Deacon thing and she did the, she'll do the Alberta provincial. So she'll technically be able to be qualified. But like, like for example, so if we just look at our starting four for, for, for Ernesto won't be, and Sophie won't be, Jada won't be, and Ryan won't be. Right. Yeah, exactly. Right.

[00:29:23] So it's just like, it's just, it's, it's frustrating because it's like you have, and like same thing, like I don't think Jacob will be able to be now because now, or no, Jacob can still be. It depends. It depends. Like, but, but McConnor won't be, and like, there's a really good young player. That's true. There's a really good young player.

[00:29:43] Um, because Jacob's going to be, Jacob's going to be, I, I, I, I don't think Armand will be able to, because, um, he, I, I, cause I don't know when the BC provincials are, so he might be able to do the BC provincials. And I know he did go to the Steve Deacon thing, so he might be eligible, but it'll depend on if he goes to like the BC provincials, because he won't be able to go to nationals type of thing. Right. So sure. Like, and then, and the reason why I say maybe Jacob's because I got a feeling what, like his member, I call, I was funny.

[00:30:11] I called it at APA that Jacob was going to get picked up after his performance there and he gets picked up by Toronto United for the one, but you knew more than likely he was going to get dropped again when Matthew Kalamoto came back. But he's probably first on a lot of teams lists, uh, to get picked up again, especially with the way the last two splits went. There's a couple of teams who are going to need to shake up their roster. Right. So, or some, uh, some duty injuries too. Yeah, exactly. Right. So, so yeah.

[00:30:39] So once again, we're super stoked for this team. Um, we're supporting you guys 100%. Uh, like I said, hopefully we can get some people on and, uh, you know, just use it to like, you know, introduce the players to like, you know, uh, some, maybe some people who aren't familiar with them. Cause you know, a lot of these players are from Eastern Canada. So like people out West here may, may not know who they are, especially if they don't follow CNPO. Right. So at least we can get their name out there and say, Hey, these are the, this is the people who are representing our country and stuff.

[00:31:08] So we can get a couple of them on there. Um, if you haven't, uh, followed it yet, uh, follow the, uh, the team Canada pick or the unofficial official official team Canada, um, team at the world cup on Instagram. Same thing. I'll share their, um, their tag in the, uh, in the description below. So, um, but yeah, so we're super stoked for this team.

[00:31:29] I can't wait to see who we select because honestly, if we, depending on who we get for the two alternates and I know this might be, this might be, I don't want to say it's an ego shot, but if you look at some of our players who've played in the CMPL or who are playing in the CMPL and are currently under the age of 18, we could have a really stacked junior team.

[00:31:52] Like if you just go with just McConnor and Jacob, like if they don't get picked as the two old as an alternate for the open team, guys, how would, how would you both start? Like if they pick them, how would you both start for the junior team and just go clean shop? Yeah, exactly. Right. And this isn't a shot at our previous juniors, but there was the, there was the, uh, the duper cap. Yeah, exactly. And art and, and those juniors did well. They finished in fourth and they lost the bronze in a tie break. Right.

[00:32:21] So can you imagine if you're now bringing in some young players who are already playing high level pro and go in and go in and playing PPA or APP already? Yeah, exactly. Right. So like that would, and like we are, and we already watched what McConnor and Jacob can do together as a tandem at the APA. Definitely. Right. So can you imagine the two of them being on the team Canada junior team? That'd be scary. That'd be so scary. That'd be awesome. Right. But that's, that's what I mean. Like I'd be down for that. And then same thing.

[00:32:49] Like if you look at our C our senior team did so well getting the bronze last year, you can almost run it back with the same players. You could even maybe grab one or two others who might be available. Like, um, I can't remember what like Tracy Bennett's, uh, duper rating is, but like Tracy Bennett's up there and stuff as well. Right. So a good one too. Right. Cause there's, there's a possibility if she put her name, cause like what me and Vic didn't, uh, weren't on the, uh, on the selection committee this year. So we don't have the list of players who, uh, who put their names in, but like, we're just,

[00:33:17] we're throwing out names, but like if it, if it's the same senior team back again, that team was within a tie break of making it to the finals cause they lost to the U S and the semis. Yeah. Right. And then, but then, but then went on to win in the, uh, in the bronze medal games. So that was, uh, that was awesome. So yeah, so we're, uh, looking forward to it. Keep, uh, keep an eye on, uh, the team Canada posts. Um, and if you're, if you want to support them, uh, like I said, hit up, uh, Ricky on Instagram or head over to the website.

[00:33:47] I'll have it in the description and, uh, yeah, for both of our team Canada's, um, unfortunately one, not official, not technically official, but we're cheering for you guys. Uh, go kick some major butts and, um, yeah, let's go team Canada. Yeah. Let's go team. Let's go team Canada for sure. Hey everyone. Thanks for tuning into this episode. We want to give a quick shout out to our sponsor kitchen blockers. Me and Irene are sponsored by these guys. And if you're watching the video right now, I'm rocking their new red pair.

[00:34:15] These are safety glasses for pickleball players made by pickleball players. They're lens free, which means zero light refraction, zero frog scratch free, sweat free, and gives you full court vision. If you guys head over to kitchenblockers.com and enter the code a gourmand 10, you can get 10% off your order. Thanks again for kitchen blockers for supporting us. And this podcast back to the episode. Uh, so Vic, um, speaking of CMPL players, uh, the drive just announced a roster shakeup.

[00:34:45] So they have dropped, uh, Stevie and they dropped, uh, Jamie. So Jamie was, uh, someone who was picked a player who was picked up at the last event because neither Brad Chapman or Nicholas Tran were available. So Jamie came in as the other male player, but they've dropped him and they've dropped Stevie and they've picked up Jordan Vigna. So C, CMPL, uh, role player, uh, for the female. And so because they've dropped Stevie, they now have another, uh, international spot bill and they picked up miles Hoover.

[00:35:14] Um, I wasn't a hundred percent, um, sure who this was cause I'd recognize the name. And then when I went back and it was funny cause I was like, where did I see this name from? And it was, I've actually seen his name pop up in a bunch of PPA challenger events that like McConnor or Amon had been participating in. And he's always either at the podium or he's always in like that top 10 finishing spots in both singles and in some like men's doubles and, uh, stuff like that.

[00:35:39] So clearly a very, very good player who, uh, people, uh, some teams have had their eye on. And this is an interesting change up for the drive. Cause of course the driver, uh, two and nine right now. Yeah. Um, and like we said this year, only six teams make the playoffs. So you need to get out of that basement and you need to do a quick, right? So, uh, you knew, uh, you knew the reshuffle was coming for, uh, this team.

[00:36:05] Um, the Stevie drop was interesting cause I thought Stevie was playing really well, but, uh, I'm guessing because they needed that under international spot to get miles is why they had to drop Stevie. Right. So, um, there might be other reasons behind it that we're not privy privy to, but, uh, Jordan and Jordan coming in as a completely different player. Like Stevie's way more aggressive. Jordan's very more defensive specialist or guys. She did start to have a really good counter punch at the end of last year.

[00:36:33] Um, but she's still, still the more like a defensive player. Yeah. Still more defensive. So I could see probably in the, if you're starting women's, it'll probably be Alexis on the left, Jordan on the right. And then of course Jordan playing, I'm assuming then you keep, um, Alexis and Evan together and then miles will probably play with Jordan in the mix is what my guess is. I think that would, that would. Work well. Yeah. So, and then the only other question is, is because I haven't seen miles play, I don't know if he's more, if he's like when he plays men's doubles, if he's a right side specialist

[00:37:03] or if he's left. So that'll be the question is between him and Evan who plays left, who plays right, which we will see pretty quickly coming up and the, uh, in the mid season events in a week and a, in a week and a half here. So, um, so super looking forward to that. Um, I don't know. Uh, we haven't been asked yet to do, um, broadcast cause it is all the teams are going to be there. So there will be two courts, but I don't know, Vic, I don't know if you're going to be able to, cause of all the packing and stuff. It might be tight. I was going to see. I'm not sure.

[00:37:32] And then for me, it's same thing. It's, um, this is kind of now we're getting like a whole week here of like thunderstorms and rain right now up here in Northern Alberta, but which does slow my job down a little bit. Um, I do have a job tomorrow, but like a lot of the, instead of there being a job like every day now for me, it's like a day and then, uh, like one or two days because especially for, for maintenance rigs to move around, they need the ground to be semi solid so they can't get through the mud from all this rain.

[00:38:02] Oh man, good luck. Especially here, um, in Alberta for like tournament, this is the kind of official start of tournament season. Yeah. Good luck for outdoors. Oh man. Oh yeah. You better have a backup plan for it. You better have a backup. Well, and there's like I said, there's a lot of indoor facilities. So if you didn't have a backup, if you didn't have an indoor facility as your backup plan, I don't know what you were thinking. But, um, cause yeah, cause there is one this weekend coming up. It's like the Spruce Grove. Yeah. There's an opener. Yeah.

[00:38:30] And see, I was looking at that cause me and Irene were considering it, but there was nobody signed up in our category. So we were like, okay, well nevermind then. It didn't, it didn't turn out that well. They actually cut, cut the day. Usually it's like three days. They actually now cut it to only Saturday and Sunday. I think, uh, it's just, uh, especially in Edmonton area problem, I think, because there is so many tournaments now, like people does not, uh, value as much the sanctioned

[00:38:58] tournament, uh, as much, uh, compared to like the provincials. Like provincial, everyone will go, but like, oh, cause it has that, it has that luster of its provincials. Right. But all the other like normal tournaments, people just treat it as a tournament. And it's just like, oh, wow. If I can make it and make it, if I don't make it, I don't, I don't really care. Versus beforehand, people was like, oh yeah, as a tournament, let's, let's get, get in and try and, and, and hit it. But now I think it's getting a point.

[00:39:26] People's like, okay, determined, like, I'm just getting a piece of, like, I, I agree that you want to test your level, but at the same time, you're like, if you have played multiple tournaments already during this year, like, well, I'm just getting another piece of metal. Why? Why? And sorry, I'm taking a shot at, uh, at some tournament. You might want to, to cut that. But, uh, the tournaments are not giving away, uh, uh, much stuff to the player anymore.

[00:39:56] And that's, I, that's, I, I, like, like compared to our MLP, like we gave up so much stuff to, to, to, to the players. Them over there, you forget it. You're not going to get a sketch of shoes. That's for sure. You're not going to, are you going to get a pack, a bag of a nature's path? Forget it. You're not going to get that. Are you going to get, get a, get a chance to get in anything else? No, you get a half cut banana somewhere. Yeah. And that's, and that's getting frustrated.

[00:40:25] I think people want it. And prices are going up. Oh yeah. It's even more expensive. So people is like, why am I going to a tournament? If I can, I can, some, it's like some, some people is like, I'm, I'm organizing my own tournament playing with my, uh, people. Obviously. Yeah. Me and Irene went to, went to, just went to, one of those a couple of weeks ago. Right. So it was just where it was just like, yeah, some, a bunch of like higher level players

[00:40:50] just said, okay, we're going to rent out the courts for this, this one, this like five hour span. We're going to invite X amount of people. It's like, you know, 25 bucks a person or whatever it was. And, uh, we're, we're having a tournament, but it's just more of like a, we're playing to win, but it's like the, yes, we're not getting any medals or anything, but it's literally 25 bucks to come and have really good games. Right. Exactly. And sometimes people have good food that bring like a potluck bring food together.

[00:41:19] It has a little bit of chatting and stuff like that versus going to tournament. Like if you're twin out, basically you pay, you pay, you pay almost a hundred bucks for playing two games that I could play at anyone else. Yeah, exactly. Right. So it's, it's getting into that thing is you have to start offering more. Oh, more incentive. If you're getting, if you get, and yes, I understand like, especially if you're booking indoors, cause there's rental, there's high rental fees and stuff like that.

[00:41:46] But you have to, if you're going to charge a certain amount, you also have to start showing people that it's, Hey, it's the, the bang is worth for, is worth the buck. So it's like, yes. So, so bare minimum is medals. Oh, for sure. Bare minimum. I hate going to tournaments like sanction, like even if there's like sanctioned or non sanctioned tournaments and there's nothing for first place. Right. Like it's like, Oh yeah. Congrats. You won. It's like, okay. I want at least a medal. The medals are medals are fairly cheap.

[00:42:16] And the other thing is, is like, yeah, me and Vic were running MILP. Um, obviously with Vic moving, it's going to be a lot harder for me to try and do that on my own. I might maybe do one a year, maybe to kind of help supplement the podcast a little bit. But, but then again, so, so now that I've lost, I'm losing to Vic. So there's, I'm losing two refs because I'm not just losing to Vic. I'm also losing Mary. Right. So two, two refs straight away. So then I have to find refs. I'm not worried about paying the refs because we already did that, but it's like, now I

[00:42:46] have to, that's something else I have to do on top of it. Whereas at least when we were booking it, I was like, yeah, I know at least I have two guaranteed and Vic's got all the ref contacts. So then Vic will grab one or two more or whatever. Right. Like that was kind of Vic's, Vic's side hustle with that. But it was, but it was like, okay, well, we're charging this much because we're giving refs. We're doing refs. And because we're, it's MILP, MILP is providing us with some medals, with some swag.

[00:43:12] And then we went out and got some sponsors for some extra swag for players and stuff like that. Cause like our last event, we were able to give not like, so the top three teams in each division, not only got medals, but everybody got something. Yeah. They got like, at least like a bag, uh, additional, like a backup chips or, uh, like some, some additional, uh, uh, hardware or, uh, accessory from a MILP. Like we, we gave up, like we gave up stuff like, oh yeah.

[00:43:42] So compared to other tournament, Hey man, we gave up, uh, quite a bit of stuff. Like, like compared to some even sanctioned tournament, I was like, you guys didn't do your, like as an organizer, do you guys don't, didn't do your job of trying to get sponsor? Yeah, exactly. Right. And then the other problem right now is, is that, um, clubs aren't talking to each other. Um, if you, if you look at, um, the Red Deer open, there's three tournaments that weekend. I know.

[00:44:11] There's the, there's the Red Deer open. There's an M, what is it? The world pickleball tour, which is going to be at fair fairgrounds. So that's also in red. So there's two tournaments in Red Deer. And then there's St. Albert, I think. And then I think it's the St. Albert one or either St. Albert or the Strathcona. No, it's the St. Albert. It is the St. Albert one? It's the St. Albert one? Yep. Oh, okay. Yeah. But there's, that's three tournaments all on the same dates. Yeah. Back to back together. And like, so it's like, okay, well, and like even for Red, even for Red Deer.

[00:44:40] So you're not, so even for the tournament goers who live in Red Deer, you're splitting those up between the two. Right. And then for. It's interesting because like Jonathan is in charge of both. Right. I don't know. Well, no, well, the thing I know, I talked to Jonathan. So that's the World Pickball Tour one that was done through the fairgrounds website. Oh, okay. Gotcha. So that like, that's not. He didn't, he, he, he, he has no, like. He has no control over that. Yeah.

[00:45:09] Like that's basically they, but they booked it. They booked it through like the fair, through fairgrounds. So it's not like he could say no. Yeah. But then you're stuck with the, like why, why are you stuck your Red Deer open in, in the same weekend though? Yeah. Anyway. Totally. Yeah. Cause, yeah. Cause I did talk to Jonathan about that. I said, oh, that's, I said, I said, oh, what's this one? He goes, honestly, he was, I didn't even know about it. It was purchased. They did it through central. So like fairground central. So, you know, there's one small backdrop of being a franchise that, that, that, that can happen.

[00:45:38] But, um, but still, but so that's also going to be on the world pick ball tour people. It's like, Hey, we didn't look on, you didn't look on pick ball tournaments to see if there was another tournament in the same city that you're planning on doing your, your thing in. So, but that, that, that, that's, that's rough. But yeah, it's so, yeah, it is, it is what it is. And the other thing is, is that I'm noticing is a lot of the tournaments that are outdoors,

[00:46:03] um, people are not going to also because they know that provincials is going to be indoors. So a lot of people are practicing on indoor courts, which on the plus side, it is, it is good for a lot of the, um, the indoor court facility owners, because you're not losing as many people now to summer weather, um, for people playing outdoors as much anymore. Even the summer, summer weather is not very good. Well, summer weather right now in Alberta is not really good, but like, um, but you're not losing those people as much now.

[00:46:33] Cause they're like, oh, well, you know, provincials are indoors. If I'm going to nationals, nationals are indoors. And in some way, like, yes, it's a additional costs for, uh, for a tournament organizer, but you have the stability of, you don't have to worry about, you don't have to worry about delays. You just have to go, just run, run, run, run to show nonstop. Right. Uh, versus when you're outdoors, there are so much, so many additional variables that you have to, you have to consider. So exactly.

[00:47:01] Like for me, the cost, the cost, the cost, like the, the advantages of not having to worry about weather, not having to worry about time as much, especially because if you're doing a major tournament, like provincials and stuff, you're literally booking the entire facility for the whole weekend. It's not like your book. It's not like what we did for MIP where we were looking for a set amount of hours. I'll give an example to the Quebec provincial. They have to shut down the, the whole Sunday because it was raining and they have to refund

[00:47:27] the whole, uh, the whole, like every bracket and it's all the other players, like, because they, they, they make the decision, I think 30 minutes before, uh, before starting time. Yeah. And see, I don't know. That piss, there's, there's so many people like that. Yeah. And there's enough, there's, there's, there's enough facilities in Quebec that you should have been able to have a backup plan. Yeah. So they, no, I don't, I don't know.

[00:47:53] Uh, they, so yeah, Quebec was a, uh, gong show, unfortunately, uh, for, uh, unfortunately, but they have been, they has, it has been, oh, sorry, I'm taking a shot at them again. Sorry. You can cut that if you want. Quebec has been pretty bad at running, uh, running provincials anyway. Like, remember, remember they actually run, like at the times they're running those, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the Westerns, um, they, they call, uh, they call it like the, the Westerns. Oh, the regionals. The regionals.

[00:48:22] The Eastern regionals was run in, uh, Quebec. It was like, how many people was, was there? Like 200, something like that. Oh yeah. Well, it was terrible. The Western was always consistently up in the 700s. Yeah, exactly. And the Western was so good. Yeah. It was so good. It was so good. It was like, uh, it was just, it was running Quebec was all so bad. Well, even when it was in Ontario, it wasn't getting that many because Quebec people, like Quebec and Ontario players weren't, wouldn't go to each other. Yeah. If it was in Quebec, Ontario players wouldn't go.

[00:48:51] If it was in Ontario, Quebec players wouldn't go. I also agree sometimes. It was tough for the Maritimes to drive all the way to Quebec. Well, it would be tough. But like for Ontario and Quebec, like should supply the most, like they have like the- They have the highest population. So there's no reason why- 80% of the, almost 80% of the population of Canada, like how, how we can not fill 700 compared to Western, uh, Western regionals. Like, come on. Yeah, exactly.

[00:49:16] Especially when half, especially when half of us are driving or flying to the location. Yeah, exactly. So that, that math does not make sense. I'm sorry. Yeah, exactly. But so, and, and, and anyway, so I will say in the future, I think all the major tournaments are going to be indoors and all the, all the like smaller tournaments, like club tournaments probably going to be outdoors. And that's all. Yeah. Yeah. And club, and you're going to see those club tournaments either turn into like a club only

[00:49:43] tournament or, or, or, or if they were, or if they were, or they work with an adjacent club and kind of have like, Hey, you come to our tournament, we'll come to your tournament type of thing. Like, and in Edmonton, you can get away with that cause they're all close enough to each other. But like, but it's like, you're starting to see the club tournament die because they're not like we said, we said that you're not getting enough bang for your buck. Nope. Nope. Nope. Not at all. I'm sorry. Like I, uh, we've already, we've already seen at least two tournaments canceled this year.

[00:50:13] Already Grand Prairie canceled their tournament. Um, and who else? There was another tournament that just got canceled too. Um, I can't remember where it was, but it was, it was around Edmonton area or whatever it was, but it, it got canceled. No, you, you, you, you told, uh, I remember what, what, what was it? Uh, is it, oh, is it from a Edmonton pickleball? No, not, not, I mean, it was on to center, uh, the other one that, uh, down south at the Edmonton.

[00:50:43] Edmonton sports center. Yeah. I think it was, uh, Edmonton sports center. It got canceled because there was not enough, enough people signing up. So that's what I mean. That's why Grand Prairie canceled theirs as well. Yeah. Yeah. Cause not enough people signing up, but yeah, there was, I think Jack also moved some of the, his tournament because they're signed up, people sign up and yeah, multiple, multiple, yeah. Anyways. Yeah. So on that happy note, uh, actually, um, we'll do the cover of this really quick.

[00:51:12] Speaking of facilities, um, Airdrie is about to get a facility. They're about to get a pickleplex. It's going into the, uh, PV Mart, the old PV Mart building on main street there. So, Hey, big, uh, that's a big bonus for, uh, Airdrie and, uh, another good, uh, another good for living in Airdrie. Uh, is it a Ben's partner? Ben's slim partner. Who's his name? Ben's slim partner. Oh, I'm not sure that there's, there's, there's quite, there's quite a few. He's living in Airdrie. He'll be happy. Yeah.

[00:51:39] There's quite a few, there's quite a few decent up and coming players in Airdrie and stuff. So, and the energy pickleball club could use it too. Cause I think they're, they're a small, their court facility is, or their outdoor courts is only like not very many. Yeah. So, yeah, definitely. I will say. So more courts for them, which is good. And then also, uh, just for the greater kind of air Calgary slash Airdrie area, another, another facility is what you need. Cause they're, they, for any more, for such a, for such a large population, they do not

[00:52:08] have enough facilities. They need, well, like I would say Edmonton does not need another one, but they, they're going to have two. So anyway, uh, but, uh, Calgary needs, well, uh, uh, definitely it's more. Yeah. Well for Edmonton now, uh, obviously the center, which is, uh, the race before they cut down to 16 court, unfortunately, because they, they want to prioritize more volleyball. Yeah. Uh, apparently, apparently. And you have the, uh, Atea. Yeah.

[00:52:35] Atea, the Atea, which is a gym from, uh, like a gym franchise from, uh, coming from Ontario. That's going to put, I think 10, they're actually going, they're actually going into the spot that you were always talking about. If you had money, you'd get. Oh yeah. I know. I know. The old, the old Roma building or whatever it was. Yeah. I know. I, I, but what, what you going to do? And I, I didn't, I, I try, I, I tried Megabillion. I tried Powerball. I tried Lotto Max.

[00:53:03] So some, maybe the pick, some pickleball God can help me. I don't know. Or I should pray. I should pray more with my paddle. So I don't know. Yeah. And, uh, there is a rumor that there might be another facility coming to South Edmonton, but it's not confirmed yet, but I just heard some whispers of it, but I don't know where it would be going on right now, but I think it's either Pickler or either Pickleplex, which is one of the two. Pickleplex or possibly even Fairgrounds apparently.

[00:53:31] So there's, it's one of the, one of the three actual like franchises. And it makes, it makes sense for South Edmonton because right now South Edmonton only has the Pickleball Hub and that's pretty much it. The Hub and the Edmonton and that new sports center. Oh yeah. The Edmonton sports center. But that's only, that's only, it's only seven courts, right? Yeah. So it's, so if you, if you can get a facility, if you can get a facility that's, you know, at least like say 14 courts would be, would be awesome. 14 plus. Oh man.

[00:53:58] You're going to, especially South Edmonton has so much more population, right? Yeah, exactly. So, but yeah, so it's, uh, it's interesting. Um, like we said, looking over the more facilities from like right now for me, the better. And then hopefully if this facilities can get good programs going, um, they'll do the job, but yeah, clubs need to either up their game or they need to team up with a facility, whether they can get a discount using like booking through the facility.

[00:54:26] And then that can help them with, um, doing, uh, doing an event, but yeah, they need to up their game on what you're providing players. Cause like, yes, right. Costs are going up and especially if you're in a facility, if you don't own the facility, rent is a pain in the ass. Me and Vic both know this from running our MLP events. That was the biggest, that was the biggest cost. It was the biggest cost. Um, but we already showed with our three events that we did that you can still turn at least

[00:54:52] a semi decent profit with using a facility, getting refs, at least for metal matches. And if you get sponsors being able to provide extra stuff for your players and then the players really appreciate it. Right. So, but anyway, anyways, uh, one final bit of news. Um, this came out a while ago, but we've just been between, yeah, between, between Vic being sick slash away slash packing up his house. Oh man.

[00:55:22] Uh, we didn't get a chance to talk to this, but Selkirk did buy out bread and butter. Um, originally when this got announced, a lot of people were worried, but I did see a couple podcast, uh, pickleball podcasts that, which were done by some like pro players and stuff where they brought the, um, the CEO of bread and butter on the guy, the guy has like, yeah. Where he does his own, he basically does a lot of the, his own advertising where he does like funny skits and stuff. Oh, he, um, he's, he's, he's still going to be able to do that. Yeah.

[00:56:18] Yeah, exactly. A lot of the, uh, very iconic paddles like, uh, brand butter local that had that won the paddle of the year award last, uh, last year. Uh, um, they have the, uh, the others, like the one, one of my, one of my favorite paddle to brand brand butter shogun is that paddle. So, uh, so, uh, so iconic. It was so advanced at that time. Uh, they have the other, uh, the, also the, the, uh, the other paddle, like the brand butter filled. They have the, uh, the brand, they have so, so many weird names.

[00:56:48] You can see psycho, uh, they, they, they have the fat boy or all those weird, weird name. And, and that's how, how, how they make their names. A lot of people actually, actually was a little bit concerned that the, uh, when they got bought by, by Salker, because is it, it doesn't mean that all, because brand butter is not, we call a large pickleball company. It's more like a, we call it a niche pickleball company, right?

[00:57:19] Is it that, like people were saying, is it the end of the niche pickleball paddles companies, right? Because now all the major brands going to get bought. And, uh, and, and in some way, yes, somewhat, because you have to think the USAP certification is getting more expensive. Yeah. Isn't it like 10, isn't like 10 grand or something like that, or even more than that now? It was at least four grand per pad. Like it was, before it was for multiple paddle, but now it's per paddle.

[00:57:47] So every alteration you make, let's say a long handle, a 14 millimeter, 16 millimeter, that's just for 4,000, like at least $4,000 US. Yeah. Like, so that's not, that's not like, like a chip for, for a company. And now on top of that, you have the UPA. If you want to also certify for the UPA, which is the MLP and the, uh, the PPA, that's 10 grand per model. I was like, Oh my God.

[00:58:13] Like how, like for small paddle company or niche paddle company, how many paddle are you going to sell before you, you, you can make profit out of that 10, 10 grand. Yeah, exactly. Right. Like it's almost impossible. Right. So that's, that's, that's, that's why we're, we're starting to see, Oh man, is it the end of the niche, niche paddle company? I will say, yeah, it's starting to kind of wind down. Uh, the, the, the, the end, at least for ones that'll be tournament approved, you'll probably still have a couple of niche ones.

[00:58:42] That'll be good for like just rec play. Like, um, what's the one, um, the one Canadian company that actually it's sell, sells at the egg right now. Oh, doomsday. Doomsday. Yeah. Like, so that's like, they're not approved for tournaments, but yeah, I still, I still haven't been able to, to do the review. It's actually a fairly, uh, prize paddle, uh, 150 Canadian. Yeah. It's pretty good performance paddle. I will say, uh, uh, the paddle actually felt a little bit like, um, the brand butter

[00:59:12] Shogun that I have. Obviously the Shogun is a Gen 2, but this is a Gen 4 because he, he put foam on this, on, on this paddle. Uh, so I'll, I'll say this, uh, it, it actually performed pretty, like pretty well for a 150 Canadian paddle. The only downside is like, yeah, it's not USAP approved. And that's the biggest, biggest problem. Yeah. At the same time, like we said, a lot of people are not playing tournaments anymore. Who cares? Yeah, exactly. Right.

[00:59:40] So it's one of the, it's one of those things where if you're not planning on doing tournaments and you're just playing, like if you're just playing club or if you're just playing competitive wreck with your buddies and stuff, you know what? Go nuts, go nuts and go get, you know, same thing. Go get those Timu, Timu knockoff battles. Exactly. It doesn't matter. See, like if I have a choice, I will probably pick those like Canadian company rather than Timu. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Not, not just because supporting Canadians is important. That obviously that's one of, one, one of the good thing.

[01:00:10] The second biggest problem with the Timu is the consistency. You, yeah, you, you, like there's just no, no consistency with those, those paddle. Like you could get a dog or you could get, I saw some, some picture people got, got a box. It just have a paper off the paddle, like a paper, like a paper printed paddle. You're like, oh my God, what the heck is that? Right. Versus like, like they, like this is like at least a Canadian company. You can talk to the owner.

[01:00:39] The owner is like really taking care of, of their, of their customer. They will make sure like Apollo is one, another good guy, good company you want to talk to, talk to TJ is very, very involved in trying to grow the sport. And help get pickleball Canadian community. Doomsday is another, another one's trying, trying to help all Canadian players.

[01:01:04] So I was like, if you want to buy a, like a cheap pickleball paddle, but like performance good enough. And you want to have a state Canadian, go get those Canadian brand paddles rather than spend that money on, on T-Mood that you don't know what the hell you're going to get. Yeah, exactly. Right. Yeah. There's a couple. Yeah. Cause there's, if we're naming a bunch, like even on Western Canada here, you got Poach, you got Nivea who sponsors me. Yeah. Churko. Churko's another one.

[01:01:33] Churko's one. And I'm blanking. Al technically is, but it's a bigger company. It's a, it's a bigger brand. Like they've, they've, they've moved out of the niche now. Like they started as niche, but then they've blown up enough that they're not. And then Justin's one in Calgary. Oh, the Connichon. The Connichon. Right. So it's another, another one in Cal, uh, he's bigger in Calgary though. Yeah. Exactly. So he's bigger in Calgary. So like, like, uh, yeah, there's another one, uh, NXT, NXT in Ontario.

[01:02:00] Uh, that's another, another, uh, brand from, yeah, from Canada. So yeah. Like just support those. And they're not making bad paddles either. Like they, they, all their paddle are sub 200 Canadian and you're supporting Canadian companies. And, uh, most of their pad, like I'll say except doomsday, all their pad, all the paddles are USAP approved. So you're fine. Yeah. Yeah. And, and there's, yeah, cause there's a few of them that, that'll have a little bit ones that are a little bit more expensive, but those are like the high level tournament paddles. Yeah.

[01:02:30] But then they have, then they have like the lower, the lower tiers. Like, yeah. Cause if we're talking like, so if I'll use an Nivea, for example, they just released their gen four paddle. I think that's 220 Canadian. But then if you do like the KC fusion, it's like 185. Yeah. So stuff like that. And then they have, and then they have even a lower paddle than that, which would be almost like a beginner paddle. And it's still, it's still approved in that one. And I think it's like 120 and stuff like that. Right. So it's like, so yeah, you're like, you're looking at, there's so many company. There's so many.

[01:03:01] Yeah. Exactly. Warranty, they take care of you right, right, right away. They like, it's easy, easy to contact them versus. Oh yeah. Some, some of the tech, like a, like bigger company. I have to contact them like, oh man, it's a freaking hassle. It's not easy. Like for people like dealing with warranty, like you need to talk to me. I know I, I can tell you companies that just shit. Yeah, exactly. Right. So, and as much as we like to crap on Selkirk, their warranty is pretty good. And they do.

[01:03:28] The Selkirk, Selkirk is one of the best warranty. You're going to have, first of all, they have so many ambassadors. And they're fairly quick. Oh no, they usually, you tell them, oh, that paddle has a problem. Instead of you having to send them, they're going to send you one first, then you're going to send it back. Yeah. You basically use the box, use the box that the new one came in to send it. Yeah. So, so like, like another paddle, like their Selkirk boomstick, it breaks here and there all the time.

[01:03:57] And they say, oh, it's an infinity grid. But at the same time, people is like, well, Selkirk is always warranty my paddle. So my grid is actually a real infinity grid because I'm getting new on every freaking time. So there you go. So people are just like, sometimes gaming the system, but yeah, fairly. Yeah. But no, yeah. So lots of, lots of different Canadian companies to go to. And like we said, we got a couple of codes for one.

[01:04:25] Of course, I got the Agorman 15 for Nivea. Vic's got a couple of the ones for, because what was it? What was the one for which one? Chen BB is for Doomsday. Also, it works for Apollo Pickleball. I think it works also for Le Cognition. Also, I don't have it for NXT, unfortunately. And Poach, unfortunately. But yeah, otherwise, yeah.

[01:04:51] They give around 10 to 15% off with Chen BB. Nice. Yeah. So like, yeah, if you're ever, if you ever run into me and Vic on the courts, we always have a couple of spare paddles if you want to test some stuff out. And we can point you guys in the right direction. And also, depending on what your game style is and what you're looking for. So, but that's pretty much it for this episode. Like we said, we do have the mid-season event for the CNPL coming up on June 27th and 28th

[01:05:21] in Guelph at the Good Games in Ontario. So even if you're in the area, definitely go watch. And there's also showcases of many other sports on top of that, which are always exciting to watch. And it's amazing after seeing some of the highlights from the first outside of Guelph Good Games that were in Calgary, the amount of pro level players they get to come and showcase some of these other sports is insane.

[01:05:47] So the fact that you're also getting the CNPL on top of this to showcase pickleball is awesome. It's always fun. But yeah, so I try. Should we talk about that rule or maybe next time? Actually, well, let's let's mention it really quick, Vic. So you have there's a new basically update on the blowing rule because we know it got we know it got basically banned, not banned, but it's now a fault in the UPAA.

[01:06:16] But now because I guess pickleball doesn't like being fun. They're changing the they're not changing the rule, but they're changing how the rule is understood. So now it's going to be a fault everywhere. Yeah, it's they're changing the interpretation interpretation of the rule of the rule. So which is a little annoying. I would say I know annoying for the players. So what what happened is there is a new referee notice.

[01:06:46] Obviously, I'm a pickup certified pickable referee. So I'm a little bit more privy to those information. So they actually added a new casebook talking about what we call physically altering or attempting to alter the ball flight during a rally. So what what what does what does it mean is obviously targeted towards that blowing

[01:07:09] blowing of the ball or actually physically trying to alter the trajectory of the ball. So I'll give some examples. So obviously, do you have to air it? Answer an example like retrieving the ball that just nicked the net and then you retrieve it and then you just blow on the ball in order to cross the have the ball crossed on the other side. It wasn't a fault beforehand.

[01:07:37] And unfortunately, now is a fault. The referee will call it a fault because you're trying to alter the flight of the ball. Another example. Let's say you're retrieving a lob. You want like you're trying like some people will use like try to use their paddle to wave at the ball basically to use the wind to push the ball out.

[01:08:05] That basically put to force the ball going out. But that will be also considered as trying attempting to alter the trajectory of the ball. So that will be considered as a fault. Andrew, actually, when we discussed it about about it, he's like, what about if let's say someone lobbed me, I tried to hit the ball.

[01:08:33] But because, but I missed, let's say I missed, but because the wind was enough to force the ball back in play. Was this considered as a fault? To me, I wouldn't say that it would be because it's not an intentional attempt. Like you're not intentionally trying to alter a flight of the ball. You missed it. Like let's say you missed it and then you try again a couple of times, you know, to do,

[01:09:00] to like blow the, uh, use the wind of your paddle to force the ball back, back in play. Then yes, I will, I'll say yes. But let's say you just that one motion and that's all you, you're just like, Oh, oops. The ball come, came back. Here's what it is. Yeah. Yeah. That would, that would, that would, that would more, more, more be, it was a legal attempt and you just, you just, uh, you just missed it. Yeah.

[01:09:27] So I think, I think the most important part is, is it intentional trying to, is it intentional or you're, you are actually, uh, unwillingly trying to, to hit, hit the ball. Sometimes, sometimes like that. But yeah. And like I said, like for me, I didn't really like the change of this. Cause for me, I just thought this was one. It happens so rarely. Now we see it a lot because it gets put on highlight reels and Instagram stuff.

[01:09:56] But if you're thinking about how many pickleball matches get played in a day, Oh yeah. You don't, how many times this actually happens. I've literally done this twice in my entire plant pickleball playing career. And, um, I've played, if you look at my duper, like if you're just talking about matches in that are in duper, I've played around 600 something. And now obviously I've played way more than that. If you're counting club play and just fun competitive rec play. Right.

[01:10:23] But so out of probably if I, if I were to be realistic, probably over a thousand games, I've done it twice. Yeah. Exactly. That's not, that's not, that's less than 1%. Right. So, but so for me, I always thought it was a very high IQ play to even think about doing that. Yeah. In the situation, like the, the rare situation that you get in that. So I don't agree with it, but the only problem I have with now with it not being an actual

[01:10:49] rule change where they just put like a subsection B where it's like, you cannot blow or use your paddle to blow the ball over the net. Yeah. It's like a straightforward rule. Now, because they're making the refs have to interpret it that way, it's putting more stress on the refs. And because not everyone listens to this podcast, not everyone gets the referee update like Vic does. Yeah. I can foresee a bunch of tournaments where say if it does happen and the player doesn't and then the ref's like fault, the player's going to turn around like, wait, that's not against the rules.

[01:11:18] And it's just going to create that little clash there that now the ref has to, now the ref has to deal with, even though technically, yes, the ref is now right. But in the grander scheme of the public thing, it was changed after when everyone pays attention to when the rules were changed. Everyone pays attention at the beginning of January or the end of December, whenever the because there's this big post. Here's the new rule changes in the rule book and they're highlighted for everyone to see. Right. I know.

[01:11:45] Realistically, and like you and me said this before we started filming was they should have just waited until the end of the year. Oh, yeah, they should make the change then. And it's more so not necessarily even for the player's benefit. It's for the referee's benefit for not having to deal with having to now explain why this is now a fault. Well, yeah, exactly. Because if they would have waited till the end of the year and it's next year, it's 2027. It's like, hey, it's clearly staying in the rules. You cannot blow the ball over the net or you cannot use your paddle or any body part to

[01:12:14] manipulate the wind to blow the ball over the net. It's a little bit like I take example dispenser, right? They waited until the end of the year to actually outlaw it. Okay, no more dispenser. Yeah, where you spin the ball up and then, yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Like what's the hassle of, like I would say dispenser maybe because a lot of people was using it and doing it like basically almost everyone, every young people at that time trying to do the dispenser.

[01:12:43] But blowing on the ball, that thing is just super difficult to actually make it happen. So like what's the rush to make that change right now? Like just make that mention like at the end of the year, next year. Okay, no more. Like what's the rush? It's because of all the negative backlash that the referee got for making the wrong call in the first place. Yeah.

[01:13:12] So now they're overcorrecting to cover the referee's butt and to cover all the other officials because they changed it at the UPA and now it's like, well, now when you're watching for anyone who watches pro, if it happens in pro, now it's a fault. Well, then if that person now goes to a tournament and plays someone and it happens to happen there, well, hey, that's the fault. Well, no, that's only a fault in the pros. It's not a fault here.

[01:13:35] Well, anyway, the UPA rules and the USAP rule have so many different nuances that's not the same. Anyway, like the UPA, you cannot drop serve, but USAP, you can drop serve. And then what's the coin? Like, yeah, I'll say that argument is not enough to outweigh. There is no standardized rule anyway.

[01:14:00] And you're basically trying to cover whatever bad decision that the referee made at that time. Yeah. Unfortunately. And I really don't agree. And more and more people, like, yes, I shouldn't say that probably, but anyway, people is feeling

[01:14:25] that we can come back for another podcast about that, that the UPA governing body is actually out of touch, we call that. Starting to get out of touch. And UPA is actually gaining grounds on multiple things. We can come back on that. And more and more people is talking on Reddit.

[01:14:51] More and more people is talking on the Facebook or forums and everything. It's sad because USAP is the first that came up with the rules and everything. They came up to make big sport looks good, but they never, they basically always lacking behind in innovation and in whatever is happening, what is new in pickleball versus now.

[01:15:18] At that time, UPA was thinking, people was thinking more like a organization more for cash grabbing or actually wants to just gear towards the pro players. Now it's actually people are more thinking about, they're actually more pro innovation and actually advancing the game. And also now UPA is a non-profit organization.

[01:15:45] It was a for-profit and now they become a non-profit organization. So at some point, a lot of people have been talking about like UPA and USAP cannot coexist. You need one of the other. Yeah. They either need to merge or do whatever, right? So, but that, and that comes right back to, if just to bring it back to team Canada for, for that, it's the same with pickleball Canada.

[01:16:10] It's like, yeah, I know it's, it's so anti innovation and pushing the game forward right now because it's like, oh, well, that's not the way, like that's not the way. It's punishing innovation. It's punishing the younger, the younger crowd coming in. The younger generation too. I don't, I really don't, don't like that because you, like you need those juniors. You, you know, you, you need, you need those younger people to break through.

[01:16:39] You want, you want those, like you, and you look at PPA or MLP right now that, that Tapa Shibirato breaking, breaking through, like everyone is, is into it. Oh my God, he, he's a 16 years old. He's breaking through. No, is he 16? He's probably 15 even. Like it's breaking through, like people's getting hype. Oh man, you have a new, new guys coming in. Is pickleball Canada hyping anything right now?

[01:17:09] Like you see, I even hyping by McConnor. I was like, come on, what's going on? No, yeah, he's not. He's, McConnor's getting hyped more by the Philippines than he is by pickleball. Yeah, exactly. Like, like, like McConnor, Jacob, like, like, our, like, our local juniors. Like, what is going on? Like, come on, guys. Yeah, it is. It's super frustrating.

[01:17:31] Like I said, you should be using, like, McConnor, Armand, Jacob, even, I will say some of them, like Logan, like to incentivize you guys to get more juniors to play into the games, right? Because right now, I don't think pickleball Canada national has a junior category. There's not enough players to do it. Exactly.

[01:17:55] Like, even like one and half of our, half of the juniors now, especially in Alberta are all good enough to be playing in like the regular open or at least like the regular four or five against the dates. And they would, they don't want to play in juniors because they're going to, well, they're going to run. Yeah. They're just going to run into a 10 year old and spank them like 11, nothing. Yeah, exactly. So, so, so, so it's just frustrating compared to like, obviously. Okay, our population is not as big as the U.S. They have a junior PPA.

[01:18:21] And those junior PPA people like Tama came from the junior PPA and then break through into the regular PPA. You're like, guys, come on. Yeah. No, yeah, it's frustrating. But anyway, I think that's what I'm done with my rant. Yeah. Yeah. We always seem to have a rant on something. That's the fun part. Yeah, definitely. I did miss having you here because now I get, now I was able to like, you know, pass the buck for a sec.

[01:18:50] That's someone else's rant. But, but yeah. So once again, so yeah, everyone. So remember now you can't blow on the ball during a match. If you go to a sanctioned event or you will get called for it. I'm calling a call. Yeah. So shoot takes away, takes away my plan. But yeah. So other than that, everyone, we will see you in about a week and a half after the CMPL midseason event in Guelph on June 27th and 28th.

[01:19:19] All eight teams will be participating in that. Whether me and Vic are on the broadcast or not, we do not know. Because like we said, Vic's super busy trying to sell his house and pack stuff up. And also still has an infant at the house. It's a busy time of year for me. And I've pretty much used up all my RTO for multiple things this summer already. I'm kind of, and it's funny, I'm only technically going to two tournaments. Oh, man. I think this is the least amount of tournaments I'm going to.

[01:19:47] Now I've gone to a couple of like, like events put on by people. Because like I, like I was looking forward to getting into the Spruce Grove one, but there was nobody in my division. I was looking forward to maybe doing the Red Deer Open. There's nobody in my division. So it's just like, it is what it is. For you, you need to plan events, right? Yeah, I can't sit and wait until the Friday before and say, oh, okay, a bunch of guys. Because there was one that happened a couple of weeks ago. What was it? The Westridge.

[01:20:18] Yeah, the Westridge one. A bunch of people my skill level signed up last minute. I'm like, thanks, thanks, guys. Because like I can't, I don't have the ability to do that last minute. Right? Like I was like, if everyone would, if all of them would have signed up regular, I could have booked it off. And I could have been there and played because there's a lot of really good players at that one. So I was super pissed as soon as I found out that everyone signed up last minute for it. But yeah, so it is what it is. But yeah, so we, like we said, CNPL in a week and a half time in Guelph.

[01:20:47] So we'll do our recap episode for that. There's a bunch of other news and stuff coming out. And don't be surprised if there is more changes in the CNPL roster before the event happens. Because we know it will be. Like we said, the driver's sitting in second last. The Yeti are sitting below them at 1-10. So don't be surprised if they do a shakeup. Obviously the lights need to replace Joelle because Joelle is out for the rest of the season with the MCL tear. Yeah.

[01:21:17] So, and we do, I think they just announced Team Alberta for the Nationals. So we will be discussing that probably on the next podcast or the podcast after that, naming everybody to that. Nice. So we're super excited about that. Other than that, we will see you guys in a week and a half. Don't forget to hit like. Don't forget to hit subscribe. Tell all your friends. And comment if you have questions for us. Oh yeah, if you don't like our comments or our opinions, feel free to comment. I would love the dialogue. That would be fun.

[01:21:47] You don't always, or, you know, or DM us on Instagram and stuff like that. Instagram will probably be the one where I will see it at the quickest and be able to respond to you. Because I did actually have a couple, what was it? This would have been when we talked about Nationals last year. I actually ended up having a really good conversation with someone from Saskatchewan over some of the comments. Yeah, I remember. So it was really good. And I enjoy that stuff. So yeah, like we said, we'll see you guys on the next one. Thanks for watching. Cheers. See you there, everyone.