Episode 75 | J2CR Blue Grit, Aireo Cyclone Nanograph, Friday Aura Hybrids, Questionable Paddle Takes

[00:00:04] What is up, nerds? Welcome back to episode 75 of the The Pickleball Pursuit Podcast. I'm your host, Lewis, here with my co-host, my pickleball wife, the Oracle himself, Justin. How you been, baby? Good to see you. Good, man. This is the first time I think I knew the episode number and you didn't. I was waiting. I panicked. I wanted to see you fail.

[00:00:28] Because I thought I was looking at last week's thing, I was like, oh boy, I hope I don't say this wrong. But, I mean, no one cares, you know? We say a lot of dumb shit. Yeah. Well, I hope everybody's doing wonderful. We are going to talk about a, when I say we, I mean mainly me, are going to talk about an insane amount of paddles today. So just buckle up. Jason Dietz may want to skip this one, big dog. Actually, just skip them all.

[00:00:58] All right. So we are going to jump into a bunch of paddles. First, Justin was telling me about this one to test for the all-court lineup, the grooving, moving, full foam, which have the 16X as well as the 16HD. The X is the elongated. Yeah. And the HD is their hybrid shape. Sorry, I blinked out there for a second.

[00:01:26] But, overall, the main differences between the moving versus the laser, not only is it just the texture, sorry, the top layer face material, but it's mainly the feel. The feel is pretty drastically different, in my opinion. Well, the core is completely different, by the way. They are different? Okay. I thought they were still the same layer. Or the same core material. No, I think the core is different. Okay. I could be wrong here.

[00:01:54] Were they the same in the first one? Or am I just mixing that up? I think so. One's like a floating core, and then one is like a layered core. Like a Oreo cookie style. Why did I think they were both layered? I must have just had that mixed up in my head. This isn't a very professional podcast. If we had, you know, Pickleball Studio, 900 words worth of notes, and our little laptops in front of us, we could do better. Yep. But, go look on the website. Do your own research. We're just promoting your own intelligence here. Let me show you that. I think that they're different cores. That's our notes right there. Just that.

[00:02:24] Wait, let me. I'll show you guys. I'll get this real bit for you. Look, a peek behind the curtain. Wow. I'll show you my notes for this week. Wow. A whopping zero. Well, this paddle is about as far from my personal preferences in terms of feel as it gets. It's very soft, dense, plush, muted.

[00:02:54] It's just not a lot of feedback, which some people absolutely love. In fact, I think a lot of people were saying that they like soft, dense paddles in our feel profile questionnaire. So, if you are somebody who wants an all-court foam paddle, that honestly, I mean, this could maybe be considered like the lower end of all-court. It's from what I gathered. For these days. It's from what I gathered.

[00:03:24] Yeah. Yeah. It was not giving me a ton of power, not giving me a ton of pop, which is exactly what they're going for. You know, they weren't trying to make a paddle that is pushing the line of power with these paddles. And I thought overall, shape's great. The whole entire construction of the paddle's good, as always, with grooving.

[00:03:47] And if you're someone who wants an all-court paddle that is like strictly in that all-court category, not flirting with power, I think this is definitely one to check out. I think they're 152 after code. And I will say, good-looking paddle, great shapes, and overall, just one of those paddles that is going to fit a specific subset of player categories.

[00:04:14] Player category that, you know, if you're in that, you're going to really love this paddle. Think Flick F3 with, you know, less output in terms of power and just a slightly less head-heavy feel. So, I mean, that's kind of how I gathered. FC Plus, Honolulu FC Plus is in the same kind of very soft, dense, muted area, which a lot of people love to feel on those paddles you just named. Flick F3 and the FC Plus. Yep.

[00:04:43] This lives in that same category. So, as expected, I really like it. Yes. Lewis and I have different preferences. Yeah, it's just like the plush version of what foam feels like, you know what I mean? Oh, yeah. So, really, really easy. This is the... 115 swing weight, 6.07 twist weight. So, very good stock twist weight numbers and actually, you know, a little bit lighter than most elongated paddles with its swing weight.

[00:05:13] So, it is a more maneuverable elongated-shaped paddle. And the hybrid, if I'm not mistaken, from recollection, it was pretty good swing weight twist weight numbers as well. So, I played with the hybrid mostly. This is the elongated that just came in. So, this one's still plastic wrapped and everything. But I played with the hybrid quite a bit. So, yeah. It's the exact type of paddle that Lewis won't like and the exact type of paddle I will like. Lower power, softer, plush, more dampened. And it is a true all-court paddle.

[00:05:43] It's like basically today's control paddle because control paddles don't really exist anymore. But it's below, like you said, below the F3, below the coral in terms of power and pop. And that's not a bad thing. I don't say below in a bad way. Maybe you want less. Yeah. But super easy to play with. And the shapes are great, like you mentioned. Yeah. That's one of our – we've been saying this for over a year. It's like one of our favorite hybrid shapes on the market. Yes. Yeah. Definitely a good one. And the elongated is perfectly good too.

[00:06:09] If you want something that's kind of flirting with that all-court power area, I would say the laser of the full foams is a good option as well. And that and the coral. But definitely a different feel as well. Much stiffer, a little bit more hollow, but still kind of in the middle of that realm. People have been getting really hyper-fixated on the feel chart lately. Yeah. It's – I would say only worry about a paddle if it's on the extremes.

[00:06:38] You know, if it's kind of somewhere in the middle. That's what happens. No big deal. When all paddles are good, it's like what does it come down to now? Yeah. If everything is good, it's like, oh, now I can get really picky about what I like the feel of. In the past, it was like, no, you wanted to play with one of these five paddles because these are the top performers. Yeah. Even if you hated the feel, you'd be like, it's worth it. It's so good. But now, like, there's so many good paddles. We get the opportunity to be picky about feel, which is cool. Yep. All right. Anything else on the grooms before we move on? No.

[00:07:09] All right. Cool paddles. Good paddles, yeah. I like the laser. I actually do like that one a lot. I think that's a really good one. I think they're both really good. I'd probably choose the movement. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. For my purpose. All right. Well, wanted to give some more shine to the... Wow, dude. Just like a big, long hair for my wife. Stuck to this. The Aura. Not my, you know, pickleball wife because... Yeah, it's definitely not me. Yeah.

[00:07:35] We got the Aura and Aura Pro hybrids. And I got to play with these. I'm going to have to send you this one, Justin, the Aura. Man. These paddles are freaking good. Like, legitimately good paddles. Oh, shoot. I forgot to write down their swing weight, twist weight numbers. But they were good stock numbers. And I actually really like these paddles. And they're getting a lot of hype.

[00:08:02] I mean, people have, you know, highly praised these across the board. And I think, still believe the Aura is the best all-quart paddle. It's got a good bit of firepower. You know, it's like, it's kind of creeping up to that power level. But it's not anything that is uncontrollable. It's very easy, very friendly to, you know, dial in and predict. And it feels good.

[00:08:29] The only thing that I did notice with the Aura specifically was it did have a slight bit of different vibrations on it. Like, off-center hits. Not that it was a bad thing. It was just like, oh, that feels different. Which is something that some people may pick up on and, you know, be like, oh, yeah, it's different. But it's not like it's a deterrent. So there is a unique feel to each of these.

[00:08:58] They definitely feel different. They definitely play different. But overall, I think the shape is really, really good. I think it's no taper from top to bottom. But it's a good shape. The handle and neck taper are really ideal for a lot of people. And it's 7.7 about on the bottom corners. And let's see, the top corners are 7.75. So it's barely. It looks a little tapered. But, yeah.

[00:09:28] I thought it performed really well. Was very forgiving. Easy to control. But still gave you enough firepower. I'm referencing the Aura right now. Which of the two would you pick? Oh, man. Weirdly, I probably would go with the Aura if I was a consumer. Because it's a little cheaper. It's definitely easier to control.

[00:09:50] But I think that the Aura Pro is not enough firepower to compete with the durable grid options. You know, not enough differentiation and performance to compete with the durable grid options right now. Whereas this Aura is really a great price.

[00:10:12] And it's just outside of that power realm to where I think it's going to fit the needs of a ton of players. I mean, if you're under 4-0, I guarantee you you're going to enjoy the Aura. You think same firepower as the Coral-ish? I would say a little less than the Coral. Coral. But every time, dude. I would have to put them head-to-head.

[00:10:38] But I do remember specifically the Aura Elongated having less firepower than the Laser. Which I thought had a little bit more firepower than the Coral. But they were so neck-and-neck. I would say that the Aura has, off of recollection, less firepower than the Coral. But not by a huge margin. Just you. If someone said you have to play with one of these two paddles, period. Which one are you choosing? And you don't have any other options. I see what you're saying about the consumer. That's good information.

[00:11:07] Yeah, that's a really tough question. I mean, probably the Aura Pro just because it's a little bit stiffer. And I prefer a little bit of stiffness with my paddles. He loves the stiffness. But yeah, I guess I'd go with the Aura Pro if I had to choose from me. But the recommendation I would give higher is probably the Aura. Which is shocking because I thought I was going to give the Aura Pro the bigger knot.

[00:11:34] But I think in a crowded market, I think the Aura stands out. You don't have to send me one. I'll buy one. No big deal. That's one that I'm curious about. I'm going to send it to you. Don't worry. I'll put some other gifts in there. Anything else on the Auras before we move on? Good price on both of them. I think it's a 150-something for the Pro and 122 for just the regular Aura, which is great. Right. Always doing it good. And they're good looking.

[00:12:03] They're actually good looking paddles. Yeah. That's nice. Yeah, I kind of like the stellar influence designs. But it's kind of low-key. Yep. For sure. All right. Well, on to a pretty big release, in my opinion. One that has been weirdly quiet. The Draco E and Draco Widebody have been... You think it's been quiet? Yeah. I haven't seen really anybody talking about them. Draco.

[00:12:33] Have you? No. Yeah. I guess. The Hybrid got a lot of love when it first came out. Yeah. But yeah, now that the new shapes came out, which they cut us up and used us in an ad. They did. Yeah, they roasted us pretty good. That wasn't even a roast. I think it was... Idiots. No. It was a great ad. Yeah. It was like us saying, when we did our Sweet 16 of a paddle bracket, and we were talking about the Draco, which is only hybrid, and we were saying, man, if they had three shapes, it

[00:13:03] would probably win this round, but since it's only hybrid. But anyway, Gurken, they cut us up and used it as an ad and be like, now we do have three shapes. And it was really well edited. That was great. That was an A-plus ad. I love that. I think I just barely cracked the top of mine hitting somebody's paddle today. Dang. That stinks. Quit hitting people's paddles, bro. I know. Yeah. Dude, to me... And I only played a little bit with the elongated. I didn't play with the Widebody yet, but I played with the elongated side-by-side with the Hybrid. Oh, no. That's just a check.

[00:13:33] That's just a hair. I was like, how did I crack this? Sorry. Go ahead. I think what you'd want to hear, as expected, they play the same. So there's nothing weird. There's nothing different. It just plays like an elongated version of the Draco. However... But... The new one's got a little bit more grit on them. Yeah. They got a little upgrade in surface texture. I was letting Richie try the E, and he mains the Hybrid.

[00:14:04] And first thing, he was like, oh my gosh, the spin is so much better. And then he was playing with them today again, after I let him test them a couple days ago, and I was playing against them. And of course, every time... Richie's got a crazy backhand flick. With this, it was nuts. Like, he was just getting so much dip on it. He might have the hardest backhand flick I've seen in the area. It's pretty impressive. But he... I'm glad you said in the area. He loved it. You know, so you left me out of that. He hits harder than you.

[00:14:35] Yeah, he does. Richie's also jacked. Jacked. Yeah, yeah. He's twice my size. Yeah, he's a thick boy. But yeah, these are really, really good paddles. I would say if you exclude all of the durable grit options, this is probably my pick for paddle of the year if those are excluded. It does everything right. That makes sense. It's kind of softer, which is funny that I like it. I don't know if y'all would call it softer.

[00:15:06] It's definitely softer than a lot of the stiff paddles. Oh, yeah, exactly. Most of the paddles come out now. If you're doing like the feel wheel, it is not into the soft side. No, no. I would say it's closer to the middle. You'd be lucky even if it's to the middle. Yeah. Yeah. But I think that is something that a lot of people will enjoy about the paddle. It's not like super stiff, super hollow like most of the Gen 4 paddles that have been coming out. It's freaking powerful too, man. It hits hard. I hit a lot of returns out with this paddle.

[00:15:34] It was like, for a second was like, dude, am I about to main this when the hybrid came out? I really like it. I like the shape. You know, I like the graphic. I like everything about it, right? But that was the thing that I was like, can't do it. I was sailing so many returns. Yeah, it hits hard. And then I felt like I had to hold up on my swing and I was like, I'm out. I'm out. Yeah. That's the case. Yeah, but. That's a me thing, by the way. You know, you guys might be fine. It's definitely one of those paddles where you need a little time to dial it in for sure.

[00:16:02] I think that's how most paddles are nowadays with, you know, any power paddle. It's like. Power paddles for sure. You kind of need about a week before you feel super comfortable with it. Sometimes longer, depending on, you know, your level of player, what you're coming from. But overall, great shape. Both are really solid. The. Bye bye. Dang. I'll grab it later. But yeah, they're both really solid, solid shapes. Good handle links.

[00:16:31] They all have the same handle link, which is awesome. I think we talked about that with. What other paddle did we talk about that yesterday? The last podcast. It was this one. That handle and the throat angle and the taper are all. Oh yeah, we did. All three shapes. You got it before me. That's right. Yeah, I held up all three of them. So everything basically from here, from the neck down is identical in all three shapes, which is cool. It's a smart design because it is already good. Yeah. You don't need to change that. And I'm a fan of.

[00:17:02] It's kind of part of brand identity whenever you design your shapes to all look like the same family. You know what I mean? So that, especially when it's a kind of a unique shape like the Draco with the cut corners or whatever. But yeah, when someone sees if they see a wide body Draco for the first time, but they've seen the hybrid a lot or they've seen the elongate a lot and they already know immediately like what paddle that is and what brand it is. That's strong branding. It's good brand identity. Yeah. So I really like that. I try to do that myself when the right design shapes. Smart man. All right.

[00:17:31] Well, Gerc and Draco E and wide body are legit as we expected. The increased spin is a welcome addition and highly, highly recommend these paddles. So I think they're $152, which is also a really, really good price for a paddle that performs this good. So, all right. Anything else on the Dracos? Nope. All right. We're going to move on to Aranax.

[00:18:01] Now, they sent me two paddles about two to three weeks ago and I wasn't sure if I was going to talk about them because the KVL004 is approved, but it's not approved on USAP website with the added weights on the side. So I was like, eh, I guess I'll talk about it. Who knows?

[00:18:27] Um, but this paddle is, it's kind of crazy, dude. It's got like one of the most unique feel and sounds, uh, of anything on the market, but it's like $300. So, um, it is an expensive paddle. It does not have durable grit. Uh, I don't even know if the model with these weights is approved for play.

[00:18:53] So who knows, but I figured I'd just talk about them because they did send them over and they're pretty good paddles. Um, this other one that's in my hand is called the Thunder 10. I'm not sure why it's called 10, but, um, this is just like your traditional UPP core, uh, power paddle, you know, nothing about it kind of jumps out as me out at me as like a, a performer, you know, difference from other paddles in the market. Which one is UPA approved?

[00:19:23] Look at the stamp. They're both USAP stamped. So they have, they have at least one UPA approved paddle. It may not be either of those or maybe one of those. It's unbelievably confusing, bro. I went and looked on the website and I was still confused. Um, pretty sure they sponsor Zane Ford. They do. And he plays with one like this, but it's doesn't have the weights on the side and it's slightly different with his face, with its face graphics. And then he played with another UPA one. Okay. All right.

[00:19:53] Yeah. I was just curious cause I saw him playing. I didn't know which one he was playing with and I was trying to, cause I figured other people knew that and we're going to wonder which one he actually plays with. I sorry. Go on. Uh, the KVL 004 is wild. Like it's, it's extremely powerful. It has a crazy feel to it. It has that pro XR grit. Like you said, where, you know, you run your fingers down, you know, the vertical axis, bro. My country accent is so bad.

[00:20:22] I always say axis, axis. Uh, every time I say axis. No, it's axis, bro. I know. Ax-is. I always say axis. Ax-is. Um, but if you run your fingers. I got that by you accent. If you run your fingers horizontally, it, you feel the grit texture more than vertically. So, uh, little, little, uh, sneaky little trick to give you a little more spin on, uh, your forehand, uh, rolls and backhand rolls and whatnot. So just wanted to touch on these.

[00:20:52] These are interesting. The KVL 004 is definitely way more interesting than the Thunder 10, but I don't even know if they're approved. Uh, who knows? Um, cool paddles, nonetheless. They, um, sorry, dude, I'm cracking up over here because now I can't stop listening to your accent. It always actually makes me laugh, but I, uh, I feel bad. I've made fun of you a couple of times, but that's why people listen to us. It's the Southern charm because I probably have a little bit of a Southern accent too. You do.

[00:21:22] Yeah. It's very cute and, uh, endearing, but you got that by you. Actually, uh, you guys who are listening, if anyone's listening to the Aaron act section, you should comment and tell us what type of accents we have. Yeah. Because we have listeners from all over the country or all over the world. Um, I'd like to think I don't have a Southern accent, but of course then whenever I go to bigger cities, it feels obvious. But anyway, um, Aaron acts though, I will say when I was in China, um, they're big, it was really popular. Yeah.

[00:21:51] It's an Asian brand. I'm pretty sure. But, uh, it was like a lot of people who I saw playing with those paddles. There were a lot of like advertisements and banners at the courts for Aaron acts. And I saw quite a few of them in production. So, um, even though maybe not a big brand here, they seem to be a fairly big brand in Asia. Yeah. Yeah. Um, all right. Well, let's move on. We got some other paddles to talk about. Uh, a bunch of paddles came in from Blair. Uh, we got the new SpongeBob. Oh yeah.

[00:22:21] It's pretty cool. I got the, uh, SpongeBob hybrid right here as you guys can see. Oh my God, dude. What? Here's the box. What? I was like trying to point at it and I just could not, uh, get the directional. I'll show the hybrid. Reverse directional. I was just showing the box. Uh, for anybody who's listening, the wide body is the Patrick Starr, uh, version. And then the hybrid is the SpongeBob version. And, uh, these are shifts.

[00:22:48] So it's not like just your, it's not like a fiberglass paddle that has, you know, graphics on it. It's a legitimate raw carbon fiber paddle. There's no like, um, what did y'all call the, uh, core lines on the face? What do you mean? Like the face design that had like, oh, the, like the tunnels. Or the channels. Yeah. It doesn't showcase the channels on the face graphics. It just showcases the SpongeBob and Blair branding. SpongeBob one.

[00:23:16] And, uh, man, if you're a SpongeBob fan, you're going to like these. Uh, dude, even if you're not, I never watched SpongeBob by the way. I watched it all the time. I'm not even a SpongeBob fan, but this thing just cracks me up playing with it. It's just, it's, look at this, look at this stupid little sponge, dude. Like, uh, you just hit like an awesome winner and then you look down and you just see this. Yeah. I don't know, man. It's, it's, uh, I actually really enjoy it.

[00:23:43] And, and if you're at open play, it freaks people out. Cause they're like, if they see you playing pretty decently and they're like, what the hell is he playing with like a Walmart paddle? But it's obviously not, it is just a shift. Um, but yeah, I think it's hilarious. So for anybody who's wondering the graphics that showcases like Patrick and SpongeBob are kind of like that glossier graphics. So you won't have like raw carbon fiber textural in those parts of the paddle,

[00:24:10] but y'all strategically placed them to kind of avoid the main hitting areas. Um, and, uh, apart from just a lot of, yeah. Well, Valer strategically placed them to be designers. I would say they probably could have made the, uh, SpongeBob and Patrick a little bit smaller on the one side that they, Patrick, Patrick is maybe a little bit big. Patrick's too big. Yeah. Yeah. You shouldn't be hitting down there anyway, or the only type of shot you might hit down there is like a counter or a reset.

[00:24:39] So theoretically doesn't have much spin. However, he's a touch too big. Exactly. But, uh, they did a pretty good job on, on SpongeBob here. Like even this stuff, uh, this is printed lighter, uh, up here. So it's not nearly as glossy as the actual like SpongeBob himself down here where you have to have these really saturated colors. That's where they're glossy, but those are way down on the face. Yeah. I would love to play with that. Same thing. True. Like this one isn't a, this one actually still has grid on it cause it's printed lighter.

[00:25:08] But when you go down to this guy who's really saturated, he's pretty smooth, but he's way down here. Yeah. Yeah. I would love to play with those paddles, but I just, they're like, uh, they're collector's items at this point. You know, they're, they're very cool. I've been playing with it. I know. I almost brought it out whenever it came in. I was like, no, I'm going to keep this one as a, you know, another, another paddle on the, on the rack for the podcast. It's, I love SpongeBob. I want to keep it in good shape. That way I can keep it for a while. And, uh, it's a cool looking paddle.

[00:25:38] So, um, they also have the star Wars edition, right? Got a. Yeah. So those are the like pro ones, I think is the model. So those are the fiberglass ones. Yes. Spray grip. Yeah. So those truly probably are for you for like high performance pickleball players. Those are more of like collector's items. Or if you're just a casual pickleball player, or if you have a family member who plays pickle, but casually and never is going to like worry about it, then they're perfectly good.

[00:26:05] They play fine, but they're not, you know, top, top performance, but yeah. Yeah. It's cool. But those are cool as far as like a collector thing. Absolutely. Yeah. And it's, uh, I mean, stuff like that legitimately gets more people into pickleball, you know, like somebody's like starting to, you know, wants to play pickleball and they're like, Oh, I want to, I want a cool looking panel to play with, you know? Um, so definitely cool. Uh, you big, those three designs were like the original trilogy. No, no.

[00:26:36] So as much as people think I'm like a huge nerd, I'm not into that many like nerdy things. Yeah. Dang, bro. Like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter or Star Wars or any of that. I'm learning so much about you in our relationship. Well, when I was younger, I, I didn't, you know, I just, uh, I race motocross. And I skateboarded and I like played sports and you're outside. It wasn't really nerdy stuff. I became a nerd when I got older, I guess. Yeah. I was like, yeah. Those exist still. Uh, yeah.

[00:27:04] There's a bunch of kids that just run around all day in my neighborhood. It is just barefoot. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, that's awesome. Yeah. Uh, good for y'all. All right. Well, uh, we are going to move on to probably the two most intriguing paddles, uh, on this podcast today, which, uh, first we're going to go through the Aereo Cyclone with the Nanograph, uh, durable grit, uh, texture. So, um, Aereo sent me over this one.

[00:27:31] This is the cherry blossom one and, uh, very cute, very cute. I mean, I know why they sent it to me because, uh, That's a good looking paddle. Yeah, it is. It's so cute. Uh, all the ladies were like, Ooh, I love your paddle, but man, such a cool paddle. And, uh, definitely one that hits insanely hard. Probably, uh, I would say the number two paddle in terms of power output, in my opinion. Um, and what's number one? Number one, Q2. Q2? Yeah.

[00:28:01] Q2 is a rocket launcher, literal rocket launcher. Uh, but this Aereo Cyclone with the new Nanograph is to cut things short. It is not going to be hex grit, perma grit, or, uh, crystal blue endurance grit spin. It's, it's like, I would say this is going to be your traditional raw carbon fiber spin.

[00:28:25] However, that's something that everybody's played with and it's good and it is USAP approved. Um, as long as it holds up, great. You know, that's, that's awesome. Uh, it's another really stellar option on the market, but if you're someone who's like super spin hungry, this is probably not the one that I would say to go after if you're looking for a crazy spinning durable grid option. However. In fairness, let's compare it to the USAP durables. Yes. So, Harmony Grit?

[00:28:56] This is probably right on, right on par. Let me compare a, actually, let me compare a one. 6-0 Diamond Tough? 6-0 Diamond Tough? Also about the same. Yeah, so, uh, Coda. And then, Perma Grit, right? Coda and. That's the one that outperforms. Uh, which one did you say? Sorry. Uh, 6-0. I was saying Harmony Grit, 6-0 Diamond Tough, and then Spartus Perma Grit. Those are the USAP options.

[00:29:23] And, so, Kirk and Finaigrit, which is a different application. Mm-hmm. I would say this is going to spin very similarly to the Harmony Grit and the, uh, Diamond Tough Grit. So, good spin, but not, like, elite. You know, it's going to be more than sufficient. However, to keep in mind, this paddle is ultra powerful. So, spin is of utmost importance.

[00:29:48] And, um, one of the only, you know, downsides of the first generation, uh, Aria Cyclones was that it was pretty fine peel-ply texture. Um, whereas this one has definitely a rougher surface texture. However, it's very much in line with the UPA, uh, or the, uh, new grit that they put on their updated, uh... Which one is that? I always forget the name of it.

[00:30:18] But this, like, horse one. Um, so, very similar. Chinese New Year one? Year of the Horse or something? Oh, Year of the Horse. That's what it is. Okay. Duh. Duh. But, yeah. So, they're very similar. Yeah. For Lunar New Year. Uh, uncultured. Wow. Uh... You just, they were like, they like horses, I guess. They just felt like going with an equestrian design. I don't know, bro. Hey, man, I'm in the, I live in the sticks, bro. People like horses out here, all right? Um, but, yeah, these... That's the Aerial Ranch Paddle.

[00:30:47] ...are exactly the same in terms of grit texture. So, very much just your normal, slightly more rough than the original Aerocyclone. But nothing that's crazy. Um, and the good news is it doesn't add any swing weight. It doesn't change the twist weight. It doesn't change the feel. Everything is identical. So, it's like, I'm making a first impression video, and it's like, it's like two minutes long.

[00:31:15] It's like me saying, hey, uh, do you want the same exact battle, but with a more durable, potentially, grit texture? Uh, this is it. It doesn't change anything else. The swing weights were exactly the same. Twist weight feel, power pop, everything. Um... You send me that one, too, and I'll put it on the drill. Yeah, figure it out. That's, um... That's the durability. It's, uh... I wouldn't say it's like underwhelming. But, you know, if like you compare it to the hex grit and, uh, permagrit and crystal

[00:31:44] blue endurance grit, yeah, it's gonna fall short. Again, permagrit, the only one that's actually USAP approved, though. Yes. So, as far as fair comparisons go. Exactly. Yeah. But that is nice. It is nice if this is USAP. But yeah, for real, if you don't have plans for that one, send it to me, and I'll put it on the microscope and, uh, do the durability testing, and I'll let you know. We can talk about it in the pod. The aura and the, uh, cyclone coming to you, baby. Unless you're trying to impress a girl with that, you know, pretty cherry blossom one. I don't think I would... I got other plans for this one. I don't think I try to impress girls. Uh, I think we all know that.

[00:32:14] My pickleball life. Um, all right, well... We, uh... That's really all I have to say on the cyclone. I mean, it is exactly the same. Truly. Like, it's just, uh... You get a new grit option. So, man, I'm killing this one right now. Uh... All right. Moving on. We got the CR, uh... J2CR with the Crystal Blue Endurance Grit, uh... Paddles that came in with the USA...

[00:32:43] Excuse me, the UPA stamps. Um... So, you've had one for a while, to be clear. You just got them now with the stamp. Correct, yeah. Uh, I've had them... Had the... Just this shape. The short handle shape for a long time. Probably... I don't know. Not a long time. Like, three, four weeks, maybe. Um, and... No, no. It's been longer than that, because you had it when I was there. So... Oh, dang. It has been a long time. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, because I hit yours while I was there in Baton Rouge.

[00:33:11] So, it's probably been at least a month and a half that you've had it. Well, uh, just to give everybody kind of the quick rundown, the most important thing that we need to talk about is the grit consistency. Um, my models, fortunately, feel exactly the same across the board. Um, there are those, like, lines in the face where you can see where the, uh, Crystal Blue Endurance is applied.

[00:33:39] Um, I haven't noticed that impacting spin in any way, shape, or form. Uh, if anything, maybe it might add a little bit more because these paddles spin like crazy, dude. Like, it is nuts. Um, these are right there with Perma Grit and Hex Grit. And, uh, I weirdly felt like I got a little bit more dip on my drives and serves.

[00:34:05] Uh, and that really could just be the fact that this has a slightly more pocketing and dwelly feel compared to Perma Grit, uh, the P1 and the Vapor Power 2. I did, like, a full rundown comparison of those three paddles. Um, I went, went pretty deep for, uh, a PP. Top three paddles on the market? Oh, yeah. Do you think? Yes. 11.624 Vapor Power 2. Spartus P1. And. A2 CR, or the CR series with. Yeah. Uh, Blue Grit. Yes. We're just gonna call it Blue Grit, okay? Blue Grit, yeah.

[00:34:35] Yeah, we're gonna. Blue Endurance is too much. Yeah, and I can barely read, so, uh, speaking's tough. All right, well, uh, overall, good news is the Grit seems to be, in my two units, consistent on both sides of the face. Spins insane. Uh, it's very much up there with the best paddles on the market in terms of just raw performance. You add the fact that it has a durable Grit option, and the Grit spins like crazy.

[00:35:02] I mean, it's just a recipe for a top performer. Uh, I personally would say this is probably the best paddle right now. Um, it would be, I'd be a lot more confident in that statement if all three shapes were available in my possession and I was able to test them all. But, I mean, the long handle version is nuts. Like, this is legitimately an insane paddle.

[00:35:32] Um, yeah. The only downfall is that it's only UPA-approved. And I don't even know if that'll be a downfall in three to six months. You know, there could be a mass adoption, you know, for UPA-approved paddles. UPA is finally non-profit. That's right. That's right. There were people who were holding out, you know, let's say, like, believing in UPA-approved until that happened. Yep. Uh, or unless that happened. We'll put it that way because then it seemed.

[00:36:02] The, the big picture thing is if we ever want pickleball to be an Olympic sport, you, Olympic sports have to have a unified governing body and that governing body has to be a non-profit. Mm-hmm. So, when you were looking at the big picture, I think a lot of people saw UPA-A and it wasn't a non-profit and they thought, uh, you know, I can't get on board with this. Or they see, oh, this is the same umbrella that owns PPA, MLP, Pickleball Central, you know, pickleball.com, all that. And they're like, oh, this feels like a, you know, corporate money grab, which is all valid, by the way. Yeah.

[00:36:31] I'm not saying it's true. I'm saying those are valid opinions. Um, but now seeing them actually get approved as, uh, what's that, 501c3 non-profit, that's good. Yeah. That's what they've been saying that we're going to do. So, it's cool to see it actually happen. Yeah. And I think that will get more tournament directors and other people who are the ones who dictate whether you have to play with the USAP paddle or not on board with UPA. Yeah.

[00:36:54] And I will give you PAA a, you know, another, you know, opportunity to say how well they've done because not only are they trying to create better testing, they're actually, uh, able to police paddles better. And, you know, that's something that is very hard. And that's not a knock on USAP because they have, what, thousands of paddles every year that get approved.

[00:37:24] It kind of is a knock though. But still, I mean, police some of them. It's very obvious. Right. What percentage of paddles that are sold to the general public with the USAP stamp do you think have illegal grit? Do you think? I'm just asking your opinion. Oh man. Uh, when I say illegal, I mean, they're too gritty for USAP standards. Maybe a quarter.

[00:37:46] But I mean, that's, I, I don't really have a perfect, uh, representation of what illegal, the exact illegal limit is, um, on paddles. It's just like, there's somewhere you'll feel like, oh yeah, there's no way that's legal. But then there's some where you're like, that feels kind of illegal. And then they're like, no, this is the same grit texture that I sent to USAP. And you're like, okay, I don't know. But to answer your question, yes, there are a lot of paddles that have very rough grits. And it's not a secret.

[00:38:16] It's very obvious. Yeah. And it's never been policed. Yeah. There has been one paddle, one time that got on the under review page. Mm-hmm. That was the 6.0 Ruby Pro. Yeah. That one did come out feeling like it was going to rip your skin off. That one was crazy. And then, that one was crazy. And then it got put on under review. And then, look, I don't know what happened. All that happened behind the scenes. But now, the new Ruby Pro has come out. And they feel USAP legal. You know? So. Yeah. That's the one time I can think of. Now, maybe it happened more behind the scenes.

[00:38:45] But it seems like it would be a fairly... I understand the complications. Because they can't specifically target brands that they know. Mm-hmm. Like Thrive, for instance, to throw one under the bus. Thrive has always had the craziest, most gritty paddles ever. Mm-hmm. But USAP can't just be like, oh, we're going to go buy a Thrive paddle and call them out. Yeah. Because then it's like playing favoritism. They probably got to do it the way that they lined out in the SOP, which was randomly purchasing. Mm-hmm. So they have to randomly purchase until they hit one.

[00:39:14] But it doesn't seem like it would take long to hit one that's illegal if you randomly purchased. Yeah. But then the argument also is that surface roughness clearly is not a very good or valid test for spin generation. I mean... Which is why they need to go to the RPM test. Exactly. Which supposedly they are. Yeah. And, you know, I'll be excited when that happens. I don't know. I'm sounding cynical here. Yeah. No, I get it. All right. Sorry. I get it. Because some people will play by the rules and other people will not.

[00:39:42] And that is, you know, that's kind of just how a lot of stuff is. But, yes, I get it. Yeah. In a perfect world, it would be great for everyone to follow all the rules and all the rules to be aligned and be valid. Even most people follow the rules. Yeah. Yeah. So to get back on the J2 CR long handle, just a really stellar paddle. I mean, it's one that has... One that I was a little bit hesitant at first.

[00:40:12] You know, I made my CR review. I was like, it's an incremental improvement on the NF, which was one of the best paddles on the market. So it's like, you know, you don't necessarily have to upgrade. But I would say now that the Blue Grit is here, if you're a Honolulu lover, like that's just your preferred company to play with, it's a no-brainer upgrade at this point. Because these are... Looks cool, too. Legitimately, like, definitely better. Yeah. So...

[00:40:42] I think that's pretty much all I have on those. Good price. They're the cheapest of the bunch at $175,000. So... All right. Well, you ready to move on to new week? New main? Everyone's favorite segment? You want to talk about this Mizuno pile? Oh, shoot. I forgot to talk about that one. Yeah. Let's grab it. Yeah. So, look. I came home to a big box in the driveway. Didn't even know it was going to be here.

[00:41:10] And I walked up and I saw it was from Mizuno. And I got really excited because I was like, oh my God, Mizuno's sending us shoes? Yeah. I know. And the Mizuno court shoes are really, really good. Yes. So I was really excited. Opened the big box. It ain't shoes. Well, it was this. Yeah. So it still could be shoes. So it's a cool packaging. It says Mizuno Pickleball on it. But inside this package was a paddle. Here's the paddle. Acro Strike. And what's it called? The Acro Strike.

[00:41:40] Acro Strike LX. This is the elongated version. I played maybe... It wasn't even... It was drilling. So it wasn't a game. But it was probably five to ten minutes. So this is what we'll call a first impression, of course. But I already had a lot of first impressions pulling it out of the box before even playing with it. Yeah. Number one, it's edgeless, which is obvious. Number two, it's a spray-on grit.

[00:42:09] Number three, the shape, in my opinion, is pretty bad because it doesn't use the full dimensions. It's like 16.3 by 7.3, maybe 3.5. Yeah. It's probably closer to 16.4. But yes, it's definitely 7.3 wide, which is like... Yeah. You're going to feel that. Very skinny. Yeah. And this is the longer handle version. Apparently. I don't have the other one, but I saw on the paperwork that they have a wide body with a shorter handle. The longer handle version? Yeah.

[00:42:38] There's a shorter paddle with a shorter handle. Yeah. This is like 5.3. Look. Here's my hand. Gone. You know? Yeah. And it's quite wide even for an edgeless, so it's not particularly comfortable. Now, the shape of the handle and everything feels really good. Yes. Might even be fully molded. I'm not sure. I wouldn't be surprised since it's an edgeless paddle. And then the little trick up their sleeve is they have these adjustable weights on the side, and it comes with its own little tool. Yep.

[00:43:08] And there are two weights, and they're like on a slider system. And you can move them up and down. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So just let me finish first, and then I'll let you talk, because I know you got some numbers. But when I played with it, dude, it played like a very skinny, edgeless paddle with spray grit would play. Yeah. Like, it's not good. The sweet spot is very bad. Mm-hmm. The spin is not great. And I don't know how long it'll last, of course.

[00:43:36] This may be some kind of new durable spray grit, but in the past, we've seen spray grit not last very long. Not long at all, yeah. Yeah, the balance is weird. It just feels like three years ago when a lot of companies were trying to copy Selkirk and make, you know, edgeless paddles, and they were all bad. And even at the time, the best of the bunch was probably the Selkirk Power Air. And in today's market, that would be a horrible paddle. Terrible. Yeah.

[00:44:05] Marowyn, that was in the top 16 of last year. Yeah. But it did lose right away. Yeah, immediately. Yeah. But this bums me out because Mizuno is a cool company. Very cool. They do cool stuff. I've seen their other sporting goods and other, you know, arenas, and it's all really good. And they clearly have resources. And then they're coming into Pickleball. And to me, that's exciting because I'm like, cool, this helps the growth of Pickleball overall.

[00:44:33] And we have, like, some larger companies come in and care about it. One of the coolest logos as well. But it's just... Yeah, yeah. Like, it's a good-looking paddle, of course. You know? This is a little bit metallic. But it just bums me out because I'm like... How do I say it? It feels like... Imagine if, like, a company, a big company you know is going to, like, we're getting into making cars. And you're like, oh, cool. Like, what's their first car going to be?

[00:45:03] Like, imagine if a company like Kawasaki is like, we're about to start making cars. Well, you know they make motors. You know they do a lot of motorsport stuff. So in the same way that Mizuno does sporting goods. So you think, like, there's a lot of overlap. And then they come in and they're like, here's our first car. And it's basically just like any random car from, like, the year 1995. Yeah. And it has, like, manual roll-up windows. And, like, no Bluetooth on the speaker. And it just looks and feels like a super old car. But they're like, but wait.

[00:45:33] We put a fully adjustable electronic, you know, coilover suspension system on this. I'm like, well, why? Like, shouldn't you have just built your version of a Toyota Camry? And that would be like a strong entrance. Just make, like, a good paddle that's modern and does everything right. And doesn't have to be over the top. But then use your brand reputation and your brand name to, like, come in strong. And then build from there. So that's how it feels to me. This feels like super outdated, poor performance.

[00:46:02] But then they put on this flashy system. Which is interesting. But it's like that feels completely wasted on a poor performance paddle. Yeah. So, yeah, it bums me out. Because I just feel like big company with resources. Why didn't you hire anyone, anyone who knows pickleball? Just be like, that should have been, like, your first go-to. Like, okay, we're getting into pickleball. Let's get someone. And I just now realized right now this sounds like a commercial for myself as a consultant and paddle designer.

[00:46:31] That's not how I meant it. But, hey, Mizuno, if you do want to hire me out, I'm here. But just, yeah, like, literally anyone who knows paddles and knows how paddles are made and knows what paddles are good and is deep into pickleball, hire those people. And they have sponsored players, by the way. They sponsor players for shoes and clothes and stuff. So it's like they could have at least maybe talked to them. Yeah. Like, hey, test this out. Can you hit this on the side? Yeah. Yeah. Or even if they are, like, hey, just hit it on the DL. They would have been like, oh, dude, this ain't it. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Oh, man.

[00:47:01] I don't know. So it bums me out a little bit. Gorgeous paddle. But I think we've learned that just because a paddle is sleek and cool looking, usually it's almost like inversely related with their performance. You know? Like, edgeless looks awesome. You know? This 3K carbon fiber weave looks really cool. I mean, it's just like a sleek paddle. And it's got these, you know, the weighted tracks on the side, which they call fast track, by the way. And it's... That's cool.

[00:47:31] Good name. The weighted part is not the part that I am upset with. I think it's great. No, no, no. We're not hitting on that. That's actually really cool. That's a good little design. And in fact, the numbers are crazy. If you have one of the weights on each side at the top, swing weight's 124, which is pretty damn high. But if you bring those all the way down, both weights, 119 and a twist weight of 7.6. So... That's crazy.

[00:48:01] And you cannot add weight on this because they're... It doesn't feel like that, though. No. If you hit near the side. I can imagine. But it's polypropylene. They have... I think they're calling them like the energy layer. I can't remember exactly what it is. Yeah. To be specific because EPP is also polypropylene. Yeah. Sorry. Honeycomb core and 16 millimeters. But I mean, look, guys. The paddle is dated.

[00:48:26] And edgeless paddles, we've come to know, are just never going to perform quite as well as an edgeguard paddle. And all the big brands like to come in and go edgeless because it looks sleeker and cooler. And I mean... I still think maybe it can be done, but... Like you can maybe make an edgeless perform as well. Yeah. But why? But why? Like I said, why don't you just make the Toyota Camry a paddle?

[00:48:53] Like to use an actual paddle name, why don't a big company like this come in and just make something that's roughly similar to a Loco? Yeah. Or, you know, any kind of top performing paddle that isn't that complex but performs extremely well. Yeah. You know, imagine if Mizuno came in and they had like a sleek branding, big name, and you picked up this paddle and you're like, wow, dude, this actually plays a lot like a Loco. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And they did all the little things right, like the handle, the shape, and everything. That would be... You'd be like, this is a strong start from a brand just coming in. Yeah.

[00:49:23] But that's all they had to do. Yeah. Yeah. It's tough. We've seen this time and time again. Big brand comes in, they make a edgeless style paddle, and it falls flat. You know, that's just kind of the way it is. But we won't harp on it too much more. But... This is funny, though. Very good looking paddle. I will say that. But, yeah, I need to play with it, but I don't have high hopes at all. I see that you're feeling bad about it.

[00:49:52] Yeah, I just, you know... They could still come back, man. Yeah. I mean, like, we got to be honest about it. They can still do better on their next paddle, but this one... Bigness. Performance is king. Bigness. Performance is king. This does not perform. But, yeah, this isn't a stab at Mizuno specifically, but I just cracked my up if brands do this. I don't know if you can see, but there's power, control, spin. Control and spin are maxed out, and power is just one from maxed out. So it's like, hey, this does everything perfectly. Everything perfectly.

[00:50:20] Everything's 90, 95 out of 100. Well, I think that's all we got on Pals. We've only been talking for like 50 minutes. So we might as well go to everyone's favorite segment, New Week, New Main. Sponsored by Bodie Pickleball. Bodie Performance, actually, now. Now, Bodie offers all kinds of awesome pickleball accessories, bags, grips, tungsten tape, and many other really great accessories, especially sleeves. Justin, sleeve season, baby. It's sleeve season, baby.

[00:50:50] You can use code PURSUIT to save 15% at checkout when purchasing anything on BodiePerformance.com. Thank you, Bodie, for sponsoring New Week, New Main. I just want to go ahead and give a real quick shout-out while we're shilling. I love the pre-cut tungsten. I've been seeing them on all your Pals. It is so nice to just be able to just peel and go.

[00:51:16] As someone who has been a chronic tungsten tape cutter and measuring it out and figuring out that my index finger is exactly three inches. Is that what you use to measure three inches? Three inches is pretty big, dude. Well, if I wanted one inch, I'd measure something else. But yeah, so it's definitely been a nice thing to do. Just be like, oh, I know this is three grams. Oh, I know this is five grams. Just slap it on. So shout-out to Bodie. Love it.

[00:51:46] All right. It's a new week. Justin, you were rocking that P1. What are you doing, big dog? We still rocking it? All right. New week. New Main. I'm back on the shift. SpongeBob, baby. Nice. But it's the SpongeBob shift. Yeah, I still really like the P1. It's very good. Yeah. It's still in the bag. It's right here. Of course, yeah. And I can still easily play with it. But I also really like the shift. Played with the shift forever. So that's an easy paddle for me to play with.

[00:52:16] I enjoy everything about it. And this just, dude, like I said, I'm not even a SpongeBob fan. It just cracks me up. And there's been a couple times recently where I've been playing and whatever happens and I look down and see this little happy-eyed SpongeBob on there. And it just kind of takes me out of my head a little bit. Yeah. And it makes me kind of laugh at myself. And that's a good thing. Yeah. Because to me, I kind of play my best when I'm not overstressing. You know, like just having a good time.

[00:52:45] Of course, I have the most fun as well. So in a way, it's been a good thing to kind of lighten it up. You know, like we did this before where you write things on your paddle and you look down and it reminds you of something. In a way, this little SpongeBob, every time I look down, it reminds me like, oh yeah, just have fun. Like I'm literally out here playing pickleball. Good vibe, bro. And it's hilarious. So that's been good. It plays just like the other shifts, of course, with the other graphics. So it's like not an adjustment there. For the setup, I got three gram pre-cuts.

[00:53:15] Just right here. That's pretty normal. And I've been using this Ethos. Oh, you're doing Ethos, man. How are you liking it now? Yeah. I still, okay, I'm of two minds about it. I really like how it feels in my hand. I really like, you know, I have like basically two different grips that I play in, you know, depending where I'm at. And it really locks into both of those really well. It's very comfortable. I like that it dampens a little bit of vibration. So all that is good. My only knock on it isn't even a knock on it.

[00:53:45] It's just a me thing. I don't know how much I love that it lowers the balance point. I'm a certain, I'm a type of person that don't love a super low balance point. But I'm realizing that as I've been trying this out, I've tried it with and without. I have another shift, of course, set up similarly, but without the Ethos grip. And I test it and the balance points are like five or six millimeters apart. So it's a pretty big difference.

[00:54:10] And it's funny because it's like different shots feel more or less comfortable depending on the balance point. Weirdly, like scoop drops and like dinks and a lot of soft stuff weirdly feels better to me with the lower balance point. I don't know why. It just feels like most of the weight of the paddle is in my hand and it like it doesn't get pushed around as much. It's just really easy. However, rolls and flicks and things where I want the paddle head to kind of carry through.

[00:54:38] I kind of can't stand with a low balance point. I want more weight. And I did try just putting weight at the top, but then it felt like my hands were slow. So what if you just went three and nine on the weight? Yeah, yeah. I did that too. And the swing weight went up to like 122 or something. Yeah, that's beefy. So I mean, I actually like it and I might go back. I was here and then I went to three and nine and then I went back and I think I might like it better at three and nine.

[00:55:07] Although that did only move the balance point up like one and a half mils. Yeah. So not that much. Yeah. I mean, that's a lot if you ask me, but yeah. But yeah. So I don't know, dude. I really like the grip. But yeah, this paddle is hilarious. So this is what I've been maining. And it's brand new. So the, you know, obviously the grid is brand new. So the spin is really good. Mm-hmm. Now, whenever it wears down, will I go pull the Spartus back out? Probably. You know. Probably. Yeah.

[00:55:39] I mean, I've talked about this a couple podcasts. I'm starting to get picky on battles, man. I used to just be able to just willy-nilly switch. Now it's like it's got to be a specific, you know, subset of characteristics for me to be like, yep, I'm confident with this. Yes. Oh, and let me mention this real quick. Mm-hmm. Shoes, I'm back to the New Balance Cocoa CG2s. And this is why I want to mention it. Because I said before that you could get them for like 70 bucks. Like that's how I got them. Mm-hmm. That deal seems to be back.

[00:56:08] They are $75 right now in certain colors and in certain sizes. And for those of you who want the secret plug, go to Joe's New Balance Outlet.com. And Joe is in the name Joe. It's actually New Balance's direct outlet website. It's just called Joe's. But when you order, it ships directly from New Balance. They do the six-month warranty and everything, right? It's just their outlet site.

[00:56:31] Right now on Joe's, they have certain colors and certain sizes of the CG2 for 99 bucks. Plus, there's like an additional 25% off. So, it's $75 before tax and everything. Nice. So, if you guys want them, that's the deal. People were asking last time. Joe's, I actually get shoes from there pretty regularly and check there regularly because the deals change a lot. Mm-hmm. And you might catch one. You'd be like, oh, it's really good. Like, I caught those for 60 bucks recently. And I was like, I can't pass that up. Nice. But, yeah. Nice. That's it.

[00:57:01] All right. It's a new week. So, I mean, based on what I was talking about earlier with the CR, I think everybody can guess now. So, it is new week, new main, long handle J2CR with the blue grit. Damn, this paddle's good, bro. I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did.

[00:57:24] Like, I thought it was going to be like, oh, yeah, it's, you know, it feels a little different than the 11624, but it's relatively similar. But, I mean, the sweet spots on these J2 paddles are freaking nuts, dude. Like, it really is. It's crazy. And one of, like, the best parts about this unique core design is the throat has a lot more reactivity compared to other paddles.

[00:57:52] You know, not to say that the P1 or the 11624 have bad throats. It's just like this is actually like an increase in reactivity. So, when you're hitting things like resets, you know, you're not, if you miss hit the center just a little bit, you're still getting that forgiveness back and getting those balls over. And I just love the shape. I mean, I think it's a really good shape.

[00:58:14] I would prefer the elongated, however, of the hybrid shapes, I would say this is definitely up there with the, you know, top two, top three for sure. And spin is insane. And I got, my unit was crazy light, bro. 105 swing weight, 6.3 twist weight. And I'm very interested to see if that's an outlier. But there's been a couple people who have commented on my first impression video that said theirs was that light as well.

[00:58:44] However, I'd like to hear some review units, reviewers units and see what they got as well. But great paddle and new week, new May, baby. So, still rocking the Deodora Tornado 3s. But I just blew through my pair. So, I got to send it back. Time for the warranty. I tried those. Got to send another warranty. I ordered a pair and tried them.

[00:59:14] I can feel that they're very high quality shoes. I can feel what everybody, you know, loves about them. However, maybe it's me. I mean, I guess it is me. But I had, like, some real heel slip that I couldn't even fix with a runner's knot or anything. And it was almost like the material back there was really slick. And maybe I just got skinny little heels. But I was, like, trying to crank them down. And then I cranked them down to the point where the lace is uncomfortable and my heel is still slipping out. When are you feeling that heel slip? Like, whenever I'm, you know, pushing off and my heel's coming up, it would come up out of the shoe a little bit.

[00:59:44] I hate that. Now, like I said, the shoe may break in and then become less stiff and now it won't do that. But that was enough out of the box where I'm like, I'm out. Yeah. You know, I've had Achilles issues, you know, in the past. You guys know that. So if I feel like my heel's not secure, I'm out on the shoe. You're just a sensitive little boy. But, yeah, that's wild that you say that because I don't think I've ever had any shoe where I've been like, oh, my heel slips too much.

[01:00:13] Maybe it's just because I'm dumb and don't notice things like that or what. But I don't know, dude. Whenever you said that, I was like, I was shocked. I was like, I mean, yeah. I do have a skinny heel. If I put my foot on the back of, you know, my opposite foot on the back of the shoe and lift my heel, like, of course, it's going to come up a little bit. But I never notice it. I'm not saying like step on it. Never notice it in play. And it might be that my colorway has a different material on the inside of the shoe, which is slicker. Which colorway do you?

[01:00:42] Because I do that sometimes. It's like a tan and light orange almost. Yeah. That's a good looking colorway too. Yeah. Man, that sucks. I wish it worked out for you because I love the shoes. Well, they might not take my return. I try to return them. My return's been pending forever. Oh, no. So if they don't take my return, I will, what I'll do is I'll try to see if I can break them in like on the walking pad or walking around or whatever. Yeah. Maybe they'll break in and the heel slip will go away. Yeah, maybe.

[01:01:12] Because they do feel great otherwise. Yeah. They're definitely more maximal than, you know, a lot of shoes you've been wearing. I guess not the Cocos. The Cocos are pretty, a little more maximal. Cocos are, you know, it's crazy. They're not that heavy though. They just look it. Yeah. But when you weigh them against other shoes, they're not. But, dude, yeah, like the lockdown and containment on those shoes and then plus the carbon fiber shank, they do feel like, oh, I mean, this shoe's not going anywhere. My foot's not going anywhere. Yeah. It feels kind of maximal in that way. I know.

[01:01:42] I would love to have some, but they don't carry them in my size, which is unfortunate. They might, bro. I'll check it out. It's 75 bucks. 75 bucks. I'll buy them. But you would need to wear, what, you wear an 11 in men's? Yes. I think, yeah, I think I wear an 11 on the Diodorus or 11 and a half, but very unlikely. I'm pretty sure it's 11. But, all right. Well, we're going to skip net gains this week and Nerdtown.

[01:02:11] We don't really have anything to talk about, but we did have. I'm going to say one thing real quick. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Before we go to the next segment. This is, well, no, actually, we'll save it. We'll save it. Go ahead. Sorry. My bad. Teasing us. We'll save it. Go ahead. Because it'll fit right in. You'll see. All right. It'll fit right in. Well, we had an interesting comment on last week's podcast because Braden was talking about how his thoughts on Thrive's feel was way different than everybody else's.

[01:02:38] And somebody was asking me on the in the comment section is like an interesting to know, like, what what have you heard from other people that you were like, whoa, that was not what I was expecting. So we're going to call this, you know, questionable takes. I'm not going to say anybody's wrong for, you know, feeling that way. I could be wrong. This is really just to point out the subjectivity. Yes, exactly.

[01:03:02] And to preface this all, this is kind of the mantra of my channel. It's like all these numbers, these metrics, these graphs, all these things that people do, none of it matters until you get the paddle in your hand. You know, it really doesn't mean anything. If a paddle has X amount of spin. It can point you in the right direction. Yes. Yeah.

[01:03:28] You could get you could see, oh, I want this paddle because it has this feel, this amount of spin and this swing weight, twist weight. And you get it. You could absolutely hate that paddle. I've seen it happen, too. I've seen people like, ooh, you know, actually some somebody who plays pickleball in my area came up to me and they got the 11624 Hirachi X and they're like, I can't get along with this paddle. Like it. I really, you know, I got this because I heard all the great things you were saying about and I just don't like it.

[01:03:56] And I'm like, give it some time, you know, but also at the end of the day, sometimes a paddle just doesn't work for you. So that's always been my kind of thing. It's like on on court feel and on court perception is more important in my opinion than any metric that a reviewer can say. So always take that with caution. Anything I say, anything any of the other reviewers say, you know, just take it as another data

[01:04:22] point to, you know, use in your buying, you know, when you're purchasing a paddle. So, yeah. So we'll talk about a couple paddles that have had questionable, you know, questionable things said about them. I got one to start. Do you want to go first? I believe what you just said. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So 11624 Power 2. Love that paddle. As you know, I mained it for a minute. But a lot of people said that paddle has a softer, dwellier feel.

[01:04:51] Now, not going to call specific names, but a lot of people said that. I think that's as the young kids would say, that's cap. I would say it's not soft. I would say it's stiff. Exactly. But it's muted. It's more muted than a lot of paddles. Okay. That's fair. But it's not soft. No. I mean, the ball comes off pretty quick. It's not soft at all. It's not dwelly either. Yeah. Like you just, you know, you just tested it against the CR and the P1. Yes. What's the least dwelly of those three?

[01:05:21] Definitely, I would say is the 11624. Yeah. It's not a bad paddle. I'm not hating on a paddle. No. I'm just saying. If we're talking about bad takes, people would say that paddle feels soft and dwelly. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, I'll go next. We've talked about this one in the past, but people saying the Coda is an awkward paddle. Yeah. That is crazy to me. I think this battle hits incredibly hard.

[01:05:50] And in my experience, it has some pretty exponential jumps here and there, you know, about one a game. One return a game, I'll say along and be like, what the hell just happened? Like, that was crazy. I think this paddle hits very hard. And to be noted, yeah, yeah. Another good paddle, not a knock on it. I agree with you. And I have also hit multiple Codas. I've hit three of them more than just a little bit.

[01:06:17] And so it's not like I just had an accidentally powerful one or one that was an outlier. Yeah. I would say all three of those, I would say, is a power paddle. Yeah. So I've hit two different shapes, one with Harmony Gret, one without and the elongated. And they were all like, oh yeah, this is definitely a power paddle. And it's got some good, like, sneaky pop. Yeah. So. Yeah. Go ahead. You go next. If you got anything. Well, this is a quick one. And this is a, I'll, it's making me look biased, but people who said the shift is an all-quart paddle.

[01:06:44] I think this is another one that maybe fools people with the feel. It's denser feeling. It's not hollow feeling. And people tend to equivalent that. Equivalate. I don't know if that's a word, but you said it one time and now I've said it twice. So look what you've done to me. It could be. I wouldn't listen. People usually think hollow equals poppy, but that's not an all-quart paddle, dude. That paddle hits hard. No. And I say that because. Not an all-quart paddle. Yeah. No one would say that the 11624 Power 2 is an all-quart paddle, right?

[01:07:14] Or the Spartus P1. People have been saying, that's maybe low power, right? I have been switching between those three regularly for months. And I'm telling you right now that the 11624 and the Shift are pretty damn close. And in fact, I'm almost positive I hit my serves a lot harder with the Shift. And people tell me that. I would say the Shift is hard. And the P1 is noticeably lower than both of those. Not in a bad way. But if the Shift is more powerful than the Spartus P1, how would it ever be called an all-quart paddle? There's been a few people said that.

[01:07:43] I think that's a bad take. But again, it's subjective. I think that's probably just a feel coming into the equation. And maybe it's not a bad thing for these paddles like the Coda and the Shift. Whenever people say they feel all-quart, but they actually are hitting hard. That might be a good thing. Because what they might be picking up on is, oh, I find this easy to control. Yeah. But you still have the power available. So anyway. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:08:06] Another very similar one is people saying that the Coral is like firmly in the all-quart category. I think that's hard to believe. It does have like a softer, plusher feel. But I think that the power that you get with this paddle is very close to the power realm. You know? I would say it's on the cusp. It's kind of a tweener. But people who are like, oh, it's super soft and almost control-oriented.

[01:08:36] I'm like, no chance, brother. Not a chance. All right. That leads us to the next one. The Coral, however, is more of a control paddle than every single paddle on the kitchen's best control paddle. Right? So bad take. This is the first one we're going to call out someone specifically. The Kitchen Pickleball just released the best control paddles of the year. Oh, so bad. And it was just a list of power paddles.

[01:09:04] They had the Pro 4 as an honorable mention. And the Pro 5 is in the list. Yeah. So. Oh, boy. Yeah. That's a bad thing. Yeah. I don't like to call people out, but Kitchen, I would not trust their opinions on things based on quite a few interesting articles. All right. Last one. This is kind of a niche one. Justin, you had a big part in this.

[01:09:34] This is the run out from F&B. A lot of people were saying that this paddle is like. It's a blast from the past. Yeah. Ultra stiff. Like, this is like a super stiff paddle. And I disagree. I think the face is quite, you know, dwelly, quite pocketing. And I don't think it's super stiff. Now, I can understand. Maybe they're saying the frame is stiff. Yeah. But the paddle face, no. I don't think it's stiff. But then again, I may be wrong, dude. This is.

[01:10:03] I could be wrong. Yeah. No, no. This is perfect because I actually have some data on this one. Mm-hmm. And this kind of brings out the subjectivity and maybe what people are feeling and what they're not. Yeah. Because what you just said is correct. Like, according to the data, the frame of the paddle itself, since it goes from the handle all the way around the frame, all one piece of like this forged carbon, it actually is stiff. Yeah. As far as the frame goes. The faces, however, like deflection goes, it's not. Like, it would almost fail deflection. Yeah. So, it deflects a lot.

[01:10:32] So, it's not a stiff face or core at all, but it is a stiff frame. So, that one I can understand because people are feeling something that, that's a kind of a unique paddle. It feels different than other paddles. And you're saying like, oh, I feel the pocketing. I feel the face deflecting. So, how can you call it stiff? But other people might be like, it feels like the paddle's not flexing like beam flex. Yeah. Which it really isn't that much. Yeah. Which is by intention. Yeah. That's an interesting one. A blaster in the past. Yeah. Okay. Last one. And this is one you don't know about. Oh, boy.

[01:11:02] But here's, look, guys, I'm about to call everybody out. Look, and I realize if everybody thinks one thing and I think the other, then maybe I'm the one who's wrong. Yeah. So, I'm not lost on that. But let me say, look, guys, I bought my first melon hat. All these years. All these years later, I finally got a melon hat. Chris, Pickleball Studio, had his coat again. So, I was like, all right, I'll get one. And I got the one that's closest to my style of hat. Like, this shape is called the Legend.

[01:11:32] I guess it's like the dad hat. And this is like the Adventure Club version. So, it's packable. But everything I was reading, it's still the same materials as all the other Hydro models, which are the ones that are supposed to be able to get wet and float and sweat and all that. But it's not the greatest thing in the world. Yeah. And it's certainly not worth 90 bucks. Yeah. I was about to say, did you take a second mortgage after that? Or? Well, even with the discount, it was like 70 something dollars. God. For a hat?

[01:12:01] Dude, I had to try. It's been years. I've been like, I won't do it. I won't do it. But everyone has 15 of them. And they all say they're the best hats ever. So, I'm like, look, I trust you guys. I like these people. You got to be right. All right. So, real quick. Listen, let me finish. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Or no, you can ask me. Go ahead. All right. Real quick comparison. Is it better than the runner hats? No. It depends on what you want. No, just like the same style. Style to style.

[01:12:33] It depends on what you want. Okay. For wearing around, for like style and just like, oh, I want to wear a hat casually, the melon is nicer. The materials are thicker. The materials are heavier. It's very well built. It's high quality. That's clear. Like, there's a lot of thought put into it. However, for playing pickleball or running or doing anything like that, no. Yeah. I don't think so. And even swimming and getting wet, which they say is good because this is like the runner hat, right? Mm-hmm.

[01:13:01] And it is a slightly different style, but they do make, this is a different shape, but they do make this shape, runner does. Mm-hmm. So you could get a one-to-one comparison. Here's the big differences for playing and swimming and all that. This hat actually has like a cotton, like sweat band built in and this area that touches your forehead. It's like an absorbent, like sweat absorbent area. And then there are little perforations all through. Yeah. So it is in the heat. This is far cooler on your head.

[01:13:31] I played in this melon already once, and this is supposed to be like the lightest version. I'm like, dude, this thing is hot as fuck. And it's like the little sweat band isn't even absorbent. So it was getting wet and the sweat was just running down my face. Oh, yeah. So I would prefer, like for this, this is so packable, right? So a lot of times when I play in the heat, I just take two and I just sweat until this is soaked and it starts dripping and I just throw it on the ground, grab the next one. Yeah. You know, and that's a good thing about it being able to be put in a bag. It doesn't matter. Now I get that this is not everybody's style. Yeah.

[01:14:00] But also the bill is like a lot softer. So for me, it's really comfortable. I'm the weird one here. I don't have hair. So my hats fit different than everyone else who has an extra, you know, inch of hair on their head. But yeah, if you're after like, oh, I want something that is, feels really comfortable while playing pickleball or working out or whatever and helps catch sweat, then I think there are multiple running brands, including Runner, that do it better.

[01:14:28] And this is literally less than half the price. Yeah. Yeah. So you could get two of these for less than one melon. Yeah. But it is a nice hat and like just wearing around, like wearing right now or just wearing out. It's super high quality, but it probably isn't going to be my hat that I play in. Yeah. Put it that way. All right. So yeah. Anyway, I'm well aware I'm in the minority, but I would say if you're wanting a hat for pickleball,

[01:14:57] absolutely not worth it for 75 to $90. And then the argument people will say about the melon is like, oh, I've had it for years and it stays good because I can just throw it in the washer and always comes out looking clean. Dude, I do that with these all the time. I get home from pickleball sweaty. I put all my clothes and my hat straight into the washer and dryer. I have one that I've had for maybe two years and washed, I don't know, 30 times. Yeah. And it's the same. Yeah. So that's not specific to melon only. Now it is cool when hats in general can do that.

[01:15:25] So props to all brands that have like very cleanable, washable hats, but that's not a melon only thing. Yep. Yeah. I've never, never seen any melon hat that I'm like, ooh, that's, I want to get that hat. There's another brand called Alter Ego, by the way. Oh yeah. They have some pickleball hats and I have one of theirs too. And I would say it's the in between, between runner and melon. It's lighter than a melon, but heavier than a runner. And it focuses, it has like a sweatband built in. Yeah. And it's still very washable.

[01:15:54] That is probably going to be more of the normal person's hat. Cause I know that I like these super small, like cyclist hats or runner's hats or whatever. And most people don't. Um, but yeah, Alter Ego is kind of the in between and it's probably in between on pricing too. I think they're like 50 bucks. Nice. Yeah. I'd say like 45, maybe 40 is like kind of my cap on hats. It's like, that's kind of excessive. It's like, I'm going to be tired of this hat in a year. Like what?

[01:16:23] I, uh, I'm a sucker for these runner hats. So I like wait until they, they'll do like a bundle sale and I'll get like three of them for 60 bucks. And I'm like, okay, I feel good about that. That's a good, yeah. 20 bucks a hat. That's really good. All right. Any more, uh, questionable takes? Um, no, I think that's it. Yeah. Let's see how, how mad people get at us. I mean, we, and we didn't really call anybody out, you know? Oh, oh yeah. I do. Here's a specific call out. This one just cracked me up.

[01:16:52] This is a, okay. So Chris and Isaac Olson pickleball studio podcast. You could watch the episode that they talk about the six zero coral. Uh huh. This one, I was like, I wanted to, I want to like reach the screen and shake him because they were setting the paddles up and they were like, they look really good, which they do by the way. They're like great colors. Really cool. Yeah. Yeah. They had all three and they're like great colors and they were like, oh, we really like the blue one. And then do you have the colors in front of you? I just have just this one.

[01:17:22] Yes. That one. Yeah. Or orange is pinkish reddish. Oh, you're doing it too. Okay. So then they go to the other one and they're like, oh yeah. And then we really liked that one too. They were like, well, it's like pink or like gum or whatever. I'm like, guys, the color is coral. Coral. It's a coral. Of course. That's the color. Oh my God. And you just did it too. So you played right into it. So that's a terrible take from all you guys calling that paddle any color other than coral.

[01:17:49] I will say my color literacy is worse than my actual literacy. So people, man, my wife is like has trouble designating blue. And my real life wife, guys, has trouble designating like blue and purple. And I'm always like, no, that's blue. That's purple. But then like they'll go into like a really detailed color. I'm like, what are you talking about, dude? I don't understand. There's red. There's Roy G. Biff. That one's that's easy though. It's literally written on your face. Yeah. That's a joke.

[01:18:19] But that really cracked me up when I said that. I wanted to like, like I said, I want to reach in the screen and be like, it's coral. It's coral. Obviously, it's coral. You do. You do like your palettes, man. You've always been a. All right. Well, yeah. I hope we didn't offend anybody. We didn't. We tried not to. We tried to take it easy on you. Everybody has different opinions. That's the beauty of this, you know? Yeah. That's the actual point of it. It's great to hear different opinions. Anyone who's doing anything other than, you know, calling strictly one of the most powerful

[01:18:48] paddles on the market a control paddle. You're right. Unless you're doing that. Yeah. So, yeah. It's subjective. Yep. Well. And it doesn't actually matter. Yeah. I mean, yeah. It's. I cannot tell you how many people have said just crazy things about paddles to me. And I'll just be like, okay. I mean, that's fine. Yeah. I'll be like at the court and somebody like, oh, yeah. I just feel like this paddle is like super soft. And they're like playing with a cyclone. I'm like, whatever you say, big dog. All right. Well, I think that's really it.

[01:19:17] Man, we talked about a lot of paddles today. Hope we didn't bore you guys. My energy was a little low today. I'm sorry. I played at 6 a.m. I was. I'm tired, boy. So, uh, hope you enjoyed this episode. Until the next one. Let us know if you have any comments, topics, things you'd like us to cover in future episodes. But until then, see you guys on episode 76. Peace. Peace. Peace.