Episode 86 | Best $100 Durable Grit Paddle, How Did These Pass Testing?! Vatic V-Sol Tour

[00:00:05] What is up, nerds? Welcome back to Episode 86 of the The Pickleball Pursuit Podcast, Mama and Papa PP. We're here. We're making it two weeks in a row, baby. Wow. That's pretty impressive for our standards. Consistency. Yeah, consistency. We are consistently inconsistent, but that's why you guys love us. All right, well, we had a good episode last week. Let's hope we can do that again. No promises, but how you been, Justin? You been good, man?

[00:00:34] Yeah, good. A couple things I want to say off the top. You look so cute in that purple hat. Gosh. You know what purple is. What the viewers don't know is that you always say something unhinged right before you start the intro. Uh-huh. So, like a couple times I've gotten comments about like, oh, why is Justin always smiling in the intro or, you know, whatever. People think I'm like smiling at you while you're doing the intro.

[00:00:59] So, it's because you say some crazy ass shit and then you're immediately like, what is up, nerds? Right after. So, anyway. Yeah. That's the behind the scenes. It's just only Justin gets that. So, I feel lucky. Yeah, you have to pay to get that whenever you open your Patreon or OnlyFans or whatever. Oh, my God. Okay. Second thing. This is a – I'm going to just shamelessly, shamelessly use our viewers for work. Dude, shamelessly.

[00:01:29] As long as you're okay with that. I prefer when you do things shamelessly. Here's the request from any viewers who want to do it. And if anyone, you know, thinks I'm an asshole for this, you let me know. But I want to know what are your favorite socks for playing pickleball? Like, what socks have you found that you're like, these are elite, as Lewis would say. Elite. What elite socks have you found? Tell me like the brand, the model, everything.

[00:01:59] I need to know. I'm doing some, let's call it market research on socks. All right. You can also use hats, but – or you can tell me about hats as well. Less important. And most of you are just going to say bobblehead mail-in hats, but whatever. It's all good. Bob-lin melon hat. Yeah. Five-gallon melon hat. Jesus. Well, what are your favorite socks to play in, big dog? I'll go first since you're sipping that water, dude. Mine are easily the Nike socks.

[00:02:28] Just the regular old Nike – I think they're called everyday socks. Yeah, just like the dry fit ones. I see you wearing those all the time. Yeah, because they – Basic bitch. Any other pair of socks that I've tried that are like performance socks, I wonder if they use too much polyester, but it becomes slippery. I hate that. I'm not sure what material it is. It becomes slippery on your foot and on the sole. So it's just like – On the shoe. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:02:57] It's a waste of – like why would I wear that? So – Yeah, this is part of why I went down this rabbit hole because I got the new Selkirk socks. I didn't even talk about those on the podcast. Mm-hmm. And, man, they feel good when you first put them on. Mm-hmm. Like the padding, the compression, everything about them, they feel really good in hand. But holy shit, I was sliding around everywhere in my shoes. Yeah. And maybe they need to be washed a few times, so I'm trying that. I'm like literally just going to wash them three or four times. I've done that too.

[00:03:23] My foot isn't sliding around in the sock, but my foot is sliding around in the shoe, like between the sock and shoe basically. With Blumakas in your shoe, I imagine. Even with Blumakas. Yeah. I hate it. That's crazy. My favorite socks right now, I don't have a perfect pair, but probably the Thorlo Pickleball socks. They are so expensive. Yeah. But they're really comfortable. Yeah. They're really good. I have a couple kind of like runners up, but every one of them, I'm like, eh, I got a little nitpick. Eh, I got a little nitpick.

[00:03:53] So that's the quest to make the perfect sock. You know, that's why I'm asking. Yeah, I think the Nike Everyday, whatever dry fits, buy a pair of those and just see how they feel. I'll have a pair. Yeah. I mean, I've had those. They're all right. Yeah. I want a little bit more for my socks than that. Those are some basic bitch socks. I don't need nothing more, baby. Nothing. All right. Well, we got a lot of paddles to talk about.

[00:04:18] We're going to run through the V-Solo Tour, do a little V-Solo versus Spitty Gritty test. I'm going to talk about my more thoughts on the Unmarked 2026. Got a bunch of paddles in the mail that people have been asking about that I just want to show off and tell you that I will be checking out. Then we're going to run through what we think is the best $100 paddle with durable grit or, at the very least, a durable grit.

[00:04:47] Longer lasting grit. Longer lasting grit. Justin has a new segment. We're not going to spoil the name of it yet. Just be excited. We don't even know the name. You guys might have to help us name it. Then we're going to talk real quickly about the Selkirk bags, net gains, new week, new main to final, you know, to finish it off. No Nerdtown this week, just because we've got a bunch of other stuff to talk about. So, and also, good God, Justin, you nerded out so hard last episode.

[00:05:15] Yeah, last episode was enough for two weeks, so if you didn't see that one, go back and watch it. That might have been a month's worth. People seem to really love that, which is awesome. All right, so, ready to kick it off with the V-Solo Tour? Let's do it. All right, baby. V-Solo Tours are here.

[00:05:31] Evergrit is their claim, or the name for their claimed durable grit texture, and played about one drill session and a couple games with this. So, early thoughts for me. Justin, you've played a lot more with them than I have, correct? Yeah, two different drill sessions and two different game sessions, and I've played all three shapes now. I've only played the elongated.

[00:06:02] It's going to be really hard for me to play with the flash shape. It's just that shape is getting to the point where it's almost unusable for me. For anybody who's wondering, the flash shape is their traditional, you know, hybrid shape. They technically have a long-handle flash, too, but this is the short-handle flash. Oh, they do have a long-handle. Okay, so they do have four shapes. But remember, if it's the same one as before, it's actually almost an elongated. It's like 7.5 width, 16.4 length.

[00:06:31] It's more like a round-type elongated. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Not a very good shape, in my opinion. But they did update their elongated to just one elongated with a 5.5-inch handle. Almost identical to the Spitfire, which we talked about last time. But, yeah, this paddle is... I thought it was going to be a lot more thonky feeling based off of the bounce test. Just bouncing the ball on it felt like my unit... And let me clarify this.

[00:07:00] My unit is very different than Justin's in terms of sound. Sound-wise. Yeah, we compared. And maybe feel as well. Well, probably. Those two things are, you know, correlated. To my knowledge, I don't really know what they're doing in terms of the core makeup itself. But it definitely feels like it's a slightly lower-density EPP paddle. But the Evergrit, I'm not a huge fan of, if I'm being totally honest. Spin's good.

[00:07:30] I would say it's a high-tier spin, not necessarily elite spin. It's not hex grid or blue grid or even a brand new Spiner. Spitfire Spiner. But, with that being said, the reason why I'm not a big fan of the Evergrit is the feel of the paddle. It's just not good.

[00:07:58] There might be people who like it, but it's numb to me. It's a little dead feeling. It's pretty stiff. I wouldn't say it's, like, overly hollow. But I wouldn't say it's dense. It's just not a... It doesn't really inspire me, you know? And I think feel is one of the most important things that you can have in a paddle.

[00:08:26] And this one falls short for me. That could be right up somebody else's alley. You'd be like, oh, that is the perfect feel for me. That's what I was going to say. What you're saying maybe as a drawback could be a strength for other people. You and I both said this, but the feel of this paddle is, like, just think of the last year and a half of floating EPP core paddles. Like, this is vanilla. Very vanilla. But this is, like, what it feels like to have an EPP floating core.

[00:08:55] But there's a touch of harshness on top. Like, a little bit of sharpness in a kind of unpleasant way. It's stiff. You and I are theorizing it might be from the grit. But it's stiff, but it's not like this satisfying, snappy, crisp stiff. It's more like there's a touch of harshness. Yeah. We're theorizing that's from the grit, but we don't know for sure. Could be from the fiberglass in the layup as well. Yeah. True.

[00:09:25] But. Yeah. It's all right. I'll quickly talk about my thoughts on the playability. I thought playability was solid. No one is going to be mad at this paddle. You know? No one's going to be like, oh, I wish I had more performance out of this paddle. I think it does great. It performs very similarly in terms of just overall playability with the Spitfire. The feel is just not as good in my opinion.

[00:09:54] The sweet spot might be a little tighter than the Spitfire. But again, as I said before, haven't put a ton of time into this. I did put two grams of tungsten tape on the paddle just above three and nine. It is a pretty hefty paddle out the box. 119 swing weight, 6.5 twist weight. So you don't really need a ton of weight with this. But for a $100 paddle with durable grit, it performs really good. Yeah.

[00:10:24] But in my opinion, I think there's better options out there. This grit. Spoiler. Not sure. Not sure how this is going to hold up. But I don't think it's going to be as good as hex grit. All right. Justin, you played more with it. What are your thoughts? Yeah. Every shape. So, yeah. I started with the flash just because of the metrics. My flash was 113 swing weight, 6.6 twist weight stock. So I was like pretty solid. So I slapped some weight 10 and 2.

[00:10:53] It's kind of my typical hybrid weight setup for something around this. Played with the flash. And I don't like this shape, dude. But so to me, when I say that, the handle is one thing. But I told you guys I've adapted to two fingers now, backhand. So I'm actually way less picky about handles than I've ever been, which is good. That's good for the viewers. Welcome back, baby. Welcome. You know, I can use most paddles without just being a little bitch about it.

[00:11:18] But anyway, I was playing with this and I was just like, dude, the sweet spot is not that good. Okay. It's not that bad. It's not that elite. Okay. Yeah. I felt it was lacking a little bit. And so I thought, eh, it's just this shape. I know I don't like this shape. For instance, Coral Pro, we know it's an amazing paddle. I played with that one recently and didn't love it. And didn't like, I felt like maybe the sweet spot and stability were suffering. And I thought probably just the shape.

[00:11:48] So that being said, I went to the elongated next because you know me and wide bodies. Just played this one stock actually, because it's already 8.2 ounces, 119 swing weight, 6.4. So that's like decent stock for me. And I felt the same thing. The sweet spot felt a little tight and I was like, what the heck? And I played this alongside other elongated. So I wasn't judging it compared to hybrids. Right. And so I was like, all right.

[00:12:16] So then next I pulled out the bloom, which wide body and a little bit better handle. And this, I'll go ahead and say it. Look, I'm not a wide body guy, but I think this, the bloom is the best version of the Vsoul Tour. I think it played the best. It felt the least stiff while also feeling it had the most stability, biggest sweet spot. But I would personally add weight like literally at the top for me to raise the balance. And it's already a 7.3 twist weight.

[00:12:45] That's as high as I wanted. So I would probably add weight across the top. And if I was going to play this paddle, I'm pretty sure I'd play the bloom with weight at the top. Yeah. It just, in this build, I think this is the one that excels the most. So performance wise, and maybe this is where our units are a little different because I said this and I don't know that you agreed.

[00:13:07] But my take on it was that it felt and played extremely similar to a loco with a slightly smaller sweet spot. And I pulled out my loco to play side by side and I was like, yep. It feels the same. They have the same level of pop, the same level of power, the same level of stiffness. There's a kind of weird harshness with this Vsoul that the loco doesn't really have. But the loco is not a soft paddle. No. But I felt that the loco sweet spot was a little bit better.

[00:13:36] Now, to be fair, I was comparing the hybrid shapes and the hybrid loco shape does have more face area. It's not tapered and it's a little bit chunkier down at the bottom. So it could be that, but honestly, near the top, the loco was better too. This flash near the top is kind of dead, dead to me. Are we going to get into the grit later or should I talk about the grit now? Talk about it now. Yeah. And then we'll, I want to compare.

[00:13:59] So for anybody who's wondering why you asked that, I'm going to clean off both my Vsoul tour and my Spitfire that's been through. God, it's got to be like 120 plus games now and just see how they're holding up. I'll talk about the drill test at that time. Mine kind of feels like it's, eh. Drill test. But it could just be a lot of ball dust. What I want to say about this Vsoul tour grit, it feels good to the hand. I mean, it feels gritty.

[00:14:25] And then when you, when I first looked at it or saw pictures of it, I was like, oh, this looks like hex grit. Right. However, in hand, and especially when you can make the light play off of it, it's not the same. Now, the application method may be similar. Maybe that's why it's looking similar. The particles may be similar, but I have a suspicion that the resin or the binder or whatever you want to call it used is different. And also the particle size is different.

[00:14:53] I looked at it in the microscope and the amount of particles is different, which makes sense. This is USAP versus UPA. And when I say different, what I mean to say is on the Evergrit, the particles are smaller and there are fewer of them. And it seems like there's also some type of resin difference because the Vsoul tour, I don't know if I'll be able to do it for you guys on camera, but there's a little bit of a sheen just to the general face. Whereas something with hex grit, I can't really show that. I don't have a hex grit paddle next to me, but it's just black. It's like pretty matte.

[00:15:23] It doesn't sheen in the same way. I think I personally think, yeah, it has a little more sheen, but it let me. So the particles in the application method look similar. Yes. I'll say that. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but it sounds like it looks like they were kind of doing something similar. Trying to. Yeah, which makes sense. But like I said, I think that there is some material differences here, given how the light interacts with it.

[00:15:50] And then I did do my drill test, which if you guys don't know, I have a ball on a drill. It spins at 1500 RPM. And then I use a clamp and I put five pounds of pressure on a specific spot. That's what this little circle is. And then I'll do it for 30 seconds. And then I'll, it's not that scientific. Okay. I literally just check it with my finger. How rough does it feel? And I look at it in the microscope. Then I'll do it for another 60 seconds. I'll check it on the microscope, feel it with my finger again. And then another 60 seconds.

[00:16:18] And very few grits survive the full like two and a half minutes. I mean, like regular peel ply literally gets fully shiny, totally smooth. Yeah. And there's really only been two in that test that have survived to where at the end I'm like, this is less than 5% difference. It still feels gritty and it looks the same on the microscope. There's only two are hex grit and permagrit.

[00:16:43] Well, go ahead and just share your findings now since we're already on the topic. But what do you find with that? Well, I'll say this one, but we can talk about it again with the Spitfire because I also have tested that. It's not hex grit for those who you are thinking it will be. And look, I'll risk my drill test here because the drill test hasn't been wrong yet. But the real measure or the best measure we have right now is John Q's test.

[00:17:12] So John Q hasn't come out and said like what tier the Vsoul Tour is. But if I had to bet my own money, I would bet this is not tier one. Put it that way. Now, there is a caveat that whenever John's testing the loss, he's testing roughness loss and spin loss. So there's a chance that it still holds on to good spin. And then it does really well because it doesn't lose much spin. But I can tell you it's going to lose a lot of roughness. Yeah.

[00:17:37] This on the spot where I get the drill after my full two and a half minutes, I mean, it's maybe 60 to 70% less gritty. So it's smoothed out quite a bit. It is significantly better than raw carbon. So this is definitely a longer lasting grit, but I wouldn't call it a permanent grit. And there's some noticeable, you know, where and you can see under the microscope where the particles, the smaller particles were torn out. Basically, some didn't survive.

[00:18:06] So the reason why I think this is happening is it could be a number of things. The obvious ones are fewer particles, smaller particles, more spread out. So all that means is in between all these particles, there's more epoxy resin, which wears super easily. So as the resin is wearing down, that's what I'm actually feeling with my finger smoothing. And also with the smaller particles, they have less grab on the resin. So they're more likely to tear out than larger particles on say something like a Honolulu grid or a hex grid.

[00:18:36] So there is more wear and that does kind of translate to a smoother feel. So the spin, when I actually played with these, I agree with Lewis. Spin is really good, not elite, but really good. So I'm not saying it's been bad by any means. It's more than enough. It's just not like some of the elite tier paddles, which there are probably, you know what, less than five or six of out there.

[00:19:00] Which, correct me if I'm not, was a little surprising because it was a very rough paddle. Yeah, it feels super gritty. I expected it to be a little bit more spinny. But again, not a takeaway. This is a $100 paddle with, you know, longer lasting grit and like a feel that's really not going to offend anyone. Comes in three shapes. Like, I get caught up sometimes on this podcast because we're nitpicking. Yes. But I feel like that's the point.

[00:19:30] You guys don't want us to come on here and just say, Vatic Beast Saulteure, really good, $100. There's a few small things I don't like, but it's a great paddle. Like, that's boring and there's enough people already doing that. So I'm okay with sort of nitpicking and saying, yes, it's an amazing paddle. Well, here are the drawbacks if we're going to be very technical about it. Hypercritical, yeah. And, yeah, and be hypercritical. And you guys just have to understand that as viewers, that we are being hypercritical.

[00:19:59] In today's market, you have to be because there's so many great paddles. In that, V-Saulteure included. It's a great paddle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But if you want to compare it exactly to other paddles, you've got to be hypercritical. All right. So I cleaned off both the Spitfire and the V-Saulteure. Apologies for anybody who's listening on the podcast who just heard that. Yeah, that was wrecking my ears. So sorry about that.

[00:20:27] But I'm going to go ahead and just compare these feel tests and see how they're holding up. First, I'm going to go feel the throat area, kind of where there's almost no play. And then go into the sweet spot. So there are some noticeable signs of wear. It definitely feels a little smoother. Actually, pretty substantially smoother. That's surprising. Well, no, no. Let me rephrase that.

[00:20:53] It is, if I had to put a number on it, let's say 5% loss in wear. You're talking about the V-Saulteure that you've barely played with. Yes, barely played with. But it's holding up better than the Pacal Fuse, for instance, that I got. Okay. All right. Spitfire. Spitfire with 120 games on it or more. Same thing. Maybe 5%, maybe a little bit more.

[00:21:23] Let's say 7% loss. You think it's like 10% less gritty? If I want to be super hypercritical, I would say that the Spitfire has lost more grit than the V-Saulteure. Well, as it should with 120 games. But it's really not that different. And this could be just like the Spitfire, where it's immediate loss and it retains grit for a long period of time.

[00:21:48] So, not trying to put a knock on it, but there is definitely signs of wear on the V-Saulteure after short usage. Yeah. I'm trying to make sure I rub any potential debris off. Yeah. So, you can see my circles here. I did my drill test, which again, ball at 1500 RPM, 5 pounds of pressure for multiple stints. Because the V-Saulteure wore more than the Spitfire.

[00:22:18] It is smoother after the test than the Spitfire. The Spitfire did have smoothing. Again, these are subjective field numbers. The Spitfire feels about 40% smoother inside the test, which is actually pretty damn good. And the V-Saulteure feels like 60% to 70% smoother than the area around it. So, the Spitfire in the drill test, which is not really an impact test. It's more like an abrasion test, but it's actually using a pipa ball. Spitfire held up better than the V-Saulteure, which really shocked me.

[00:22:47] That is surprising. I would have for sure picked the V-Saulteure as the more likely to... Based off of feel and initial first impressions, I was like, oh, this might actually be one of the few battles that gets tier two or one. In the fact that it looked similar to Hex Grit, we were like... Yes. It does look similar. Even like I took some close-up pictures of my iPhone. I was like, it looks similar. The application looks kind of similar. The application method has to be. Yeah. But, all right. So, yeah.

[00:23:16] We'll talk about all of the other durable $100 grit paddles in a few segments from now. But, yeah. I think it's a good paddle. Great price. Power and pop felt really similar to the Spitfire, in my opinion. Justin, you think it's a little poppier than the Spitfire? I thought it was... Yes. I think it's poppier. We're splitting hairs at this point, in my personal opinion.

[00:23:40] But I think the edge, in terms of drive speed, in my opinion, was the Spitfire, which was a little surprising to me. But... They're very close. Yeah. They're both, I would say, like mid to high power paddles.

[00:24:22] Mm-hmm. Still think this is a very, very powerful paddle. Sure. Still think it's a little non-linear. And, man. I'm actually very impressed with this paddle. I think it's a smart paddle. The more I played with it, switching between this, the Spitfire, and the V-Soul Tour, it was, like, clear and obvious just how much better this shape is.

[00:24:50] Specifically, you know, cheeks and down is compared to those paddles. This is incredibly comfortable for two hands. The neck taper is so form-fitting. It's just like it... Honestly, the top doesn't bother me either, by the way. People are going to, like, be worried about this. It does not bother me. It didn't really bother me. And I'm a person who flicks and rolls a lot. That's, like, a huge part of my game. I was trying to be super, super critical on it today.

[00:25:16] I was, like, trying to really, like, is this something that, you know, is a negative about this paddle? No. I don't really think it is. I don't think so. Could it... Would it perform better with a squared off top? Maybe. But, uh, I guess we'll never know. But, yeah. I like this paddle. I think it performs really well. The sweet spot, pretty damn good. Um, I'm very impressed with just the overall feel. It feels similar...

[00:25:45] In the same realm of a, um, Spitfire. But, obviously, different feedback. Yeah, definitely different feedback. And, uh, obviously, a much different, uh, you know, power curve and, and, uh, power performance. So, one I'm high on. I think it's, uh, gonna be a very good paddle. You talked about it as well in the Discord. Um, kind of a low floor, high ceiling. You can play really bad with it if you're not good enough to play with it.

[00:26:13] But, if you're really good at pickleball, good God. You're gonna be a weapon with this paddle in your hands. But, um... Yeah. Yeah. Spin's really good. Spin is really good. Grit feels like it's barely wearing down. Have you done the, uh, grit test on that? Yeah, here's my little circle. Nice. I did the drill test on this one, too. I'm seven, eight games in? Just to give you a, um, a heads up on how it's been holding up for me.

[00:26:42] I probably played eight to ten. Uh, I don't really feel anything on the sweet spot from the gameplay, though. Yeah. But, from the drill test, um, it did wear. It's, uh, longer lasting, but not permanent. So, it's significantly better than raw carbon, for sure. It didn't go all the way smooth, or shiny, or anything like that. Um, however, this did wear more than, let's say, more than the Spitfire. It's, we're about the same as the V-Soul Tour. So, like, it feels like 60 to 70% smooth. So, it feels pretty smooth in this circle.

[00:27:12] But, I understand that in the context of my test, nothing survives it. Like, literally the only two things that survive it is hex grit and primer grit. Those are the only two things. So, for me saying, it's wearing... What you're doing is like six months of play in two minutes, basically. Or more. Maybe. It's pretty harsh, dude. It, like, it really shreds the paddles and the ball. Mm-hmm. Um, but I'm checking in between, and I keep notes on, like, you know, kind of the degradation. Yeah. Um, but like most paddles, almost all the ones that degrade, degrade the most right at the beginning.

[00:27:40] Like, I told you, I'd do 30 seconds first, and then 60, and then 60 again. Well, that first 30 does most of the work right away. Yeah, I imagine. Um, yeah, and then it's like, really slows down on the wear after that. Uh, yeah, dude. This, this paddle is just so powerful. It's crazy. It's gotta, it's like, I'm too trash for this power paddle. Put it that way. I cannot play well with it. Um, but, yeah. I weirdly don't know what happened today.

[00:28:08] Maybe I just, it was one of my good days, but. You had dialed. I was dialed. I was switching back and forth between the V-Soul, that, and the, uh, Spitfire, and it just, it didn't bother me today. But, um, good God did it bother me bad last time. I was just like, good Lord, this pedal is crazy. The last time I played with this, um, I was just embracing it. Every time I got a high ball, I was just like swinging a hundred percent. I was like, how hard can I hit this ball? Which I really, really never do. Yeah.

[00:28:38] Um, and I missed a lot of them, of course, but I had like multiple comments over that session of people like, like, uh, basically being scared or dodging or running or being like, oh my God. Like, yeah. Can you not? You're going to hurt somebody. You have a good put away. Okay. You're, you don't, if I hit it hard, I can, I just had a whippy arm, but yeah, this is, it's too powerful. There's no, I'm telling you right now, when I hit this pedal at a hundred percent, there is zero need to ever hit it that hard ever.

[00:29:06] Like those were completely unreturnable, but I also missed like 40% of them. Right. But the ones that went in were, they would, they would literally hurt and probably bruise someone. Um, so yeah, I don't know. It's, it's, this paddle is kind of insane. Um, the metrics are really good. Yeah. The spin and playability is really good. Yeah. Yeah. The feel is if you can dial it in, then that's awesome.

[00:29:36] It's the feel is not for me. I actually like the ball feel. Let me put it that way, but it's really hard to control. I like how it feels. Love the feel of the paddle. It's kind of softer, but pretty hollow. Um, the feedback is very pleasant. Uh, it's just a, it feels like an intuitive paddle until you start to get to the, until you try to read the touch, the touch. Yeah. The touch is real, uh, man, real dicey, but, um, yeah, yeah.

[00:30:05] I probably will not have a full review for this, uh, because it comes out on the 28th and it's the 25th and I haven't played with it enough. Uh, that's why I didn't do the jelly bean too. Uh, even though I could have very easily given you a full, full length review on thoughts on it, uh, because it's pretty straightforward paddle. I just didn't feel like it was, uh, you know, didn't feel like that was the right thing to do. So probably won't have a full review on this one, but, um, one that I'm high on, one

[00:30:32] that I'll continue to play with and, uh, might be featured in some, you know, comparison videos in the future. So great paddle, uh, hits like a rock. Yeah. Um, which is crazy. All right. Uh, I got a bunch of paddles on the mail that people have been actually, uh, asking me for, uh, thoughts on, which, uh, we'll go first. We got the Engage X2. I got it in both the elongated and...

[00:31:00] Is that what their new grit does have the longer lasting grit? It doesn't say, uh, so I'm going to go ahead and say no. It just says micro, micro weave carbon fiber. And then it talks about the quad density, uh, phone four. So I would imagine no. Uh, but they did send me, and this is the dual stamp version. I don't know if that gives anything away. That's the one that Eric on scenes, uh, plays with. Yeah. Um, these feel good. They remind me a little bit of the thrive, but with slightly more pleasant feedback,

[00:31:29] uh, thrive ignite series to be exact. Um, then they also sent me the, uh, Axiom. This is their Gen 3 paddle with durable grit on it. There you go. So, uh, first one. Uh, people have been asking for that. Um, you know, it seems a little counterintuitive. The Axiom. Oh, what's the, uh, grit called? Oh, gosh. Um, probably some crazy long name. I think, no, no, no.

[00:31:56] I think, uh, the reason why I asked is I saw someone say that they were calling it armor grit, which is the same thing that, uh, Enhanced is calling their durable grit. I can't remember. You might be wrong. I don't think it's armor grit. I just was wondering if you saw it. Okay. I think it's a multi-name thing, but, uh, I'll find the, uh, no, I threw away the cards, but I'll find, I'll look through the, um, email and let you know, uh, later. But, um, yeah, these paddles came in, going to test these out and then the Colt following

[00:32:21] of all Colt followings, the RPM, uh, Friction Pro V2 came to the door. Uh, and this is hailed as the greatest paddle of all time. I'll be, uh, testing that out and, uh, putting that to the test because boy, oh boy. I hit it on the Dinkmaster. That's, I, that's, the most I've done with that paddle is hit against the Dinkmaster, the little rebound board. Yeah. With that and the Yolo Pro 5. Uh-huh. RPM kind of felt better. Yes. Just, I mean, specifically ball feel. I'm not talking about performance. Yeah.

[00:32:50] Just ball feel because I was only hitting volleys against that thing. Yeah. I bounced the ball on this one. I was like, oh, okay. I see it. I can see. I'm like, okay. Feels pretty damn good. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, I went through that thing recently about how I played with a bunch of 10 threes and I think most of them feel kind of garbage. Yeah. That one didn't feel garbage. Yeah. Neither does the Pro 5, by the way. It feels all right. Yeah. Pro 5 feels fine. Pro 4, I prefer the feel of the Pro 4, but I wouldn't call it a great feel. Right. Anyway. All right. So, got these paddles in.

[00:33:18] We'll be testing these tomorrow and I'm just going to run through all these and see how they feel. But probably the one I'm most interested in is the Friction Pro V2 and the X2. But we'll see how that Axiom does. It could be very, very solid. Um, and then one more thing I wanted to talk about. One of my friends got a Luz Inferno 2. Felt his grit. Man. This, this ain't.

[00:33:48] I'm going to call it out. Uh, this ain't durable grit. So, um, unfortunate. No? No. No. And his, uh, his was pretty smooth. I don't, I don't even know how long he's had it. Yeah. He's probably had it for like maybe two weeks. Um, not long, but, uh, yeah, it was pretty smooth. Uh, and mine obviously has had some change in surface texture, but not sure if that's just, uh, ball dust, but very unlikely. All right.

[00:34:16] So, uh, we're going to move on to best durable or enhanced grit paddles that are under a hundred dollars. So we got quite a few now, which is awesome. We got the spitfire. Yeah, I don't have all of them. We got the Vesel, Tor, Quanta Pro, and Paclfuse. All right. You have all of these but the Quanta. Yeah.

[00:34:44] And did you run the drill test on your Paclfuse? I did. How did you? The Paclfuse. Okay. So let me say this about Paclfuse. It seems like this is the newest version. This is the hybrid W. I like pre-ordered this myself and it just came in maybe a week and a half ago. So it's as new as new gets for the Fuse. So it's like the most modern batch. It was a pre-order batch. So let me say this on this batch. Because other batches I've heard are different. The grit is different.

[00:35:13] The playability is different. Whatever. And even Pacl themselves are like now sorting them based on low and high pop, based on an x-ray of how much the foam shrunk or not. Crazy. What? That's just crazy to me. Yeah. Apparently people were saying like, oh, this one plays different than my friends or my last one or whatever. So now something like they're x-raying the paddles and seeing how much the foam shrinks in the cook and if there's a bigger or smaller gap in between the MPP and the EVA. And then they're sorting those into low pop, high pop.

[00:35:42] So they're x-raying hundreds of paddles? Dude, I don't know, but it seems crazy to me. That doesn't seem like very believable. That seems like a manufacturing consistency problem that you're trying to really dress up nicely. And I'm not sure that correlates directly to low and high pop. Anyway, so let me speak only about this new version that I have, maybe different than the batch that you've tried or whatever. This batch, the grit is identical to the Spitfire. Okay. So pretty good.

[00:36:11] Literally identical. It's good. In my test, lost maybe 40% of roughness, but it's held on really good. So it actually performed really well on the drill test and under the microscope and visually and otherwise. And, you know, I also know where a lot of these paddles are made. So I can tell you with confidence, or let's say 99% confidence, the grit on this version of the fuse is identical to the Spitfire grit. Okay. Real quick. So pretty damn good.

[00:36:41] I'm not missing anything, right? For whatever reason, it feels like I'm missing a paddle. There's just four. $100. Yeah, so far. Enhance hasn't come with theirs yet. Right. I'm not missing anything. I'm just going crazy. Yeah, yeah. Because Jelly Bean is 150. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. Cool, cool, cool. All right. Let's go ahead and rank these. Let's go from what you would think is... Let's go rank them on performance.

[00:37:09] Performance, and then I guess performance and recommendation are the same. So what would you say of these four? You haven't hit the Quanta Pro. Recommendation is not the same as performance because, like, the differences in pop and power. Yeah. Okay. Let's do this. Let's start with which one do you think performs least to best? And before anybody gets all butthurt about anything, all these paddles perform pretty damn good.

[00:37:38] So when we say worst... They have different fuel profiles. Yeah. Yeah. Least best to best. Mm-hmm. Man, this is actually really hard. Can I tie them? Can I just tie all three of them? Sure. You can do whatever... I think they all have different drawbacks. This is our podcast. We can do whatever the hell we want. All right. I'm tying all three of these. I can't speak to the Quanta for different reasons. Justin's clearly a shill. No. But that doesn't...

[00:38:08] But that doesn't... I do have a recommendation, however. Mm-hmm. Okay. I'm going to go with my rankings for performance, and then we'll go to recommendations. All right. So bottom in terms of performance, I'm going Quanta Pro. Spin is average, you know, for today's paddles. It's good enough. Nobody's going to have any complaints about it, but it's not going to be phenomenal.

[00:38:34] Also, the grit, I just don't think this is a super long-lasting grit. I think it is longer-lasting than regular peel pie textures, but it's not like a massive improvement like I think a couple of these paddles are. So Quanta, I think, is the least highly performative, followed by the Wiesel Tour, which, again, totally fine paddle.

[00:39:00] Just the feel, the sweet spot being a little small just makes it fall down for me. Number two, I'm going to go Fuse, Packle Fuse, even though the grit didn't hold up very well. On your version, yeah. On my version, yeah. See, I think we have different grits. Yeah. Have to. Have to. But I think this is insanely high-performing. This is about as powerful and poppy as a paddle can get. The spin...

[00:39:29] That was the one I was going to put number one, by the way, performance-wise. Yes. Even though this grit version did wear down quickly, it's really damn good out the box. And even though it has worn down, it's still a very gritty paddle, and it's going to perform great. Sweet spot? Solid. Maneuverability? Phenomenal. Yeah. Just a really good paddle. And then, of course, and it's been my number one paddle for the last month, I'm going to say

[00:39:57] the Spitfire is the best performer. I think it just kind of blends everything that these paddles all do into its own unique feel and gives you all of these great performance characteristics. So, that's off of just performance. What are you recommending last to people? The Beesel Tour Flash would be specific. To be very specific.

[00:40:28] So, then that kind of leads me to my recommendation. My general recommendation for just like anyone and everyone would be the Spitfire. However, if you are a wide-body player, then obviously Spitfire doesn't come in a wide-body. The Bloom, I believe, is the best Beesel Tour. So, I think a wide-body player would actually really like this. Or if you're someone who's like, I just want max, max firepower for $100, then that's the Fuse. Yeah.

[00:40:56] Because the Fuse is hotter than both of those. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Firepower-wise. So, I feel like the recommendations are actually pretty clear depending on what type of player you are and like what shape you want and how much power or pop you want. Yeah. Yeah. Well, if feel and kind of pleasant feedback is your thing, the last thing I'm going to recommend is the Tour. I think the Quanta feels better than it. Gives you more pleasant feedback.

[00:41:22] Kind of in that stiffer, approaching, dense category from Recollection. And then, obviously, the Pac-A-Fuse is going to be pretty wild in terms of feel. So, that'll be my... Yeah. That'll probably be my... That's the Donkey Boy. It's like the king of thonk, actually. It is... Hollow. Unbelievably stiff. So hollow. And stiff. Excuse me. Unbelievably stiff and hollow. Really? Mine is... See, I'm telling you. Ours are so different. Like... Mine's like very stiff. So...

[00:41:51] Maybe not as stiff as the Cyclone, but it's very close. Yeah. Mine's different. Very different. Spitfire. Spitfire. If you like softer, hollower paddles, you kind of want something that blends... Easy to play with, too. EPP, MPP. I think most people will enjoy this feel more so than any of the other ones. I think it has a little bit more mass appeal, but... It's the easiest to play with, for sure. The easiest to get the most out of. Put it that way. I agree.

[00:42:18] But if spin is your, like, number one thing, probably still a Spitfire. Power's your number one thing. Fuse. Uh... If, you know, shapes are your most important thing, I would say, obviously, the V-Soul Tour or the Quanta. Uh... They offer the most, you know, variety in shapes. Hybrid shape? Probably the Fuse. Um... I think that shape seems to be pretty good. I think that shape seems to be pretty good. And then if you're an elongated boy, just go Spitfire. Um...

[00:42:48] All really damn good paddles and all kind of close in terms of all their performance characteristics. Um... But, man. I think the Spitfire and the Fuse do the best in terms of all-around performance. You know, power, pop, maneuverability, spin, controllability, and predictability. Um...

[00:43:12] There's just a lot of things that these paddles do right, even though the Fuse is crazy powerful. So, um... Yeah. Yeah. Good paddles. This... Yeah, man. This Fuse has got to be different than yours. We've got to get away for you to try this hybrid one. The grits different. So you think it's not super stiff? Wow. No, no, no, no. It actually feels shockingly similar to the Unmarked. Like... Extremely similar. Sounds identical.

[00:43:41] Feels identical. This hybrid W I'm talking about. Not even... Not even close for me. Yeah, yeah. So that's a problem of its own right. It's like... It's hard to recommend this paddle if we feel like there are that many inconsistencies from shape to shape or batch to shape. Yeah. Here, I'll reveal a little secret. Industry insider secret.

[00:44:13] This Fuse hybrid shape... Let's say, again, we can never say 100%. Let's say I'm 99% sure this is the shape, a mold that I designed. Not for Packle. Oh. Not that... Not to saying they can't use it or whatever. Right, right, right. But... Essentially how it works is I'll make CAD files, design shapes for clients, brands. And then that will go to the factory where, you know, that brand's paddles are manufactured.

[00:44:43] That factory may manufacture for multiple brands, right? So whenever I saw the shape, I was like, hey, this looks familiar. But I didn't know for sure because it's not that crazy. It's just a flat top hybrid. Looks smart. Yeah. Whenever it came in, I have prototypes of my mold that I designed. And I put them up next to each other. It's identical. Damn.

[00:45:08] So either someone else designed the exact same shape as me, the exact same dimensions and the exact same corner radius and handle length and everything. Or the mold shape I designed for one brand was at the factory and then they offered it or Fuse asked for it or whatever in our Packle. And then now it's on the Packle Fuse. Yeah. So I have no ties to Packle, but let's call it 99% sure this was a Pickleball Etc. design shape. Nice. Hey, it's a good shape. It is. Yeah, it does look really good.

[00:45:38] It looks very similar to the Kota H shape, which is, in my opinion, the best. Kind of. Down here is a little bit, you know, you know me. Yeah. A little bit chunkier down here in the cheeks. The Kota goes up a little bit straighter. I like that, man. Let them cheeks hang out, dude. So good. All right. All right. Just a little sidebar. Just a little sidebar. So full circle. All these paddles are damn good. All these paddles perform really well.

[00:46:09] The price, the performance that you're getting is better than most $180 paddles on the market right now. So take all that we've said with a grain of salt, because if you buy one of these paddles, I'd be very shocked if you picked it up and said, oh, this paddle sucks. In fact, I would think something's probably wrong with you. But all right. Well, you want to move on to your new segment? Time for the new segment.

[00:46:39] All right. All right, dude. You guys got to help us with this, because I have two working names, and I need to figure out. This is a perfect segue, by the way. But we need to figure out what's going to be the name of the segment, and we'll see if it's repeating or not. Hopefully not. All right. Should we name this segment, how the fuck are these paddles legal? Or should we name it, the USAP stamp is meaningless? So that's the theme.

[00:47:07] And like I said, it's a good segue. I'll hold up these same four paddles that I've been testing. Each of them have some serious concerns as far as legality for me. Okay. Let's walk through this from least concerning to most. Justin over here just being a hater. Sorry. Look, okay, I feel like I have a lot of insider knowledge over what actually passes testing and what doesn't. Yeah.

[00:47:36] And I regularly work on prototypes that fail testing, and I know why. Yeah. So whenever then I get stuff in my hand, I'm like, wait a minute. Hold on. You know? Time out. It makes me really curious. Okay? Yeah. Yeah. Least to worst offenders here. Vsoltor, not a huge offender, right? Right. Honestly, power-wise, deflection-wise, everything seems fine. But this grit, USAP... How the hell is this grit? Come on. No. And we're still on the stare at this point.

[00:48:05] I know that they started their spin testing protocol that you could submit as of July 15th, but even those paddles, if they went under the new RPM, wouldn't be approved until October 1st. This is not approved under USAP's RPM test. This is approved under their... And it's coming out September 1st, right? What, this? Yeah, September 1st is the Vsoltor? Yeah, I'm not sure. It was approved on July 21st, so it wasn't submitted under that. It wouldn't be approved until October 1st if it was under that new RPM. So, yeah. I mean, cool.

[00:48:35] You have a great durable grit. It's really gritty. It gets good spin. But then you have the USAP stamp on it. I'm confused. Is that the grittiest USAP paddle that you've ever filled? No. It's not even the grittiest USAP paddle in this stack. Bro, this one is grittier than all of my other ones in here. For sure. Not for me. Damn. And it's not the grittiest I've ever felt. Some of those Thrive paddles specifically that just hang off your shirt. There's been quite a few, actually.

[00:49:04] We all know them. But anyway, it's the least bad offender. Whatever. It's a grit roughness. That's why we're moving to RPM anyway. That stare at roughness test we know kind of sucks. So, I'm not even hating on it. I'm saying that. Don't care about the grit. As long as it's... Once October 1st comes, as long as it passes the spin test, don't care. Okay. Yeah. Now, these three are interesting to me. Okay. Sparta Spitfire. Also crazy gritty. Right?

[00:49:33] So, there's the grit question. Then there's an additional question beyond. And this is where I'm going to get into this. I tested this for deflection with my UPA machine. And it tested at 29 pounds, which is a lower number means more deflection. The face is deflecting more. Deflection does correlate with PB core. So, the more face deflects, the higher it will score on PB core. Right? And we can tell from the sound, from the weight, from the bounce, everything. This is a super low density core.

[00:50:03] 29 pounds whenever I first got this. That was the lowest deflection I had ever measured of any paddle. And that includes prototypes that I also know failed the testing. So, to me, that's wild. And it's actually not even crazy powerful. So, I'm not even saying like, oh, it's just some illegal rocket launcher. But how in the hell would this have passed USAP's deflection? And yeah, the grit. Okay. So, that being said, I tested that a while back when it came in.

[00:50:32] Then we get the mark unmarked. Okay. This is equally as gritty. Again, not something that would pass stare it. I test it on deflection. Guess what? 29 pounds. It ties with the Spitfire for the lowest I've ever measured. And just for some context real quick. Paddles that you expect to pass, the kind of, let's just say, rough line is like 42 pounds. Right? If you're in the low 40s, danger zone big time.

[00:51:00] I mean, really, if you're below 50, danger zone. And I would say most paddles on the market are in the 50s range, sometimes even the 60s. Remember, a higher number means less deflection because it takes more pounds to deflect it. And to clarify. 20s, bro? 70% correlation with deflection. Yeah. 70% correlation. Not necessarily fact, to be clear. Yeah. 70% correlation. But when we're talking about USAP, there's a deflection test. And then there's PB core.

[00:51:27] So, the fact that these have super low pound deflection makes me question how would they pass either of those tests. Yeah. So, yeah. This is in the same bucket as the Spitfire, although significantly more powerful. And then here we go to the Paco Fuse. Okay. Remember I said 29 pounds on the Spitfire, lowest ever tested. Mark unmarked tied at 29 pounds. I'm like, whoa, this is crazy. Immediately followed by the Paco Fuse, 26 pounds. Even lower. And it feels like it, too.

[00:51:56] That's why I'm telling you mine is not stiff. You got a weird unit, bro. This is a ton of deflection on this one. Yeah. And the grit, like I said, identical to the Spitfire. So, I ain't passing this there, bro. You got a crazy unit on that one. Or this is how they're making them now. How does your Spitfire feel in relation to the mark unmarked?

[00:52:25] It feels actually in the same family of feel, but a less powerful version. Okay. But they both are soft and hollow. So, it's just like the unmarked is a ramped up version. Do you feel like the unmarked has less prominent feedback? You mean like more muted? Yeah. But not like... Slightly. It's not a muted paddle. It's just a little bit more muted. Yeah, yeah. Slightly. Yeah. The Spitfire has a little bit more crispness to it. Yeah. Okay. All right.

[00:52:53] So, our units are probably pretty similar. Yeah. And then for me, this unmarked and this new Paco Fuse, they sound and feel identical, which is crazy because the builds are very different. That is crazy. Now, that being said, the unmarked is still more powerful, slightly, than the fuse. But the sound, I'm telling you, it's... I was shocked. I tested this indoors and outdoors. Identical sound. Basically, identical feel. Just a slightly different feel.

[00:53:23] More power on the unmarked. Anyway, so... I'm confused, y'all. I'm confused. What does it mean? You know what I mean? So, that's the new segment that hopefully I won't have to do again. But if I end up with another stack of paddles, especially if they all happen within a week, damn. You know what I mean? Well, I'll give my thoughts on the matter.

[00:53:50] I think USAP is just kind of doing a pretty poor job lately. But, yeah, I mean, it's... We talked about the old bait and switch. We know how gritty a paddle is supposed to feel to pass USAP. Or how much deflection it's supposed to have. Or how powerful it's supposed to be. You know? Like, whenever we have a reference range of hundreds of paddles, we can tell you pretty quickly, oh, this feels illegal as shit.

[00:54:18] This whole time, I thought this was a UPA-approved paddle. The Paclifuse. No. Bro. Bro. I thought DuraSpin was UPA. Wow. I feel like an idiot. Sorry, guys. I'm being a bad reviewer. Wow. USA Pickleball. Yeah. Jesus, dude. I just looked at this. None of these paddles we've talked about are UPA. It's a different story with them. Yeah. Because they will enforce their rules.

[00:54:47] And there's major fines and stuff. The good news is... I mean, they have fewer paddles to manage, but that's on purpose. That's intentional. All of these paddles would probably pass the spin test. Based on... UPA spin test? Yeah. Oh, the RPM test. Yeah. Or even the USA. Probably. Probably. They would at least be close. They're not egregious or anything. Yeah. But the deflection and power levels are pretty egregious compared to what is legal for USAP. Power levels...

[00:55:17] But... The unmarked, bro? The deflection, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, let me... Not all of them. I think the... I think the Spitfire and the V-Soul Tour are definitely within reason of being a legal power paddle. The V-Soul Tour, I'm not even like... Yeah. It's fine. It's just gritty. Whatever. It's cutting it close. But then again, so is the Q2. So is the Boomstick. Q2 for sure is... Aerocyclone.

[00:55:46] I think the Boomstick is a little step below. The Cyclone is, for sure. I would include Cyclone, Q2, Fuse, Unmarked, a tier of their own, Insane Power. Also, probably some of those Element 6 paddles that I've only got to try for one game, so I don't have ones to really say. Yeah. That's... It would be... What was the one that was crazy that we got, dude? Sirocco. Oh my God, dude. That was a... I feel like Ripple. The Beta Ripple. Yeah. Yeah, Beta Ripple. Which, by the way, I would be so curious to pull out the old Gearbox PPE, the Beta Ripple,

[00:56:19] Core Crushed... Sorry. I thought I heard something. Yeah. Core Crushed Gen 3, and then tested against these. Oof. I'd be really curious. That would be interesting. I do think that the Power Pro elongated probably isn't anything crazy now. Maybe not. It was genuinely psychotic when it came out. Like, I remember... It felt dangerous. I was like, this is unbelievable. There's no way this is a legal battle. All right.

[00:56:48] Let's jump into Selkirk Bex. All right. You... Which one did you get? I have the Duffel. The Duffel. I'm trying to put it up here for you guys. And I think... I got the... These are launching today, by the way. They are... That's the big backpack. Do you have two ball sleeves on the side or one? Two, baby. I got two balls. Yeah, you got the... Sleeves. The... The... You got the big backpack. There's a big backpack. Like, 45 liter. That's what you have. There's a 25 liter.

[00:57:18] It's a smaller one. And then there's this big, billy duffel right here. That's a big boy. Of course they gave you the Duffel. What? You look like... For the Duffel? No, you look like you like Duffels. Do I? You look like... You look like a Duffel man. Comment below. Does Justin look like he would... Like, always use a Duffel bag when going... On vacation or camping? I'll Duffel it up, bro. I actually haven't ever, but I would. Now that I have this.

[00:57:49] These are... Incredibly nice. Yeah. Like, truly, these might be... The nicest bags on the market. We've gotten a lot of bags. What do you think is nicer? I saw that look. I know what my wife... No, I guess you're right. Let's put it on par with forward and ADB. That's the premium bags. I like this way better than the forward bags. The forward bags are way too rigid.

[00:58:21] Way too rigid for me. Especially the original forward bag. This is super nice, though. And this looks really nice. Like, you know... It's not too loudly branded. Alright, how much is yours? There's a really nice touches. So, the Duffel is $200. And then the small backpack is $250. The big backpack is $300. $300 for this bad boy. Yeah. Which...

[00:58:50] It is incredibly nice. Incredibly nice. One of the nicest bags that I've ever seen. But $300 is a lot of money. Like, it's a lot. A bag is, like... Not easy to make. Not easy to design. And if you have good materials and thoughtfully designed, like... I think it's actually kind of worth it. A bag is something that you could use for so many years. There's a lot of thoughtfully designed parts of this bag, too. Yeah. Limited lifetime warranty, of course.

[00:59:20] Two basically ball sleeves where you can put three balls in. Magnets to clamp everything together. Shoe compartment. Well, then there's the little mesh that comes out and hooks on those red hooks to put the shoes in the front, like the ADV Flex. It comes out of the bottom. Swings out. Hooks on those two. Oh, that's where it was. I was trying to figure out where the hell it goes. Okay, yeah. So, it goes here. You put the shoes in here. ADV Flex style. Yeah.

[00:59:51] Nice. Okay. I was trying to look for that before filming. I was like... I could have sworn I saw somebody do that. I was like, maybe it was a different bag. And just magnets everywhere. Everywhere, dude. That's kind of interesting. Magda. It's like... Magda. All of the major compartments and then like the quick access compartments have zippers. But then they also have like magnetic flaps that flip over and close or magnetic closures. So... Big O'Walla. Here's... Easy.

[01:00:19] Here's what I'll say about that magnet thing. It is a really nice touch. I think it's a blessing and a curse because the blessing is when you're just at the courts and you're using your bag or whatever, you can just unzip it once and then it just kind of like magnets back closed and you don't have to like rezip it every time. So, you're not like leaving your bag wide open. It's pretty much staying closed even your quick access. It does. Um, so that's actually pretty nice. And then you can go over and just, you know, pull it open with the magnets and get in there and then it'll close again.

[01:00:50] So, that's the blessing part. The curse part is whenever you're getting into this bag initially or getting into these pockets, it's kind of a pain in the ass because now you have to open two closures. You're like, open the magnets and then hold them out of the way because they keep trying to close while you unzip. Yeah. Yeah. So, but ultimately I think it's worth the price because, you know, you only have to do that the first time you open it and then while you're there, you just leave it unzipped. Even the quick access has a little flap that flips down over the zipper.

[01:01:17] Um, the duffel, another thing I'll say about it, and this is probably totally intentional, but it is not really your like one bag for pickleball. It's not practical enough. It doesn't have quick access for balls. Um, there are some sleeves for paddles in there, but they aren't the quickest or easiest to get to. Uh, and then also the shoe pocket on the side is ventilated with mesh, which is really nice. Two things about it. Number one, if you have three, four paddles in there, then you try to put your shoes in.

[01:01:47] They hit the handles of the paddles. You have to reach in the bag, lift the handles of the paddles out of the way, put the shoes in and let those rest back down. Second thing is I don't even have a big foot. I'm wearing a size 10 shoe and my shoes barely fit into that pocket. I had to basically cram them in like upside down and matching. Then as if I'm closed. So I think the duffel is a really cool supplementary bag. If you have like your pickleball backpack with your balls, your grips, your paddles, all your playing stuff.

[01:02:16] And then you have the duffel with change of clothes, towel, maybe extra slides, uh, things like that, you know, electrolytes, food. Great. Great. Cause then it's like more, just like open it up and get to everything. Or the duffel is going to be really good for non pickleball stuff. If you're just traveling, but not flying, cause it's kind of too big to fly with without checking. Um, but I would use it for that, like a weekend or trip or like say I drive down to Baton Rouge to go, you know, hang out for three, four days and play tournament. That's the bag I would like pack my clothes in.

[01:02:45] Cause it's quite a nice bag. Yeah. And it's got really good organization and it's plenty of room and the straps and everything are super high quality. So that's my thoughts on the duffel. More of a supplementary bag, not a one stop shop pickleball bag. I'm going to try my Silkirk bag. Uh, now it's released and see how it does. Cause it is nice. Um, I do like that mesh little liner for the shoe shoes. Um, makes it easy. And the ball pocket things look awesome. Ball pockets are very, yeah. One finger.

[01:03:17] It just takes one finger, baby. Um, all right. Well, uh, Jesus Christ. Oh God. All right. Well, Silkirk bags, they came out. Uh, let's move on. You can't, can't stop talking about finger in the balls. All right. Uh, do you want to do net gains or you want to skip that? No, skip that. All right. We're, we're working on some shit. We're trying to get better at pickleball. We still suck.

[01:03:47] All right. Uh, net gains. Thank you. Woo. Lock it. All right. Um, everybody ready for our favorite segment? New week, new me. Oh man. Sponsored by Bodie Performance. You can use code pursuit to save 15% check, check, check out when purchasing anything on BodiePerformance.com. They got sleeves. They got weights. They got grips. They got all kinds of shit.

[01:04:16] Uh, we've, we love Bodie. Good God. Oh boy. All right. Um. I got a stitch. Yeah. It's new week, baby. You got a new main or you still just, uh, prototyping it? Same. Pretty much just prototyping it. But, and then I will say the same thing I said kind of last week. It's sort of a new week, two mains. And this is going to come into play. Finally. Uh, J2CR Blue Grit or Jellybean 2 Ultra.

[01:04:45] And I have a, not a tournament. It's like a, I guess it's a tournament, but it's not duper. It's like a scramble event. Scramble tournament. Scramble? Where you like change partners. Playing golf? On Friday, um, at this place out of town. So I will have to use an approved paddle. I can't just like show up with my all black prototype and be like, this is good. You know? Yeah. It probably is fine, but I won't do that. Yeah. So I'll have to choose. And look, I'm still not outright choosing. Here's what I'm going to do.

[01:05:14] I'm going to assess the situation. Assess it. I know it's outdoors. What ball are you guys playing with? Are we busting out some fresh lifetimes? Or do you got some old beat up lifetimes and or a Franklin, God forbid, or anything like that? God forbid. You know, if it's old ball, slow ball, and already know it's outdoors and it's going to be 90 something degrees, then I'm going J2CR. However, in the case that it's fresh lifetimes, I'm going for the Jellybean 2.

[01:05:45] And I can switch between these two pretty easily, surprisingly, even though they're very different. I think they're both very good. As long as I start with one and stick with it. I can't actually switch mid-session. I just need to start with one and stick with it. Yeah. Yeah, you got to stay with it. Can't just switch. All right. Actually, I haven't touched either of them. I've just been playing my prototypes. Quick question. Have you ever played with the Yola ball HC40 or something like that? That's a new one. I played with the older ones, the Helios and some other ones.

[01:06:13] But no, the HC40, I think, is a new one I haven't tried. Have you heard anything about them? We got to play with those in the MLP. Yeah, it's really mushy, is what I heard. Well, I'll play indoor, so it shouldn't be too bad. Here's a little tidbit for you. They just announced PPA Asia, which was using the Yola balls because it's very Yola sponsored. It's going to start using the Lifetime ball. And it said on the announcement, LT48 powered by Yola. What the hell does that mean? Did Yola buy a piece of Lifetime ball?

[01:06:43] Did they invest in Lifetime? Is there some kind of financial partnership there? I can't imagine Lifetime being okay with saying their ball is powered by Yola unless there was some financial agreement. Good for the PPA Asia. Have you ever cut open a Lifetime ball? There's a horseshoe foam. Oh, my God. Oh, shit. But anyway, so that'll be interesting. I wonder if there's some kind of burgeoning financial relationship between Lifetime and Yola. That is interesting.

[01:07:14] I mean, it's smart. You know, why go make a good ball when you already have one right there that everybody loves? You can buy it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. America. All right. All right. Same main or what? New week. Yeah. I played in a tournament with Spitfire and yep, I'm locked in on this paddle. Although there are a couple paddles that I'm interested in.

[01:07:42] I don't think any are going to pull me away from this, but just does nothing wrong. Literally does nothing wrong for me. It's got my preferred feel profile. Every time I switch to another paddle, I'm like, eh, this doesn't feel as good. Except the Unmarked feels exceptional. Unmarked feels really, really good to me. A couple other really good feeling paddles. Obviously, the MPP Turbo.

[01:08:07] So, that's one that's when the armor grit comes, that might be a heavy contender. Heavy contender. We'll see how that durable grit does in terms of changing its feel. But, Spitfire, great paddle. Got the optimal feel, optimal power and pop for me. Great spin. Spin's holding up really, really good. Elite spin. Spin.

[01:08:32] Yeah, the spin is damn, damn good for me blasting through this paddle, bro. I've been just beating this boy up. I'm going to order a second one. Probably should, but you know how I am, bro. I can't last long. That's when it's really a main, if you order a second one. Yeah. That is definitely it. All right. Well, new week, same main, same shoes, same bag.

[01:09:02] Going to switch to Selkirk bag just to test it out tomorrow. We'll see how it goes. Maybe next week I might have a new bag main. But, no clue. All right, dude. That's it. That's it. That's all we got. Good. I really was struggling at the end of that bag segment. Me too. I literally got a stitch. Woo. Yeah, that was good. You locked in hard for whenever you started talking about your mains. All right. I had to. One of us had to.

[01:09:31] Somebody had to man up. All right. Well, that is really it for this episode of the PP pod. Sorry we didn't talk about net gains, but, you know, we'll talk about that when we get better. Until the next one, if you have any topics, comments, as always, drop them. Don't forget to comment your favorite socks. Tell us your favorite socks. Whatever elite socks you use. Whatever elite. For playing. Yeah. Yeah. And if they're ugly, I'm not going to ever try them. Sorry, guys. That's true. Yeah.

[01:09:59] If you make ugly products, there's a 0% chance. Oh! Briote sent me some new glasses, and I need to talk about those. I wore them today and actually, dare I say, enjoyed them. Also, I was playing with a migraine. I had literal auras floating in my eyes. I was like, let me put these glasses on. That's wild. Yeah.

[01:10:25] It was about a game and a half against Louie and Ethan with auras in my eyes. So it was a little scary, but, you know, made it through. All right. That's it, guys. Comment what you got. And we'll see you on the next one. Peace. Peace. Peace.