Hi friends!

100 episodes. I still can't believe it.

It started at Abo's Pizzeria in Louisville. I pitched Eddie the idea over a slice. He showed up to the first recording, not even knowing it was going to be on video. He thought it was audio-only. His face when he saw the camera setup was priceless.

Two years and a few thousand paddles later, we just crossed 30,000 subscribers and six million views. So this week, we're celebrating. We've got a massive giveaway, some updated spin data that changed how I think about testing, and a bunch of rapid-fire hot takes that got heated.

Let’s dive in!

In this week’s email:

GIVEAWAY

I reached out to every company making durable grit paddles right now and asked if they'd contribute to a giveaway for Episode 100. Every single one said yes immediately.

Here's the lineup:

To enter, there's a Google Form link below. Drop your name and email, subscribe to the newsletter, and hit submit.

I'll use a random number generator to pick eight winners.

If you enter, consider giving these brands a follow. They didn't hesitate to support this.

TALES FROM THE BALL CANNON

I've been increasing the sample sizes on all the durable grit tests from the last few weeks. More shots, more data points, tighter averages.

I also added the Honolulu J2CR Blue Grit to the lineup now that it's UPAA-approved.

The headline: two paddles showed absolutely no measurable spin loss after 100 shots at 60 mph.

Updated Results:

The Vapor Power 2 and the Honolulu J2CR both came back at exactly 2,540 RPM before and after.

That top-end cluster didn't move. Now, there's about a 20 RPM wiggle room in the measurement (it comes down to frame counting at over a thousand frames per second), but even accounting for that, these surfaces are holding up remarkably well.

The Spartus P1 is still the spin king. 2,900 RPM to start. Even after a 4.5% drop, it ends higher than every other paddle begins. That's wild.

The Selkirk Luxx 2 at 13.2% loss is the one I'm watching. Before anyone writes off Infinigrit, I want to test a newer formulation. Both of my Luxx 2s have mileage on them, and Selkirk may have improved the process since then. The Boomstick is next in the testing queue.

For context, raw carbon fiber (the Vatic Saga Flash) lost 18%. That's roughly what 2 to 3 months of regular play looks like. So when these durable grits are losing 3 to 5%, that's a meaningful difference in longevity.

Here's where it gets interesting.

I ran every paddle through spin tests with my arm and a radar gun, then compared those numbers to the ball cannon.

Three paddles were close between the two methods (within about 100 RPM): the Honolulu J2CR, the Vapor Power 2, and the Selkirk Luxx 2.

The rest? Off by 300 to 400 RPM.

The Six Zero Coral was the biggest puzzle. I get almost 2,200 RPM with my arm, but only 1,700 on the cannon. What gives?

My theory: ball slippage. At 60 mph, the ball hits certain paddle faces so hard that it slides across the surface instead of gripping. You can actually see this in the high-speed footage. On a grippy surface like the Spartus, the ball barely moves. On less aggressive textures, it can slide two to three inches before spinning off. That sliding kills spin.

So I tested at three speeds: 40, 50, and 60 mph. Then I ran regression analysis to see which speed best predicts what I actually get with my arm on court.

With the Selkirk Luxx 2 outlier removed, the R-squared values were:

40 mph wins. And it turns out that's the same speed PPL uses in their lab testing. They probably went through the same process and landed in the same spot.

I'm seriously considering shifting all future ball cannon tests to 40 mph as the standard. The numbers will be lower than what you'd get on court, but the relative rankings between paddles will be more accurate. And honestly, that's what matters.

HOT TAKES

Eddie and I went back and forth on some big questions.

No overthinking. Just gut reactions.

Franklin, Honolulu, Bread & Butter, Six Zero, 11Six24, Chorus, Pickleball Apes.

What makes a company great: clear communication, humility about their product, and honesty about what's a prototype versus what's production-ready. There's a humbleness to the best ones. They don't walk in claiming everything is groundbreaking.

Helped. Full stop. Yes, there were growing pains. Delamination was real. But without thermoforming, we don't get Gen 4 fully floating foam paddles. And those play significantly better than non-thermoformed Gen 4s. The technology pushed the whole industry forward.

Eddie went widebody. Sweet spot, and honestly? He just likes how they look better. Which surprised me, because I always figured Eddie was more of an elongated guy. His actual take: if it's the same model, he'll probably grab the widebody or the hybrid. I'm not quite there. I still love a good elongated. But I get it. The widebody gets easier to love the more you play with one.

Both of us said no, fast. Eddie's take: pretty soon, no paddle selling in real volume will ship without it. And based on everything we've tested, the preliminary results back that up. The Spartus P1, the 11Six24 Hex Grit, and the Honolulu Blue Grit are all holding up. It's not a marketing term. The data shows it's real. The caveat: some companies are going to slap "durable grit" on something that isn't. That day is coming. But the legitimate versions are legitimate.

No. The Texas Open was a disaster with the wind this year. Like, balls going sideways. But there's something about outdoor play that makes the sport better. The chaos is part of the appeal. Lighting indoors is still bad at most venues. And from a pure aesthetics standpoint, nothing captures the look of pro pickleball better than a sunny outdoor court. Same as tennis. The ideal? A hybrid venue with indoor courts as backup for weather.

Eddie: Probably, but they won't be mainstream, and they won't be worth it. He can basically guarantee that last part. I pushed back a little. If we hit peak paddle technology and things level out, durability could actually start justifying a price premium. A paddle that holds its spin for a year instead of three months? That math changes. So yeah, $300 paddles will exist. Whether they deserve to is a different conversation.

THEN VS. NOW

We revisited KewCast Episode 28 from September 2024. That was our first predictions episode. Here's how we did.

I predicted USAP would cap PBCOR at the Ronbus Ripple level. Nope. The Ripple got sunset entirely, and PBCOR landed in a completely different spot than anyone expected. I was right that they'd cap it. Wrong on where they'd land.

Eddie predicted more extreme adjustability and weight setups built directly into paddles from the factory. Still hasn't happened. You can add lead tape yourself, but no one has cracked the adjustable OEM weight system. John's theory: USAP probably won't allow it. Even if someone builds it, the regulatory path is unclear. Still think it's a good idea. Still think it's coming eventually.

Eddie also called quiet paddles having a big market. That one didn't land. The first quiet-approved paddle was niche when it launched and it's stayed niche. The demand just isn't there the way we thought it would be.

Foam cores are taking over. Called it early. Now it's the standard. Eddie nailed core innovation in general: more foam, more hybridization of materials, moving away from honeycomb. That's basically the entire industry right now.

Eddie also predicted fewer paddle companies overall. Looking at last year's USAP-approved paddle list, the number of brands and models both came down. Consolidation is real.

Widebody paddles reaching power parity with elongated. This was mine. The old widebody was purely a control paddle. The Valair was the first one where you could generate a little offense because of the longer handle. Now? Power is basically equal between widebody and elongated. That happened faster than I expected.

Durable grit is becoming the next big innovation wave. Nailed that one. And direct spin testing, unlocking texture and durability innovation. That played out, too.

Dwell time and spin. This is the big one. We used to think more dwell time meant more spin. That's backwards.

The longer a ball slides across a paddle face, the less spin it generates. What actually drives spin is the friction coefficient of the surface. Grippy surface, high RPMs, whether the ball slips or grips. A ball that slides two inches across a paddle face before leaving it is getting almost no spin off. The high-speed camera made this obvious once we could see it.

Launch angle. We thought it was about paddle thickness or dwell time. It's almost entirely RPM. High spinning paddles launch the ball higher when you're brushing up on a topspin shot. Low spinning paddles launch lower. Watch the vintage wooden paddle tournament clips. Every pro was trying to hit topspin and the ball kept going in the net. That's not technique. That's physics.

It's humbling to go back and check your work. Some things you nail. Some things you miss badly. But that's the whole point of putting predictions on record.

WHAT’S NEXT

Standardize ball cannon testing at 40 mph. The regression data is clear. 40 mph best predicts real-world spin performance. The numbers will look lower than what you get on court, but the relative rankings between paddles will be more accurate. That's what matters. PPL landed in the same place through their own process. We're moving there.

Long-term durability testing. Right now we know which paddles hold spin after 100 shots. That's useful. But I want to push them all the way to the 300 RPM loss threshold and see how many shots it takes. That's the number where you'd actually notice performance degrading on court. Some of these durable grit paddles might take 10,000 shots to get there. Some might take 500. I want to know.

More high-speed camera work. The footage is teaching us things that data alone can't show. Ball slippage, pocketing, launch angle, surface texture under extreme impact. We're just scratching the surface of what that camera can do. I want to use it on pro player swings, not just ball cannon shots. How does an elite player's two-handed backhand topspin dink actually look compared to an amateur's? What does the paddle data look like on those swings? That's a series I want to build.

Expand the paddle database. More z-scores, more paddles, better context for every number. The goal is to make the database useful for players at every level, not just people who already know what QC core means.

Equipment upgrade, eventually. The ball cannon in my basement is 600 pounds of steel. It's not going anywhere soon, but at some point it'll need replacing. The Performance Cannon costs $150,000. I can't justify that right now. But I'm watching it. The gap between what I'm doing now and what that machine could do is real.

Two years ago, Eddie and I were two guys with a mic and a pile of paddles. Now we've got a ball cannon, a high-speed camera, a lab manager (shoutout Erica), and 30,000 people who trust us to tell the truth about gear. That's not lost on me.

Here's to the next 100. Cheers.

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