Hi friends!

We've got a packed email for you this week!

The ball cannon segment got really interesting this week. Two paddles actually gained spin after the accelerated wear test, which has me rethinking where the friction-based spin ceiling really sits.

We also did a new segment with Eddie that he came up with (already done by PB Studio last year): a blind paddle ranking game where you place paddles on a leaderboard without knowing what is coming next. Plus an Enhance MPP Turbo first impression, a Selkirk OMNI tease, and a shoe update on the JOOLA R4LLYs after six weeks of play.

Let's dive in!

In this week's email:

Read time: 7 mins

SNEAK PEEK: KEWCAST EPISODE 109

This week on KewCast, we’re diving deep into one of the biggest technology shifts happening in pickleball: the evolution of paddle surfaces beyond traditional raw carbon fiber. We break down three completely different patent approaches from Six Zero, Selkirk, and Gearbox - and the fascinating part is that all three companies appear to be solving the exact same problem in radically different ways.

From Six Zero’s “Diamond Tough” embedded grit concept, to Selkirk’s directional groove architecture, to Gearbox exploring replaceable textured faces and variable spin zones… paddle surfaces are starting to look less like simple coatings and more like fully engineered systems. We also discuss why surface roughness alone probably doesn’t explain spin anymore… and why factors like texture geometry, isotropy, and directional friction may become the next frontier of paddle performance.

We also ran one of the most interesting paddle experiments we’ve done in a while: if you match swing weight and twist weight perfectly, will an edgeless paddle play the same as one with an edge guard?

Using multiple Gearbox and Six Zero setups, we discovered that the answer appears to be… not quite. Even at matched specs, the edged paddles consistently showed better sweet spot behavior and more forgiveness on off-center shots. The discussion led us into some surprisingly deep territory involving edge stiffness, paddle flex behavior, vibration characteristics, and why edge guards may influence performance in ways that go far beyond simple protection. That being said, some strides in edgeless paddle performance are being made and will be released soon.

Plus: new paddle impressions (including the Six Zero Coral Pro), fresh grit durability data from the ball cannon, and a Q&A segment covering paddle noise ratings, lower-speed spin testing, movable weight systems, and whether softer paddle faces can actually break through the “spin ceiling.”

PICKLEBALL NEWS

Quiet news week, but one thing worth flagging from the Selkirk and Bread & Butter merger we covered last episode.

Selkirk just extended the warranty on Bread & Butter paddles from six months to a full year. Doug at Bread & Butter announced it himself in a video that had everyone going for a second, since he opened by spoofing a price hike on the Loco. The Loco is staying at the same price. The warranty is the actual change, and it is a real one.

This is the first concrete sign that Selkirk is using its operational muscle to support Bread & Butter without flattening the brand. The fact that Doug is the one delivering the news, in full Bread & Butter tone, is also a good sign that the merger is going to leave the creative side alone.

The soft embargo just lifted, so I can mention it: Selkirk has a new paddle coming called the OMNI. I cannot talk about the construction yet, but I have been playing with one. It is more of an all-court option, in the same family as the Boomstik but less powerful. There is one piece of the technology that I think is going to make a lot of people very happy. That is all I can say for now.

PADDLES OF THE WEEK

If you have been following the MPP Turbo line, you already know I am a fan. The elongated and the widebody both landed for me. Now there is a hybrid, and it is a welcome addition to the lineup.

The shape is a flat-topped hybrid, no taper in the sidewalls. It reads like a slightly shorter version of the elongated. Similar to JOOLA’s Kosmos.

Surface is standard raw carbon fiber, no claimed durable grit. The grit is on the aggressive side of legal, middle of the road compared to what is out on the market right now. Spin was not a problem for either of us. I would guess it lands around 2,100 to 2,200 RPM with the arm, in line with most raw carbon paddles.

On court, I did not expect to like a third Turbo shape this much, but I do. Eddie and I both added weight (Pickle Clips) on ours, and without planning, we ended up with almost identical setups out of the gate. The sweet spot is very generous even stock, and I would probably take the clips off and play closer to bare. Three grams per side might be all this needs. The feel is that low-pitched MPP thonk that the Inferno made famous, with a slightly bigger plate than the elongated since the face is wider. High firepower, but sitting in the middle of that band, which is where I personally like it for control.

A couple of things to know about MPP paddles in general: they soften a bit and lose a little pop as you play with them. Not a huge swing, but something to be aware of. If pop is what you want, that drift will frustrate you. If you find raw MPP a little too poppy at the start, that drift actually works in your favor.

Eddie picked it up with no adjustment. He flagged easy resets in particular: balls coming hard at his feet that he could just put the paddle on without forward pressure and float back over. Drives felt loud. He thinks this might be the thonckiest of all three Turbo shapes.

For $100 after code, this is elite performance at a price that does not exist anywhere else in this feel profile. I genuinely cannot think of a better option in that range. The only reason to skip it is if you specifically want a different feel profile, or you want to wait for a $100 paddle with a real durable grit (those are coming, just not yet from Enhance on the Turbo line).

Enhance MPP Turbo ($20 off with code JOHNKEW)

TALES FROM THE BALL CANNON

We test paddles by measuring how much spin they generate before and after accelerated wear.

The goal is simple: find out which paddles hold their spin over time, and which ones fall apart. Most paddles lose some spin. The question is how much.

Here is how it works. To evaluate grit durability in a controlled way, I first measure a paddle’s baseline RPM using a high-speed camera, a clamped 30-degree paddle angle, and a ball cannon firing at 60 MPH. The paddle then undergoes an accelerated wear phase consisting of 100 impacts at 70 MPH at the same location, before being retested under identical conditions to measure spin retention and durability changes over time.

So far, we have four tiers. Tier 4 is raw carbon paddles, which lose about 20% of their spin after wear. A few readers asked whether anything falls below that. Turns out, yes.

Two paddles were tested this week: the Selkirk Power Air and the Engage Encore. Both are classic spray-on grit paddles. The kind that were everywhere three years ago.

The Power Air dropped 33.6%. Practically speaking, anyone already chasing durable spin is not shopping in this tier. But there is something more interesting here than just the percent loss.

The Power Air showed wild shot-to-shot inconsistency. After wear, individual shots ranged from about 1,200 RPM all the way up to 2,300 RPM. In a normal test, my ball cannon gives me a standard deviation of 100 RPM or less. This paddle was around 400 after accelerated wear.

What that tells us: the worn grit on these older paddles is not just weaker, it is unpredictable. Some hits find a few leftover grit particles and grip. The rest skate right off. That shot-to-shot variance is a separate failure mode we have not talked about much before, and it is a big reason why these paddles feel so unreliable after heavy use.

Eddie, by the way, got pretty close to predicting both numbers just by rubbing the face. 15 to 20% on the Encore (actual: 23%). 20% plus on the Power Air (actual: 33.6%). Sensitive finger.

Here is where things got interesting.

Two paddles came back from the wear test with more spin than they started with. Not a little more. A lot more.

For context, our three current durability leaders, the Spartus P1, Honolulu Blue Grit, and 11Six24 Hex Grit, all bumped up too, but only 0.5 to 1.6%. That is basically a rounding error.

The Proton Nanotac jumping 12.5% is not a rounding error.

Worth noting on the Owl: it ripped spin straight out of the box at 2,729 RPM. That is higher than nearly every other paddle we have tested.

Three possibilities I am working through:

Option 1: The friction-based spin ceiling is higher than I thought.

I had been working off a ceiling around 2,400 to 2,500 RPM based on the durable grit paddles topping out in that range. If the Nanotac is hitting 2,644 on pure friction, the real ceiling might be closer to 2,800 to 3,000 RPM.

Option 2: Elastic snapback is in play. We have covered this before with ping-pong rubber and how it stretches under contact and snaps back, launching the ball into the 4,000 RPM range. If the Nanotac has any rubber-like behavior, or the Owl's felt is grabbing and releasing the ball with added elasticity, that could add a few hundred RPM on top of friction alone.

Option 3: A little of both. Higher friction ceiling, plus subtle surface-specific snapback on these two paddles.

I shot the impacts at 9,000 frames per second to look for visible snapback. On the Nanotac, the shadow under the ball was too dark to confirm anything. The felt on the Owl is definitely grabbing onto the ball, stretching, then releasing. But it’s hard to say if it actually is adding an elastic component.

EDDIE’S NEW SEGMENT

This one is Eddie's idea, and we ran it for the first time on the show. Turns out Pickleball Studio had the same idea last year and ran with it. It’s already becoming hard to come up with original ideas in this space, haha.

Five mystery paddles, each handed to you one at a time. You place each one on a five-spot leaderboard before you see the next paddle.

Once a paddle is placed, that slot is locked. Neither of us saw the other's list before the show.

The catch is you do not know what is coming, so every placement is a bet. Put the second paddle at number one and you might end up burying a better paddle at number two. Put it at five and you might leave nothing for the worst paddle in the lineup.

We then re-ranked according to our actual preferences and scored by how many slots each paddle had to move. Eddie won - he only needed two swap outs; I needed 6. I’ll get him next year when we run it back!

Eddie's biggest miss was placing the Spartus P1 at four (he moved it to two on the rerank). Mine was the Vatic Pro V-Sol Pro, which I knew I was going to regret in real time.

Eddie also prompted ChatGPT in his paddle picks for me. He asked it to recommend paddles "to beat Johnkew at pickleball" and it confidently delivered descriptions of my game like "highly strategic, loves a crunch middle forehand poach when his partner drives down the line." I have never said the phrase "crunch middle" in my life. AI is generic in a very funny way.

This was a blast. Going to keep running it. If there are paddles you want to see in a future blind rank, drop them in the comments.

GEAR OF THE WEEK

I switched over to the JOOLA R4LLY as my main court shoe a few weeks back and wanted to give a real update now that I have meaningful time on them.

Six weeks in, these are some my favorite court shoes I have worn. A few specifics:

The one thing JOOLA needs to add is an outsole warranty. These are the most expensive court shoes on the market right now, and the absence of a warranty stands out at that price.

JOOLA R4LLY Purchase Link (Affiliate)

Eddie brought these up. They are not a daily court shoe. They look like a street shoe or a skater shoe, $138, and they have just enough sole performance to make them work for pickleball in a pinch.

The pitch is travel. Eddie took them on a four-day business trip with dinners, an awards ceremony, meetings, and indoor and outdoor pickleball games, and these were the only shoes he packed. They held up perfectly across all of it. Not high-performance for athletics, but enough grip and stiffness to handle a casual game without embarrassing themselves. If you travel a lot and want one pair that covers business casual and a pickleball session, this is your shoe.

Selkirk Legacy Purchase Link (use code INF-JOHNKEW for digiital coupon)

KEW & A

Two paddles for this one, and they both come from the durable grit group.

The Six Zero Coral and the Spartus P1 are my picks. Both sit lower on the firepower scale than the other durable grit options, which is where you want to be if pop-ups are your main issue. Both feel a little denser and softer, which most players find easier to control on resets. And both are still in the upper tier on actual spin retention.

Eddie chose the Honolulu J2CR or J6CR, but they are higher on the firepower and pop scales. You can adapt to that, but if you are starting from a place of fighting pop-ups, the Coral or the P1 is going to get you there faster.

Question 2 (Bucky Young): Why do you think an edge guard is important to a good paddle?

This question inspired an experiment for next week, so the full answer is coming on the next episode. The setup: same paddle, same shape, same total weight, one edgeless and one with an edge guard. Match the static weight, swing weight, and twist weight as closely as possible and hit them side by side. We are using the Gearbox Pro Ultimate Power (edgeless) against the Gearbox GX2 Power, and the Six Zero Ruby against the Six Zero Ruby Infinity.

Quick framing for now: I do not think it is purely a weight or twist weight story. If it were, somebody would have already built an edgeless paddle that everyone loved, and that has not happened yet. My suspicion is that the rubberized edge guard is doing something to vibration frequencies that you cannot replicate just by adding lead tape. We will see what the side-by-side says.

A few things on deck:

The questions in this newsletter keep getting sharper, and that is what pushes the methodology forward more than any new piece of equipment. So keep them coming.

See you in the next one. Cheers.

- John