Best Paddles for $100 for Less Coming Soon

Author

Chris Olson
March 24, 2023

What’s up, guys? Today we are talking about thermoforming updates (I know, it never ends…), upcoming content, and some great news you should check out.

🎥 Zane Navratil Signature 14mm Review

This week I reviewed the Zane Navratil Signature 14mm. This was an interesting paddle to review, because I don’t think it’s objectively bad, it’s just that thermoformed paddles have thrown such a massive wrench into the paddle market.

Prior to these new companies launching, Zane’s paddle wouldn’t have been a horrible price but now with these thermoformed paddles ranging from $130-$180, it makes it REALLY hard to spend $200+ on paddles that just can’t compete with thermoforming, and no, I’m not talking about when they delaminate, only in their stock form as they were intended to be.

I really do think that most 13mm and 14mm paddles are strictly worse than thermoformed paddles. The thermoformed ones have better power, and bigger sweet spots. The largest downfall to Zane’s was the less than impressive sweet spot.

Now with that being said, if thermoformed paddles didn’t exist, I think Zane’s paddle would be pretty solid, but when you can spend $130 for a paddle that performs better in almost every single category, why would you spend $190?

📢 Thermoforming updates

I want to keep everyone posted on the current situations. Next week I will hopefully be releasing an update video on all the situations with each company involved. Until then, I will not be posting a review of a thermoformed paddle. With the uncertainty of their future, I don’t want to promote paddles that I love and then have them get banned. This update video will probably come with a disclaimer about what you should do as a customer and then you can make your own decision. It also helps me not have to repeat the delamination issue in every single review.

I’m slowly receiving the new glue batches from the companies and I will keep you posted on if they delaminate. I have myself and a friend playing with them to see if they break from normal play. Since I have so many paddles to review, I can’t spend a month+ only each thermoform paddle just to see if it breaks which is why my friend Josh is helping. He’s broken at least 3 thermoformed paddles so far.

Just like all of you, I want this situation to be resolved and move on.

💰 Best paddles under $100

Another project I am working on is the best paddles for $100 or less. If you have a suggestion for a paddle you’d like to have me test, shoot me a reply to this email. It isn’t feasible for me to test every single paddle in that price range, but I want to make sure I’m aware of ones that I might have missed. Here are paddles that I am currently testing for the video:

  • PCKL Power Series

  • PCKL Pro Series

  • Bread n Butter Drip & Spear

  • Spartus

  • Bison

  • Ronbus R1.16

  • Upcoming Vatic Pro release

  • Upcoming SLK Evo release (These have been delayed several times…I know I mentioned it back in November.)

  • Upcoming Wild Monkeys release

  • Bantam TS-5

  • SixZero Sapphire

There are a lot of other paddles I could test, but I’ve ruled many of them out because I already know they are a worse value or worse performer than ones I am testing now.

My hope is to have Zane’s paddle reviewed sometime next week if my schedule goes according to plan. I’m still in my testing phase, but my initial impressions after several playtests aren’t that promising…the paddle has a few flaws that I don’t like. The issues may be solvable from home, but I’ll have to test more to know for sure.

Side note…I’ve joked with Zane about his paddle looking ugly, so I went ahead and redesigned it in photoshop this morning for fun haha 😂. The current one has too many logos, upper case, and lower case text while having XR plastered everywhere. Simple is better.

📝 Spreadsheet update

New discount code tab

If you aren’t aware, I have a paddle stats spreadsheet with all of the paddles that get sent to me. It has all the relevant stats of a paddle that you can use to compare against other paddles inside of it (video tutorial on the website page)

Recently I made an update to add a “Discount code” tab where you can see what affiliate links I have for which companies that can save you a percentage on your order.

In the future, I’m hoping to add even more tabs with information that makes it easier to digest and filter categories of paddles.

🔥 News worth reading

🎙️ Latest podcast

If you missed it, we talked heavily about the paddle drama that unfolded last week during the Austin PPA tournament.

Thanks for reading the newsletter, and I’ll catch you guys in the next one.