Are Foam Core Pickleball Paddles a Problem?

Are Foam Cores A Problem for Pickleball?

Today I published my review on the new Vatic Pro Oni. You’ll have to watch the video to get the full details, but below I’ll cover some brief thoughts that touch on the video.

• Full video

Pickleball paddles have some annoying issues right now.

Quality control across the board sucks in this industry. Minus a handful of companies.

Whether it is grit that is smooth on one side and rough on another, core crushing from thermoformed paddles, handle sizes that aren’t what are advertised, edge guards peeling up, or a plethora of other issues.

Now the latest issue is these foam cores that are being referred to as “Gen 3”.

The four most recent paddles to fall into this category are the Vatic Pro Oni, CoreTek, Gearbox Pro Power and the Gen 3 Joola paddles. They take different approaches, but they are aiming for similar concepts, which is more power via foam or trampoline concepts.

The problem with the Vatic design is that it seems the foam expands too much and presses the polymer cells out which is effectively core crushing.

The Gen 3 Joola doesn’t seem to have the same issue because the foam is in the non hitting area of the paddle and the core is cutout to allow for some of the foam expansion. However, I’m a bit skeptical that these won’t have issues of their own in the long run. But, that’s largely me basing it off of Joola’s QC history.

The Gearbox Pro Power has a “break in” stage where it gets hotter and hotter. Not to mention small foam crunching sounds that some units would make.

My CoreTek unit from February also had an issue where the foam was overstuffed and pushing up the face which made the paddles hit much harder.

To CoreTeks credit, I haven’t hit any models since that time, so the issue could be fixed. Though, based on the other foam core paddle issues, I’m a bit skeptical.

Spotting a trend yet?

All of these paddles with foam materials seem to have issues or a “break in” where they continue to get hotter.

Someone also needs to explain this to me. How are companies even getting away with these concepts when USAP has this written?

The paddle market has become such a joke with paddles that are over the grit limit, have too much power, or consistent core crushing which lets “illegal” paddles float around in the wild, etc.

It baffles me that USAP hasn’t found a way to deal with this when they literally have a written rule around it.

Sigh…rant over.

Luqi Grips

Some of you have asked me what overgrips I am using these days. I used to be a huge user of Tourna Mega Tac and Yonex Super Grap, both of those are top tier grips in my opinion.

I can’t remember how I found Luqi grips, I think it was through Pickleball Will first? Either way, doesn’t really matter but I enjoy them a lot. They have several models and the one that I like is Luqi Supreme

It’s not nearly as tacky as Mega Tac and feels more plush/cushy which I think feels really nice.

They have three other models too.

• Luqi Ultimate (I think this is supposed to be similar to Mega Tac)

• Luqi Lite (a very thin overgrip)

• Luqi Super Dry (probably similar to regular Tourna Tac)

I haven’t used the other ones yet because I’ve enjoyed using Supreme a bunch. I think it’s the only overgrip I’ve used for the last 6ish or more months.

Certainly not game changing, but I do really like them and they come in lots of colors which is always fun.

Code PBSTUDIO will save you 10% if you plan to pick some up.

Website is here

🎙️ Latest podcast

If you missed it, this week Will and I discussed the ethics of being a paddle reviewer. I realized that I think about these things all the time, but I’ve never really publicly discussed my ethics and how I approach my reviews.

If you want a bit of a behind the scenes look at how we handle all the different situations related to reviewing paddles, this is the episode to watch.