Paddle Gate 2.0 Has Arrived

Holy cow, the last 48 hours of news cycles in Pickleball have been absolutely wild…get ready for a fun newsletter. Today we’re diving into much of the thermoforming drama, and I’m going to try and clear the air with as much proper information as possible because the amount of bad information has risen to very high levels.

Paddle recap

Volair 16mm Mach 1 Review

• Video review

• Written review

• PBSTUDIO to save 10%

• Website

If you missed it yesterday, I reviewed the Volair Mach 1 and the Ronbus R1.16. It turns out, these paddles are nearly identical. I say nearly because while I’m 99% certain they are the same thing with different branding, I can’t actually know that without being in the factory and seeing it happen.

But in terms of how they played, RPMs are in a similar ballpark, the same shape, same grip thickness (listed as 4.3 and 4.25, but both are actually 4.5 in my measurements), when you tear the handles down, they look the same. If there is any difference, it’s very minor and not something that I think the average consumer would notice.

Okay, so they are the same, but what’s the big deal? Well, the Ronbus R1.16 costs $120 ($100 after discount code PBSTUDIO), and the Volair is $160 ($145 ish after discount code PBSTUDIO).

With how small the differences are, I can’t think of any scenario where you would choose the Volair unless you really like and want to support Julian Arnold (which is great too!), but if you’re just after the best deal, The Ronbus it the way to go. For $100, the Ronbus is a fantastic recommendation.

Paddle Gate 2.0

You guys have heard me talk about delamination several times in this newsletter. Well, things are finally being cracked down on.

This past Wednesday PicklePod released a clip/episode with DJ Young where he talks about not being allowed to use his CRBN paddles at the Austin PPA tournament this weekend. You can watch the episode to get the full context.

This sparked insane amounts of speculation all over the internet, and my goal is to clear up as many of those as possible and set things right with some facts.

Fact 1: CRBN paddles are not banned for anyone

CRBN paddles are NOT banned. I will repeat that again. They are NOT banned. The clip that was released of DJ Young makes it sound like there is a ban in place, but there isn’t. At the moment, the PPA is allowing players to use the paddles at the upcoming tournament, but afterward, they have to submit their paddles to the testing lab off-site to have the paddle inspected. If it fails, the player will lose any prize money, points, and results from the tournament.

If you would like even more information, CRBN released a statement about this situation.

Fact 2: Delamination does not happen to every paddle or company

I’ve spoken many times about my experience with thermoformed paddles delaminating on me. I have had 5 of my own thermoformed paddles delaminate (3 of those were in use by me, and 2 of them were friends of mine that I loaned the paddle to).

3 paddles delaminated by one person since January feels extreme to me. Especially when you consider that I have to rotate paddles all the time for my reviews and comparisons.

The only other paddle to break on me during a review was the Diadem Warrior. Since then, I’ve had nearly 200 paddles come to me, and none of them have broken. So yes, I do get a little skeptical when 3 break on me from various companies in one month.

With that being said, even with my experience of paddles breaking, there are plenty of people who HAVEN’T had a delaminated paddle even after quite a bit of use. I’ve checked a local Legacy player who has had his for a few months, and it’s perfectly fine.

I have actively looked for people with thermoformed paddles to see if they had issues or not. The bag is very mixed.

There are a lot of people on forums claiming that EVERY paddle from CRBN, SixZero, Legacy, and Vatic Pro delaminate 100% of the time. That simply isn’t true. My current paddle of choice is the SixZero Double Black Diamond, and it has seen a lot of use with no issues yet. Same story with my CRBN1X 14mm, which saw very heavy use before my PPA tournament in Minnesota.

So, we need to stop saying that every single paddle will delaminate just because it is thermoformed. That simply isn’t true.

Fact 3: Companies are working on a fix

Ever since this issue has come up, I have been in close contact with 3 out of the 4 companies about what they are doing to address this issue. Every single time, the answer has come back as more glue. All of them have been very confident that this is the solution.

The March/April production paddles that are coming through from Legacy, CRBN, Vatic Pro, and SixZero will all have the new glue.

Now, we’ll have to wait another month or so to see if the issue is actually fixed. Companies can make claims all they want, but that doesn’t guarantee anything. Once I get all of the new versions, I will be testing them to see how they hold up.

But, there have been rumors circulating that the companies are doing nothing and just sitting back while this unfolds. That is NOT true.

Fact 4: Just because a paddle is powerful does NOT mean it fails a deflection test

Everyone has now become obsessed with pointing fingers at anything that has a lot of power. The Pro Kennex Black Ace and Vanguard Power Air are paddles mentioned recently.

Not everyone understands the deflection test.

This test is where they take a device and press it into the center of the paddle with a constant amount of weight. The device then measures how much the center of the paddle bends or gives to the weight. It’s not allowed to bend or “deflect” past a certain point in order to pass.

You can achieve power in many ways, and that doesn’t have to include a high deflection number.

Let’s use a pillow as an example.

If you had someone hold a pillow and you threw a ball at it, do you think the ball would rebound very far?

No, it would sink in and drop because it’s a pillow. Now if you were to press into the center of that pillow with your hand, you could make the center bend heavily because it’s a pillow and very squishy.

So this means it has a high deflection but low amounts of power.

Well, what if you have a big concrete wall and throw the ball at it? The ball is going to come flying off the wall when it hits.

This is an example of low deflection and high power.

The test for deflection from USAP presses into the paddle face with about 6 pounds of weight, and the face isn’t allowed to deflect by more than 0.005 of an inch. Do you know how small that is? Well, I Googled it for you. It’s about the same as the thickness of a dollar bill.

I have seen the official USAP numbers for several paddles on the market. Thermoformed and non-thermoformed. The numbers are essentially identical. So no, stock thermoformed paddles are not some deflection monster out of the box. The issue is once they delaminate.

The above image is to show you how small of an amount Pickleball paddles are compressing when doing the test. That’s the legal limit, some Paddles test even lower than this.

At this time, we don’t have any data on how other new and old paddles would test. I’m sure this is being worked on at the moment, though.

Fact 5: No paddles are being banned right now

Yesterday Ben Johns made statements about some of the companies, and unfortunately, there are people on the internet who took this as “ALL companies are currently out of compliance, and these paddles are for cheaters”. Again, this is NOT the case. Going to repeat it one more time and make it very simple to not misread. When the paddle is brand new:

Legacy is not illegal

CRBN is not illegal

SixZero is not illegal

Vatic Pro is not illegal

I have seen the deflection numbers for 3 out of the 4 brands, and all of them have passed.

When a paddle delaminates, that is illegal and should not be in use. As far as I can tell, all the pros and all 4 companies are in complete agreement on that.

Yes, I’m aware that in the DJ Young podcast episode, he did say that the PPA tested several old and new CRBN paddles, and they all failed, but talking to my sources, the ONLY paddle tested was an old CRBN2X with roughly 35 hours of use on it, which was likely delaminated.

Personally, I would love to see deflection numbers of heavily used paddles from all relevant companies and see how the paddles stack up. I wouldn’t be surprised if paddles fail deflection over time, but because of how they are structured, you aren’t necessarily getting more power (think back to the pillow vs concrete wall example)

Fact 6: How to look for delamination

It’s slightly different for each company, but the primary and most reliable way I have been able to find delamination in paddles is through the following:

1. Take both your thumbs and press into the face of the paddle. Usually, the center. If you start hearing a ton of tiny cracking noises, the face is (probably) delaminated.

2. The paddles hit REALLY hard. This is of course, subjective and not a good way to test it, but as someone who has hit many delaminated paddles now, you know it when you feel it.

3. Occasionally the paddles start making weird or louder noises when hitting the ball. This is probably the most unreliable method to check for delamination, but it has happened to several paddles I have tested.

Fact 7: Statements from some of the companies after Ben’s tweets

Opinion 1: People are using the words dwell time and deflection wrong

There have been two terms thrown around lately that have been around for a minute, but suddenly it’s the new buzzword for people in Pickleball.

Dwell time and deflection.

These are used as separate terms, but if you ask me, in Pickleball, they effectively mean the same thing if you go by their true definitions

Right now, people in Pickleball are defining deflection as “How fast the ball comes off the fast” while defining dwell time as “How long the ball sits on the face”

Okay, that’s great, but if you ask me, the way USAP is testing “Deflection” is an exact measurement of what dwell time is in Pickleball. They are pressing a 6lb weight into the face and seeing how much give the face has.

Less give in the face = less dwell time.

More give = more dwell time.

The way the test is done right now is not measuring how hard something rebounds off the paddle or how quickly it does it, it’s simply measuring how far it will bend inwards when weight is applied. See the image below for an example.

I Google’d “Deflection” and looked at the images. Everything about deflection is in relation to how much something bends with enough force. I have not been able to find one mention of “Deflection” being used to describe how fast an object rebounds off of a surface.

I’m not sure I understand how or why we started using that term as Pickleball players to describe speed off the face in the last month.

As far as I understand it, the machine being used by USAP is ONLY measuring how far something bends inward, it has NOTHING to do with outward pressure when the face conforms back to normal.

Now, this is just my opinion and understanding of how deflection is currently defined in PB. I can’t claim to be 100% right, but I have yet to find any literature or other facts that disagree with this. Let me know if you find something.

Opinion 2: Why CRBN?

There are a lot of people curious why CRBN was chosen for the partial “ban” at the PPA this weekend and not Vatic Pro, SixZero, or Legacy.

To me, the answer is simple.

CRBN is larger, has more pros, and the other pros have played against those new delamed CRBNs more than the other thermoformed companies paddles.

While the other 3 companies are starting to be seen in more pro hands, it has been a very small amount up until recently. Meanwhile, CRBN has had DJ Young, Thomas Wilson, and Vivienne David, who are all relevant pros, use the new CRBN power series paddles.

So, if any pros complained about the paddles, it was likely about a CRBN because they saw those most frequently. I have no doubt that the other companies are being investigated.

Wrap up

Well, that was a mouthful. But as someone who lives and breathes paddle technology all day long as his job and follows the companies very closely, I thought I should help clear the air in this situation. There are still many unknowns, but that is the information we know for now.

This whole situation should be a lesson in why we don’t jump to conclusions so quickly.