Proton Flamingo Early Thoughts

Thanks for your input!

I really appreciate everyone who chimed in on the last newsletter about what you like and don’t like about paddle reviews. Initially I had planned to respond to all the emails because I only anticipated a handful of emails, but there were WAY more than I expected and I just couldn’t get to all of them. Sorry if you asked a question in one of your emails and I missed it!

Proton Flamingo early thoughts

This is a really interesting paddle to me, but not for the reasons you guys are thinking.

I came back from my break and this was in my top 3 most asked about paddles and I couldn’t figure out why.

On the surface this was what I saw:

• A $300 paddle

• X-Rays that make it look like it is just a Joola 3S with less dual foam

• One shape option (which by todays shape options is pretty meh)

• Some Proton pros switching to it

• Nothing out of the ordinary in terms of construction or technology

So, I found the hype/curiosity really random considering this paddle really doesn’t offer anything in the description that makes it sound exciting. Nevertheless, paddle specs don’t tell the entire story of a paddle, and sometimes the playability can far exceed expectations.

Here were the swing weight and twist weight of one of our units:

• SW: 119

• TW: 6.49

Thoughts after a few sessions

On session one I found the paddle to be pretty rigid / stiff. I would have put it in the ball park of most gen 2 paddles with a bit more power. However, as we’ve used it for 3 sessions now, the paddle is definitely changing.

One of the last drill sessions I felt like I could literally feel it changing in 5 minute intervals.

Nothing drastic as of yet, but it does feel nicer off the face and it seems to be hitting harder. Which, as most of you probably know, I’m not a fan of paddles doing that. Especially not for $300 and with no mention from Proton that this won’t continue to heat up or break.

My thought right now is that the feel of the paddle is a toned down Joola 3S. It doesn’t feel as “foamy” as the 3S does, or have as dramatic of a trampoline feel.

And that isn’t a good or bad thing, just depends on the person.

Right now I would place it in the realm of power paddles, but not over the top. Probably as it breaks in it will be in the realm of the currently legal power paddles and hopefully not go further than that.

I think it plays in the realm of these gen 3 style paddles and will be a paddle that many people probably enjoy playing with. The thing I get hung up on is, I don’t know that this paddle is worth it for $300. I think it’s just too expensive for what it is.

So, I think it’s less about this paddle having bad performance (because it doesn’t perform poorly) and more about the fact that there are a lot of amazing options for cheaper than this.

One final thing I’m confused about is why Proton didn’t put their nanotac surface on this paddle. Proton has historically been very proud of building durable paddles (And the Series 1 seem to hold up very well over time), so I don’t really understand the logic of producing a $300 paddle that has design elements of paddles that have historically broke down and lost their grit. It feels like it moves away from what Proton uses as one of their primary selling points, which is durability.

So here’s my initial thought:

• The 11six24 Power series will by far be the biggest competitor to this paddle. They aren’t the same, but I think the power series has 85-90% of the performance of the Flamingo at nearly half the cost.

• The break in of the Flamingo is not a favorable sign to me. Especially not for $300

• Considering the design (to my knowledge at the moment) is not wildly different from a Joola 3S, I don’t know that we should expect the life span to be that different. The main differences seem to be a thinner cell size and less foam. Maybe that will prove to make a big difference, but I’m skeptical with the paddle changing.

• If you have $300 to burn and really wanted the Flamingo and it fits your ideal specs, I think it performs well. I just don’t know that it performs well enough for $300.

• More testing will reveal if there are other interesting aspects of it.

New upcoming paddles

Just wanted to give you guys a quick update on some new paddles that are upcoming that you might want to keep your eye on.

• Engage Pursuit Pro1 in new shapes (Widebody, hybrid, elongated)

  • Launch date looks to be Feb 26th

• Spartus Orion & Odyssey

  • I can’t share many details on this yet, but these have potential to be a very killer budget paddle for 2025.

  • Launch date: Feb 24th

• Franklin C45

  • Release early March

  • Initial impressions of this paddle are pretty good. Very fast in the hand (swing weight of 104) and pretty poppy. Weight is probably needed for best performance.

🎙️ Latest podcast

If you missed it, this week will makes an appearance to update everyone on where he has been! We also dive into the recent topic of paddle durability for performance based paddles. Specifically when ProXR announced their ProtoHype 2 and Honolulu with the J2K+.