10/29: Prototypes, Enhance Duo, 6.0 Opal, and E6 Zephyr
Today I got 3 prototype paddles from a company I won’t name for now. The ask was to provide initial impressions on 3 different constructions they were testing: one was their take on epp foam, and the other two were variations of gen 3 cores. The EPP Foam felt super stiff, it reminded me of the Diadem Blucore Edge 16mm so it’s possible that over time it would soften up. Overall play characteristics seemed very similar as well such as the sweet spot, spin, and power level which I would put at the bottom of the power category. It was decent but nothing too special. Considering that I haven’t made many Blucore Edge sales, I don’t believe the stiff gen 2 esque feel is really sought after by players
The other Gen 3 paddles actually felt nicer. One was basically a more plush version of the EPP with a bit more firepower while the other was actually kind of interesting. It had a noticeable trampoline like feedback so the ball would sink in and shoot off. Out of the 3 it had the most overall firepower but it also had an inconsistent face that gave it a smaller sweet spot. The feedback when hitting off center was very different with the bottom of the paddle feeling very hollow and the top giving a strange sound.
Even though I did prefer the Gen 3 paddles better, I do think the recommendation for this company is to pursue the foam paddles more and iterate on those. Even if you do come out with a new construction for Gen 3, it’s really hard to prove durability to consumers and Joola pretty much has a hold of the Gen 3 market so it is really tough to come in and make people want to switch from a Pro IV. I wasn’t too impressed with any of the prototypes and do think they need to spend more time figuring out paddle designs
Other than the prototypes I also hit the Enhance Duo, Six Zero Black Opal, and a brand new Element 6 Zephyr to get some updated thoughts. Let’s start with the Duo, a new foam core paddle from Enhance. It’s EPP foam but uses a slightly different construction where it’s not a fully floating core. I actually quite liked this one. Side by side against the Loco it held up pretty well; it has more of a denser feel than the Loco and the power level was up there. I’m excited to hit this one more as this is the first true power paddle from Enhance and the performance was very solid.
As for the Opal, I’ve this this paddle before but the last one I hit was a friend’s ambassador copy I borrowed and this time I got to hit my own reviewer copy. It felt different than the last session though. The previous time I thought the paddle had top tier power with a very muted and solid feel though that Opal also had a hesacore grip and had been used pretty heavily. My brand new one doesn’t have as solid of a feel but it still has that muted feedback that was unique on the Opal. Power is still high but wasn’t as top tier as before. I’ll continue hitting this paddle to see how long the break in period will take so stay tuned for more thoughts
Finally let’s talk about the Zephyr. I dropped a video on the Element 6 paddles a few months back but I did receive several comments telling me how my findings were inconsistent with others. But I attribute this to receiving my paddles at different times than others. For the Surtr, I wasn’t sent the initial batch as the other reviewers because they ran out of stock so when they finally sent me the paddles, they also included a pre production version of the Zephyr. So for the original Zephyr I have, I found it to feel basically like a J2NF. I didn’t feel the power that many later reviewers were seeing on the paddle. But due to popular demand I was able to get a Zephyr from the latest batch and sure enough this one hit wayy different. I finally saw the power people were talking about and the comparisons to it being a hybrid version of the Flik F1 were true. To be honest not sure how that thing is legal
