Spartus P1 First Impressions

I’ve been pretty excited for this paddle because it’s been a while since Spartus has come out with something new and they’ve been one of my favorite paddle companies. I’ve hit the P1 before in Michigan when I visited Jacob for the tournament and my thoughts then were that it was a power paddle with a softer feel than most. It reminded me more of the Enhance Duo than it did the Loco I was comparing against it because it didn’t have a hollow feedback and it wasn’t as crisp feeling.

After that video came out, we ended up learning that the construction of the P1 was actually a floating EPP foam core with a CFC surface that used Spartus’s new permagrit. Both me and Jacob really didn’t notice that there was fiberglass in the surface and thought it was just carbon fiber because of muted it feels. I did browse discord and saw that the theory is the permagrit texture is the reason for the denser feedback but not sure if that’s 100% the case or if there are any other things at play.

I hit it again when I got back to VA and I did feel the paddle to play a bit different over time. As I put more time into the paddle, the noise and feedback started to get more hollow and the power also started to go up a bit. It wasn’t a drastic change since the P1 is already a power paddle but I will say you can feel the fiberglass a bit more now that I know it’s there and I’m searching for it and its overall firepower is now a bit higher than a V-Sol Pro Flash. It still is noticeably less hollow feeling than the V-Sol and the Loco but it’s starting to feel and play more similar to those paddles after more use.

At its current state I do think its still a different paddle though. While it does share similarities to those paddle series, it still has a more muted feedback than both with more give into the face and I still think the spin is top tier and holding up. Looking forward to more play time with this