Guest review of the Roore Coronado pickleball paddle

When I started playing pickleball this past June I was happy when I discovered that my friend Rob was also into the sport (along with his sons Graham and Scott), and quickly I found some regular playing partners who would push me and teach me a lot about this fantastic game.  Rob and I have also become regular playing partners and we've managed to participate in several tournaments together so far (and have another one coming up soon in January).  So when I found myself with an extra Roore Coronado paddle in my possession I wanted to get his take on its performance characteristics, and he's been good enough to oblige and share his thoughtful review - check it out here!

 

Guest review of the Roore Coronado pickleball paddle

Update - Roore Coronado, titanium hole-punches and exemplary customer service

I've now managed to get about 6 sessions of 90-minute rec play in with the Roore Coronado pickleball paddle, and I have no reservations about declaring it my current weapon of choice!  I really enjoy the perceived swingweight (i.e. it feels light and fast in my hands, even after having modded it a bit), the grit on the face seems to impart consistently solid spin and the superficial side of me loves the aesthetics of it.

With all that in mind, I did notice during my third session of play that there appeared to be a blemish of sorts appearing on the face of one side of the paddle.  When I looked closely at it it appeared to me to be a nearly perfect circular 'punch-out' section of the paddle face:

I thought that this was very odd - it was actually a small chunk of the surface material that had gone missing somehow.  It also felt a bit premature (since I try not to bang paddles with playing partners, but instead either slap hands or use the grip end), and so I reached out directly to the team at Roore to see whether or not there were any options for me.  I'll honestly say that I didn't have high expectations for results to my inquiry, in part because (at the time) Roore did not have a built-out website of its own but instead their URL pointed directly to their Amazon store ... so I thought that at best I'd have to log an issue with Amazon customer service.

But lo and behold I did receive a quick and courteous message back from Team Roore (thanks Alex!) and not only did they agree with my assessment of this being sub-standard but they offered to replace my paddle entirely!  So just a week later I received a shiny new Coronado along with a special something-something. :)

So a huge shout-out to this small start-up company that is not only producing terrific products (at incredibly affordable prices!) but also standing behind them with a wonderfully personal touch.  I also have to mention that I've already had several conversations with other pickleballers during rec play who have inquired about the Coronado and wanted to take swings with it ... so I hope that there might be some others who become active users of Roore's offerings (and while I'm sorry to say that I don't have any kind of promotional discount code to offer, but at their prices you really can't go wrong)!

Update - Roore Coronado, titanium hole-punches and exemplary customer service

Equipment review - Roore Coronado pickleball paddle

 What is it with me and Amazon paddles ...?!?

Yes, I'm extremely frugal ... some might say even 'tight-fisted' when it comes to spending my own money.

 

But there's also the part of me that wonders if there are 'dark horse' producers of pickleball equipment that are actually putting some fantastic products out there on the market, and it's only because of their lack of name recognition or relative newness on the scene that is limiting their reach and impact.  After all, I did sign on to be sponsored by Skechers Canada's Performance Division when they were just getting started with their technical running gear - and for them it was a bit of an uphill climb since they were primarily known as a skateboarding/fashion brand whose most prominent market offering were the hotly-debated "Shape-Ups".

[You can read more about my history with Skechers here:  http://rendezvoo.blogspot.com/2014/04/why-not-skechers.html]

 

In any event, as my interest piqued with respect to titanium-infused pickleball paddles I went on the hunt on Amazon's search engine ... and lo-and-behold I was introduced to Roore.

A name that I was entirely unfamiliar with.

A company that doesn't even really have it's own webpage.

And at the time a brand that only had one model available.

It seemed inauspicious ... and all the more reason for me to give them further attention.

And so without further ado I present my review of the Roore Coronado 16mm titanium hybrid paddle:

Plus since I feel like I ought to include some kind of consistent, measurable scale - I'm going to give the Coronado a solid 4.5 out of 5 pickleballs.  Time will tell if the titanium holds up.

Equipment review - Roore Coronado pickleball paddle

Equipment review - Babolat RBEL Touch pickleball paddle

Having a few friends who are sponsored pickleball athletes, I've been blessed to be able to receive some pickleball-related gifts from them ... from bags of pickleballs themselves, to paddles and most recently a DrillPickle soft practice ball.

However I've not come across a given-away paddle quite like this one before ...

I'm told that my friend Brian once tried to take a Babolat RBEL Touch paddle and customize it using a bit of black spray paint - however what was intended for just colouring the edge bumper turned out to bleed over onto the paddle face, thereby rendering it ineligible for competition play.  As such I believe that it got relegated to the bottom of the equipment bag, but still Brian was gracious enough to pass it along to me.

What did I do with it?  Well I took some paintbrush cleaning solvent to it to try to restore it back to as close to its original condition as I could.  It's still not usable in competition, but it's more than sufficient for taking to work on drills and recreational play - and it's still a very solid paddle!

 

Here's my full video review!

Equipment review - Babolat RBEL Touch pickleball paddle

Equipment review - a11n C7 Carry pickleball paddle

Does it merit the review of being preferable over the Joola Ben Johns Perseus?!?

Well, for my part I was willing to take the C7 Carry (16mm) into my first big prize-money tournament ... and while it did not disappoint, I did (although my partner would graciously say otherwise).

This pickleball paddle from a11n (which I think is actually meant to be pronounced as "all-in") is the second one that I have from the company, and so far both of these sticks are pretty impressive.  I purchased it during Amazon Prime Days, and certainly believe that I got exceedingly great value for the money.

Here's my video review - hope you enjoy (and find it helpful)!

Equipment review - a11n C7 Carry pickleball paddle