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!
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23 December 2024
Guest review of the Roore Coronado pickleball paddle
18 December 2024
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
27 November 2024
Equipment review - Roore Coronado pickleball paddle
[You can read more about my history with Skechers here: http://rendezvoo.blogspot.com/2014/04/why-not-skechers.html]
A name that I was entirely unfamiliar with.
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:
Equipment review - Roore Coronado pickleball paddle
21 August 2024
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
26 July 2024
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
18 July 2024
Equipment review - PCKL Pro Series pickleball paddle
As my friend Brian has said, "it's like Christmas all over again!".
Well, for people like me who like to geek out about sports gear it definitely is! And since we are still trying to fill out our complement of pickleball paddles (so that we have at least enough to play doubles with) I've been able to give a go with my third paddle in just over a month. The bonus is that I was able to purchase this PCKL Pro Series paddle at 40% off on Amazon (even before Prime Days arrived), so the smile on my face is just that little bit wider.
Here are some of my preliminary (far-from-pro) thoughts on this "Pro" paddle!
Equipment review - PCKL Pro Series pickleball paddle
04 July 2024
Equipment review - A11N Zenith C8 pickleball paddle
I couldn't be the only one in the house with a pickleball paddle available for use - I want to be able to share this newfound-love with at least some of the other members of my family!
So here's my take on the Zenith C8 paddle from A11N Sports:
Equipment review - A11N Zenith C8 pickleball paddle
17 June 2024
Now I'm in a pickle(ball) ... plus a review of the NXTGen Atlas paddle
As a long-time tennis player it's taken me a while to 'join the dark side' and give pickleball a try. Not that I've had any real misgivings about it, but just that I didn't feel like I needed to add one more thing to what already seemed like a busy extracurricular schedule.
That was until I won a social media giveaway hosted by my friend (and professional pickleball player) Brian Donghui Rim.
Brian was kind enough to also provide me with a free on-court lesson when he met up with me to hand over the prize paddle - and man, did I have a lot to learn! But I'll happily admit now that I'm hooked and am looking forward to not only connecting with the local pickleball community, but also hopefully get into some competitions in the very near future.
So don't be surprised to find some more posts popping up here related to all things pickleball ... and why don't we start with an equipment review video?!?
Now I'm in a pickle(ball) ... plus a review of the NXTGen Atlas paddle
27 May 2024
Race report - 2024 Sudbury Rocks Marathon
I would consider this to have been my real first 'post-pandemic' race, as I kind of fell out of the racing mindset over the past few years. I could chalk it up to getting older (and slower), but I would also say that I've been very discouraged by my inability to hold the pace at my last two attempts to serve as an official marathon pacer at The County Marathon (in Picton, ON). For both of the last two years I volunteered to be the 3:30 pacer - and while I had successfully completed that task for six years prior to 2021, the efforts that I put in for the 2022 and 2023 ended up in DNFs for me (as I fell unrecoverably off the pace both times and finished the race without actually crossing the official timing mats).
As such this was to be a bit of a 'redemption attempt' for me ... and I'd eyeballed the Sudbury Rocks Marathon several times before but the timing of the event (plus it's relative distance from my house - about 3 hours' drive) never quite worked out. However this year with my responsibilities as a volleyball coach together with rehearsals/performances in "Honeymoon In Vegas" meant that this was probably the best time to give this race a shot.
Pre-race
My training in a lead up to the race followed basically the Hanson‘s marathon method, and while I did feel quite sluggish through it I felt also that my conditioning was actually coming to a bit of a peak - so I had some real optimism heading into race weekend. I didn’t have any solid goals, but knowing that my friend David Thompson had broken 3:20 in his Las Vegas race I decided to also use that as a benchmark.
The other thing that really helped was seeing my friend Natalie post on Facebook that she had a free pair of Nike Vaporfly 4% shoes to give away! I quickly snatched them up even though they were two sizes larger than what I would normally wear, and I had in mind that I would MacGyver them into a racing flat that I might be able to actually put to use. But when I slipped them on my feet I didn’t feel like they were entirely like clown shoes and wondered if I might be able to actually work with them as-is. The one thing that I really liked was how spacious it was in the forefoot because of how much bigger they were … I had actually just cut out the lateral side of the upper on my Saucony Endorphin Pro 3s because the curved last was pinching my pinky toes in the most uncomfortable way.
You can see the Vaporfly 4% shoes (in size 12, my normal size is 10) that came courtesy of Nat & Dylan
Notice the cut-out section on the Endorphin Pro 3s that I loosely covered over with another piece of borrowed shoe-upper
The trip up to Sudbury was rainy and somewhat eventful as two hours into the three hour journey my car's dashboard decided to light up like a Christmas tree and the vehicle started slowing down on its own even though I had cruise control on. That lasted for about seven seconds, and then the dashboard returned to its normal status and I was able to carry on if nothing had happened (although I know that something is definitely up).
The other thing was that my GPS device ended up taking me to a gravel pit instead of the high school where the race expo was taking place. Last time I trust TomTom.
I checked in to the residence at Cambrian College (it was the cheapest of reasonable available options) and while it was nice to be able to spread out in two-suite room the lack of a TV made it difficult for me to try to watch the Prefontaine Classic which was taking place on Saturday. I went through all sorts of password gymnastics with my family trying to log into our different accounts to see if I could access our various subscription services but in the end found that CBC Sports actually had a free live stream on their website, so I was able to sit back and relax with pizza and enjoy the event.
Race Day
I arrived at the start area with just over an hour before the starter's horn would sound, and while there was no indoor waiting space the conditions outside were pleasant enough (10°C but foggy) to sit on some concrete planters and wait for the crowds to assemble. There was a row of about 15 porta-pottys at Tom Davies Square which made it convenient to enough to make any last dashes before the race began.
At 7:55am the marathon, half-marathon and marathon-relay runners started out together. It wasn't quite a mass of humanity, but it did mean that we'd have people running all sorts of different paces because some were only going to be huffing it out for 5-7km in total. And since we weren't going to be running on an entirely closed course it meant some close quarters in various sections as we were basically ushered into the roadways' bike lanes by pylon markers. In fact during the first 2km I clipped a runner just ahead of me because we were so pressed in together - thankfully after a quick apology on my part we were all able to carry on none the worse for wear.
I must say that for the first 7km or so I felt remarkably good, running a solid 4:21/km (which was faster than my planned goal pace, and faster than any tempo run I'd put in during the training block). I'll credit the Vaporflys for that as I was impressed at how light the size 12s were feeling and how little I had to worry about tripping myself up with the extra length. The margin for forefoot splay was definitely pleasant and working in my favour.
The route was already proving to be quite undulating, and knowing that I'd have to navigate these hills over the next 35km I decided to take the climbs rather conservatively. Up to around 11km I was steadily passing runners, but at 11km one of the guys that I'd gone by caught back up to me and we had a quick chat before he overtook me. He'd run the full at Toronto just a few weeks back and was running the half-marathon this particular morning, noting "f*** this marathon!" as he happily confessed to already being into the home stretch. Perhaps I should have clued in that the day ahead of me might offer more than I had bargained for.
From km 11 through to 21 I was passed by two other runners, both of whom I'd seen at the one hairpin turn on the course (have I ever noted how much I dislike hairpin turns in races ...?). I managed to reel in one other runner at 19k as he was struggling to finish up his half-marathon, but as I went by I kept turning around to yell encouragements to him over the next 2 km. He managed to dig deep and crossed his finish line not long after I cruised over the half-way timing mat.
Halfway split - 1:34:59 (which would have been good enough for 12th place overall in the half-marathon, and 2nd place in my age category).
The second half of the race is where things really got interesting - with only 67 full-marathon entrants once I crossed the half-way point I was no longer able to see anyone ahead of me. I was obviously well behind the next person in front, and all of a sudden it got very lonely and quiet. Those of you who know something about the psychology of racing may have a sense of how this can be quite demotivating - especially since I couldn't detect anyone in reasonable distance behind me either, and I knew that I wasn't in first place. Still I managed to hold my pace (now at about 4:29/km) thanks in large part to seeing some of the 10km runners coming back towards me on the opposite side of the road. Their route was something of an out-and-back and so being able to applaud and cheer them on as they were wrapping up their race (and receiving some encouragements in return) gave me some energy to feed off of.
At this point between the escalating heat (it was a full-sun kind of day with effectively no shade on the course whatsoever), the roly-poly roads and what seemed to be a consistent headwind I watched as my pace steadily crept up. Aside from thanking the volunteers and police officers along the way there was very little interaction with other people until 30km into the race, where I came upon another marathoner (Justin) who was battling hamstring spasms. I checked to make sure that he was doing alright, and even though he was walking as I pressed on he would manage to pass me again in about another 4km.
The final 8km was a bit of a slugfest for me, and Justin and I was leapfrog each other (as he'd recover and then be halted by spasms) through to the end, and another three runners caught me from behind. Still one of the things that I was perhaps most pleased about was how I managed my fueling ... this continues to be a challenge for me, but at least this time around I was able to stay on track with taking my gels on-schedule (even though the GU "Cola" liquid energy gel that I took at 35k was absolutely disgusting). I could have done a better job of actually drinking the water/electrolytes that was being offered at the generously peppered aid stations, and perhaps in hindsight I was getting a bit dehydrated but I certainly didn't feel that way. I may have also accidentally self-sabotaged a little bit as earlier this week I'd misread my training plan and put in a 6x1mi. workout on Monday instead of an easy 12km - but who's to say?
As I crested the hill where the 40km marker was I knew that I was not going to hit a sub-3:20 time, but I was determined to try to gut it out as best as I could. In the final 300m I was caught once again from behind by another marathoner - but he reciprocated what I'd try to do for that half-marathon about two hours before as he cheered me on and urged me to do my best to catch him. I wasn't able to do that, but still managed to finish upright and with a smile on my face. As far as the shoes go, they performed admirably well - I was definitely feeling like there was still some 'bounce' in my step even late into the game, and the only thing that detracted from my experience in them was a small, sharp pebble that found its way into my left shoe at that 40km marker. But at that point I wasn't going to stop to clear it out - so just a little reminder that sometimes you just gotta push through the pain.
Final gun time: 3:21:46
Post-race
I waited in the finishing chute area for Justin to cross the line, and he managed to run it out just about 2 min. after me. I congratulated him and encouraged him that the marathon distance has to be respected, and that he did the best he could with what was presented to him this day.
I wandered through to get my medal (presented by members of the Canadian Armed Forces), my banana and cookie and bottle of water, and then stopped to check in at the Chiptime results tent. I chuckled as I saw that I'd finished first in my age-category ... but only because the official results showed me as "1/1" in the M50-59 group. I'd realize a bit later that there were two others runners in my division, and that at that point they'd not yet crossed the finish line.
All in all it was pleasant day in the nickel belt, and I definitely give kudos to the Sudbury Rocks team for a well-organized and executed event. Not sure I'd do it again (because of the profile of the race course itself) but I'd be happy to recommend it to anyone based off of the quality of the team hosting it!
Now it's time to recover and see what the rest of the 2024 racing calendar might hold ...
Thanks for reading (and watching)!
Race report - 2024 Sudbury Rocks Marathon
12 February 2024
The brightest lights sometimes shine for the shortest times
If you don't follow the world of professional running then this story may not mean much of anything to you ... but I was shocked to hear of the sudden and tragic passing of Kelvin Kiptum.
He was magic on his feet, and the world was his for the taking.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-68274984
photo credit: Katie Chan
The brightest lights sometimes shine for the shortest times