The Fourth Wave of Pickleball Paddles: Tech Crossroads and Recommendations

The fourth wave of pickleball paddles is here, and it finds the sport's technology at an interesting crossroads.

On one hand, the flagship offerings from mainstream paddle brands have never been more alike. That's because most pickleball paddle makers have adopted foam cores that have a more uniform feel than the carbon fiber honeycomb cores. While there are holdouts who prefer the old open cores, and will always be, I think it's safe to proclaim the foam cores are superior technology and are here to stay. Paddle shapes are likewise growing more similar—when I first started testing pickleball paddles for WIRED in 2023, many brands still had a few oval offerings, which have gone the way of the buffalo. Elongated paddles are now preferred by almost everyone I play with.

On the other hand, pickleball is still a relatively new sport, and paddle makers continue to innovate with some very creative offerings. I have tested more than 130 pickleball paddles over the past three years in games with friends and my daughter, and using a Slinger ball machine.

Here are the paddles I'd recommend for beginners and more advanced players right now, plus a rundown of a few of the weirder paddles I've tested recently.

The Best Beginner Pickleball Paddle Right Now: SLK Dauntless

The wide-body version of the SLK Dauntless ($150) has the biggest, butteriest sweet spot I have ever encountered on a paddle. At $150, it may seem a little spendy for most newcomers to the game, and you can get something serviceable for half the price, but if you're going to invest in a starter paddle, the Dauntless is what I'd recommend. If you like wide-body paddles or are new to racket sports, I would get the wide-body version. If you're a little more advanced or expect to progress to banger status quickly, the elongated should give you more power and reach.

The Dauntless is a foam-core paddle, meaning it uses the latest tech. Foam-infused cores make for paddles with a more consistent and forgiving strike thanks to a larger sweet spot. They also have game-changing durability. Unlike honeycomb cores that slowly get mashed down after lots of hard hits, a foam core paddle should last a long time, so long as they keep their grit (that topic will be discussed a bit with the Reload paddle below).

It also uses the MOI Tuning System that made the Boomstik from Selkirk last year's breakout paddle. The two little clips on the side of the paddle are weights that shift the balance toward the center of the paddle, increasing the size of the sweet spot. I'm rarely the most athletic player on the court and play a finesse game that employs lots of off-kilter dinks on balls I barely get to. This paddle is great for that, which means it's also great for beginners who may be slow to track the drives coming their way.

This is a versatile control paddle, and while it's certainly capable of plenty of power, it's best for someone who wants to improve the consistency of their game.

A cheaper option: The SLK Valkerie ($80) is about half the price of the Dauntless and has none of the new tech, but a very solid option for someone looking to buy a paddle to play once a month or on a vacation. You get a fiberglass face and a polymer core, so you won't have as much grit to create lots of topspin, and it won't last as long, but Selkirk makes nice paddles with comfortable grips and well-distributed weight. This paddle is very similar to SLK Evo, which was the first serious paddle I bought with my own money and have always liked (you get a carbon fiber face for more spin with the current edition of the Evo).

More power: A beginner player who wants more power should check out the Jojolemon Shark 002 ($100). (This is also classified as a control paddle, but I'm not a masher and rarely love paddles made for that style of play.) It has a face that uses carbon fiber and Kevlar for excellent spin. While this is a traditional thermoformed third-generation paddle and doesn't have a full foam core, it has a foam injection on its perimeter that helps dampen vibrations and balance the striking surface while still offering what I would consider plenty of power.

The Best Expert Paddle Right Now: Paddletek Honeyfoam TKO-X

The new Paddletek Honeyfoam TKO-X ($250) is my overall favorite paddle after testing this year's offerings from a dozen new brands. Paddletek paddles are known for being poppy, and past generations have been among my picks for power players. The Honeyfoam series, which is a full release version of the Reserve I tested last year, is a Goldilocks paddle precisely because it strikes a balance between what Paddletek has always done well and the benefits of foam cores. This is a paddle that makes you swing with total confidence—it's got power and precision in equal measure. I have not tested another paddle that has as much pop as this one without sacrificing any control.

The TKO-X uses three different types of foam. The center is a low-density foam. The bottom half of the paddle has a denser EVA closed-cell foam that helps with energy return and shock absorption. Around the outside of the paddle is a third type of foam that helps create a sweet spot. The face is raw carbon, which offers great spin.

A cheaper option: The Onix Hype X ($90) doesn't have a large and forgiving sweet spot like I'd want as a beginner, but its thermoformed honeycomb core has lots of pop while playing very consistently. This is a popular budget pick for advanced players for a reason, as it's below $100 but has a carbon fiber face and weight distribution to favor harder strikers.

Other Interesting New Paddles

Here are some other innovative paddles I tested this year.

Reload: If you're serious about spin, you know that the first thing to fail on any pickleball paddle is the textured carbon fiber face. The gritty texture that spins the ball at wonky angles wears off in as few as 50 games with the single paddle, at which point you're at a disadvantage until you re-up your paddle. The Reload solves that problem. For $200, you're basically getting three paddles and the option of buying fresh ones for $22 to $25. The paddle reloads very easily, and I had no issue putting on a new paper or with the sticky sheet coming unstuck.

SXY PKL: Another way to make paddles greener is to make them from natural materials (if you played pickleball in the days before its popularity exploded, you probably played with a wooden paddle). The SXY PKL nods in that direction with its bamboo face (the core is carbon). This paddle looks like nothing else on the court and gets attention from onlookers. The bamboo face is surprisingly gritty and feels like fine-grit sandpaper to me. It's a solid paddle, though for $200 you can get better performance, if not more striking looks.

Scorpion Pioneer Plus LED: Wanna dodge the summer sun by playing in the evening, or just catch some attention on the court? The Scorpion LED paddle ($100 for a two-pack) charges via a USB-C port in the base of the handle and lights up in two dozen colors. It costs $50 per paddle and plays more like a $30 paddle, but I've used worse. It has a honeycomb core and a fiberglass face, so don't expect much spin. There are included balls, or pair it with Franklin's glow-in-the-dark ball.