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165. Franklin Aurelius 12.7mm, Thrive Ignite, & New Paddle Database Tool

GUID: Buzzsprout-18982845

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Total Segments: 7

60.62s - 624.54s Promo

Host explains the availability of podcast timestamps in the description to manage listener expectations and promote engagement.

"We'll revisit that in the kitchen. Okay, first thing we need to go over here is important. Okay guys, so we get this comment probably at least once every week on YouTube and I have to respond with the same thing every week on YouTube. So I'm just going to say it in a podcast now. We always get a comment that says, bro, where are the timestamps? Like come on bro, you got it. These pods are too long. You got to put timestamp. I'm just going to let you guys know right now. There are always timestamps in the description. If you don't see the chapters on YouTube itself, just click expand on the description. The chapters are literally always 100% there. It is on a checklist for me to click off before I publish the podcast on YouTube. They're always there. Now what happens sometimes is YouTube will act very finicky sometimes and it takes a while for it to like accept the timestamps. Sometimes it's instant. Sometimes it's a while. You're a very early listener. Yeah. Immediately after it gets posted, it's not our fault. They are there. It's just YouTube glitching out. This happens with other podcasts. It's not just for us. One of my jobs when I edit the podcast is writing down the timestamps. There's never been a time that I haven't done that on every single podcast I've ever edited. So they will 100% always be there. So if you ever see someone leave that comment, you can let them know in the description. You always. Always, always, always. Never not there. Okay. Next up, let's talk about the website. So like I said, my website has sucked for a long time. I've known it sucked for a long time. I have wanted to revamp it for a very long time, but it's one of those things where it was going to take time. It was going to take money. And I had too many other things always going on. Well, I finally sat down completely overhauled my website, rebuilt it from scratch. It is much better now. And hopefully you'll do a much better job keeping it up to date because that was another problem. But I think I've got that mostly solved. So I added some features that I just wanted to talk about to the website that I think will be some great quality of life updates for people who have used my paddle database because that was also really bad because it was basically a Google sheet. And if you weren't a truly dedicated paddle nerd, you were never going to go through it. Like I had the thing and I didn't want to go through it because I hated how much it looked. So there are three things I overhauled on the website that I think are really helpful. One, I added a new paddle database. So there's images that you can search through. There are filters that are very clearly defined, common things that everyone filters their paddle for, handle length, grip size, the year was released, which certification it has, swing weight. Anything you can think of, you can probably filter by it for the most part, at least the things that are relevant. And then there are images. You can click on the images. It'll expand into a paddle card and then it'll have like all these little bar charts and all the info. So it's much easier to look at and understand. So if you ever want to find paddles that fit a certain criteria, the paddle database, filters are a great way to do that. Like you can filter paddles so quick and be like, you know what? I only want to see paddles with five to five and a quarter inch handles. Boom. Now you can see there's 30 paddles in the database. And you can look at those and decide if it's one you want to consider buying, right? So that can be really helpful. So I'm really happy with how the database came out. And then the next thing is a paddle comparison tool. So you can go over to that and then select four up to four different paddles you don't have to do for. And then you can compare all the stats side by side. So instead of just looking at one and going, okay, the swing weight on is this, it's this, blah, blah, blah. You can now put all four side by side and be like, okay, here's the swing weight of this one. Here is the twist weight, here is handle length, whatever you want to see side by side can compare it all. So I think that's just a really handy way. If you're stuck between a couple paddles and you don't want to go back and forth between tabs, I think that's really nice. And then the last thing, probably the thing I am most proud of on the website is the paddle quiz. So this is something I have had this idea for years. I mean, probably even when I first made my database, but it just wasn't very realistic. And this is one of the reasons I needed to migrate my website is because Squarespace was so limiting in what I could build on it that I couldn't make these tools. So company like paddle retailers have had quizzes for a long time, but the quizzes are often very generic. I don't think the questions are often that helpful to narrowing down the paddles. And then you can also only filter by the paddles that the paddle retailer carries. And a lot of times they don't carry brands that are like in the mid-size, which I think at least to the enthusiasts are some of the more exciting brands. So I figured, okay, I've got all this paddle database. I should just be able to make a quiz that gives good recommendations, which I think is what I have achieved. So you go through this quiz. It's got about eight or nine questions. And the more specifically you can answer these questions, the better results you're going to get. If you answer very broadly, for example, one of the questions is what swing weight range do you prefer? And if you say 95 to 135, that's not going to help you very much. That's just everything on the market. It's everything on the market. So if you're like, you know what, I like paddles that are between about one, five and one twelve, that is a helpful filter. And then there's a grip size filter. Do you want four and a quarter and above or do you want four and one eighth and below? You can also pick no preference, but if you pick no preference, again, big filter. So the more specifically you can answer the questions on the quiz, the better results you're going to get. And then if you're broadly, you're not going to get that great of results. And then at the end, it'll spit out paddles that show you like a matching percentage. If it matches all of your criteria, it'll say 100%. And then as it doesn't match criteria, if there weren't many paddles that match, you might get like an 87% match or a 72% match. And then it'll show you the things that didn't match your criteria on. Maybe it was your price. Maybe it was the grip size. And then you can decide, okay, I can get over grip size, right? Like I can play with four and a quarter, but I prefer four and one eighth. So if the rest of the paddle does everything I want, I might get over it. That can kind of help you decide. So the paddle quiz is something I still need to tweak around a tiny bit more to get it exactly where I want right now. It will only show you the top eight options that match your criteria. I might do some finagling. So it shows you more just because I think eight might be a little bit limiting. But yeah, I think eight in general, if you show more than eight, it's like that's a lot of paddles to consider. Yeah. Imagine it shows you 20 paddles, you're like, well, which, I mean, that's more paddles than I would even recommend if someone was asking me in person. Exactly. I keep it to like four, maybe five at the max, right? Yeah. So that was kind of the idea behind it. I do think, for the most part, it's very good. Actually, one of the things I was doing for a little while is when I was building it, I would take people I knew, I knew what their preferences were and I would plug in what their answers would be on the quiz to see if it would recommend that paddle they're using. Yeah. Because it was like, okay, if it's doing that, it's probably doing a pretty good job. And the vast majority of the time I was getting the paddles they were using and I was like, okay, it's working once. Yeah, exactly for me. Yeah, someone even emailed me yesterday and they're like, dude, I took your paddle quiz and it literally recommended me the paddle I am mainly. Yeah. So obviously, it's going to need some tweaking. It's not perfect. If you find a bug or something that's really wonky, feel free to email me and let me know. But I think it'll be a great place for people to get an idea of what paddles you might want to start researching. And that's the idea behind it. It's not saying, hey, this is the recommendations. Go buy it. It's saying, hey, here are the options that matched. Now go do your own research. You can watch our reviews. If we have content on it, you can go watch other reviewers. It's just a narrow down your options because the paddle markets kind of insane. Kind of flooded. It's just so many options. It gets really, really confusing, really stressful. Yeah. Yeah. So make it a little bit easier with this. And so far, I mean, it's been really good. I haven't noticed too many bugs. I mean, like you said, if you make your selections too broad, it's not going to do a very good job. Yeah. So narrowing down specifically what you like or, you know, it can be tough, right? Especially if you're very new. You just don't know what you want. You just don't know what you want. Like, you don't know if you like elongated paddles. You don't know if you like four and a quarter grips or whatever. It can be tricky. Just mess around with it and see. I mean, there's no harm in just doing a bunch of different selections over and over again. Yeah. The nice thing too is at the end of the paddle quiz, instead of having to retake the quiz to change your results at the top of the bar, you can, it'll have all of the selections you made so you can see, you know, I selected power. I selected this shape. I selected this swing way, whatever. And then you can change those results and it'll update the quiz immediately with all your new results. Like, ah, you know what? I actually don't care that much about a four and a quarter grip. I'll just say a four and one eighth is actually what I want. Then you could just make that change really quick. Yeah. Because originally when I built it, it made you restart and I was like, this is horrible. I know that would suck. Like, this is, I was getting tired of going through it. I'm going to say that would get annoying. I wanted to put this in six times. Exactly. No, I probably went through that quiz a couple hundred times and I was like, oh my gosh, I'm so tired of clicking through this quiz. Yeah, that would get annoying. So yeah, let me know. If you check out the website, we'll leave a link down in the description. Feel free to leave me feedback."
1449.66s - 1459.46s Promo

Host provides a teaser for upcoming content/review related to Hexgrit.

"And I'll probably have another update for you guys on Hexgrit next week. My tester who's been doing stuff for me just crossed 300 games. So next week, we'll have an update for you. Nice."
1746.38s - 1750.9s Promo

Host briefly promotes his website's feature for filtering paddles by swing weight.

"And hey, you can now filter that on my database on my website. And it doesn't suck. So, but I'm afraid to do that. But the downside of that is they're not going to feel that great stock because they're"
2478.94s - 2582.98s Promo

Host demonstrates and promotes his website's paddle database and its filtering functionality live during the podcast.

"I'm going to actually, we'll make use of my words. We're going to test it right now. We'll pull it up and see what the filter says. How many paddles in my database are elongated under 110? Yeah, so it's not going to be meant to. There'll maybe be one. No, it'll be more than that. I think like you said, if you are married to the idea of using an elongated, like someone like me, you have to accept the fact that you are going to have heavier paddles. It's very rare. The only ones I can think of off top of my head that are elongated and light, like the Franklin C4514, the rhombus quantus, I mean, most 14 millimeter paddles are going to be on the lighter side because there's just less material there. But that's not always the case. There are heavier 14s. I think I actually might be missing a couple in here. I need to double check. Here were the paddles, the mower air. Actually, I don't think that's not on here. Rhombus quantus R1. This was and this was filtering 110 or lower. Magnus Pro 4, 14 millimeter. Friday, if you want. Under 110 or at 110. We might have got a really light one too. The metal bone 4, 14.5, the Thompson 515 Uni, unless there was a typo in ours, the project 007, 10 millimeter. That makes sense. The Franklin FS2 or Dynasty 12 millimeter, 60 sapphire, and then there was a pursuit Pro 1 midweight. I guess we'll turn on that. But as you can see, my whole point I was trying to make was if you are married to an elongated paddling, you need a swing weight that low. There are not a lot of options. You drastically widen your net if you change to wide body."
3539.22s - 3541.22s Ad

Host mentions the price and offers a discount code for the Thrive Ignite paddle.

"Price to $19.99. discount code. I'll obviously drop that."
3774.86s - 3886.82s Ad

Host discusses and quotes marketing claims for the Thrive Ignite paddle's features, specifically its 'clear fusion grit' and 'long lasting performance'.

"I forgot to mention this because it's something we need to test. But they claim they have a longer lasting texture on this. So let me pull up their website just so I can actually quote this. It feels just like peel ply to me, but we'll get to that in just a second. Where is this on the website? This said, we've also introduced our near new clear fusion grit, a durable surface application bonded to the peel ply pop up to maximize spin potential while maintaining long lasting performance. So we'll see. I'm like a little skeptical just based on how it was described and how little of a marketing point it was on this right? Like if you're a hex grit or you're a P1 or whatever else or six years diamond tough, you're like shoving this in people's face because you're like, behold, long lasting grit. And just to have a little blurb that's like, yeah, we put this little clear top over it. It's good. Don't worry about it. Like I just feel like, are you just, did you throw something in here to appeal, appease people that you know want this or did you actually do something? Yeah. I mean, to R.I. and testing and just looking at it, I do not have high expectations of it being a much more durable longer lasting grit. Because then our microscope, some of the other grits, they look very different. At least the ones that are performed well, that have performed well, yes. And this just looked like rock carbon. Yeah. So we don't know for sure, but we're going to assess it. See how well it does. I guess that I don't have super high expectations, but we'll find out we'll get the numbers. It could be totally wrong, but that's just my, that's my guess based on the history of how other companies have kind of handled long lasting grit. They usually make a much bigger deal out of it. So we'll see and keep you guys posted."
5369.94s - 5391.26s Outro

Concluding remarks of the podcast, thanking listeners, asking for comments/suggestions, and a goodbye.

"So you did pretty good though. I'll take it. I'll take it. Well, all right. Yeah, that's the pod for this week. If you have any thoughts, let us know down in the comments. And if there's any terminology stuff that you want to see covered, they go like, Hey, this is not well defined amongst reviewers or at least it's been a minute since it's been talked about. Let us know and we can cover it in another episode. So sure. Thanks for watching guys and we'll catch you next week. Peace."

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