Zane Defends the Most Hated Man in Pickleball

Start your day with Quaker Protein Instant Oatmeal.

The Instant Oatmeal, ready to help you tackle whatever your day brings.

Like wrinkling your toddler into their car seat.

That was fun.

Coaching your six-graders soccer team.

Double girls!

And carrying all the groceries in one trip.

Try Quaker Protein Instant Oatmeal, granola, and bars.

Great taste and a good source of protein.

Quaker, bring out the good.

I basically had to go beg people for money at the PPA event yesterday because I have

been locked out of anything and everything financial.

I came over here with like 500 bucks.

Last time, everything worked.

Everything was good.

No problems whatsoever.

Credit cards, debit cards, all that.

No problem.

This time, big problem.

Not only that, after I call about getting my ATM transactions approved, they're like,

yeah, we can do that.

No, f*** you.

We're going to lock you out of the credit cards, too.

So now you're really f***ing.

I'm like actually just hosed over here.

No way of getting any form of currency.

So I'm like, I don't know what to do.

We've got to pay for other stuff.

We're going on a cruise that we have to pay on.

Pay for, like we have all these different drivers that we have to pay for.

I end up having somebody else go to an ATM.

Pull out 12 million dong.

I Venmo him.

The 100-part doe was like, dude, I'll go give you 100 bucks.

Is that my hotel room?

I'm like a hobo.

It's first a bag for money on the streets of Vietnam over here.

Yeah.

I'm going to go on a ride.

I don't have to go on a yacht.

All right, guys.

Welcome back to another episode of the PicklePod.

I'm over here still in Vietnam, Hanh Nhoi.

We just finished up the tournament last night.

It's also Easter right now for Nico.

So thanks for popping on.

I feel like we have a lot to talk about from this week.

Yeah, absolutely.

I'm excited.

It is Easter.

My family is in the other room.

I told my kids there are four additional eggs hiding in the backyard that I actually didn't

hide.

So hopefully that'll buy me 90 minutes of time as they look for mystery eggs.

They don't exist.

And then maybe I'll buy the mushroom when they're done.

But yeah.

Dude, that's diabolical.

Anything for the pod, you know?

So I'm here.

I'm a team player.

Okay, so this is completely not on our agenda for today.

And I love to just derail a PicklePod episode, 90 seconds in.

But I saw this April Fools joke of this person I know whose daughter she told was going

to a clinic with me at their pickler facility on April Fools.

And she's in the car and she's like, we're going to go do a clinic with Zayn.

You can't wait to meet you all this time.

And she's so excited.

And then they get to the place of the pickler and she's like April Fools.

And I watched this entire thing.

I'm like, this is the most diabolical brutal April Fools for like a, I don't know, 12,

13 year olds girl.

I can't tell kids ages.

And so anyway, I sent her a video because I'm like, this is like, this is diabolical.

Like do these people know you at all or is just like a random person that's doing it?

I had met them in a clinic at the pickler in Denny River.

Okay.

Yeah.

And the daughter said that I was her favorite player.

And I'm like, this mom has some parenting issues if that's the case.

I know you can tell with the vaginal.

That's like, it's like when Jimmy Kimmel has all the parents that tell the kids that they

ate all their candy, just ripping their hearts out.

I'm glad you like send a video because I can only imagine the destruction.

Yeah.

No, I was watching that.

I was like, oh man, that's brutal.

But there were kind of a lot of, I feel like the April Fools jokes just didn't land

this year.

No, there were a ton.

And I would say probably at this point, like, I don't know, 1% hit.

It's hard because there's like a sweet spot where it's just like, it can't be so crazy.

And it can't be obvious.

And what I found is like most everything in the pickleball space is just like, I

like, I'm like, this is this is the dumbest thing.

Like I was like, I see, oh, Ben John starts to play a pedel.

I'm like, okay, this, but then the hard thing is like the audience for half of this is

like a Facebook group where everybody's just like, what?

This is happening.

And so it's like, it's reaching like the lowest common denominator amongst us or whatever,

but the lowest hanging fruit, I don't know what the right answer is.

But yeah, so I don't know.

Was there any good ones that you saw at all?

Well, I mean, I'll just piggyback on that point for a second.

Like I put out last year a two years in a row.

I did Napier Fool's.

I didn't do one this year.

Two years ago, I did one of those pros versus five os videos where I announced bird as my

new sponsor.

You know those pebbles that are like, you know, the group and everyone on the comments

is like, congratulations.

And I'm like, okay, and then the following year, I announced that the chain saw is legal again.

Just everybody is just like, oh, okay, yeah, all right.

Well, why are we doing this?

It's just, it's too easy.

It's shooting fish in a barrel.

It's, yeah, it's just too easy.

Did I see any good ones?

No, but in the Pro Pickleball Talk Discord that I sent you that you joined, there were

a couple good creative ones on Reddit, Wang Yun back to the PPA.

I chimed in James Ignato, which I threw in in there.

James Ignato, which swears off Asian women for life.

You know, like just stuff that one's five.

That one's five.

A little too unbelievable, but there are some good ones in our Reddit or our Discord for

those who know all.

And by the way, you know, no, not to throw our producer, JB under the bus, but we will

make sure that the Discord link is in our YouTube.

Maybe it was already, I don't know, but I had like five people ask.

Hey, Nico, where's the link?

So we'll make sure that you have access.

There's apparently a lot of people want to get into this Pro Pickleball Talk Discord.

And it's great.

And before we get into Hanoi PPA, the last thing I'll shout out, speaking of the Discord,

is there are a couple different fantasy pickleball competitions out there.

One of them is heavy in the Discord.

And I love it.

So I think it's a pickle wave that does the fantasy.

So basically you can do all five brackets.

I think we talked about this last time.

And I think Jake Elvar won this one, which if you know anything about Jake, that just

means anybody can win.

Literally, it's anybody's, you don't have to know any pickleball whatsoever to be good

at this.

You can literally close your eyes like Jake and you could be a winner and you could win

prizes.

But they have that one.

They have one on match day.

If you don't want to guess 120 or so individual matchups and you just want to guess the podium,

a match day has one as well.

Not sure where our allegiance is lies.

But I'm all about pickleball games.

And so they're available there now and they're fun.

So if your brackets are already busted for fantasy sports or you need the itch between

now and fantasy football, it's there.

Yeah.

I don't know where our allegiance is.

On this one either.

I think match day is a really, really cool app.

I think that they do something where you can basically like choose medalists.

Yes.

I didn't see like a full, full bracket.

The one in pickle wave that we do is like you can pick your full bracket.

So it's probably a little bit more for the hardos that are literally going to go, you

know, fill out 100 plus different things.

I think there's prizes, t-shirts, paddles, all that stuff.

So it's, it's fun.

I put my guesses in for the first one as just kind of like a test of the system.

I realized I probably shouldn't be doing that.

So, you know, I think I think Jenny might be my wife might be getting into the pro pick

ball bracket guessing game sometime soon in my absence for this one.

They'll be standing over her shoulder making all the takes.

Man's planning her the bracket.

Honestly, she could probably fill out a bracket just as good as you.

That'd be funny.

You know, get like a, you ever see those fantasy football wives leagues where they pick because

they like people's names or something like that.

We need that too.

That'll be Jenny's fix.

How much pro pick a ball does your wife watch outside of you?

Like how much does she know outside of me?

Like how knowledgeable.

She's, I mean, she's been around the sport for long enough.

So she knows like, you know, she knows who everybody is for the most part.

If they've been around for a couple of years, she watches, she has probably watched zero

minutes of pro pick ball when I've been not been playing.

That's right.

Oh, that's funny.

I wonder because I was, I just quizzed my wife on how many pro pick a ball player she could

name in 60 seconds and she got 12, which I think she could have done more, but she

like gets like performance anxiety.

But it was so fun.

This is like Federico Sackers second person Brooke Buckner, I'm like that.

Oh, that's weird.

I was like, you can only name 12 people and for some somehow one of the 12 is Brooke Buckner.

But who did fantastic this weekend?

Anyway, let's get it.

Let's get into PPA, Hanoi.

You're there.

I'm watching as much as I can.

And I think, you know, a lot of us, you know, diehards are probably watching a ton of

the matches that started at, you know, 6 p.m.

my time until, you know, bedtime at 10 or whatever.

You know, and if you're like Zane, you're in bed by 830.

So you probably watching, but I'm probably awake for the early matches.

He's you're there for the end of it.

You're there for the last match of the day probably.

So, but no, it was actually kind of nice to have like primetime pickleball, you know,

like the hours are kind of terrible for pickleball during the week.

You know, you have to watch it at 12 o'clock in, you know, the middle of the day.

And now you can watch it at 6.

But there was a lot that happened.

I think honestly, I don't know.

We're going to talk.

I don't know.

I can barely contain myself.

There's a lot that I think that we should implement in the US game, just based on what

I saw there.

Maybe cheating is one of them.

But why don't we just jump right into it, Zane?

You know, didn't hold back.

You were the shield as any good partner would be for our guy.

Oh my gosh.

Can you say these people that you know?

Let's get let's wipe people can can pronounce these names.

He's not even white.

Come on, dude.

Hung Nam Lee, right?

Am I going to write?

Yeah.

All right.

Yeah.

Controversial call.

His first name is actually nom though.

So you can call nom.

Okay.

Perfect.

So this is that that's like the hardest part is figuring out which name is first name and

which name is last middle.

So.

This is true.

He's a particularly difficult case of that because I don't know why is Instagram and

stuff is hung nam Lee.

His first name and what I was calling him at least or told to call him was we call them

Al Hoonie over here.

So this is true.

You guys did.

You absolutely did.

So so basically to set this up, Nam and Christian Alshon are in a fantastic match.

I think it's round of 32.

If I am correct, Christian is, you know, number four singles player in the world.

One of the top seeds at the event front runner or at least one of the top two to win the

entire tournament.

They get to match point in a very close game three.

Christian hits what I would call a slow return lands somewhere in the general vicinity of

the line.

Most people that are not names direct doubles partner would say that the ball was in clearly

in.

He immediately calls it out.

Cheers runs it to the line.

Cheers some more.

Task paddles as Christian Alshon is complaining to the referee where there are no challenges.

And I think my favorite part is after the match.

The huge smile on Nam's face as he's also taking pictures with Christian, which is

was fantastic.

But yeah, the photo, the photo afterwards was that was the icing on the cake.

Honestly, like, yeah, that was that was brutal.

And for good for Christian for being a good sport about that.

But I mean, that was all over the Vietnamese news.

Yeah, yeah.

So basically, the whole, at least in the US, everybody was like out for blood.

This dude is the biggest cheater we have ever seen.

I put like a couple videos out because I thought the whole thing was pretty funny.

But what was it like there?

I had my question is, was the kind of the hook sentiment there as well in Vietnam from

other players or did this get swept under the rug?

Like what happened over there with this call?

Yeah, I mean, it didn't get, it certainly didn't get swept under the rug or it didn't

get swept under the rug very well.

I mean, this thing was everywhere, everywhere.

I mean, there's so many, this is like, I think this is actually probably one of the most

viral pickleball moments since that other dude kicked that guy in the face.

Like, or at least the most viral pro pickleball moments for a while.

I can't think of a more viral pro pickleball moment.

What was the sentiment over there?

I mean, like, yeah, just people were buzzing about it.

I, you know, don't get the sentiment from the Vietnamese people nearly as well because

they're on Facebook and speaking Vietnamese on Facebook.

So I don't know from what I understand though.

Vietnam is like a household name over here in Vietnam from his tenants.

Like, you know, I had Lamar, one of the guys who edits my videos, who's from Vietnam,

as soon as I sent him the video, he's like, oh, I know, nom.

Like, just kind of random people know, no, no.

So I couldn't tell you what the sentiment was over there.

I could tell you that the sentiment from the, some of the American players was like, what

is going on over here?

Yeah.

I mean, that's what it was like here.

Basically, everybody besides Johnny Goldberg and you were ready to roast him.

It's tough.

To me, what's hard is like to be fair, it's not egregious in my opinion.

All right.

So like, I saw the kitchen posted a video.

Literally, the headline is just in, you know, size, you know, a hundred word art that

you said egregious before the point.

And I'm like, all right, this, this at least touched the line one way or the other or another,

right?

And so I think it was tough.

People immediately were like, all right, this is the worst hook ever.

And I think I might have put a hook up the year.

And to me, I think it was the, if it was a hook, it was the hook of the year because it

happened on match point and such an upset.

It happened overseas.

Yeah, yeah.

Context, of course.

Yeah.

So probably the most controversial or impactful line call maybe ever, at least up there that

people can remember while pickleball was huge and it's all over social.

You're sure?

So I'll give you my two cents.

Like, it's unfortunate because obviously, NAM is my partner.

So you can, you can tune out my opinion right now if you want and say that I'm just defending

him because I'm sorry.

I don't give a shit about him.

Like, it's nice enough guy.

I don't know about whatsoever.

We exchanged like, I don't know, a hundred words the entire weekend.

Like, I don't know him whatsoever.

Right?

I am not, I promise you this.

I'm not staking my reputation on sticking up for some random cheater in Vietnam.

I promise you that, okay?

My perspective is I'm somebody who's very, very hard on cheating and I think there are

so many great examples of blatant cheats.

Some of them come from NAM.

Some of those have surfaced in other areas, right?

I don't want people who are quick to go find this guy's history, find other bad calls

that he's made.

Yeah, bad calls.

Okay, he's made bad calls.

I think that the video shows, again, when you take into consideration where the camera

is, other camera angles that we've seen, this is inconclusive.

Well, there it is, it is.

If you say one way or another, yes, that was in, yes, that was out.

You're just wrong.

The only answer right here is based on the videos that we have, you cannot tell.

Right?

You see this is the back angle.

It looks clearly in.

You see something that comes a little bit more over towards the side.

You see all those additional follow-up screenshots.

There are two frames.

One just before the ball bounces.

One just after the ball bounces.

Zero as the ball bounces.

Right?

There's no evidence out there that can support a definitive claim one way or another.

What I'm saying here is why are we all over this, dude?

It could have, it very well could have been out.

It could have been a hook.

All this could be justified for sure.

Why are we picking this one example where we're not 100% sure?

We have hundreds of examples that we have not had this outrage for, where it's like,

yeah, that ball is six inches in the line and everybody is all the sudden Stevie Wonder

can't see.

What is going on here?

Anyway, I think the perspective really distorts things.

Again, this absolutely could have been in.

If I'm looking at those calls, I'm like, all right, I think it's 51% likely that it was

out, 49% likely that it was in, but one way or another, not egregious.

You can't say that's a great deal.

If you are the referee and there is video challenge on Grandstand, let's just say you

are the one reviewing it.

Zana, I need you to make a call right now in or out.

Yeah, if I have to make a call, I'm saying out with 51% confidence.

All right.

It looks based on the best screenshot.

Actually, we'll put it this way.

Based on the video evidence of the actual stream itself, I would think I would have to call

it in.

Based on where that other angle was, even though it was similar, I would say it's more

likely out than in.

If I have both of those angles, I think I'm standing with Noms call on.

That's fair.

With zero confidence.

You can't have that.

I know you've seen the video, of course, and the replays.

Who is the woman doing this?

Is that Noms girlfriend or wife or is that just a random person?

I don't know.

Girlfriend, wife, whatever.

Like I said, I don't really know them too much, but she was around the entire time when

we were probably.

Okay.

I just appreciate the rider, Dynatr.

You just see her like poke her head out and just, yeah, that's that was out.

In case anybody was wondering, I saw it.

So yeah.

It was fantastic.

Wow.

So, and I think really this all just the hardest thing is the worst look is not necessarily

in my opinion for Noms.

It's just like for outsiders of the pickleball world asking why is this professional event

having people call their calls?

Why this is too hard?

I think from any outsider's perspective, the difficulty level to make your own call

is too much.

So one is it requires too much, in my opinion, like selflessness to be quite honest and it

requires too much skill.

Like you have to be able to see it in real time while playing and you have to be able

to be willing to either give your opponent the benefit of the doubt or at least not give

you any favor, which I think is too hard.

So eventually, you know, eventually this will go away.

But we got to deal with these, you know, for the first year of the future.

Yeah.

And I mean, like, look, that is the whole point of the cheating, the caring committee.

We are not at a spot where we can enforce in real time the stuff, right?

We don't have six qualified line judges that we can throw on the court.

We can't do that in the States.

We do not have the technology available for more than one court.

People are like, why aren't there challenges?

Well, you guys forget.

There are 18 courts going on at PPAs here in the States that don't have challenges, right?

Like you can get challenges going on.

One court, the US has two courts.

Like there are 18 more going at this point.

So, you know, and I'm okay.

Like I will sacrifice the challenge on Grandstand Court to keep the pregame show that happened

before Championship Sunday all days.

Use the money for whatever the hell that was.

Fantastic.

I don't know what it was.

Like, you know, a light display on the court.

Like, I think that's what Pickleball needs in the US.

And this is why I think Pickleball is like a much better indoor sport than outdoor sport,

because it's indoor, like you can do all these cool stuff.

Like, I want to see Pickleball be like an NBA game, right?

Like have all the theatrics.

All, like, right now the best we have is like that one dude, the poor guy that has to always

wear like a three-piece suit in the middle of the summer saying like, you know, WWE wrestling

style announcements of people's names are way in at 135, 5 foot 4.

Well, you said 135, but you're talking about you.

Come on, I'm 5 foot 8 at least.

And 140, give me a break.

Yeah.

So honestly soaked and sweat in this conference room here in Hanoi, I'm probably up to like

155.

So, um, and yeah, I do like the little fire things that we have for some of those

instances.

Those are cool smoke goes right in their faces immediately.

Yeah, I think it's it's like I saw so many people I feel compelled to defend the event

overall because there are like, you know, there are a lot of people saying like, yeah,

how do you not have challenges?

How do you not have have line judges?

How are the referees this bad?

I'm like, guys, PPA Asia hasn't turned one yet.

They have not run events for a full year.

This is like their fourth, fifth event, maybe, right?

It's pretty fucking good.

Like, yes, there's issues, right?

There's issues, but look at event number five on the US PPA schedule.

It looked like a disaster compared to this.

So like, I think we're doing pretty good.

Yeah, oh, absolutely.

Yeah, you can't compare the US to Hanoi and they did a fantastic job.

All things considered.

People were complaining about the crowds, but what was interesting online.

But to me, I think what was this the problem was like, there was a lot of people sitting

behind the camera.

Like, there weren't as many people close on the side, but everybody was behind.

I'm not sure how the setup was, but it didn't look great initially on TV, but then when

they would pan out, there was hundreds of people watching.

So yeah, I mean, the PPA US does a good job of like having the cameras pointed towards

the biggest part of the stand.

They did.

I kept when I did the commentary, I kept saying like, the crowd was going wild and they

were panning to the center court.

That was like 25 times more expensive to get in and like was somewhat spotty until Saturday

and Sunday.

It was still full on Saturday and Sunday.

Behind the court, there were 10 sections of 50 by 50 seating probably that were full

with the exception of one where it was completely blocked by the by the big scoreboards and

setup and stuff.

There were people who imagine, imagine watching from behind a court, right?

And then imagine you're at a basketball game and you move four sections over to the

right, but the court is still in the same spot.

There were people watching from there, right?

Like they filled up the entire, really entire stadium with usable seats on that Saturday

and Sunday.

I just think they did a bad job of showing it.

I would guess, I mean, I was told that it was completely sold out.

I believe it was completely sold out.

I believe that because they wouldn't even let me in the venue on Saturday and Sunday.

They were really, really locked down with any sort of ticket sends.

You didn't say, do you know who I am?

I'm not only on my pro, but I'm also announcing and I am the most influential man in all

the thickable.

You know, I tried that and they didn't speak English.

All you had to say was I'm Nams Partner.

So that would have worked much better.

Yeah.

That would have marked.

No, it looked great.

I love the seats that you guys had like on center court.

They are like futuristic looking F1 seats than the benches.

Also I think that the PPA needs to figure out how to do dynamic pricing for the weekday

events.

Center court should be filled 100% of the time.

So depending on whatever the price is, like you just can't have it be $200 a day.

I don't think because it's tough when you're watching on Thursday and nobody's visible

on camera.

So if you can't get paid actors, I'm sure you can get people to pay $20 to go sit in

center court and watch great football.

So yeah, I don't know.

I just think that there's a lot of people that are working.

That's what that's what it was here in Vietnam during the week.

I would guess.

But it was interesting too.

Like the crowds were way younger.

I feel like it was people in their 20s, 30s, 40s here in Vietnam, whereas in the US,

especially on a weekday, your average, your median age on a weekday, PPA tournaments

got to be like 55.

Yeah.

And I think it's because pickleball was not created as an old person sport or a sport for

seniors in Vietnam.

It was, it did that here and then became popular with young people in pros and then Asia,

you know, got wind, fell in love with pickleball and people that play athletic sports in general

are usually younger anyway.

So I feel like the rest of the world will probably have a much younger demographic in pickleball

than the US.

So.

So yeah.

And and and that they did.

I mean, like the amount of pickleball places that I would just randomly drive by on the

way somewhere or another.

I saw the proton headquarters, the lights were off.

I saw, I saw, I mean, I saw facalos, I saw Kiwin, Kameeta.

I mean, like there are banners of NAM and Hien and their players in all of their different

in the fronts of all their different like big box retailers too.

Like the amount of pickleball bags of people on motorbikes going everywhere, like it felt

like after work time, if you're watching the motorbikes go by, you like one in 20 people

and there's a lot of fucking people are rocking a like some sort of pickleball bag.

Like it really was crazy just how many people were were playing.

How many times I was noticed by random Vietnamese people, right?

Like I was stopped while Jenny was getting her hair done, stopped at restaurants, all that

stuff.

Like at a rate higher than in the US.

And I was actually talking with some people like, I'm curious if there really are more

people that care about pro pickleball here in Vietnam or they're just more likely to

say something.

And I think it's probably still the latter at this point.

I think I'm probably still recognized more in the US, but I think that the people here

in Vietnam are more likely to be like, I'm saying like let's go take a picture.

Well, alright guys, so as you know, I started the lefty reset on Wednesday.

So 60 days to anew me.

I'm actually trying to be healthier for like the first time in a long time.

Drop like 30 pounds.

I don't know, just positive progress in the right direction.

And it has been fantastic, right?

The hard thing is there are so many like pitfalls that come like in daily life from the McDonald's

that I have to like pass every day.

I go back from pickleball to the snacks that are at home.

It's tough to do it alone, right?

And that's where America Health comes into play.

So as you guys know, I love America Health, right?

Because they got a guy, Peter, that checks in on me via email when I go silent or when

I need help.

He's like the most supportive person that I have as part of the challenge, which has been

fantastic.

Hanikah, you should do this.

Hanikah, try this.

Hey, we're rooting for you, right?

And when I feel like, hey, I don't have everything that I need, I also reach out to Peter,

right?

So Peter is like my guardian angel from Merrick.

And I say, I think I might have mentioned last time.

Hey, Peter, I think I need to look into testosterone replacement, right?

Because I'm like 40 and it's going down and maybe it needs to go back up, right?

And that's something that's holding me back.

And it's like, alright, let's have an honest conversation about this.

Let's figure it out.

Let's work with myself.

Let's work with the health professional.

And I'm not just going to blindly subscribe everything that you need, but we're going to

figure out what actually works best for you.

And we're going to make sure that you got a fighting chance of what you need to do.

And we're in the 21st century, the age of AI, where there are so many tools that help

you and tell you what you need to do and support you in being better.

And why not use that for your health?

I'm not saying Merrick Health is AI.

What I'm saying is that it is a tool that people didn't have in the past that takes your

blood work and helps tailor plans to help you.

So I'm not alone.

So I have the supplementation I need to feel energized and full so that I can drive by

a McDonald's even when there's the Shamrock shake out.

And I can say no.

And that's what Merrick Health is helping me do.

It's helping me say no to the things that don't suit me and helping me change my mindset.

I can say yes to the things that matter.

So thank you, Peter.

Thank you, Merrick Health.

This is almost like my Oscar award speech.

I have yet to lose all the weight, but I just want to say thanks because you guys make

it so much easier.

And not only do I thank you, but my family, my wife, everybody.

So it's been great.

And if you're interested in getting the same experience, you can just head over to Merrick Health.com.

If you go to M-A-R-E-K-Health.com, you can get 10% off.

And then you can get a guided optimization with code Dink.

So check it out.

Don't delay.

I promise you it's worth the investment.

So Zayn, speaking of like the US versus Asia when it comes to pickleball or maybe Vietnam

specifically, one thing that was clear, at least in singles, is that the gap is almost

non-existent when it comes to men's singles.

So the question is like, will we see players like NAMM in the US playing PPA?

Is this going to be like separate or what's happening because the skill level seems to

be almost identical?

Yeah, I mean, this is just another step towards an actual global circuit.

Like I do think we'll see, I think we should see NAMM and Hien sign PPA contracts come

play here because NAMM is a top five singles player.

Hien's a top 10 singles player and this actually got me thinking Vietnam could very soon

be the center of the world in men's singles.

Because if you factor in, you got Puk Hien who is a two time PPA champion, not much overlap

there, but very, very strong.

I think he's a top 10 player.

You also have Guang Yun who I think is still a top 10 singles player, even though we don't

get to see him.

Are you sure you said that name right?

I'm 100%.

I have, I mean, like just, I'm not very sure on any of the other three, but I have now

have Guang Yun dialed because of our interview with Duke.

What I mean, like you've got four of the top 10 singles players.

None of them are actually ranked in the top 10.

This is just my power rankings, but like, I don't know how you could say at least NAMM

isn't in the top five.

He's got his most recent matchups against both Federico and Christian, he won, won back-to-back

PPA's tournaments.

It'd be hard to argue against him as a top five overall player.

Yeah, and I watched NAMM play against Thomas Shimabukuru and like, he, it was a destruction

and it was insane.

Like, yeah, he gave him, I was like, Tom, what is he?

15, he's too old to spank.

Like, I was waiting to see which one of us was going to say something, but yeah, that's

basically what happened for like 15 minutes that he was on the court.

It was the backhand passing shot, so just insane.

So, you know, I watched that and I realized, okay, this guy is actually good.

It wasn't a fluke, it wasn't lucky.

I think that's probably what a lot of people thought after they saw the first one, and

then they saw that destruction, then they saw him be Federico and then take it all.

So, you know, you're right.

I don't know if I'm willing to say top five, obviously, I wasn't there, but you know,

it was incredible to see how close they are.

And I guess the question is, Zane, that I think a lot of people have been asking, and I

want to get your take on this, is are any of the players in the US taking this tournament

off, when I say off, I mean, mentally, like, are they taking it lightly?

You see a lot of play, you see Analyen and Anna Bright have some of the toughest matches

that they've had.

You see players like Christian go out, you know, in the front of 32, Federico go out sooner

than normal.

Like, is everybody given the, you know, the honest college try here or what's happening?

Yeah, I mean, like, I don't know, I can't fully speak to that.

I don't, I think these guys are competitors.

I think every single time they go out there, they're going to go after it.

You know, I would say it probably doesn't have the same level of focus as a PPA in the

US.

And, you know, that might just be because there's so much other stuff going on as well.

Like, there's so much more appearances, interviews, stuff with sponsors, all that stuff.

Like, that you can sort of lose some, some focus, I suppose.

So I think that's the, that's the take I'll give.

I think with all the other stuff going on, it's tougher to be fully focused on the

tournament itself.

But I don't think, I don't think there's anybody that's going to show up and be like, like,

a days ago about it.

Yeah.

And I think also this is probably their Super Bowl.

You know what I mean?

Like, this is the opportunity for Naman, he and, he and, heine, heine, oh my gosh, I'm going

to, I'm, I've been saying, Naman, he and, you know, to shine, right?

And so they're giving, you know, everything for this.

Obviously, as you mentioned, Federico's not taking any points off either.

But it's just interesting to see.

And, and, maybe this is actually probably a good time to get into this.

And, I want to talk to you about the conditions and the ball, all right?

So, everybody, you know, is, I think aware, the ball that they're playing with in this

tournament was the Yola ball, not the lifetime ball, right?

So the ball is much slower.

It's different affects the play for a lot of people.

I think you, you shared a little bit with me kind of what that, who that, who, um,

benefited from the ball.

You maybe share with everybody kind of like, this Yola ball, how was it?

How did it play differently and how did it affect or who did it benefit?

Yeah.

So, you mentioned a little bit of this on the podcast last time, but we went from the

fastest possible conditions in St. George to about the slowest possible conditions here

in Hanoi.

So, um, in Hanoi here, we're playing with the Yola ball on rollout courts.

The courts are, are very, very textured, which I like, but the ball does tend to sort of

check up a little bit more than normal.

I mean, just think about playing on courts that are slick versus playing on courts that

are super gritty.

The ball sort of just sits there a little bit more.

We've got a Yola ball, which I think most people would compare to the Franklin X40 if you

haven't played with a Yola ball, a very, very similar ball that is slower, but lasts for

forever.

And then when you throw that in with 90 degrees, 80% humidity, like it's, it is a, it's

a slow of conditions as you can have.

And so, this really benefits the players that can take the ball out of the air.

Because once the ball has bounced, it is probably bouncing 25% less than a, than what we

were just seeing in St. George with a lifetime ball.

But the lifetime balls are super springy.

The Yola balls on a rollout court are, are much better, um, not high bouncing.

So, it doesn't bounce as high.

That makes your off bounce speedups much worse.

So it definitely favors players that are a little bit longer, taking more shots out

of the air.

Um, you saw that, I think with, with Tyra's offense, you saw that with Christian, being

able to take that ball out of the air.

Caitlin Christian thrives in these conditions and singles.

She makes it three for three.

Um, there's a, I think, a huge impact on the game that, that people don't talk about

a ton.

So, you know, when we talk about men's singles, the funny part is, other than the heat

and the humidity where the Vietnamese guys are used to it, I don't think that the Yola

ball actually helps their play style.

I think it helps players like Federico and Christian who play more of that cat and mouse

type of game with long net coverage.

These guys, Hien and Nam are built for the lifetime ball.

The lifetime ball benefits tennis players that are hitting ground strokes.

That's, that is Nam's game.

Nam is a better tennis player than anybody in the top 10 other than Jack Song.

He was a junior member of the champion.

So what, at least in men's singles, saying that the ball had an impact is accurate.

However, I think it had a negative impact on these Vietnamese players.

I think that these conditions actually were as favorable for Christian against Nam as

they could have been.

They're as favorable for Federico against Hien as they could have been.

I think that these guys are actually better in fast conditions with a lifetime ball.

With the physicality exception, right?

Like, you know, maybe they're more used to playing in the humidity, the heat, whatever.

But at least in singles, I think if anything, the ball had a negative impact on these guys.

Zane, this, this brings me to a, I want to bring up a, there is like an interview that I saw a tennis interview with Roger Federer.

And he's talking about Carlos Alcarez and Yannick Sinner.

And he says that the two of them have it easy because now the ball and the court surfaces are identical everywhere.

Right?

And so they only have to have, like learn how to play one style and then they just dominate.

They win all the time because everything is always the same.

Right?

And so when Roger was playing, there were differences that no longer exist.

Now I want to bring this back.

I would love to see that interview because I mean, that's a huge problem currently that the Neil Medvedev is pointing out is that all these different tournaments have different ball sponsors.

I think, yeah.

And so like the conditions change so much.

I think what Federer might be referring to is the fact that the courts are all playing a little bit more similarly.

I think I'm talking about the court.

The play is playing a little faster, Wimbledon grass is playing much slower than it used to.

So I think it's the court surfaces converging a little bit more.

You're right.

The versus the balls, he's talking more about the court surface and Medvedev, you know, can basically complain about anything is crazy.

But is he the Travis Rettenmeyer of, of, of, I don't, or is he the lay of Janssen of tennis?

Oh my goodness.

That's a great quote as I was already see the same chat.

I think I think it might be lay of Janssen.

I think that's probably it.

If she was even more vocal in the middle of matches and crashed out harder, it's like if you were to take Medvedev,

and this, I don't know, I sure many people know, you know, Medvedev, but like if you were to take lay of Janssen's, you know, vocal antics,

and then you take like the paddle abuse of a zane Ford and mix them together, that's probably what you got.

So anyway, so back to the question at hand, zane.

Would pickle ball be better if we had more variability in at least the ball?

Like, let's say we have, you know, five tournaments with a Yola ball and five tournaments with a Dura,

and five tournaments with a Franklin, five tournaments with a lifetime.

And like, I understand that it's not, it's not uniform, but who cares?

Like, we change it up.

And then Chris Hayworth is not the, you know, foregone conclusion of winning because like, you know, you give Ben Jans a Franklin and tell him to play singles,

he might now be the favorite over Chris Hayworth, right?

So like, what if we did that?

Was that a good idea or is this crazy?

I honestly love it, right?

I think that that's something that's really differentiated the slams over the years.

And I think that that's one thing that the PPA needs is more tournament by tournament differentiation, right?

It does feel sometimes like it's a just another week and another tournament with no real variation other than where it's happening.

And tennis does such a good job of all these different tournaments having a unique feel, even a unique style, right?

Like, so absolutely.

I am, you know, from a player perspective, we want to play with the same ball all the time, blah, blah, blah.

I think that from a tour perspective, having some differentiation in how the game has played is good.

And I think back to like, yes, these conditions were slow, but go watch the women's doubles final.

Like, it was in the middle of the night.

It was honestly, potentially one of the best matches of the entire year in terms of point quality.

Like, they were having like 15 ball hand rallies almost every point.

Like crazy gets crazy resets, Ernie's ATP's everything.

Like, it was one of the most dynamic women's doubles matches that I've seen this entire year.

The score wasn't like crazy close between Catherine and Tyra and Annelie and Anna Bright.

But that match needs to be watched.

And like, yeah, you get those longer hands battles with these with these slower balls.

So I think, yeah, mixing up the ball, I'm all for it.

I think Annelie and Anna Bright probably lost more points this match than in the last five tournaments.

Or in this tournament than the last five tournaments combined.

And obviously, to your point, there's different conditions besides the ball.

But I think that helps.

Like, maybe have a little bit more parity.

So, yeah, I'd love to see it.

And people, I think that's where we need to make the change as a tour.

As, you know, we tried where we're about to have PPA Sacramento, which last year, I think,

was kind of like a huge dud trying the wooden paddle tournament.

Right? Like, it was cool in theory and poor in execution.

I don't think that it would ever be done again.

But instead of doing that, you know, you can't have clay court pickle ball.

Let's change the ball.

Let's see something different.

And let's see more hands battle sometimes.

Let's see faster points other times.

Let's find the ball that has the most spin and provide, you know, have more spin.

So that way, you don't have to change all the equipment.

The ball is the easiest thing to change.

And I actually think maybe, Zane, I feel, and now I'm regretting saying this.

I feel like you might have been the one that initially said we should change the ball versus change the paddles.

But yeah, I do think it's still easier to regulate the ball in the paddle.

Yeah, I mean, I love, look, again, we're still early in this NBA,

ABA, NFL, MLB, everybody's changing rules, even in sports that are 150 years old.

Like, we are six years old at the professional level.

Like, let's throw more shit at the wall and see what sticks.

Especially now that we've got PPA Challenger.

Right? Like, many singles lines.

Love it, hate it. Love the fact that they tried it.

Right? Wood paddles.

Love it, hate it. Love the fact that they tried it.

Like, you know, we are far from the, what pickleball looks like when it's a full production broadcast sport,

and we need to figure that out for, for viewership purposes.

So I think, throw more shit at a wall, see what sticks.

Like, I'm all for it.

I love the idea. PPA Challenger can test out a ton of different things before we put it into production.

You know, it's like preseason baseball and they test out the different rules and automated,

you know, pitch calling or whatnot.

Sandy, there's a quick question.

Who wins a single, the men's singles tournament, if you play with an indoor pickleball outdoor,

you play with one of those 26 whole rubber balls that you ever, you know, that you see new people coming in.

You gotta give it to Ben and Fed, Cat and mouse players.

Ben Fed, Dylan, Jame.

I'm probably forgetting some Christian again,

and it would just be impossible to pass.

You know, me, if I start up 7-0 in all these different games,

if we make it like pros from a 5-0 style, I feel like I could have a chance.

Pro versus Zane, you know,

Pro versus like, kind of pros.

There you go, exactly versus the influencer.

Um, wow.

Zane, what else are we missing here in Hanoi?

What else caught your, your eye while you were there?

Yeah, I feel like the only other thing to chat about, like,

results wise was Brooke and Caitlyn's singles final, which was pretty, pretty epic.

Brooke, Brooke was playing the best ball I've seen her play in a while, and she hasn't won a

PPA event since Bristol in 2024. So she's coming up on, on two years,

Caitlyn came into this event having won both PPA Asia stops last year.

And so Brooke wins game one. Brooke is up like eight two in, it might have been eight

zero eight two in game two. Match points at 10-4, I believe, and then, or maybe 10-6.

Caitlyn comes all the way back in that one, Brooks up like nine four in game three, hits a put

away winner that Caitlyn barely scrapes up for a clean passing shot. It's on my top five plays

of this week, comes back completely. And like the, the Vietnamese crowd loved Caitlyn the entire time.

And it was pretty cool to see them. And she in her post-match interview was like, I give this to you,

guys, you guys really powered me through at that nine four point when Caitlyn had the, the dig to save

that. Matches over if she doesn't, right? It's 10-4 Brooke serving. The Vietnamese crowd went

just berserk. And you could kind of visibly see that affecting Brooke. She played pretty tight

afterwards. And yeah, it was the crowd really did pull Caitlyn through that one.

Yeah, it was, it was great to see. I think Brooke, to your point, Brooke was probably playing the

best singles pickleball I've seen since her almost victory against Analy Waters, like a year and

a half ago. And conditions look brutal. The point is just it looked like a slog like this singles

matchups, you know, in the heat and the humidity were crazy. So shout out to Caitlyn for

raining in the quote-unquote home crowd for her. And I like seeing Brooke in the finals, you know,

I want to see, you know, obviously want to see somebody beat Analy Waters. But if I can't,

I also want to see kind of more, even more parody between Cait, Caitlyn, Brooke, Leah. So,

you know, seeing more people, you know, seeing different people win is great. So yeah, good for her.

We'll see if she can write it. Yeah, I'm surprised Leah didn't play singles in this one. Because

again, I feel like the conditions would have been great for her as somebody who likes to come to the

net as somebody who kind of has plays a slightly more old school style of has been around since the

cat and mouse like era of pickleball. I would have put Leah as a potential favorite, not favorite.

But like certainly a contender in this one. Yeah, for sure. Maybe it's the pickle roll. I don't

know. I think sometimes that just you see, you know, Analy Waters, I don't think you'll ever see

her play on a pickle roll again. But I don't know singles at least. I don't think she I don't think

so Zane the other thing that that we got to talk about, which was the the blow heard around the

world. So maybe the second most viral thing that came out of the tournament was the absolute

insane long strength of Eric Onsens or Onsens as you would call it. I'm not sure exactly the right

pronunciation of his last name. I hear it from you all the time. But we're not a pronunciation podcast.

But yeah, he's you know, in a point ball tips the net tape. He basically just pops it straight up.

Maybe two inches away from the net, gonna land on his side. But then blows it like eight inches

over the net. Like I had to watch it like six times to make sure that he didn't actually hit it

with his mouth over because it was hit so hard. Like right. That's what I saw initially too. I was

like there's no way he actually just blew this ball that that far. Like I've seen this before. I've

seen Riley do it. I've seen Kyle Yates do it. And they'll like move the ball two or three inches.

He actually like projectile that I was like that had to have hit his nose or something or

another. And I know these rafts aren't going to see that. So like I was I was astounded. It makes

you wonder what what Eric is doing in his practice sessions. Good for Eric. I don't know he can

he can he can have a you know a pickleball school related to whatever that is. But

take some serious ones. So do you think that should be do you think that should be legal?

Yeah. I mean this is about as close as we're gonna get to tifty. I think where you hit the net

and you can still hit it over. But I mean I guess why not? It makes the sport kind of look like a joke

almost. But at the same time it's just so fun. It doesn't happen very often. And I don't know.

I don't know how you have like the wherewithal to do that. Like what goes as I never

occurred to you to blow the ball over the net. Yeah. I mean it's it's very very situational. I

think these I think people are doing that in in practice at this point probably. People have

people have seen it. But also this is a thing that's like how do you enforce that as a referee?

Like I he's not touching it. I guess maybe technically the spit particles or air particles

are touching that. But like how do you prevent somebody from doing that? How because if I'm

calls for a fault on that I'd be like I'm just breathing. I'm not allowed to breathe in the point.

Like what's going on? You know so I don't know how you actually go and enforce something like that.

And I think it's like dude if you've got the skill. If that happens in tennis and you blow the

ball over at as I'd imagine they let it happen right. If you're somehow able to hit a baseball

and you know blow it into fair territory like good for you. Like it's like just it's not going

to happen in these other sports. But like you know we've got a with the ball. So I'm all for it.

It's like the one of the more fun points to watch all weekend. So we want to pick a ball to be more.

So you know there I think there might be a baseball clip. For some reason I feel like I remember

Adrian Beltrade playing like third base and blowing a a bunch foul or something like that.

Let me just a roller and then just getting getting on the ground and just blowing it foul. I feel like

you're right. The fact that you like Zane honestly you're I don't this might just be a dig but

you don't strike me if I'm one of that. I love the way that you

how do I say this? It seems like some of the hasn't watched a Super Bowl in like eight years.

Let alone knows anything about Adrian Beltrade but

It wasn't Adrian Beltrade. It was some dude named Randall.

I'm dude named Randall. Some Randall guy who got down from the Seattle Mariners blew the ball foul.

Lenny Randall got down on his hands and knees blew a Bunt foul. Hey yes that's a source.

Pretty impressive. Yeah let's see if they actually made a rule about that afterwards.

Hold on I'm Chatchee BT. There's no way it's going to know. Chatchee BT knows a lot but there's no way.

Let's see. Let's see what it says. Let's see what it at least makes up. All right.

All right. Yeah. It doesn't know ball. It doesn't know how much Zane does. It says

only umpires can call the ball fair or foul. Oh thank you. Thank you.

I'm sorry. All right. This is score one for Claude versus Chatchee BT. Yeah.

Chatch says it's purely based on where the ball lands or passes relative to the foul lines.

Okay. Well maybe we'll have to do some episode is we'll have Chatchee BT or Claude or something

create new rules for Pickleball. Hey what are the stupidest rules of Pickleball and how can we

how can we improve them or what rules should we add to Pickleball and we'll see what it has to say.

Okay. And guys in the comments if you know anything else about blowing rules leave them here

because we we don't know anything about the blowing rules in in baseball. I don't know if

there's interesting blowing rules in football. Um you know uh yeah just just leave comments

with your favorite blowing rules. Or we'll ask James Ignato which next time he's on. Um all right.

So blowing open open throw it soft balls all the things. My goodness. All right. So I think

that wraps up PPA. Hennory. Now we're we're back to the states PPA Sacramento. We have regular

paddles this time. I'm like two hours away for those you don't know. I'm in Reno Nevada so it's

just a quick drive so I'll probably be over there if you see me say hi. Um but how could they miss

you dude? I don't know. Yeah. Uh but pretty suing you're gonna be like a like a little sheet of paper

nobody's gonna be able to see you. You're gonna be just so skin- I'm gonna confuse you

because of the Nico Lefty Challenge. Are you like handsome Zane? Like you're better looking but

you're just this kind of like this was Nico from before this is Nico after the Lefty Challenge.

Oh my goodness. Yeah. By the way it's uh eating healthy sucks. Um

So no I it's it's everywhere is how to get me at the Easter and I'm just like trying to avoid

you know copious amounts of devil eggs and chocolate eggs and coffee cake. I feel like

devil eggs aren't bad for you. I guess they're maybe calorie. I mean is that bad for you?

Yeah. Oh yeah I guess they're a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of

I don't really know what a devil egg is. Yeah I think it's egg with mayonnaise and some

some mustard you could put pickled juice in it. Uh yeah so. Huh. They're they're good. Okay

today I learned what a devil egg actually is. Yeah I can't believe that it's been this long

and you never know. Zane what's the best? It's just not something that's ever ever appealed to me

a devil egg to be honest. What's the best what's the best food over there in Vietnam? What's your favorite?

Oh it's Buncha. Wow. That was so good at almost. Dude I get in you it's kind of fun this it's

kind of fun. It's no I'm just it's that racist. I'm trying to say it the way that they do it. It's

kind of fun like Buncha. What is that? Buncha. I don't know it's like some it's they're these like

it's some like fish soup sauce. So some sauce that they get from from fish with like some

some like spices and stuff and then they put like pork or beef in the fish soup.

And then you mix it with these vermicelli noodles and it's fricking good dude. It's my favorite

meal. I have it for I've probably had it every single day. That and avocado ice cream once again

and funny story about the avocado ice cream. We've been ordering it from Grab which is their Uber

every night. It's like their Uber eats. We've been ordering avocado ice cream. And last night

our last night we realized we were like where is this grab driver because we were just arriving

from somewhere else. We watched this grab driver come out of this store with our avocado ice cream

across the street from our hotel. He literally comes out walks 15 steps to our hotel for

the easiest delivery. This guy has ever made it his life and we've been doing that every single

night. We have no idea that this place is legit. We could we could dink a pickleball and hit our

avocado ice cream place. We've been getting delivered every single night. Zane doesn't know the metric

system when he sees it's 0.01 kilometers away. It's literally across the street. Well it doesn't

tell you like when you go when you go for rides it'll tell you all right this is six miles away

but when you're ordering on grab delivery it'll tell you all right this will be there in 20 minutes.

I'm like okay that's a great amount of time that's really short. No that's that's great. So we had

that's crazy. And Zane I think like I've seen videos of the streets over there and people trying

to cross them and so I don't blame you. I think I saw like Instagram story of Chris Togetheva

trying to cross the street and she was like literally I almost made sure it's on Instagram

live or just like on a story. I was like I think I live here now like in the middle of the street

because I yeah like I just been watching people cross the street and there's like you know eight

cars going at the same time not stopping. I don't know what I need to do. So she might still be there

who knows but yeah so the key is you just kind of go you just start walking I mean

that it's just such controlled chaos like all the motorbikes and stuff will will swerve around you

one thing that I found is the one thing that probably needs to stop for humans is these buses and

they don't they don't stop the bus will hit you here everything else will swerve around you a bus

will just straight up end your life and keep going. So basically what you do is I compare it to

partnering up with Travis Rettingmeyer when he's hitting a third shot you just go and you pray

you pray that nothing happens you pray that you arrive safely and you know unlike a Travis

third shot you generally do. I was gonna say this is this sounds like your strategy at Newport

and then I saw your paddle fly out of your hands multiple times but blindly go chase it.

Did I throw my paddle and oh I did throw my paddle at the ground in Newport multiple times.

Yeah yeah I will still say Zane the fact that you said that you should throw the paddle up and have

it fall down like a helicopter it's just like kind of you want to the wildest things I've ever heard

and pick a ball. Yeah but have you tried that have you have you mythbusters. No I have not. Go

mythbusters. I'll keep out the physics. I'll keep out the physics. I'll throw the paddle 20 feet

up in the air you're frowned upon but yeah well I mean don't yeah go press it. So the way that

we actually found this out was we used to play at this place called Banting Park in Wakashah where

it was six quarts surrounded by fields on three sides in a parking lot on the other and so we would

all bring like multiple paddles you play a good rally or you miss a shot you just launch it into

the field and you would watch it like it would just settle down so slowly not a scratch on the thing

like yeah don't actually throw your paddles straight up but it's better than throwing it straight

outwards or even at the net like you throw it at the net that thing is going to rise and hit somebody.

Even straight down is probably not good so I guess straight up is the right way to go but I still

think that if you're going to do paddle abuse. No straight down is better than straight. Is it?

I feel like that might be but you know we've got a new meta you know I like to think that I started

this after Spartac hit his tweener winner against me I grabbed that ball I launched it into orbit

alongside the Artemis thing and Hayden's done it since Jack's done it since even Tina over here in

Vietnam like that's the meta the meta is really just launching the ball nobody gets hurt by that no

paddle gets hurt by that that's the that's the new meta. I love it I am all for that like also

pros if you're listening to this launch that ball that Tina's was fantastic too I thought it was like

ball ball abuse somebody in the comments did say that that ball could hurt somebody that is outside

of the stands and I was like yeah one that's like the collateral damage I'm okay with like but

because it's not damage like I mean the ball is light by the time it actually lands down it's not

like it's picking up a ton of speed spin like or a ton of force of rock that's the thing

yes versus line drive yeah you peg that at somebody on a line drive yeah that can

that'll hurt maybe it's a wiffle ball it's like it'll hurt you probably shouldn't do that but you

hit it up and it hits somebody like it unless you're made of of freaking glass like yeah yeah

you hit a 10 year old Zane you go over there you say sorry you take a picture with them and they're

okay so I'll be fine yeah I'm going to your next corner yeah I mean these 10 year olds are

driving their motorbikes over here they're like you know they're they're they're thoughts over here

they're they're they'll deal crazy those are the people that are going to stop for you if you

like put your life in their hands the 10 year olds are adding the motor bikes motorbikes

you know what is funny I've got a random story over here where I basically had to go beg people

for money at the PPA event yesterday um I ended up getting 12 million Vietnamese dong from

LC's dad um because I have been locked out of anything and everything financial I came over

here with like 500 bucks last time everything worked everything was good no problems whatsoever

credit cards debit cards all that no problem this time big problem I we we used our our cash

for stuff um grub and then we're trying to withdraw more debit cards aren't working nothing going

down in in the chase app all that stuff can't figure that out credit cards don't work uh or the

credit cards I can't withdraw from the credit cards so I end up trying to Western Union myself

money I go to I did I download the app I Western Union myself like 750 bucks I go to four different

banks and they all have the Western Union sign out there I'm like all right this will be great

I can't figure out they just won't give me money and nobody will tell me why I'm like

this is kind of the point of Western Union isn't it so Western Union do not sponsor this podcast

you guys are garbage I go to four different banks with these Western Union sign none of them will

give me money none of them will will tell me why they won't give me money I call my credit card

company chase who I also have a bone to pick with now I'm like chase I need to get money out

and so what they did was instead of helping me get money out they completely locked me out of

my credit cards as well which was the only thing that was actually allowing me to save everything

everything is cash over here too like if you're going down the street you can't buy any

with credit card you have to go to like one out of 20 places will actually accept a credit card

so I'm here with no access to credit card no access to to funds not only that after I call about

getting my ATM transactions approved they're like yeah we can do that no fuck you we're going to

lock you out of the credit cards too so now you're really fucked so I'm like actually just

hosed over here no way of getting any form of currency so I'm like I don't know what to do we've

got to pay for other stuff we're going on a on a cruise that we have to pay on pay for like

we have all these different drivers that we have to to pay for so I go to I like I end up

having somebody else go to an ATM else's dad and give me pull out 12 million dong I then mo him

as a result of it Connor Parto was like dude I'll go give you a hundred bucks is that my hotel

like I'm like a hobo is first a begging for money out this treats a Vietnam over here um so we are

we're surviving and advancing we got 400 bucks we got 12 million Vietnamese dong

funny enough they locked me out of the credit card on Easter Sunday so like yep we're not open either

we can't help you like I just got absolutely hosed I actually got like legit pretty scared for a

second because I'm like we have no way of getting anywhere like it's scary and now you don't know

is anybody still there like if you if you need more money is that's a good point actually he did

uh cade offered to like just let me borrow a credit card while while we're gone but we we've

finally were able to to call chase after like I probably on this trip spent eight hours working

on our financial situation it's about as much time that I spent scripting our recap video so that's

crazy laborious case scenario you get blame over near to to have to pawn off his Louis Vuitton

beanie and getting a couple extra hundred bucks uh but uh that's that's funny the fact that you

you're in such dire straits that you ended up having to go to the dad of your 12 year old mixed

doubles partner to uh to get money to fund the rest of your life for the next week

yep good it's like an allowance that's gonna say good thing you you your partner someone that has

allowance um because I think uh maybe lina would have told you to go fuck yourself uh yeah you know

for some reason I just can't see lina saying that but um you know maybe you're right

well well i'm glad that you have money i'm glad that you're surviving zane zane do you have any uh

zernia am i the asshole moments for you this week no i mean i feel like the just the overall

tournament experience was a big like am i the the asshole right am i the asshole for expecting really

high quality courts um you know line judges challenges all that stuff so i think we kind of

kind of encompassed that um with with that discussion yeah you know um i i think i think the

the biggest question is is zane the asshole for defending the known hooker um yeah his partner

i still love the fact that Pablo was like he didn't mention it's his partner in zane's like it's

in the middle of the video i'm like i'm coming and i was just like bro didn't make it past the first

three seconds either and he's like the two of you guys just want to you know click bait or whatever

i'm like dude i'm on your side Pablo what are you talking about

how's it called saying that Pablo just wanted to be mad Pablo wanted to be mad at somebody

like lost and i'm just taking it out on you guys i was like okay i accept that yeah i like the asshole

of the situation but here's the thing but i just you have no way of verifying this it's an

unfalse viable state thesis either way my take on this would be the exact same whether whether

nam was my partner or was not my partner and there's nothing that i can say or do to change that

because he was my partner you'll have some some notion of that um yeah like it seems to me like

other bad calls have come out from nam but like yeah i promise you i'm not sticking my reputation

on this on this call for some dude i hardly know yeah all right so i have two am i the asshole

scenarios one involves me playing pickleball i would play in a money ball tournament on friday

played with my brother and we're playing this team and we had just lost so we're a little bit

frustrated and so we're just like we're just gonna go you know full blast we're playing around

robin we're only the top team advances so we're assuming we're out but so we're just like

have no nerves anymore we're just gonna drive and crash pretty much you know repeatedly and um

we ended up playing the team that actually won the whole thing but um we we got to like 11-2

we're playing in one game to 15 and we bagged the same guy on the team no joke six times in a row

six points in a row ended in a bag one of them in the head it was like an accident i think one

of them was off the other guy's paddle to hit him like also in the throat but at the at the fifth

and sixth one i had to stop and call a timeout to start laughing because i couldn't play and as

I just thought it was so i i couldn't handle i was not mature enough and i guess my question is

am i the asshole for laughing at the fact that this dude has been hit six times in a row is that

his fall we're gonna hit that many times like how many times do you have to hit somebody before you

can't control it usually like one i think it's funny on the first time so six i'd probably be

pissing myself dude oh yeah it depends on like is he crashing out is he actually pissed because like

you know if he's actually pissed you got to at least like attempt to contain yourself a little bit but

dude it's like it's like those situations like when your friend or like your sibling gets in

trouble and your parents are you yelling at them and you're just like trying not to laugh you like

you know that they're they're screwed and that's the situation that was happening i was like oh man

we hit him again and then again and then the next point happens and it's again and he's just like

you can tell he's getting frustrated and then we we get to 14-2 and then like they get one point

uh they stop us they get like a give a big come on gino loses it because yeah i don't he hated

that and then he started saying come on it gets to the point where it's 14-11 and so we went for

bag and he is actually like pissed at this point yeah we went back in them six times gino getting

frustrated because the guy was like cheering but down down down huge guys pulling a cave he

listened to our laya jensen podcast yeah he's like he's like this is as close to wreck as you can

and then we ended up winning that team ended up winning the whole thing which was crazy so i mean

our badge of honor which i always my favorite thing to do and it happens every single tournament is like

oh we know we beat the best team there but we got our ass handed to us third you know the rest of the

way so yeah we went four and two duper went down again uh so maybe duper resets gonna be happen

in sooner rather than later uh those guys won a thousand bucks and i can't believe it but i guess

that's their nice consolation prize for being blasted six times probably in a row and if they

are listening to this and they want to dispute it they can but it absolutely happened i'm not even

making this up which is crazy so yeah we need the we need the files of that release the files

yes i forget the guy's name i think it's like Tristan i don't know congratulations for winning

money ball sorry we hit you so many times um and then sorry that your partner also hit you one

time on a ricochet but um anyway so so there's that you know whatever it happened but i have a

non-pickle ball stories and that i want to ask you speaking of who the asshole is here right so

we went out of town just recently uh and our daughter's 17 years old all right so for the first time

so we're we're out and she's like can i stay home alone this weekend i was like oh i don't know

about this right and so i'd like know my wife's like yeah you can do it you're close enough right and so

we let her stay home and we're just like you can't have friends over like you know we can stay

the night you know whatever um and we go we're in in California we come back everything's fine

how's it how things go great you know we have like the life 360 thing i'm not sure if you're

familiar with that but if you have kids you you definitely are where it's like kind of tells you

where your kids are at all time based on their phone and you know she was always in the right spot

we get home on Monday everything's great then we get a knock on the door and it's my next door

neighbor and he's like hey miko um are your kids around i was like no why he's like oh i just wanted

to talk to you about something and so i just like step outside and he's like oh hey so i just

want to show you like here's all my ring camera footage of like your daughter and all of her friends

sneaking through the side of my house to the back door of your house uh and like he's got like

he's got like a fortress around his house and i don't think my daughter realizes we have a ring

that's right in the front right that's the only one uh so she's smart enough to not go in front

of that but literally this dude like completely narks her out like he shows us like it's hilarious

watching them like scamper across his driveway to the side of the house go to the back and uh so

so we were we were gonna try and buster on like the uh you know catch her in it but my uh our

other daughter was listening into the zoom conversation or listening into the ring conversation i

was having in the front of the house with our neighbor she immediately calls older sisters like hey

your fucked just let it you know mom mom and dad know what's happening uh but i guess that so

so she got grounded whatever right so she like had her boyfriend over and other friends whatever

right and so i was like all right it's not nothing you didn't throw any ragers but like

is is this guy the asshole in the situation like how like is this a good neighbor or is this the

worst neighbor so is your 17 year old daughter gonna you know snitches get stitches type of deal on

this guy or what's yeah i don't know you know i asked she's like bro she yeah she's she's like

L L neighbor right here so she's never gonna listen to this but uh yeah i don't i don't know what's

happening that's not a good thing yeah she's uh maybe she'll slash his iron is the neighbor the

the asshole no i don't know i think i think when you know i think when kids are involved i think

he did a good thing um you know i think i think he did the right thing i think i think you would

have been pissed if he knew about this and you didn't and he didn't tell you right yeah probably

i yeah that where did you just not want to know did you just want to think everything was hunky

dory cuz yeah you know potentially ignorance is bliss no it's true but i actually enjoyed it

because we had my wife and i had a disagreement when we were making the decision to let her stay by

herself i was like i was like 100% she's gonna have her friends and her boyfriend over no there's no

there's no doubt in my mind oh you like it cuz it's an ideal 100% and like my wife is like upset

with her not because of what she did but because i'm right in this situation she's like

she's like honey you you let me down now Nico is right and she's like and she's like and now i'm

the and nobody likes that so even your wife doesn't like when Nico is right audience doesn't like

when you're right like so nobody likes it when Nico is right so in this situation she thinks that

she's the asshole because she she had all the trust and it didn't work out so anyway

but crazy that he like he literally said he did he sent us the images the screenshots all the

proof and it's it's pretty funny so yeah ring camera for the win neighbors great honestly to be

quite i don't even know his name so that's the difference is like the dude is like like i said he's

he's since insane but in the good way i guess and like i said i gotta eventually get to know his name

but i don't know about you sometimes you get past the point where it's like i've lived here for a

year and you talk to me once a day because you're always outside and i i don't know your name and so i

oh no you are way too far committed yeah at this point you just you know you need to like go steal

something from the male but he's probably got a ring camera on that too yeah he's got the

the we have the mailbox that like has like the community mailbox with a key so i can't get his so

basically what i've been trying to do and i've been too lazy and my kids are kind of like

don't want to but i'm trying to get my kids to ask what his name is be like oh hi yeah well they're

not gonna do that now yeah i feel like hey i just like to know this out what's your name so so my

dad can avoid the embarrassment of not knowing your name after a year yeah good luck with that

good job you think you're doing it in my favor you just know you're a fucking name bro yeah

that yeah so all right dude we got to end this i am drenched in sweat literally just sitting here

podcast well congratulations zane hopefully don't run out of money if you do send a carrier

pigeon we will try and help you if not enjoy the rest of annoying yeah hopefully we have another

uh pickle pod episode at some point in the future but if we don't you know that i ran out of

money i probably had to do some things that air consens would do a project all right

that feels like as good of a way as any to end this episode of the pickle pod pickle pod pickle pod