When the going gets tough, the tough get playing—which couldn't ring more true than in the world of pickleball, a sport that has offered solace to many, including our guest Joel Mower, founder of Dink Ninjas. Joel opens up about the serendipitous role pickleball played during his wife's cancer battle, transforming from a simple pastime to a source of immeasurable community support and personal resilience. Beyond the personal, we delve into the nitty-gritty of pickleball play—discussing the evolution of skills, the camaraderie and challenges that come with playing alongside your spouse, and the notion of "pickle divorce" that has us all chuckling in recognition.
The episode transitions from the emotional to the entrepreneurial as we explore the innovative world of pickleball apparel and equipment with Dink Ninjas Performance Pickleball. Each swing with their custom-designed paddles and each outfit from their line isn't just a style statement—it's a stride towards supporting cancer research. We swap stories about the quest for the perfect paddle, the blending of design and functionality, and how our personal styles shape our gameplay. Whether you're a finesse player or rely on a power serve, there's a world of pickleball gear waiting to elevate your game.
Picking up a paddle might just mean saving a life—that's the message we underscore in our revealing discussion on men's mental health and suicide awareness. With NGBN-TV, we're championing a cause that's close to home, setting our sights on training 100,000 individuals in suicide first aid. Looking towards the future, we shine a light on college pickleball's rise, the influx of fresh talent, and the joy found in the strategic dink shot. And as we part ways, we extend an open invitation to Oktoberfest and future rooftop games in Austin, because staying connected and reveling in the fun is what it's all about.
Special thanks to Crown Pickleball for their support and sponsorship! Don't waste money on balls that break, Crown pickleballs rarely crack, are more visible and have a higher spin rate than the competitors.
Use our link to receive a discount on your next purchase! https://crownpickleball.store/blazingpaddles
Have a suggestion for a guest or topic you'd like to see us address?
Hit me up at john@dink.pro or shout out on social:
Instagram
Twitter
When the going gets tough, the tough get playing—which couldn't ring more true than in the world of pickleball, a sport that has offered solace to many, including our guest Joel Mower, founder of Dink Ninjas. Joel opens up about the serendipitous role pickleball played during his wife's cancer battle, transforming from a simple pastime to a source of immeasurable community support and personal resilience. Beyond the personal, we delve into the nitty-gritty of pickleball play—discussing the evolution of skills, the camaraderie and challenges that come with playing alongside your spouse, and the notion of "pickle divorce" that has us all chuckling in recognition.
The episode transitions from the emotional to the entrepreneurial as we explore the innovative world of pickleball apparel and equipment with Dink Ninjas Performance Pickleball. Each swing with their custom-designed paddles and each outfit from their line isn't just a style statement—it's a stride towards supporting cancer research. We swap stories about the quest for the perfect paddle, the blending of design and functionality, and how our personal styles shape our gameplay. Whether you're a finesse player or rely on a power serve, there's a world of pickleball gear waiting to elevate your game.
Picking up a paddle might just mean saving a life—that's the message we underscore in our revealing discussion on men's mental health and suicide awareness. With NGBN-TV, we're championing a cause that's close to home, setting our sights on training 100,000 individuals in suicide first aid. Looking towards the future, we shine a light on college pickleball's rise, the influx of fresh talent, and the joy found in the strategic dink shot. And as we part ways, we extend an open invitation to Oktoberfest and future rooftop games in Austin, because staying connected and reveling in the fun is what it's all about.
Special thanks to Crown Pickleball for their support and sponsorship! Don't waste money on balls that break, Crown pickleballs rarely crack, are more visible and have a higher spin rate than the competitors.
Use our link to receive a discount on your next purchase! https://crownpickleball.store/blazingpaddles
Have a suggestion for a guest or topic you'd like to see us address?
Hit me up at john@dink.pro or shout out on social:
Instagram
Twitter
So let me ask you another just random question, the boo boo list. Have you had any injuries from pickleball?
Speaker 2:To be honest with you, I've been super blessed and have not experienced any injuries as of yet. I do hear about it. You're not playing hard enough. Yeah, that's right If you're not getting injured. You're not trying hard enough.
Speaker 3:Well, listen, you're talking to a girl who literally trolled my tricep in the early beginning. Oh wow, we didn't know how to play, so we were just banging, yeah, and we were stirring COVID. So you're playing six and seven hours and you do that with a hardball and a hard paddle, yeah, for six hours. Something's going to break.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, man, that's got to be painful.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, hamstrings couldn't sit through dinner. It was painful, I tore my nose.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she hit herself in the nose, cracked it open. That was pretty nasty. Oh no, I had to go around making sure everybody knew I did not do that. Yeah, pickleball abuse.
Speaker 1:Hey guys, welcome back to Blazing Paddles, the podcast. We're going to introduce you to another one of these wonderful people we keep bumping into in the pickleball world. Today we're going to talk to Joel Maurer. He is the founder of a company called Dink Ninjas, and Joel and I got to be acquaintances over Instagram, like so many of us do. Shares a passion for pickleball and actually it has another one of those stories where how pickleball changed his life. It's a great episode. There's some good information in here and you're going to really like Joel. We certainly do, so let's saddle up. You'll be glad you did. Here's Joel Maurer. You started this company. Dink Ninjas 2023? Is that right? I did, yeah, ok, so people don't just start a company out of it because it'd become a cool idea, because I know that's not your real line of work. We try to ask people in this venue what is your pickleball story that brought you to the point where you would throw your efforts into starting a new apparel line?
Speaker 2:So it actually came from a bit of a tragic circumstance when I got a cancer diagnosis. My wife was diagnosed with cancer and at the time we are parents of two young kids. We had a five-year-old boy and a two-year-old daughter at the time and as a dad of young kids and as a husband of a young wife she was 35 at the time just kind of started my head spinning. I didn't really know what to do. She's young and healthy and didn't really know what to do or where to go, how to be a strong husband and a good dad to our young kids.
Speaker 2:And so pickleball had been an awesome outlet for me and such a great community to play in. I figured, hey, this is going to be. I committed to this being my coping mechanism, to be an entrepreneurial outlet and just fight through the adversity and the difficult diagnosis that we got from my wife to let's have pickleball be my coping mechanism and let's see if I can start something to clear my head and to kind of blow off steam, if you will, and fight through the situation and then I can come back to our family situation with a clear head or as clear a head as possible. And so that's what I did Dreamed up.
Speaker 2:Dink Ninjas came to me in the middle of the night one night when I should have been sleeping, this came to me and I thought, hey, this is it, let's pursue it. This is going to be my coping mechanism and my entrepreneurial outlet, and let's give it a go.
Speaker 3:That's pretty incredible, how many years ago.
Speaker 2:Was this Just a couple years ago? About a year and a half ago is when we got the diagnosis and it just been. Dink Ninjas has just kind of built a foundation and kind of started spreading and getting some traction from there. What's she doing? She is doing amazing. She had surgery and had everything cleared and then about six months after that, cancer cells reappeared and so she took the little nuclear pill. Chemical radiation, oral radiation it's a little pill that comes in this like nuclear reactor type canister. You take that and you have to isolate for seven days to where you don't radiate anybody around you. So she was isolating here at home, Me and the kids were in another location at my mom's house, and since then no detectable cancer cells. So she's getting all the hormones back to normal and recovering. She's in great health so far. So we are extremely blessed, Thank.
Speaker 3:God.
Speaker 2:That's amazing.
Speaker 1:Are you? Does she play in pickleball as well?
Speaker 2:I've been twisted in her arm, but not hard enough, apparently.
Speaker 3:So wait a minute. So how did you get pickleball?
Speaker 2:So I was actually introduced to pickleball by a professional pickleball player, one of my buddies. His name is Brandon Instickpong. He's a local Austinite here, lives a couple neighborhoods away from me, and he and his wife and kid were over one night for dinner and he asked me if I'd started playing pickleball yet and I said no, I hadn't. Well, did you go? Wait, is pickleball yes? He asked me what my excuse was for not playing.
Speaker 3:You go. Oh, I didn't.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So started playing and just he actually gave me one of his paddles and he gets sent paddles all the time from all these different companies trying to get him to play with them and test them out and give him feedback so he grabbed one out of the trunk of his car and said, hey, let me know what you think of this one. So I went to some local courts here in Georgetown which is just another suburb away from Leander and Austin where we're at and just stacked my paddle out there and joined in the local group there and I was hooked. There's a lady out there Her name is Susan and she's probably close to 80 years old and is just an amazing pickleball player. And I had inadvertently stacked my paddle with her, had no idea who I had stacked with. She invited me out there and said, hey, how long have you been playing? And I said, well, this is my first time. So she she she chuckles.
Speaker 2:She chuckles a little bit and says well, come on out, let's see what you can do. But that was my first exposure and, as with a lot of other people that I've talked to and interacted with in the sport and in this space, you're hooked. I was so elated to be a part of the sport and to learn and see how technical it was, all the different techniques and personalities that are out there. I was, I was addicted. I thought it was an amazing community and an amazing sport to try and learn 100 percent.
Speaker 1:Could you possibly think of another sport where you could go and try it for the first time and somebody would be glad to partner with you?
Speaker 2:No, no, no, I mean so many my experience in so many other sports. Obviously nothing at a really high level, but we used to play basketball in high school little tiny bit of tennis every once in a while, just on a recreational basis. But in all these other sports there's almost a hazing ritual that you go through to even try and get into a pickup basketball game. You're being you, going into hard times all the time and everything. People are giving you trouble. But the second time I played we were playing against a Polish gentleman who's late 80s. He's just an amazing person. He's got his great grandson out there and he's teaching him how to play for the first time. And the dynamic between grandparents and grandkids and the playing field is even if you approach it that way to me and it's just an amazing sport. It's so approachable and such a great community around it.
Speaker 1:I mean it's like another. We've heard this from more than one person Football wasn't just a great hobby and it's something fun and all that. It's changed some lives. I mean it really has changed lives, Absolutely. We talked to one of our friends here a couple of weeks ago and she was in a really bad place. Her mom basically made her get out there on the court just to get out and kind of experience something and Turned her around, turned her entire life around.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and it's. It's amazing in the that so many different aspects of the game. I've experienced so much positive mental health energy From the sport, and so many other people that I've met have experienced the same, as well as physical health People that I have been playing with for about a year now. I mean, some of the guys have lost 70 pounds playing pickleball and a lot of people say, oh no, that's not a good form of exercise. What are you talking about? I go look at these people. Not only are they having so much fun there's so much positive energy and a great dynamic out there but it's extremely healthy for us as well Mental health wise, as well as physical health.
Speaker 3:I I could not agree with you more. So what sports did you play that helped you learn? Pickleball, or did you have? No, do you have tennis or ping pong, or I played.
Speaker 2:I played ping pong Probably four or five times, just against my aunt and uncle a couple times, but nothing, nothing serious. Where I'm learning, you know, backhand rolls or anything crazy like that, you know.
Speaker 1:What level do you think you're at now?
Speaker 2:I'm probably around a three five on a good day. But I mean it's it's so subjective now for me. I mean some days I'll just be able to put everything together. I'm just crushing these shots and everybody's going Where'd that come from? We haven't seen you do that. But and then in the other days, you know it's like any other sport, you have off days. Even these, even these pros have off days. But yeah, I'm probably around approaching a three five.
Speaker 1:I think probably where we are. Oh, be an honest. On a good day, yeah, we, I'll tell you what Be getting the wife to play. It'll be great if you're playing. Playing with your wife that's a tough thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I've heard. If you want your marriage to last, you pick another partner on the court.
Speaker 3:Through it, we're not getting pickle divorce.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, that's fantastic Is real congratulations.
Speaker 3:It was tough, there was a. There was a point in time where it was. Make or break. Yeah, we thought that now we're tonight's our first League match this year this year this season, oh very cool, so we'll see if they practice and the improvements we've been trying to make. Because that's where it gets hard, because you're under so much stress and Every point counts, yeah, and so I've got to temper myself tonight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:She's going to. This language is Zen. Sometimes we love it, though, and so let me ask you another, just random question the boo boo list. Have you had any injuries from pickleball?
Speaker 2:To be honest with you, I've been super blessed and have not experienced any injuries as of yet. I do hear about, yeah, getting injured. You're not trying hard enough.
Speaker 3:Listen. And we you're talking to a girl who Literally told my tricep In the early beginning. Oh wow, we didn't know how to play, so we were just banging. Yeah, and we was during COVID. So you're playing six and seven hours it and you do that with a hardball and a hard paddle. Yeah, for six hours. Something's gonna break.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, man, that's gotta be painful.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, hamstrings Couldn't sit through dinner.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she hit herself in the nose, cracked it open. That was pretty nasty. Oh no, I had to go around making sure everybody knew I did not do that Pickleball abuse. That's not me. Yeah, I tore. I'm a lefty, a natural lefty for my left bicep, so I learned to play righty Form. A right bicep, went back to lefty and then realized I liked it better righty there you go. I'm a confused individual right now.
Speaker 2:There you go, you're. You're one of those, you're one of those, jackman Rose, where you're just ambidextrous. Than, as good. As you are with your left, as you are with your right right.
Speaker 1:It's crazy, you. They say that's probably the future of this game is people who are really can use either hand, because just the next level these guys are crazy good though, and we've seen that in our own club. I think we were probably pretty Pretty good top 20%, something like that and then everybody plays so much. Then, all of a sudden, you're like, holy crap, all these people are kicking our ass. What's going on here? You know it's a game, you really. If you want to, if you want to advance, it's easy to learn. That's what we hear for so easy to learn. It's so hard to get really good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's definitely a threshold that that you can reach pretty quick, and then after that it's really, really difficult, it turns out to master these different shots, and that's what's so incredible. Incredible to me is especially you can watch ppa, mlp, app, all that kind of stuff on tv. But if you ever get a chance to see one of these matches up close, you're sitting, oh yeah, court side and you're watching these guys. Um, you know james ignado, which I mean the speed and the execution that these guys can play with. Ben johns, I mean tyson, all these, all these people, even even the guys local here to austin, my buddy brandon, um, he's just amazing, the hand speed and the dexterity. And isaac gonzalez is another gentleman who plays in the league as well, um, app, a lot of tournaments, ppa and all that, and the consistency of these just wild shots Is just amazing to see, especially in person.
Speaker 3:Insistency. That's the key. Yeah, we talk about this all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, we have those conversations.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you're okay. You had this friend. That was a pro. Is he still a pro? He is, he is no no, he's uh um he's.
Speaker 2:He's just in his 30s Uh uh, brandon is brandon and sick pong.
Speaker 2:Oh he's, he's sky high. Uh, he's like 6.7 something. Um men's, men's doubles, uh. But he's done a lot of, if you look him up. He's done a lot of commentating for major league pickleball. Um done a lot of uh does clinics all over the world. Um, really really high level player mostly um doubles, um men's and mixed doubles Um. I don't think he plays a whole lot of singles at all Um, which is really a different ball game, if you know man if you ask me, but so he's not playing mlp or pp here Um he's playing ppa Uh his the Isaac, as well as brandon.
Speaker 2:the next tournament coming up Um is gonna be the ppa austin Out here in uh lakeway, just outside of austin here. It's gonna be the next stop for them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because we were. When we were down there, this is five couple years ago, we'd heard about dreamland. It's a dreamland, yeah, dripping Springs, yeah, which is an amazing facility we have. We have two sons and we them down there we're playing and we're thinking, we're pretty good and the court next to us, these people were just insanely good and we turned out. We later they were pros. Yeah, vivian, forget her last name.
Speaker 2:Vivian David something.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, she is amazing. Yeah, we're watching them going. Oh my god, that's what this game looks like at this level, and that facility is great. We came back from that and we were just it's on, we're hooked. We just have we got to get that good someday. It's just really, really difficult.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's, that's what's wild about here in Austin is? I mean, there's, there's a good grip of all the names that you would recognize in pickleball all live here in Austin or outside of Austin and dripping Springs or Leander, where I'm at, or you know you'll. You'll be on a court and you go what is going on on my neighbor in court and you look over oh well, deco bar is practicing. Ernie's, oh okay, no wonder this is. This is extraordinary. But dreamland, dreamland, steve Coon, he's. He's the founder of major league pickleball, as you know. He's the founder of dreamland as well, and so he gets, he gets pros practicing drilling out there all the time at dreamland. That's a ton of fun to go out there and just people watch, if you ask me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've kind of learned all about the pro part of it just this last year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just like in the last year, we were just, you know, people who loved the game and we'd hear we couldn't name two pros. We didn't know anybody's name or anything like that. And then we got a chance to Do the event at Octoberfest in our town is a really big deal like 200,000 people attend over the weekend. Oh, we actually put down a pickle roll and had matches playing the whole time and the PPA is located Office tier in Dallas. They sent a couple players out to do like a demo match for us the coolest thing they could do and then we started to pick dynamic between PPA and MLP and then we played an MLP tournament, which turned out to be the most nerve-wracking experience in my life because we did do dream breakers.
Speaker 2:Um, so there's a. There's a gentleman down here in Austin, tim Klitsch. He's he's the original owner of the Texas ranchers MLP team. Okay, he's got a fantastic facility here in downtown Austin. He Leased out the top two levels of a parking garage and saw that it's fantastic.
Speaker 2:It's so much fun. Um, long story short, the tournaments that they put on there for amateurs like myself. Um, they use rally scoring, which took me a little while to get used to, but I'm in love with that Way of scoring. Now, after playing in three tournaments down there at his facility, it's amazing. He's got eight courts on the top of this parking garage. They're just pristine, and he'll run a tournament there. All eight courts finish up their game Within a minute or two of each other.
Speaker 2:When you're doing rally scoring because, every point is an actual point scored, and so the super fun thing, an aspect of that to me is you don't change servers. You're standing there and so if something's not working, halfway through the game, the game, you switch sides. You have the opportunity to flip servers so you can switch, switch sides and reset everything. If something's not working or you want to tune something up, or If you're both good at where you're at, you can switch just to mess with your opponents. So so I I fell in love with rally scoring. It's so efficient, um, to run a tournament that way. I think that if a lot of these other organizations that are running tournaments go to rally scoring, I think that it's going to make it super efficient to operate a tournament that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I kind of wish they do rally scoring at open play. We we just had an open, a new facility open in our town here in south lake last week. That's beautiful facilities and we went out for open play and the first to apric. We played two games, right yeah. Yeah so you, you have one of these matches that's going on out there. It's a battle. You're just like god, this is for rally scoring. I mean every. Like you said, every point's really a point. Things move along.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and I think that uh for the, for the way mlp is doing it, with a team, um, dynamic there, rally scoring is the only way to go, um, and especially for a spectator to go to an mlp event. I mean it's, it's so high energy, it's so much fun to watch, it's, it's like you're at a basketball, a college basketball game, where they're trying to get to the nba, where they're just non-stop, just scoring points. It's, it's a lot of fun to uh, to be a spectator with rally scoring as well yeah, we.
Speaker 3:So we, because of um purchasing our pickle roll and making friends with the owner of pickle roll, he got us invited to a and the dallas mlp teams rally before it was the week before Nationals was here.
Speaker 2:Oh, very cool.
Speaker 3:And so we went to this party. It was incredible, and we met james ignomich and jones oh yeah, and callie smith and j.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah we're super fun. But, um, that, that we, we, we were how to again or something. We couldn't go to see that. I'm up, we. We went to the um pba event because we were for, so we got the rally in, didn't go see the mlp series I still have yet to see the pros playing, not yet. But as a club we've got to get. We've put on two mlp tight, tight tournaments where you know you're drafting a team. Um, this last time we did it like a live draft on Instagram.
Speaker 1:Oh nice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, well organized, and we ran it um over one weekend and it was super fun.
Speaker 1:Karen had kind of a bad happen.
Speaker 3:There's really bad. We've already talked to it on the podcast. Listening to the past episodes, I can't flip or you live it again.
Speaker 1:Oh, let's just say that it was a real tight game. We got into a dream breaker and she may have Faulted like on a you know game, point.
Speaker 3:Oh no, like it was terrible. All I had to do was get one point one, yeah the four that we move forward.
Speaker 2:There you go, there you go, that's, that's, that's water under a bridge.
Speaker 3:No, no, no. I think I still need to go see a sports cycle. I'm not kidding, I'm still it's, and I'm terrified that, as you ran it back, I had to serve me up. It's the worst. Have you ever had it?
Speaker 2:doubt. I haven't yet, but I can. I can imagine if this is the way you feel. Imagine if there's $200,000 on the line. Oh my god.
Speaker 1:No, no, there's nothing on the line. Yeah, and your friends watch you and you're like the most mortified I was. So I mean I had such caught mouth the whole time. Yeah, and my team got to the final. I mean we were. If you were to look at us, we were not. The team was opposing to anybody. As a matter of fact, karen and I was on the board of our club and the board secretly handicapped. We were, thanks, tom, when we had the finals, everybody was around one cork and we're playing the energy level, like you said. I can imagine it was just insane.
Speaker 3:Loved it. Yeah, he played like that. I was like I was super impressed. Yeah, I was so nervous just watching you.
Speaker 1:Hey guys, this is a special day for us. We did a A reveal what do they call the unwrapping or whatever for a new product, limited edition Blazing paddles the podcast Pickleball podcast trucker hats are in. We have a limited quantity. We are putting them on dickpro as we speak. They'll be available for sale at the low, low Introductory special price of $15. They're fired. They look great. We're gonna post a few pictures of the misses wearing hers too. These things look great. Go out and get one. Get to Hand it to a friend, take a picture, send it to us and we'll put it right up on the website. So look for the trucker hats available now. Thank you to our friends at printed threats for getting that turned around so quickly. We love them. Let's get back to the podcast. She was super impressed. You heard that folks, yeah card, that one in stone.
Speaker 1:Well, it's on tape now. Yes, I got it. Um ding ninjas. You just uh had a little contest where you named your ninja. We did.
Speaker 3:We got to tell people that ninja is. You don't know what a ninja is. Oh, I mean, what did we? You talked about that. You started this, but what is it? Tell everyone what, what, what it is.
Speaker 2:So dink ninjas is I call it, dink ninjas performance pickleball. Uh, we do paddles, apparel tons of different apparel hoodies, hats, um compression arm sleeves, all kinds of stuff. Um, oh yeah, it's been sporting those yeah.
Speaker 2:Do a bunch of different dry fit shirts, all that kind of stuff for people that are gonna compete and just want something comfortable to wear. Um, and, as I, as I get ideas and as I get feedback from other folks in the game and in the community, I'm always adding new things. Get some new ideas and put together some new hoodies or shirts or something like that, but, uh, just continue to grow in our lineup of apparel and paddles and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3:And is your apparel uh? Are you purchasing the goods and screen printing them or they? Are you doing Gysab or?
Speaker 2:um, I have a. I have a kind of a hybrid system. A lot of the items I'll do myself, um, hats and paddles and all that kind of stuff I'll get those done, and then, uh, apparel. I do some drop shipping as well on some of the more technical items.
Speaker 3:I don't understand the way.
Speaker 2:Oh, drop shipping is. I don't know what that means.
Speaker 3:Yes, I mean, are you doing, are you carrying inventory? You're saying no. You're saying Some inventory.
Speaker 2:I do keep some inventory and then some of the more technical items I have those made up and shipped out. Got it?
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, the paddles. Yeah, because that was a recent development, wasn't it?
Speaker 2:So the paddles that was the first thing I started doing were the hats. Getting the hats done and then started getting a lot of feedback on those. Different folks wanted those and then I got approached by a paddle manufacturer, said hey, if you ever want to design your own paddle, we'd love to put your, put your name on it. And so I designed a paddle that I wanted to play with. Materials, handle, length, all that kind of stuff, weight, overall shape and all that gave them the specs of what I wanted to play with and they made me some samples. I got to play with those and handed them around to some different players in our community and they all loved it and so I started getting those produced.
Speaker 2:A blue um ding ninja paddle was the first one that we did and then the pink paddle was the second one we did. That one I released um to give back to the Texas oncology association, the foundation there. So 10% of proceeds from the pink paddle go to the Texas oncology foundation to support cancer research, since that's kind of the founding of the whole company was through that experience. So giving back with the pink paddle. And then the latest paddle that we've done I call it the spicy Verde paddle. It's a spicy green logo on there. All the paddles are going to play very similar to one another. Um, I just like the specs of that paddle, and so that's. That's the, the foundation of all three different paddles that we have so far.
Speaker 3:Interesting. So let's go into that, because we have a lot of listeners. Obviously that are what what's, what are the specs? What are what are the? Does it have control, was it? It is?
Speaker 2:it is? Is it power? It's. It's a lot of control. Just by nature, the way I play I'm I'm more of a placement type player. I use a lot of finesse just placing the ball versus trying to obliterate it like a like a crossover tennis player that a lot of people are coming into the sport with a tennis background. It does have quite a bit of power when you need it, if you're, if you're wanting to smack the ball. I've got a lot of players that play with it that are crossover tennis players and they they can really take advantage of the paddle. It also has a five and a half inch long grip, so it's good for people who are wanting to do a two handed backhand. There's plenty of room for that, but it's got a pretty big sweet spot on it. You can you can place the ball really well with it and it's a paddle that I really enjoy playing with as well as the. The community has has really received it well as well.
Speaker 3:It's awesome.
Speaker 2:What's the what's the weight? It's right at eight ounces, just a pair under.
Speaker 3:Okay, I can't remember what my Eula is. Yeah, we've become so. We started out with the, the, you know, the set right Now, thousands of dollars later, a graveyard of adults. I mean, it's like I did, you know. That's cool that you got to design one that had all the things that you like, you know.
Speaker 1:I don't know if we would have known how to do it, though Maybe now we would.
Speaker 3:No, I mean, I'm still trying to figure out. I'm I don't know. I wish I could talk like you. I'm a really good placement person. I'm just like I'm a really good all back person.
Speaker 1:You know we're. We're more of I'd say we're more of a defensive team. We will sit there Our games generally last longer than anybody else's games because we just we're. We're both too stubborn to know if we're. We just keep going and keep going and keep going and keep going, yeah. So, yeah, not, we're not power players by any means. Matter of fact, whenever I try to amp it up a little bit, if I hit it out, I'm going to get the body language, get the look, I get the look he goes.
Speaker 3:I hang my head and I put my hands on my head.
Speaker 1:You just like to see somebody with their hand on their hip, with their head down, when you're serving.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely. That's just gives you that mental boost that you need, man.
Speaker 3:I'm trying hard.
Speaker 1:No, but he did have a contest recently on Instagram. I actually participated Somehow. Mine did not win. I called it fat city bonsai or something like that. But what? What was the name that you?
Speaker 2:came up with, so the name that got the most votes was Shinobi.
Speaker 1:Shinobi, any idea what that means, or anything?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just, it's a great, great. To me it's a great name for a ninja, Just some little ninja that's super, super deceptive and a little elusive guy. And that's really what inspired me to come up with Dink Ninja. I was I was originally before we even came up with the idea of naming it and got that recommendation of naming it and giving him an identity. I was originally thinking, okay, if I'm playing against a ninja, my opponent is a ninja. I'm going to get my lunch cooked every time. He's going to be super deceptive, you never know where the balls go and all that kind of stuff. And so that was my inspiration.
Speaker 2:Behind Dink Ninjas was somebody that's super deceptive, a player that that is just really working you over every time and you don't really know how to react or how to defend against it. But Shinobi. I thought, hey, that got the most votes, that's the one I'm going with. I think it's a super cute name and my whole brand, the personality behind my brand, it's, it's an approachable brand. It's not not this ninja that's going to assassinate you or anything like that, the super aggressive. That's why I originally designed him as a little cartoon, you know, kind of a rounded individual, if you will, right. But I figured, hey, shinobi, that's a, that's a great name for a, for a little ninja like that, and then we'll be. We'll be stay tuned because we're going to be releasing stories and how he got his, how he got his start and all that kind of stuff. So it'll be, it'll be fun to to watch it develop. That's brilliant.
Speaker 1:I like that. Now, something else I saw that you're involved in and I think this is pretty recent is, and I still don't understand it, but I looked it up and it's really interesting. This is GBN TV.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that that all started actually from a gentleman named Chris Fontana. He's a long Islander out there in New York and he's got a lifestyle brand that he started and he's also got a show that's broadcast on NGBN TV. He connected with me on LinkedIn and it was interested about my brand and what my story was there. We spent a long time on Zoom just chatting and sharing stories and he invited me. He had a guest shortly after our Zoom call. He had a guest that had to postpone their interview and he invited me shortly after to be on his show as a guest and to share my story there. And shortly after we originally had our Zoom call, the CEO of NGBN TV that broadcasts his show connected with me on LinkedIn as well and wanted to know my story. Totally separate from each other, but obviously a huge coincidence that they both contacted me within three days of each other, wanted to know my story and Ian Hill is the founder and CEO of NGBN TV and he enjoyed chatting with me, loved the story behind the brand and, long story short, we formed a strategic national partnership with NGBN TV as the official pickleball panel apparel and accessories brand of that network.
Speaker 2:Oh nice, ngbn TV is a men's television streaming network. That's. Their goal is to support men in their 40s, 50s and 60s with mental health, physical health, entertainment, sports, all that kind of stuff. And I have a strong connection to men's mental health with what pickleball has brought to me, the sport has brought to me, and have a close connection in my family with suicide as well. My uncle passed away about 15 years ago now and NGBN TV has a really close tie to suicide awareness, mental health awareness, supporting veterans and mental health, that whole field. And so I was honored and jumped at the chance to be able to perform and set up a partnership with these guys. That's incredible.
Speaker 1:So there's an event April 6th right about suicide.
Speaker 2:There is. There is they. Ngbn TV has connected with one of the foremost suicide awareness and basically suicide first aid trainers in the world and in the US here and he is putting together a suicide first aid clinic. Basically there's going to be two sessions that are you can tune into on April 6th. It's free to anyone who wants to register and tune in. If you watch my LinkedIn as well as Instagram and Facebook, you can see how to register there, or you can just go to NGBN TVcom and register there. It's going to be a fantastic event. Their goal is to get 100,000 people trained in suicide awareness and suicide first aid. So lofty goal, but I think that as much of an impact as suicide has on our community and all of our communities just in the United States, I think that it's a very, very worthy cause and I'm stoked to be plugged into it 100%.
Speaker 3:It's so fun to take to the classroom or Lesley or sit down. You know, pickleball is I Partially. I think it's cure-all for a lot of things, but I mean you hit the nail on the head. I mean this, this the health issue is at an all-time high, and I'm sorry about your uncle, by the way.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 3:And I think that that's awesome, that you're able to use that Experience and you know partner in that way to help. So I think that you know, I love seeing the youth get it and pickleball, get for out from behind these screens and in this distance that they have because of our technology and be in the Sun and Playing together and doing what we did growing up right, which was the outside yeah, do something, exercise, and so I just think it's an incredible thing for so many different reasons and so many different ideas, but awesome for you for finding those really passionate about.
Speaker 1:Involved, and I saw the post that you had on LinkedIn too. I'm gonna, so everyone knows, in the show notes will have how, the registration links, and we'll have where they can reach you on Instagram, on LinkedIn. So if they want to know more about it too, because I think you know, I've got suicide in my family history as well and it's devastating for generations, and so whatever can happen to help prevent that, I think, is man, it's just what a great cause be associated with.
Speaker 3:I Wouldn't ask you something though, too, because that out of the military part of it, because we've talked about we we had in the old podcast before we came blazing paddles, it was HR focus, but John had a guest on who was involved in helping Veterans.
Speaker 3:Vanguard veterans Katgalyts that are that are transitioning, transitioning from service into the work field, and In that conversation obviously we started talking about pickleball and we talked about what would be to do a tournament, and so I mean, is that something that you? Maybe you have some, we just don't have the connections to do something like? Yeah, I would love to do that because, to you know, there she's talked about what a struggle it is for them coming out of service because it's such a different world and Into the work world and even in just civilian life, the way we are, and how pickleball might be a good Help them get connected in communities.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah, ian Hill, the, the founder and CEO of NGB and TV. He and I are in talks to put together tournaments. Ngb and TV has a number of affiliates that produce content and shows on there. A lot of them are veterans, a lot of them are Special operators, a lot of them are professional athletes that have had careers in the NFL and NHL and basketball and all that kind of stuff. And so we're we're in talks to Produce some kind of exhibition type tournaments where we can get some professional athletes together and match them up with veterans, to where a mixed doubles team or a men's doubles team Is a professional athlete and a veteran and they can meet and greet and chat and talk and share stories and then the following day We'll be able to put them on the court together and get that camaraderie going on and just create that environment where it's just so conducive to excuse me talking amongst each other and sharing stories and opening them up to the community of Pickleball and what an amazing sport it can be.
Speaker 2:And it can bring like we were talking about Grandkids and grandparents, it can bring people from all walks of life together and it gets like you guys were talking about on the court communicating with one another. It creates an amazing dynamic between two players, especially if you've never met each other. Learning to communicate and calling balls and all that kind of stuff. And what are your strengths, what are my weaknesses and how do we work together? So I think in the near future here we're gonna have some great, great tournament setups going on. Where we can, we can help out veterans as well as a number of other different avenues here.
Speaker 3:Well, let us know how we can help, especially now. Are you talking about, like, doing just in Austin or all over? I'm all over the place all over the US.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so love to help you out with that for sure, I would love to love to collaborate on something like that.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we had mentioned the October first event, which we're gonna do again next year.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's, that's perfect opportunity. So in October we're doing it again. Good idea, hey man, this is so we try to do this one. So at our October fest we did 27 hours of exhibition pickleball. So they were For events that were a two hour long inference. An example we had a special Olympians one where we had two.
Speaker 1:Special means they were out there, they were amazing.
Speaker 3:We had four the city councils from four different cities compete against together. We had the firefighter.
Speaker 1:We had local baseball Players against their coaches.
Speaker 3:Just like that, and we had the pros come out and play our best players from our club, yeah, but we wanted to do a service when you know we could have various branches different branches competing and then you know they would win the cup. Yeah, but we couldn't find enough players.
Speaker 1:It was too late in the game for we really. This time we have more planning time this time we have that might be something we talk to you guys about, because that might be a An opportunity to spot exactly what you're talking about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that'd be that'd be great visibility. Hey guys, blazing paddles, the podcast and dinkpro also Want to give a shout out to our buddy, kevin Perkins at crown pickleball. Kevin's been a friend of Company and the show early on. We've really gotten to know him and his product. The crown pickleball, is amazing. If you've been playing in some cold weather like we did over the last few weeks, you know that balls crack a lot. His do not, and they're higher visibility there. If you play indoors sometimes visibility is tough. These are popping. Kevin's a great guy. He's got some good new products out already kind of paddle coming. So go check out crown pickleball and Say hi to Kevin Perkins on Instagram. So what's next for Dink Ninjas man?
Speaker 2:So with With the growth and the brand awareness that we've been able to build so far, I think that think that skies the limit. But we've been. We've been getting involved in some local tournaments and collaborating with some different tournament organizers down here in some different clubs, and we've also, kind of just random, I got approached by some college level players and Started networking with them. They were excited about our brand and so we've lately one of our latest ventures is expanding into the college pickleball scene. We've got a number of players back east on the east coast that are playing and reppin us, got some out in California as well and some bath ambassadors here in Texas.
Speaker 2:So I think that the college pickleball scene is very much up and coming and you'll see these just amazing players that are coming from a tennis background or coming from another athletic background and it just crosses over so seamlessly. A lot of their skill sets can plug right into pickleball, and so we've we've been expanding Ambassadorships, extending ambassadorships into the collegiate scene and I think skies the limit there. People think there's a lot of professional players right now. If a lot of these college athletes, division one athletes, start playing pickleball, we're gonna we're gonna have a barrage of very high skill, high talent individuals.
Speaker 3:Oh, no joke too. We had open play the other day. That kid what, he's not college, he's not that far out of college. I Mean he just destroyed and I don't even think he was technically that great physically, and we so. Then I said some of our more senior guys in our club up against them and I don't think they won one game. Well, and that's that, let us ism.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and I mean that's that's. The perfect example of that to me is Jack sock. I mean, I mean I heard about that this week, he is past week. He's extraordinary, and the game of tennis is so technically different than pickleball. Just the dynamics and the shots that you're gonna make and try and execute, and I mean Jack sock, he's just dripping with athleticism. I think that he's the type of guy who you know he gets out of high school. Okay, am I gonna play football, basketball, volleyball, tennis? Whatever I'm gonna do, it's gonna be professionally, you know, and right to watch him just wreak havoc on these people who have been professionals for seven, eight and ten years. And he's a freshman at best. I mean it was last year or something at North Carolina when he, when he played with Annalie waters. He's he's doing between the legs, he's doing tweener lobs, poaching in front of Annalie. I mean it's just absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1:Well, he's got a forehand that scares people, I don't know. Yeah, this film clip, but His I think it was a his your partner, his opponent's wife was watching in the stands. She had her baby in her lap and she had to get up and move because he kept firing so many balls. Forget, the ball speed was so insane that she finally just got up and had to go sit somewhere else. I mean, he is a beast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, oh, he's, he's extraordinary and he, to me, he is the face of pickleball to me, because he's so Kind, he has such a nice spirit. When he's on the court he's having fun, he's smiling, he's laughing and in a lot of the interviews that I've seen, he's approaching this, he says, as a second career, and so he is Enjoying it. He says he's he's instructed himself to have as much fun as humanly possible in the sport of pickleball and I think if, if, more people did that, I mean it would just be extraordinary to watch.
Speaker 3:He's good. I'd be having fun too if I could play like that. All right, let me do this, because I asked all our guests what's your favorite shot?
Speaker 2:My favorite shot is the dink by far. I love yeah, I love getting in dinking battles with people switching it up and just creating deceptive shots and Just it's so much fun to get some, get a pattern going With with your opponents and then just completely go that the opposite direction. It's so so much fun to introduce deception into the game. It's. It puts a smile on my face every time. To me, the way I play, like I was saying earlier, placement and finesse and all that kind of stuff is kind of kind of my game, and so Almost everyone I'm gonna pair up with and partner up with is gonna be a more aggressive Player than me, and so you get in a dinking battle with somebody. It's just gonna open the door for my partner to Pick, pick when he wants to strike. You know, or he or she wants to strike and just open fire.
Speaker 3:That's a. That's totally how I play, because I'm not really. I'm five, four, I Don't have a lot of thing.
Speaker 1:What 108,000. I.
Speaker 3:Just don't have the power, but I can or I was getting good at until I I'd like to be things. Now everything's a mess and I got to fix it all but Nothing and getting into dink battles and creating opportunities. My partner to put it away, right, yeah, but I did have you heard of the podcast for Oda pro.
Speaker 2:I think so that sounds familiar.
Speaker 3:It's a good one. Well, they take, they show, they go over when like and dissect it, and yeah well, strategy or shock one they really deep dive into one area thinking. There's three areas that you should think to Are actually even to okay, just depending on what side right, the the corner right, but the other places, like if I'm on the left, the person on the right opposite left foot- that makes?
Speaker 1:Everybody is going to be rolling there, what they're gonna be writing stuff down trying to figure this out.
Speaker 3:Diagram this paper. They say it's hitting it to the middle the T. You hit it to their left foot of the player, creating them to either have to take a backhand, which would Cause a pop-up potentially, or the partner to come in to take a fan and get out of position and get out of position or cause confusion between the players. Yeah, I thought that was really interesting so I started doing it and it was really. It makes a difference, it's dinking with a purpose. There you go, there you go, on a shirt.
Speaker 1:That's one of our shirts there you go yeah, we like that, we like the dinks so much that we named our apparel line after it.
Speaker 2:There you go, there you go right there, right behind your head.
Speaker 1:So Joel, is there anything else? That you want to make sure that you promote. While we have you on here, I would just encourage everybody to follow. Follow our story.
Speaker 2:I've had. I've had the opportunity to do some interviews in the past and being interviewed and being on your podcast as well has been an absolute pleasure. But just follow our story. If you feel like you want to pick something up, you can always go to dink ninjascom and check out our apparel line, swag and paddles and all that kind of stuff. But I would just If you can just get plugged into the community of pickleball in general. You never know what, what benefit you can get from it. You never know what, what benefit you can create for yourself or for everybody around you and, like we touched on before, I mean the mental health Aspects of the game and how many benefits you can create for yourself and for your community with the game. I think that sky's the limit.
Speaker 3:I'd agree with you more.
Speaker 1:That's a. That's a way to do it, and your story is great. It's a lot deeper than I realized, so it's kind of cool. We love seeing how people got to where they are in this crazy sport that Four or five years ago None of us knew about.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, I love pickleball. That's why I love pickleball, because I wouldn't have known you without it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. What was that? Thank you for coming on and and sharing so much. It's been great getting to know you, Absolutely. I hope that we can collaborate in the future for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's, let's stay connected.
Speaker 3:Not that far. You should come up to our october fest.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, we're gonna. We're gonna make sure that you Know about october fest, because that's a scene you'd have a blast and we're down in austin will Will hit you up too, because it might be fun to get together and have a game on a rooftop.
Speaker 2:There you go, there you go, we can do some rooftop pickleball.
Speaker 1:Absolutely man All right, buddy, we'll have a great weekend. Thank you for joining us. I know we've been trying to do this a while, so thanks for hanging in there with me and, um, it's been a pleasure talking to you.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Thanks so much for having me on. Guys have a great weekend, cheers.
Speaker 1:You.