Hey guys, I finally got a chance to play The Warrior Edge 18K Power Pro, the newest rendition of the Edge line from Diadem. Stay tuned if you want to hear about it. Now, this paddle runs $239 retail. With our pirate code here, you can get 10% off of that. But let's jump into what this paddle plays like.
So, the first knock on the Warrior Edge and the Warrior Edge 18K was the power. They didn't have enough power. They're one of the best blocking paddles I've ever played with, very high twist weight in the high sixes, really good at blocking. The way that they do the sandwich material, they've got two honeycomb pieces in here that are 8 mm thick to make a 16 mm paddle. So, they've always done something different with layers. Their Warrior paddle had five layers of little bitty polypropylene cells. So, this has two layers of polypropylene cells in here that make the cushion on the inside. But what they did differently is they wanted to increase the power. What they wanted to do is increase the swing weight and give you a little bit more leverage with the paddle. They've increased the handle length. It goes from a 5-inch handle to a 5.75-inch handle. Huge amounts of room for the twoe 5.75-inch handle. First impression playing with this paddle, like they didn't lose anything with the control with the additional power. Let's get into the performance, let's talk about that, and I'll talk about my thoughts throughout the review.
Let's look at the power and the pop. When we talk about power, remember, that's the full swings when we're putting full swings into it, the pop would be counter punches or half volleys from no man's land or at the kitchen line. Let's take a look. Now, this is where the paddle I think excels. It has more pop, good power, and really able to put the ball away with it. It's got a higher swing weight than all but the Warrior Edge. I think it's around the 120s. It has some good throughput, really good power and pop. Like I felt like if they popped it up, I was able to put it away. So really good in this area, and I felt blocking, I could really easily put some pressure on them by just a little flick of the wrist or a little bit of squeeze of the hand that was able to put the ball away. The weight is more towards the front, but this is what gives you the pop. It's only 8.0, so it's a perfect weight paddle. You can always add lead tape if you need to on this paddle. But games are won in the kitchen. Let's see how I did with this paddle. Let's see how I did in the kitchen battles. And this paddle really does well in the kitchen. It has, you know, more pop than its predecessors, but this is not uncontrollable whatsoever. Like I felt like I could just reach, pull the ball out, put the ball where I wanted to, and you know, have no problems with just placing it there, even. And because it has extra pop and power, I wasn't worried about any speed UPS from the kitchen line. But really able to move my opponents around, whoever I was in a dink battle with, I felt like I had the upper hand, and was able to really put the ball wherever I wanted, and really appreciated this paddle in the kitchen. Overall, I got to say I really enjoyed playing with this paddle. I think it's worth the effort to put into it. Well, I definitely could tell with the control and the double Honeycomb Core feeling here, like it feels almost like a wood paddle, not quite a wood paddle, but it still feels nice to the touch. You can tell it is a Gen 2 thermoformed paddle. Well, they don't call it thermoformed at Diadem, but they've been doing the sealed edges and the foam around the edges since the very get-go. That's one of the things that they started doing really early on in their paddle manufacturing. But I think they call it hot press. It's not thermoformed. Definitely feels like a Gen 2 paddle. So, it's not super soft, but it's softer than some of the Gen 2 paddles in the feel, meaning that the ball feels pretty crisp coming off of here. It doesn't feel plush and mushy. Plush and mushy would be like the carbon one Gen 1 paddles. Any of the thermoform Gen 2 paddles feel a little bit crispier coming off the face, and with the spin and the pop, I think this paddle's a winner and definitely worth it if you like the Diadem brand. And with the spin being a top spinning paddle, man, you cannot beat that when it comes to the 2300 RPMs. That's a really, really high spin rate for the paddles that are up there.
Hey guys, I finally got a chance to play The Warrior Edge 18K Power Pro,
the newest rendition of the Edge line from Diadem. Stay tuned if you want
to hear about it. Now, this paddle runs $239 retail. With our pirate code here,
you can get 10% off of that. But let's jump into what this paddle plays like.
So, the first knock on the Warrior Edge and the Warrior Edge 18K was the power. They didn't have
enough power. They're one of the best blocking paddles I've ever played with, very high twist
weight in the high sixes, really good at blocking. The way that they do the sandwich material,
they've got two honeycomb pieces in here that are 8 mm thick to make a 16 mm paddle. So, they've
always done something different with layers. Their Warrior paddle had five layers of little bitty
polypropylene cells. So, this has two layers of polypropylene cells in here that make the cushion
on the inside. But what they did differently is they wanted to increase the power. So, what they
wanted to do is increase the swing weight and give you a little bit more leverage with the
paddle. If you look here, they've increased the handle length. So, it goes from a 5-inch handle
to a 5.75-inch handle. So, you can see how much more room you have in there for the grip, huge
amounts of room for the twoe 5.75-inch handle. You can comfortably get two hands on this paddle,
not a problem. Like really good easy comfort here. I first impression playing with this paddle,
like they didn't lose anything with the control with the additional power. Let's get into the
performance, let's talk about that, and I'll talk about my thoughts throughout the review.
I first like to gauge a paddle by its serve and serve return to see if I can get the ball deep
without much effort. And right off the bat, I can see on this paddle, I'm literally hitting
the back line, um, right off the bat. Very first game playing with this, I'm able to paint the back
of the line, as you're seeing here, without much effort. So, definitely can tell that this paddle
has more power than its predecessors, definitely tons of spin too. Like when this thing hits,
you can see that even the ones I hit high have so much dip on them that they have to play them,
and they just kind of dive at the back line there. Really pleased, as you can see there, with the
serve and the serve return. Phenomenal power with that. But what I was super impressed with in the
first time playing with this was the spin. This is one of the top spinning paddles, this is in
the 2300s. It's one of the top five paddles ever tested. So, if you want a ton of spin, this is one
of the paddles you would grab. And I noticed that with my serves and serve returns, just like I said
in the video there, diving right to the back line, touching the back line, and we're good to go. But
then let's take a look at drops. So, to get into drops, that's what we want to do to get to the
kitchen and get our game in the kitchen. I think third shot drop is probably the most important
shot in pickleball, and you know, definitely when I'm able to do this with a paddle, get myself up
to the kitchen, that's where I want to be. And I found that this paddle, right off the bat, was
able to get it to the kitchen without shooting it too far over, able to get what I need to get out
of it to make it where I can get up to the kitchen and I can battle there, 'cause that's where I
like to win my points. But really felt like I could just take the ball and place it wherever
I wanted out there, really can hit the kitchen no problem, get myself up there, definitely.
I got Roger before he got out of the kitchen, that was great. But yeah,
pretty pleased with the performance here. You can still miss, obviously,
like I just did there. But really controllable, easy to get to the kitchen without much effort.
This has a little bit less twist weight than its predecessor, the Warrior Edge. So,
this 18K version here, it's a little bit lighter on the twist weight, meaning the like 6.35 is the
twist weight of the Edge. The Edge 18K Power Pro here is like a 6.25. So, still high twist weight,
but I was very impressed with the size of the sweet spot for them to give me this much surface
space to use, not lose the control, but give me the extra pop. I really enjoyed this paddle, man,
the drops, the third shot drops, topspin, able to do anything I wanted from the back line to get to
the kitchen and get the battle going there. So, we talked about the touch, let's look at the power.
So, this is what they did for this guy. Let's look at the power and the pop. When
we talk about power, remember, that's the full swings when we're putting full swings into it,
the pop would be counter punches or half volleys from no man's land or at the kitchen line. Let's
take a look. Now, this is where the paddle I think excels. It has more pop, good power,
and really able to put the ball away with it. It's got a higher swing weight than all but the Warrior
Edge. I think it's around the 120s. So, really has some good throughput, really good power and
pop. Like I felt like if they popped it up, I was able to put it away. That drive that I just hit,
that was able to really dip on Dave because of the spin. So, really, really good in this area,
and I felt blocking, I could really easily put some pressure on them by just a little flick of
the wrist or a little bit of squeeze of the hand that was able to put the ball away. Definitely,
after watching that, you can see that this paddle has good pop, it has a swing weight of the 120s,
so it's a little bit head heavy, right, a little bit more head heavy, a little bit higher swing
weight there. The weight is more towards the front, but this is what gives you the pop. But
I did not feel it was too cumbersome to move my paddle around and get some aggressive shots at
the kitchen. It's only 8 O, so it's a perfect weight paddle. You can always add lead tape if
you need to on this paddle. But games are won in the kitchen. Let's see how I did with this paddle.
Let's see how I did in the kitchen battles. I think this is how I gauge paddles, mostly,
is in the kitchen, like how can I do in my dink battles. And this paddle really does well in the
kitchen. It has, you know, more pop than its predecessors, but this is not uncontrollable
whatsoever. Like I felt like I could just reach, pull the ball out, put the ball where I wanted to,
and you know, have no problems with just placing it there, even. And because it
has extra pop and power, I wasn't worried about any speed UPS from the kitchen line. But really
able to move my opponents around, whoever I was in a dink battle with, I felt like I had
the upper hand, and was able to really put the ball wherever I wanted, and really appreciated
this paddle in the kitchen. Overall, I got to say I really enjoyed playing with this paddle.
I think it's worth the effort to put into it. This paddle runs $239 with our pirate discount. You get
10% off of that. Well, I definitely could tell with the control and the double Honeycomb Core
feeling here, like it feels almost like a wood paddle, not quite a wood paddle, but it still
feels nice to the touch. You can tell it is a Gen 2 thermoformed paddle. Well, they don't call it
thermoformed at Diadem, but they've been doing the sealed edges and the foam around the edges since
the very get-go. That's one of the things that they started doing really early on in their paddle
manufacturing. But I think they call it hot press. It's not thermoformed. Definitely feels like a
Gen 2 paddle. So, it's not super soft, but it's softer than some of the Gen 2 paddles in the feel,
meaning that the ball feels pretty crisp coming off of here. It doesn't feel plush and mushy,
if that makes sense, right? Plush and mushy would be like the carbon one Gen 1 paddles. Any
of the thermoform Gen 2 paddles feel a little bit crispier coming off the face, and with the spin
and the pop, I think this paddle's a winner and definitely worth it if you like the Diadem brand.
And with the spin being a top spinning paddle, man, you cannot beat that when it comes to the
2300 RPMs. That's a really, really high spin rate for the paddles that are up there. Thanks, Diadem,
for sending us this paddle so we could review it, and thank you for those of you that are
using our code. It helps us keep the lights on, it helps us keep bringing you these reviews so
you can make informed decisions on your paddle purchase. But if you don't like Diadem or you
want to try a different brand, you can check these reviews out here. Yeah, they're good paddles too.
