Finally Flawless Paddle? Cliff Pickleball Vauraus Review

I really don't have any flaws to talk about with this paddle. This is Cliff's Pickleball Vauraus paddle. If you want to hear about it, stay tuned. Okay, so Cliff Pickleball, he is one of our YouTube competitors. He is also a very good friend who lives here in the Orlando area. Love that guy! He's a guy that I've watched come from table tennis, go on up through the amateurs, and now he's playing in Pro tournaments. He's got a very unique playing style; he loves to spin the ball in weird ways, spins the ball on almost every shot, has a weird grip, and he decided to get into the paddle market. Well, did he do a good job? Let's talk about it. So first, let's go over the specs just to get that out of the way. It is 16.5 inches in length with a 7.4-inch width. But the big differentiator on this paddle is its handle. It has a whopping 6-inch handle. You can look at the pictures here. It's actually over 6 inches of usable space. So the big thing about this is the two-handed backhand. You can fit your hands comfortably. There's only one paddle so far that I've reviewed that has a longer handle than this, and that's the Adidas Power. That one has a 7 and 1/2-inch usable space. This one is about 6 and 1/2 inches of usable space, maybe a little bit more, looking at the tape measure because your finger has to come up here on the backhand to fit in, but very, very comfortably on that. The circumference is 4.5 inches. Now, sometimes with 4.5-inch circumference handles, it feels really blocky, but this handle is more oblong. You can see that this face here is a little bit longer, so this 4.5-inch handle feels really nice in your hands. What this does when the handle is a little bit longer on the face side of the paddle, it makes the handle a little bit longer for you to grip. So what that does is that helps with the torque. It helps with the side movement on this because you've got a little bit more grip here to work with. It's not more rounded, and so what it allows you to do is when you have shots that hit on the outside of the paddle around here, it gives you a little bit more stability with the torque weight. Traditional, it's got a T700 carbon fiber face thermoformed, blah, blah, blah, just like all the other ones. All the top performance paddles are using these materials. But the difference is, where do we put the weight? How do we shape the handle? How does the paddle feel? Well, at 7.8 ounces, this paddle is lighter, so coming in at 7.8 ounces, you can really maneuver this paddle. The other thing is that with the handle length, you would think in pickleball, the longer the handle, the more the head weight goes. But because these materials are so light, it doesn't actually move the weight this way. It actually adds more weight here, so it's a very neutral balance paddle. But because it's got a longer handle, you're able to get a little bit more whip out of the paddle. It's a little bit skinnier, so you're moving a little bit of that in the handle. So you have a little bit more length on this. So the materials itself with the length of the handle, this is a very unique feeling paddle. So it's a very solid feeling paddle. You can reset like it's magic. This is a really good resetting paddle. This is a really good paddle for touch shots. I was very impressed with it. I thought it was going to be a very poppy paddle, and it's not a very poppy paddle. Now it has plenty of power; we'll get to that in a minute. But when we're talking about hitting resets from the kitchen line, hitting resets from No Man's Land, hitting third shot drops from the baseline, this paddle excels in this area. It's a very, very good touch paddle because of the muted feeling of it. Really, the whole face feels like a sweet spot. So I feel like you could hit all the way out here. I'm going to just hit the ball here and just show you that all the way around, all the way to the edges, this paddle still, all the way down here in the handle. Now, this is one of the things that I was very impressed with on this paddle. So most paddles, when you hit down here near the handle, you get nothing. But as you just saw, I hit all the way around here. Even here, it made a different noise. You could even hear the noise if you can hear that on the video. Even down here, the ball was still bouncing where it's supposed to go. This is traditionally a dead spot for most paddles, not for this paddle. The Vauraus Cliff has done a really good job of balancing this face and balancing the weight around this face, so the whole paddle feels like a sweet spot. In the kitchen, I was able to do anything I wanted with dinks, No Man's Land resets, even turning defense into offense out of No Man's Land because of the weight of this paddle. It's very, very easy to turn this thing into a weapon. But let's talk about the weapon that this paddle really is. So if you watch Cliff play, you've got to watch guys that love to spin the ball. This is a very spinny paddle. Now it has not been measured yet by the people that measure these things; this paddle has not been measured yet. But given my experience and the paddles I've played with, this is going to be one of the top-tier spinning paddles. I would put this in the 2000 mark; it probably would end up there where it's going to be one of the top-tier spinning paddles. Not the 2300 like the Project 06; those are like the top spinning paddles on the market so far that have been tested. This one's going to be in the 2000 range, I would think, as well. But the thing that I was impressed with the most is it's a great all-around paddle. It had plenty of power. So hitting power shots, putting power shots from the baseline, and putting drives in place, this paddle excelled in that. You're able to really generate some really good whip with the length of this handle and the way you're able to get in and put some power on the ball. On top of that, it has the feel, so really, it's a great all-rounded paddle. I was very impressed with it, and I've tested hundreds of paddles to date. And I was like, 'Okay, this is just going to be another carbon fiber face paddle, blah, blah, blah.' This actually was very impressive because I really don't have any flaws to talk about with this paddle. Now, typically, there are some things that I don't like, but this one here, I really can't find any flaws with it. It's a very good evenly balanced paddle, and it is a good spinning paddle, and it is a good reset paddle. So what more could you ask for? And the way he did the handle, very good pronounced bevels, like I showed you before, you can really feel the bevels on the way he did his handle. If you like to switch grips in the middle of a game, I'm getting better at that. I don't do that all the time, but you know, those tennis guys that go from Eastern to Western to semi-Western, all of that, you can feel the bevels on this paddle, and it feels really nice and very pronounced. But I'm super excited for Cliff and getting into this pickleball market. It's a tough market to be in, but I love this paddle. I think it's a great paddle for anybody that wants it, and the retail price on this is $180. With our pirate discount, you get 10% off. You can get our code in the description below or right here below me on the screen. But I think you should check it out, give this pickleball paddle a chance. He's got a good warranty on it, and he's a good guy, and this paddle is worth the hit. But if you don't like this or you want to try one of the more traditional brands, check this out!