Here’s a little more thought on this baby after 10 hours and playing with Ruby v Azul. First is both are great and sexy looking paddles. Both are solid. I’d be shocked if anyone ever had a construction problem as these feel like tanks and I’ve had my Ruby since Day 1 of their launch. It’s my only paddle now until I got the Azul to dabble with. Ok so here’s the analogy. Ruby is a steady girlfriend that your momma loves. She’s supportive and does all the right things and is supportive of u and all your faults. The Azul- man she’s the hot dangerous and popular girl with a little drama and a strong personality. It’s about her not you so you have to adapt if you’re gonna stay together. The Ruby just makes things easy. Cross court topspin forehand 3rds happen with eyes closed. The paddles soft feel just helps you make it happen. Nice juice - but restrained from baseline. Mines 116-118 with no weight added. But while the spin does leave elite to adequate quickly- this paddle is a forgiving, supportive all courter that does have a sweet spot that makes you better in that if your a little off center it’s still gonna go the right place plus because of the softness it’s NOT very poppy. It does have power on the drives if you have a drive. It will go. The Azul on the other hand does what it wants to do and exaggerates it which can make your life easier, more exciting or just plain infuriating. That being said the Azul is an attack natured paddle that’s hard to put down. My 115 is lightning at the NVZ. The speed off the face on rolls, blocks and speed up feels twice as fast as the Ruby. Now it can fly sometimes and leaves you scratching head what did I do wrong? The forehand booms off the face and after 10 hrs I do think it’s not just the sound-it is faster than the Ruby by a little bit and it’s faster off the face so the opponent has less reaction time. It’s addicting that way. That’s the good. The bad is it’s gonna take more than 3 days dialing in trusting the stroke to get the 3rd right. It’s not a feel shot like with Ruby it’s much more trust the technique as for me it’s harder to feel it bc the lack of dwell time. The dinks can be poppy but easier than I thought given the action off the paddle just gotta be shorter on my stroke-compact. Hands have to be a little softer which I’m solving by a hexacore grip and an overgrip or two! Bigger grip softer hands. Resets are easier than expected but not as easy as Ruby but easy to get mostly right so the difference in the two isn’t too extreme . Blocks from baseline defending a slam will rocket back without doing much. Just get paddle on ball. Again with everything keep it simple and compact. So where does this leave the comparison-these paddles compliment each other depending on how you feel that you’re playing. I’ll probably keep Azul as main paddle for next month as I’m 56 and playing against lots of 4.0-5.0 guys that are 20-30 years younger and the speed in my hand and the speed off the face narrows the gap between us. Hope that helps. I’d recommend if you’re attack minded. The joke today was if the ball bounces the other team gets the point- so if you like to attack, play fast and seek the first ball to get on the offensive- then you’ll love this weapon. If you’re the dink master, reset soft gamer to set up your partner and you’ve settled into that role then the Ruby makes more sense.
Given the face material I expected the Azul to feel more similar to the Ruby but the feedback honestly felt most like the Black Diamond. The Fuego and Azul I played with felt like they had a playing surface more stiff than a DBD but not as stiff as a BD. There was still a noticeable amount of pop and power even when the feedback from the paddle would lead you to believe otherwise. I think the Azul takes advantage of the Kevlar by dampening hard shots while still being plenty rigid to justify it as a power paddle. I think a lot of people will like it if they give it a chance.
Kevlar I wouldn’t say is a gimmick I’d say it’s a niche like gen3. Ruby def has some real juice like low string tension in tennis. Flex booms the drives. Then it’s soft in kitchen and resets so benefits bangers and tennis players I think. Where 💯 fails or let’s say doesn’t perform as well is pop off the face on volleys/speed ups at NVZ. What u gain in one area u lose in another. Thrive Azul seems to want to split difference of kev and carbon. Can’t wait to get mine today as post office failed to deliver yesterday and then it’s my Ruby v Azul red white and blue play test. Great content as always and can we please get a Black ADV bag with volt or lava instead of grey. Take my money please and get your boy to make a color option on the sweet black bag! Style matters as you of all people know! ❤
Hey Will, you said this is the first blue Kevlar you’ve seen 🎉but you commented on the Hudef Pro Gen3 in your podcast with Chris. The Pro Gen3 also has the blue Kevlar/cf weave and similar look to the Azul. And costs $30 less.
Really enjoying the kevlar paddles. Been playing with the J2K Pro since it released and absolutely love it. Need to show Honolulu some love. Spartus Apollo looks legit as well.
You had a good partner in your video Will. B&B has a titanium weave in their new Shogun paddle and another popular brand has 3 layers with fiberglass on the bottom followed by 1300 carbon fiber and on top a T700 carbon fiber. Pretty soon we will need protective gear to prevent injury during body bagging! Lol
Thinking about a Ruby switch now that there are several now Kevlar paddles on the market. This one definitely caught my eye, since I tend to play more aggressive on drives and at the kitchen line. Would you recommend the Azul as a replacement over other options like the J2K? Maybe a Kevlar comparison video might be something that would gauge a ton of interest!
Will, my primary paddles are VM2F16 & VP Flash 14 weighted up(sw 111-114/guesstimate), I find the Ruby's feel, spin, pop and power all to be great. My only and biggest complaint is its heavy for my style of fast hands. The HuracheX felt lighter with much less power and spin then the M2F for its supposed 118sw, Mark Kinetic, more power and pop but not a super good feel or spin and a touch heavy. I see the Azul light is 115, think its worth a try? Looking for a Ruby with a lower SW basically. Thanks!
Worth a try for sure. Check out John Kews review as he makes some comparisons to the ruby and the Ruby is his main paddle of choice, his thoughts might better answer your questions. I do think the Azul is a faster feeling paddle though
Feels nothing like the ruby after 3 hours just getting mine. Does play closer to DBD in crisp feel. Not that lovely soft Ruby unique feel. Mixed on whether I’d switch to it full time over the Ruby as too early to tell. It’s spinny but not noticeably different from Ruby at first blush. Power from baseline my friends said wasn’t noticeably faster. It sounds like it’s faster bc of the boom off it compared to muted Ruby and it rockets off face with less dwell time but that doesn’t mean speed of ball is faster. Maybe a little better control slightly bc less flex with 50/50 construction. Where it excels over Ruby noticeably is speed in hands and speed or pop off the face. I body bagged a dude I never body bag 4 times tonight on backhand rolls and flicks and I didn’t think I was doing much but I guess I was hitting heart of sweet spot bc we were all laughing that I kept nailing him. Pay back for him getting me so many times. Dinks are crisp but didn’t find it poppy at all so maybe the kev help that and maybe the carbon also cut any rebound effect of 100 kev. I would say if you’ve never played with ruby and want an all arounder this is def a paddle to take a look at. You’ll adjust to it in a game or too after you’ve tried to have fun and hit it as hard as u can but once settle down to just playing it’s a solid feeling paddle even at 115 swingweight that I bought. If have a ruby as your main paddle and you love that soft feel that I love about the ruby then you’re gonna be conflicted. It’s like cheating on your girlfriend- you like it but you’re loyal to that soft feel of the ruby. They do things well and different but both seem great after one time playing with thrive. So I’ll play with it for 10-15 hours and maybe alternate games with Ruby to see and define difference better - but after one session didn’t make my friends go wow except net. But we aren’t talking gearbox level but def an upgrade there. Hope that helps anyone that’s looking at it.
How does the Azul compare to the 11six24 Hurache-X Control? Azul is more expensive but the performance descriptions (based on the RU-vid reviews) seem fairly similar in terms of both being poppier than the DbD and similar thermos yet, maintaining touch/ control.
Imho the Azul is better than the Hurache-X in almost all categories except for price. Both are probably similar levels of power from the baseline but the Azul has more pop with shorter strokes and punch volleys and I think the Azul has better spin potential
Question is the loss of spin. Where does it sit after a couple months? If paddles lose similar amounts of spin then that is one reason to go for something higher in the first place.