Hello everyone, welcome to another great episode of Padel Smash Academy.
Today we're so excited to have Austin Edwards, the mastermind
behind State of Padel.
And we are All Things Padel.
Welcome Austin to the podcast.
Thank you for taking the time to be with us.
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
I'm excited.
First podcast I've ever been on.
Good man.
There's always a first for everything.
So we were so intrigued when you, when we read your, your,
your, what would you call it?
Is it a newsletter?
Is it an email?
I guess, I guess maybe blog for lack of a better term.
Okay.
I'd like to think that we've evolved to something bigger than that.
But yeah, for now, probably a blog would be the right thing to call it.
I mean, it's absolutely extremely informative.
Uh, so I, I really love the information that you put in there.
And I want, I want to, um, first of all, tell us who's Austin power and how
did you find out about, about Padel?
Yeah.
So I have kind of a funny story with my Padel background.
I like most people, I was actually just listening to Ben Nichols interview
that you all did before this, like him.
I started out as a.
Competitive tennis player.
Grew up in Colorado, uh, all through high school, played a lot of tennis.
The school, uh, college I went to had a really good D1 tennis program that
I was not good enough to play on.
So got to college, discovered squash, which is something my dad loved,
um, started playing a bunch of that.
Just fell in love with squash.
Then fast forward about 10 years.
It's probably like 2012.
I was living in new Orleans and we had three little squash
courts there at a gym, basically.
And I was in best shape of my life, playing best squash in my life,
feeling pretty good about myself.
And one day I'm playing on court, turn around and there's this.
Um, guy standing there looks like a, uh, like a Calvin Klein
underwear model or something.
I mean, this guy was, he, every girl in the gym, including my
girlfriend is looking at him.
I was kind of like, what's this guy doing?
And come off the court.
And he was obviously, he was from Spain, limited English.
It was obvious that he wanted to play squash.
He didn't have any brackets, anything.
And I was kind of, you know, thinking, thinking I was
pretty hot shot at that point.
I asked him, what do you play squash?
And he says, No, but I am Padel pro.
And I was like, that means like, does that mean you're good at sports or whatever?
And so finally I loan him a racket.
Go out there and remember if we were playing a nine or 11 at that
point, but he beat me like 11.
Oh, really?
And I'm asking him again.
I'm like, so you play a lot of squash, right?
And he's like, no, I'm Padel pro.
And I was like, why does this, I keep saying now, what does that mean?
And he was in New Orleans for another six months.
We got to be really good friends and slowly over time I discovered that Padel
was this huge sport that I didn't know existed and that he truly was a pro.
He had his Names on his bats and everything.
And so that kind of put it into my brain at that point.
Um, he invited me a few times to go to like Houston and Miami to play.
I never did wish I had sort of forgot about it.
And then in the pandemic, our squash club here in Charleston was closed
down and we're all bummed about it.
We, a lot of us started playing pickleball just for something to do.
Friend of mine in Philly, squash friend said, well, we're, we're playing this
crazy new Spanish game called Padel.
You should really come up to Philly and play and it sort of clicked in my
brain and I quickly, you know, looked on YouTube, watched some points, was
basically got a group of guys from here, was on the next plane up to
Philly, play at Philadelphia, um, Then just tried to play any chance
I could get after that, went to San Diego for a squash event, played out
there, played more times in Florida.
And then sort of finally, we have one of our squash club members here in Carlson.
He has some property about two hours north of here in Columbia, South Carolina,
that he had built a squash court on.
And he was getting ready to build a second squash court.
And I was like, Harry, before you do that, let's hop on a plane down to Miami
and let me show you this other game.
Like if we're going to put money towards.
Building something.
I think we should maybe do this.
And he was very skeptical.
Uh, we got probably six of us from Charleston, hopped on a plane, flew down
there, uh, Peter Cheshire at kinetic is a friend of our squash pro here.
So he was nice enough to get us on that court there.
We played about three games and Harry just turned around and looked at me.
And he's like, yes, this is what we're, this is what we're building.
So, so a group of us got together, pulled some money and built a first
court in South Carolina and only court for now on his property up there.
And it's just been amazing.
I mean, they have a small group of players, but everyone is the gap.
People that only played pickleball are playing all the squash people
are playing and now nobody's playing pickleball or a squash.
It's just Padel all the time.
So, so when you got my long background into the sport and now I'm like
everyone else, just sort of hopelessly addicted and I'm trying to be involved
in any possible way that I can.
So when you came to Miami, uh, what club did you go to, um, to try the Padel?
I've played just only at Kinetic Inn, which is really Boynton Beach.
Um, and I've been to Wynwood, but unfortunately did not play.
Now I know there's just endless clubs and opportunities to play.
So I will probably be back down there in the near future.
Okay.
Uh, Austin Edwards, right?
Not Austin.
So, uh, we're going to be talking a little bit about, uh, how did
you get into the newsletter thing?
I mean, uh, obviously you started playing Padel and you know, you
were playing a squash before, which I play squash before as well.
And tennis.
And now I assume you're like everybody else who gets, uh, addicted to
Padel after, you know, uh, and so how did your passion come to
be to create, uh, this newsletter?
Well, I'd always been interested in writing for Squash
Magazine, which I never did.
I just got too busy with my day job for years.
I always sort of regretted that.
And honestly, it came out of I was just craving to play or learn
anything more I could about the game.
And there was just such a lack of information, U.
S.
based information on the sport.
And, you know, there was a handful of things.
You could tell they weren't based in the U.
S.
They weren't necessarily, especially club stuff wasn't
the most reliable information.
And it just sort of occurred to me that there was a vacuum,
there was just nothing there.
So I was like, this is going to get so big in the U.
S.
so fast that I'd like to be the first mover in that space.
And I reached out to Ollie Morgan and Mike Dale that run Padel Paper in the U.
K.
because I thought they were doing sort of the best job of, you know, clean
slate, clean site, good journalism.
It obviously wasn't just an affiliate marketing site or anything like that.
And I just kind of.
Pick their brain a little bit and maybe doing some us articles for their site.
And we wound up deciding to partner and to start a just U.
S.
based site.
You know, we knew there was going to be so many articles and so much interest.
And so I've just taken on the content side of all of that.
And, and as I'm sure you all understand, just buried in spray ideas or out.
And it's just such a neat time in this world.
Yeah.
The way things are taking off.
Yeah.
And, and, but your background, it's, it's, it's editor writer.
I mean, Yeah, I worked, um, as a copywriter in the
financial world for years.
Um, so definitely writing, but on the different side of the money
making side of the editorial side.
But, um, it's nice to be writing about something really passionate about now.
And I certainly learned a lot about investing in the
stock market, which was great.
But this is a little more fun at the end of the day.
So, so what's the vision for Padel State?
What are you, what are you trying to do there and what's your main goal?
I think just be the go to site in the U.
S.
for all things, all things Padel, kind of like you said in your podcast, um,
certainly giving people on the, on the playing side, giving people plenty of
information on where, where they can play, how they can improve their game.
And then also on the, I think there's a big opportunity on the big business
side for, you know, port builder, e commerce, apparel companies.
I think it is sort of both sides of the coin consumer and the business side
consumer being the player And where do you gather all the information at this point?
It's just being thrown at me by I mean people Hear that there's a site like this
now and people are reaching PR people reaching out Um linkedin i've got a ton
of leads and I don't see that again with the rate that everything's growing out I
don't see that slowing down at any point.
So it's not like i'm Ever having to dig very hard for article
ideas or new information.
Um, even in just this, which you may have seen, I published what
I think is the most comprehensive list of clubs and courts in the U.
S.
Yes.
Even just since publishing that, maybe five days ago, I've had
multiple people reach out and let me know that there is now a court.
I think it opened yesterday, actually, or two days ago, in Phoenix,
the Camelback Club in Phoenix.
There's one in Tucson now.
Another one besides Tactica in San Diego, I wasn't aware of a court
in Vermont, which is amazing to me.
Vermont?
Really?
Wow, that's, that's interesting.
Where?
Yes, it's at a little sort of boutique resort that built a, I
can't look it up the exact name.
Um, I want to say it's like the But bay bound in or something like that,
right outside of battle borough.
And it is an outdoor court, so it'll be very seasonal, but it's gorgeous.
And, um, and it's really neat to me to see Padel expanding to places like that.
Obviously, um, big places, Miami Houston growth there is awesome too, but when
you start getting it in these really niche kind of destinations, I think that.
You know, that's really neat.
I'll tell you the future of the sport.
I'll tell you a story that, uh, um, you put, um, I'm a minority owner at
a club in San Francisco, Park Padel.
Right.
Yeah.
Congratulations.
Yes.
And I forwarded the article that you wrote about us and the club and
you know, the, the owners were so excited and so happy, you know, all
the details that you got and all that.
They were super, super interested and they were so pumped to
like, where'd you get this?
Who's this guy?
And all that.
Right.
And that's why we decided.
So I really appreciate that.
And we need, you know.
Uh, putting the information out there and there's so many things going on
that, uh, you know, uh, it's great that you're, you're putting the time and
the effort and the passion behind this.
I mean, we're, we're trying to do the same thing with the podcast, um, you
know, to try to bring the awareness on the growth of the sport here in the state.
So I really, we really appreciate that.
When we saw likewise, yeah, and it's growing so fast, um, information
changes so quickly when, when, you know, this, this, uh, sports is growing
so fast, you know, it's incredible.
Yeah, yeah.
So I say this to a lot of people, the only thing that I've experienced in
my life quite like this was really the rise of the internet when I was a kid,
just in terms of, um, I know that's sort of a grandiose statement, but.
Just the sort of the Wild West of people are going in a
hundred different directions.
Yeah.
Everyone knows which direction it's ultimately headed, but you're not sure
what the best course for yourself is.
Yeah.
Um, but that's an exciting time.
You know, there's a lot of uncertainty, but I think there's also a lot of
opportunity and So it's a great, I mean, I see, I see great signs,
very positive signs when, um, a couple of weeks ago I was up in
San Francisco and we went to this vineyard in the middle of Napa Valley.
I mean, and I saw your pictures.
Yes.
And it was like, unbelievable.
I mean, when you see these guys, you know, using the space they have to put a Padel
court, that's a great sign for the sport.
You know what I mean?
So we're, we're, you know, it's, it's.
The only way he's going, he's going up and he's going to go up faster and faster.
So, you know, it's, it's, it's great.
So tell us a little bit about your, you play competitive,
you play for fun, uh, you know.
Right now, other than trips that I take, like we went to Chicago
a couple of times this fall to play there at the club in Mundine.
Um, and got to meet Rudy and his brother who are great, great guys.
I think Rudy's maybe been on your podcast.
Yeah.
But the only opportunity for me to play right now is to drive
two hours to Columbia, which I'm doing every couple weekends and
try to get as much in as I can.
Um, I certainly don't know that I'm a very skilled player,
but I'm a very passionate one.
Um, we're part of a group of guys that are working on actively trying
to bring Corks to Charleston as well.
Hopefully that happens sooner than later, and I'll be able to play more.
So, I was gonna ask that, how many clubs are there around you?
You just said there's one two hours away from you, is that pretty much it?
That's, that's the only court in South Carolina at the right now.
In North Carolina, I believe, two, there's Charlotte Club, which I've
been in touch with their owner and I'm going to go up there and play hopefully
in the next couple weeks and then I believe there's a private club in
Raleigh, but that would be the closest.
I know something just opened in Atlanta, but again, that's
a five hour drive for me.
Yeah.
Do you see anything, uh, any, any clubs opening up in the,
in the short period of time?
Probably not in the next six months or anything, but I would like to think maybe
in the next year there'll be a real push.
I think courts will start to be added to private tennis clubs and things like that.
Um, you know, here in the Charleston region, we have some pretty high end
golf clubs and towards that, but you know, those aren't really going to be
publicly accessible courts necessarily.
Membership.
Yeah.
The, the, the one in Raleigh.
It's, um, I play a tournament there.
It's in North Hill.
Um, yeah, that's right.
And they have a, I mean, it's a beautiful club and they put, you know,
they, they, they took some space and they put uh, uh, uh, three, uh, Padel
courts and everybody's in love with it.
You know, it's, it's really exciting.
I think that's just the test, right?
To see what they get, what, what the reaction is, and see if there's
enough, uh, people who, who are.
Who, who were interested in battle to create a club, you know, so it's good.
So, so tell us, um, who is the co owner or the co author
that you put on your LinkedIn?
And is there somebody else?
Um, I just really partnered with Ollie Morgan in the UK, and
that's just more from a structural setting up the site and everything.
The content's a hundred percent on me at this point.
Um, but he just has a background in that.
But yeah, at this, this point, I hopefully down the road, we will have
the bandwidth to get some more, um, writers from around the states that
can cover things maybe regionally can cover a little more intently.
But yeah, for right now, it's a full time job for me.
So, I mean, let me ask you the thing.
I mean, are you doing for free or you get some, some
advertisers and things like that?
Um, we do have advertisers.
It's, um, almost for free at this point, we'll say, which again, I think to be
the sort of leading voice in this space, um, is the upside opportunity is there.
So it's really worth, worth the time and investment that
I think will pay dividends.
And even to be honest to the connections I've made in the last Month since I
started this are just invaluable to me Yeah, especially if we look to
bring courts to girls and just various other business opportunities I've
had another company reach out to me.
That's a really high end pickleball event and retail company That are
looking to expand into the Padel world.
So I've become sort of an advisor Again, just connections that are invaluable.
So do you see yourself opening up a club in the future with the
right investor, right, right team?
Um, I would like to help facilitate that.
I don't, at the end of the day, I don't know if I might have any personal
experience, um, opening or running clubs, but I am a pretty good cat herder.
I can tend to get the right people in the right conversation.
Um, that's a skill I've picked up over the years in squash, especially double
squash, getting four grown men together at the same time is very challenging.
People have kids and everything.
Um, certainly like to help drive the effort, we'll put
it that way, to get courts in Charleston and sooner than later.
So, and, and on your blog newsletter, I mean, how do you get people interested
about, I mean, how do they get, you know, how do they find out about
you, you know, the Padel State?
Honestly, I, a lot of it right now has been LinkedIn, that's been a pretty
valuable, and we will, Um, obviously expand into other social media spaces.
I've been in somebody my whole life, except for LinkedIn.
I've never been a social media person.
Um, I don't have a lot of experience in that, but I think once we
expand into that, it'll help.
And certainly I just reach out to the clubs I've been to, the pros I've
met, the owners I've met, um, like the Parker Racquet Club, which is right
outside of Denver, I played there.
There this year and met Barry Riddle as the owner.
Robert, I'm not sure how to say his last name, Robert, the pro there,
certainly I sent, as soon as I started the site, I sent it to them, asked their
players to start reading it, following it, giving me, you know, any feedback
they could or ideas for articles.
That's excellent.
So I think at this point, it's sort of grassroots, sort of guerrilla,
you know, guerrilla strategy.
Is this, is this the first one that you, uh, the one we read, is that the
first one you came out or there's a previous one or is that always changing?
The, uh, sorry, the.
Site itself or.
Well, they know the last one that you know, that you talk about
the Exagon cap and all that.
Is that the first one that you, you, you put out or is
that, that's always changing?
Uh, yeah, it's the first, first site.
Um, but yeah, we're constantly adding to it all the time.
So it's sort of like a blog website pretty much where you're constantly.
It's going to keep going.
Shooting for four new pieces a week, um, at minimum, and sometimes that ebbs and
flows depending on whether it's just, you know, sort of a quick news blurb,
like PPL news comes out, we publish that, other times I'm working on longer
features, which require interviews or research, um, but yeah, we're trying
to at least every day, every other day.
I'm trying to put something new out there.
I like how you pluralize we, we, but it's only you.
Yeah, that's we, it's the royal we.
Well, I mean, you know, you always need help.
Right.
So, you know, um, I'm sure you have contacts there that I think give you, you
know, help you out a little bit, you know?
I will see on your LinkedIn page, uh, Joe Gross from Parallax,
always like you, your posts.
I know.
Are you in touch with them or?
I talked to Joe, yeah, quite a bit.
First, um, with your club in San Francisco, I reached out to
him and I'm actually going to do a longer article here shortly.
We're going back and forth about their hurricane proof court that they've
developed, which is a huge deal.
Yeah.
Especially you, you all know in Miami and certainly here
in Charleston, that's a, Yeah.
Um, that's going to be a big deal and it's something we've actually had.
Questions about here in Charleston, we've approached people about doing, uh, courts
or a club is the, and they withstand, should we, should we get a big storm?
Could they withstand that?
And what would be the sort of impact to their investment?
So that's great.
But yeah, I talked to Joe for a bit.
I know.
He always liked your post and all that.
That's awesome, man.
I would encourage anybody that has information or ideas
or anything to reach out.
I mean, that's another thing I love about You're looking at us, baby.
Right there.
We know.
That's one thing I love about the Padel world right now.
I mean, people are profiting from it setting up as a business, but it still
has that grassroots community feel where we're all kind of in this together.
And that's just a great feeling.
You don't get that, um, maybe a little bit in the squash world because the
squash world is sort of small and tight knit, but, um, it's just a special
sort of community to be a part of.
At this point, I feel like if you are a Padel player and, um, you can go most
places in the country, be embraced by other communities, just by virtue of the
fact that you play the sport and know it.
Um, but yeah, just really reach people, people reaching out,
giving ideas, feedback, anything.
Um, certainly I come across a lot of new club openings, news on my own, but
it can't be everywhere all the time.
So if anybody knows of something that I don't, you know.
Yeah.
And if you need any help, we're here, you know?
Yeah.
I mean, look, I mean, we're here to help, uh, partner, you know,
work together in anything we can.
Yeah, sure.
I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's a ping pong, you know, match going
back and forth, you know, I mean, we.
I mean, we gather all the information from you.
I mean, we do, you know, flash news.
I mean, the things that you put out.
I mean, we gather, we're doing the same thing in a different,
you know, technology pretty much.
When did the pod, when did the podcast start?
We started maybe a year, a year, a year, but we, yeah, we
had our own podcast separate.
I mean, I don't know, maybe not a channel separate and then we, we.
partner together.
Um, you know, for the last six months.
Yeah.
And then, um, you know, we're, we're trying to, you know, gather
information and bring people together.
But prior to that, we were very involved here in the community in Miami.
I mean, there's a lot of Padel here.
This is what you play, you know?
So well, I'm a coach.
I'm a, I'm a full time coach.
You know, I coach at Wynwood.
Uh, my whole life is it evolves around Padel, including, you know, the podcast
and everything related to Padel is this.
You know, for, for Seth, same thing.
He has a different, you know, um, I mean, I play in all the, all the clubs, but
you know, my favorite is the reserve, you know, uh, Yeah, I've seen photos.
Yeah, I'm a member there.
So the benefits there are just amazing.
Um, and if I have guests come over, obviously bring them there.
It's a lot nicer.
But I play Wynwood, if it's indoors, there's the um, Open Padel and Ultra
because, you know, if it rains, you know, and Padel Life, of course.
Um, and there's, you know, other clubs that are opening up right now that we've
talked to, you know, and they've been in the process of opening up for the last
three years and it's about to happen.
There's, there's so many plans, so many permits, so many things going
on, uh, here in Miami, it's a little difficult, um, to get those permits.
It's so slow, you know, you're looking at.
If you're in a normal state, uh, or even a county, if you were going to put up
a, uh, a sporting facility, you may be 12 to, you know, maybe 18 months, right?
Normal, you know, here, uh, double or triple that just because it's so slow.
So there's so many people who want to open up clubs, have the funding,
have the plans, everything, have the partnerships, but they're just.
You know, they, they just, they just can't.
It's just, it's just stumbling and stumbling because of permits, um, you
know, uh, just little things like waste, waste, you know, traffic, this, that,
there's just so many things that, that, you know, Miami is just so slow at, you
know, and because it's new and there's so much going on in Miami to start with right
now, so many people coming in, that, that even makes it more difficult, you know.
So that's the problem here.
There's just, there's more people than, than actual courts.
Um, so, which is a great thing when it comes to Padel, right?
Um, but, you know, getting, uh, more Padel courts in Miami is, it seems
to be a little bit, um, difficult.
And, and, and to tell you the truth, you know, the, my background is being, I grew
up, I grew up playing Padel and tennis.
And then I came here to the States, uh, with a scholarship
and I ended up playing tennis.
So.
But what I see now with Padel, it's never seen anything like it.
I mean, the demand for people to learn how to play the sport,
never seen anything like it.
And not even tennis, my background has been tennis for, for the past 20 years.
And it's just incredible.
I mean, it's so rewarding to see all these people trying to walk into the court and
then get addicted within five minutes, you know, and that's the biggest problem.
Yeah.
To that, to that end, one of my good squash friends who is helping
me drive the charge to get courts here in Charleston, he's got four
kids, all college age or older.
That have wanted nothing at all to do with sports their whole life.
They're very smart artistic They're very sort of anti sports won't play
tennis with them won't play squash, but they did a About six months ago
did a trip down to buenos aires as a family And Todd just begged his
kids to get on the court with him.
Again, ten, ten minutes and they were, all four of them were just
like, Can we play this again tomorrow?
And the next day, and now they've all gone back to their respective cities,
Chicago, LA, and are playing there.
I mean, it's just wild to see that just doesn't happen with other things.
And that's the thing, because I think it's just a lot easier.
You know, with tennis, my background is also tennis and squash.
It's hard to get, you know, um, a partner at the right level, you know, to play,
um, and be social as well, you know.
So this is, this is perfect.
This is an actual racquet sport.
You can get in there, uh, all different levels can just start playing.
Um, there's, you know, um, you meet people, you know, um, that, that have
the same, you know, passion as you do.
And you just start playing.
It's like you want to get back.
And as soon as you start learning a little bit.
Like you learn, let's say an aerial shot here, you just start, you want
to go more and start practicing.
Okay, you learn the back wall here and like, you want to go there and learn more.
So it's kind of like, addictive.
Yeah, and you want to master it, you know, if you're competitive and you've
come from other recs where you want to master it and that's what happens.
Uh, it's, and you do have a great community here.
I mean, it's pretty, pretty awesome.
Yeah.
And I think that just the.
Sport is like the perfect level of dynamic.
I think tennis is maybe not, I won't say boring, but it's
just pretty straightforward.
And then I think something like squash can be a little intimidating for most
people because it feels like there's a little too much to figure out.
Yeah.
But like, Padel is that sweet spot where you can understand getting
the ball back and forth over a net, and then you can start building
in, you know, more dynamic shots.
Yeah.
Um, you know, I'll tell you an example that I tell everybody.
It's that.
I can get a, a beginner student, you know what I mean, with that never
play any racket sports and I take them into the tennis court and for me
to coach them how to play tennis, it will take him months and thousands of
dollars in Padel within half an hour.
They're having the best time ever because it's very easy.
You play in South of a box, you know, even though squash is squash is very difficult.
You have the flat ball, you know, the walls, I mean, you've got to be very low.
It's.
It's, it's, it's difficult to understand, but Padel has that combination that
it's just the perfect blend of fun, challenging, mental, physical, tactical,
everything into one, one sport.
It's very broad.
It captures a lot of, uh, you know, a lot of the market, you know,
and that's, I think what's key.
Like, like you said, tennis is.
It is, it can be boring, you know what I'm saying?
Especially now, the new, new tennis, you know, um, all baseline, baseline,
baseline, and it can get a little boring.
But as you get good in Padel, there's all these different techniques,
there's a strategy, it lasts longer, there's more shots involved, you know.
It's, it's pretty, um, and that's, I think what attracts, you know, tennis
players, squash players, racquetball players, uh, to start playing badminton.
Yeah.
So Austin, uh, uh, at the end of the podcast, we do, uh, a quick, uh,
rapid fire golden point questions.
You have, you play the golden point, right?
It's either you win or you lose it.
Lost a few.
So here we go.
Where do you prefer to play, right or left?
Left.
Uh, do you like to play indoor or outdoor?
Outdoor on a nice day, but being in South Carolina, there can be some
hot days that I'd rather be indoors.
But yeah, outdoors if possible.
So how would you define your game, power or finesse?
Uh, finesse and patience.
Good, that's it.
The two things that you don't have.
Uh, your favorite club, Padel club.
Oh wow, that's I'm gonna, I'm gonna have to shout out to the club
that I'm part of in Columbia, the Columbia Rackets Club, that's mine.
I helped, helped get that court built and I love those guys up
there and I would not be playing as much as I did if it were not there.
Good.
Dejada or by three?
I'm sorry?
Dejada.
Do you know the terms, the Padel terms?
Yeah, some, some, but yeah.
Dejada is sort of like a drop shot, like a volley drop shot.
Oh, okay.
Or by three, you know by three that you hit it outside the court?
I'll say by three, but really that's a tough one.
That's from a tennis player.
He could do it.
Most tennis players can do it.
The second serve, second serve and squash as well.
We used to the overheads.
Okay.
Uh, bandeja or víbora?
Bandeja.
Oh, wow.
You know those terms?
No, I'm not saying I'm good at these.
I'm just what I prefer.
Right, right, right.
Good.
What, what is your best shot?
Oh, that's good.
I'm lob.
I'm, I'm a good lober.
Wow.
That is in important shot.
That's one of the most important shots in that game.
I, I tell all my students, you're in Padel.
You're as good as your lob.
If you can get good LOBs, they can never attack you.
Wow.
Uh, alright, so your worst shot, everything else, . Ah, worst shot.
That's, um, maybe my serve, honestly, I think my serve
could use some work for sure.
Really?
And probably some coaching from somebody on your level.
There you go.
Come over to Miami, baby.
Move on.
I would love to.
Good.
So who is your favorite professional player that you love to watch?
LeBron.
Wow.
Lobo.
He's just in so many videos that I've seen and I've never seen yet.
Pro Padel live, but yeah, it's a special player.
Yeah, he's one of the few players that is adaptable to both sides.
He used to play backhand, now he's playing forehand and he's
absolutely fantastic in both sides.
So that's a great partner too.
Yeah, man.
It's amazing.
Yeah.
Okay, so that's a big key.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
All right.
So your favorite racket, your Padel racket.
I'm using a Wilson right now.
Um, that's a tough question.
I don't know that I've played with enough different bats, rackets, bats.
Really great informed opinion.
So which, which, which Wilson are you using?
The Bella Pro?
Um, I would have to get a look.
Was it all red?
Yeah, red and black.
Oh, red and black.
Yeah, the, the old version of the uh, Yeah.
One of those.
Yeah.
Okay.
I want to say it's like a bail up.
Yeah.
Bella.
But they have like three different models.
Good man.
Good.
Who is your favorite partner that you'd love to play with?
Partner?
Um, of these guys I play with in Columbia, they're all.
Different.
That's kind of what's fun about it.
They're all different levels, different talents.
Um, is there, like the one that is the, he's the perfect date for
apparel game . Shout out to him.
Come on, shout out to him.
Um, alright.
We'll say, we'll say my friend Todd Abdon from here, who's, he's just
a great tennis player and he hasn't played a ton, but he's just adapted.
So Tom Aon from, uh, his dad lives in, in West Palm Beach in Wellington.
Exactly.
Um, you're kidding me.
I know him very well.
Really?
Oh yeah, for sure.
Yes.
So Todd's who I mentioned who took his kids down to Buenos Aires.
Yeah, I, I know.
I, yeah, for sure, man.
Excellent.
I know.
I know the family very well.
Yeah, Todd's, he, he was one of the people that went down with us in that
Florida trip when we were showing Harry Miley the, when we went to Kinetic to
try to convince him to build a court.
Uh, Todd was one of the people that was with us and his, his father actually
came out and got on the squash court a little bit probably in his early nineties.
Yeah.
He used to be an avid, very good avid tennis player.
Yeah.
Todd's just as you know, is just an all around exceptional.
That's awesome.
That's great.
It's small world.
And he's actually one of our main, he's one of our main guys that along with me is
trying to drive ports here in Charleston.
That's awesome.
Anything we can do to help, reach out, reach out to us.
Beautiful.
Absolutely.
Okay.
Golden point.
Do you take it or your partner take it?
Depends who my partner is, if it was, if it was Todd, he would take it to him.
Gotcha.
Do you have a favorite coach by any chance?
I don't.
You, you, I guess, the first one, finally, all right, during electrolytes?
Just water.
So what are your goals for for 2024 with uh, Padel State?
I would say to just rapidly increase our readership and our scope, um,
which I think will hopefully happen.
Um, just continue to be a, you know, sort of leading content provider,
get really quality content out there and make sure we're sort of
on top of any developments that.
Um, happen again, I'm saying we, the royal we, um, maybe, maybe some point in
2024, there will be a we component to it.
I'll have some other people around the country that are hoping to contribute.
Great.
Awesome.
Uh, thank you for coming on the show.
Um, I want to wish you all the luck and the fear.
Everyone that come down here, man, we'll have to put together a game.
Yeah, well it's really, like I said, it's a really exciting time and space.
And I think, personally, I'll look back on this five, ten years from now and be like,
Wow, back when I did that podcast when there was only 35 clubs around the country
and I'll just be like, that's amazing.
That was never a thing.
It's a real treat to But meet you all and yeah, and by the way, I'm
going to send you some information about the Pan American games for
you to post it on, on the thing.
Yes, please do.
And good, good luck.
That looks amazing.
Yeah.
And, and, um, I'm also part of the team at Racket X and I
know you put an article there.
And, uh, if I would love for you to come down to, to the event, to the
expo, that that'd be fantastic, man.
We can get some great content.
Yeah, I'm playing on it with these guys that I mentioned, the Pickleball
Company that wants to expand Shortcourt.
Um, I think all three of us are going to come down.
They're very keen to be in that space and, um, let me, let me
know anything I can help on.
And if you're coming down, we'll set up some Padel games and, um, you
know, we'll, we'll, we'll get you going into the Padel court, man.
I really appreciate it.
I'll certainly take you up on that.
I'm a traveler, so you don't have to invite me twice.
We're building four Padel courts inside the convention center,
so it's going to be exciting.
Oh, amazing.
Yeah.
So this is going to be super exciting.
So I'll look forward to that for sure.
And you'll probably see me before that, honestly.
Let's do it, babe.
Excellent.
Okay.
Thank you, Austin.
Great.
Thank you guys so much.
Bye bye.
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