»ANNOUNCER: To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of pickleball,
we go back in time to the birth of the modern paddle and hear from
Arlen and Steve Paranto how the first composite paddle revolutionized
the game. ♪♪ upbeat music ♪♪
♪♪ upbeat music ♪♪
»"I Heart Pickleball" is powered by Hyland's Leg Cramps, proud supporter of
pickleball players everywhere. »STEVE: My name is Steve Paranto.
I started playing pickleball in 1974 at Green River Community College.
They were playing in PE classes and intramural classes, and me and a bunch of the
tennis buddies decided, "Hey, this looks fun. We're tennis players. I think we'll be pretty
good at this." So we took it up. All we had were wooden paddles, and we didn't know any
better and still had a lot of fun playing the game. My dad always supported me in everything I did.
He followed me when I played tennis matches or whatever activity I got into. So he
would come to watch me play pickleball tournaments. »ARLEN: Well, I learned pickleball from my
son, from Steve. He built a pickleball court in his first house. And
we thought it was kind of a foolish thing to do. »STEVE: My mom and dad didn't think that was, you know, to tear up
your entire backyard at this new house and you're putting in this cement thing
in your backyard? »ARLEN: But after we played pickleball a couple times we really liked it.
So then I built a pickleball court on my place on Lake Ohop. We'd be playing at nighttime and
nobody on the lake had televisions so they'd be out watching us play at nighttime, you know,
their only entertainment. »STEVE: My mom and dad both got hooked into pickleball right from then.
My dad was an engineer for Boeing. He was really good at inventing things for
Boeing, making things cheaper. And so his mind always worked that way. »ARLEN: I was an
industrial engineer, a manager of industrial engineering at the time, but I just liked to come up with
new ideas and new things. I just, because Steve was into pickleball,
and I liked the game of pickleball, we played in a couple tournaments, all wooden paddles
and everything. »STEVE: We had intramural tournaments with the wooden paddles. My partner and I,
we got tired of losing to the same people over and over. We just couldn't break
through and win a tournament. I was complaining to my dad about, you know, the paddles are too
heavy. The ratio's way wrong. I weighed my tennis racket. It was 7 times heavier than a ball.
And I weighed the pickleball paddle and it was 13 times heavier than the ball. So, I knew the ratio
was wrong. So I was just complaining to my dad about that. »ARLEN: You know, you look at the tennis rackets.
They're real light weight and responsive, and so I thought there's got to be
something lighter than wood. I was familiar with the floor panels that Boeing made
for all the jets, and when I found out that they had surplused a lot of their
floor panels, I thought, well, give it a try. And I cut out some using carbide cutters
like Boeing did. »STEVE: About two weeks later he comes to visit and throws two paddles on the floor.
And it's the original two composite paddles. I had no idea
he had been making these prototypes. He never even told me. I think he wanted to
surprise me. I just looked at them and think, okay, well, let's go - my backyard was a pickleball
court at that time too. We go out. First hit - the sound it made was totally
different. The feel was different. I could feel it come off faster. And, oh, it's like a
light bulb going off. »ARLEN: Right away, man, this is really something. It was really
responsive and more accurate than wooden ones and just
light-weight and better to play with. »STEVE: My second partner who was a high school buddy, Richard Skevington,
about a week later, Richard and I go to the next tournament, playing the same people, and we win it.
»RANDY: My name is Randy. Well, I've known the Paranto family
for a little over 30 years. I've been part of the process
in which Arlen, Steve's dad, has developed the first prototype
paddle that wasn't plywood. »ARLEN: The way Boeing made their floor panels, they make
the floor panels, they cut them out and they would route the edge of the
floor panel about, oh, a quarter of an inch inside, and they would fill it with
a putty that they had made. And that's how I made my first paddle
was I routed out that edge and I filled them with the putty.
Okay, the first paddle was this one here. This is the very first composite paddle.
And it turned out so well that we started making higher quantities and what not.
Then the second paddle was an improved version. You see I have the edge guard here. I've got the
end caps here, and I've got a new logo here. And later
we decided that tennis rackets are getting bigger and better, so we came up with the Magnum.
And this gives you a bigger sweet spot and a lot better hitting area
than the other ones. Now just about all the paddles now are this size or larger.
»STEVE: Everything was always scrap material. Boeing leftovers. Today's paddles, the
reason they're expensive, that material is very expensive brand new.
Dad was buying it pennies to the pound. »ARLEN: And I would go down there and I would buy them
for like 50 cents a pound for 4x8 foot sheet of composite material.
And I started making paddles, and I made them in my shop at home. »STEVE: I think he had 20 steps
in making one paddle. Picking up the material, driving it home, cutting
them all out, silk screening, put the end caps on, the extrusions for the
edge guards, the grips... it was like a 20-step process and we would do one step at a time,
just assembly line, just like you would any other manufacturing. But in our garage.
When we first started playing with the composite paddles, we were the only ones.
And now we are winning tournaments with them. We did have an advantage over the other players.
So, finally we were winning some tournaments. They probably thought, "Hey, these guys weren't winning
before. Now they're winning." It was just so fun to be the first ones to use those paddles and do so well.
And then of course all our friends are asking, "Can we have one of those?" »ARLEN: Everybody who used my paddles
won the tournaments. And pretty soon everybody wanted to use my paddles. So, that's how
it became really popular. »STEVE: Gradually our friends are buying paddles from us, or we're
probably giving the first paddles out. »RANDY: When we first started using Steve's dad's
pickleball paddles, the play really picked up. You can move the paddles a lot faster and you have
a lot more action off of them and more consistency on the edges of the paddles with these new ones
versus the old ones. So, it's changed the game in making it more of a real
quick-response game. It's really nice to see somebody that
really has changed the game. And every new paddle company since then,
they've copied him. And that's a pretty nice reflection on his accomplishment of the new paddle.
»STEVE: I don't think he was thinking about a company. I really don't. I think he just - I'm going to help
my son, Steve, win some pickleball tournaments. And then I think the lights switched on about
hey, you know, maybe we have an idea here that other people would be interested in. »ARLEN: I decided
to call them Pro-Lite to signify a light-weight paddle. »STEVE: What started out as just
my dad trying to help my partner and I win some pickleball tournaments, transitioned
into us developing a pickleball company in Pro-Lite.
»ARLEN: I took them to all the tournaments. I had one guy that was
selling for me. He'd give me... I'd sell him like 20 paddles and he'd sell them
to his friends, not to make any money, but just to distribute
the paddles to people playing pickleball. »STEVE: Every tournament incrementally we
went to had more players using composite paddles. »DANIEL: When I started playing
all the paddles were heavy, wooden.
When I started playing tournaments I noticed everybody was playing with non-wooden
paddles. Me being reluctant to switch over, I was one of the last
ones to switch over. And Steve Paranto actually said, "Hey,
why don't you try this?" And I became hooked. »STEVE: At first we were so excited
to count. "Hey, there's 6 of our paddles." "There's 8 of our paddles." "Now there's 10." Pretty soon
it was, "Oh, now there's only 10 wood paddles." "Now there's only... oh look,
Earl is still using a wood paddle." »ARLEN: And once they were used by tournament players, that was the
proof in the pudding. ♪♪ inspiring music ♪♪
♪♪ inspiring music ♪♪ »STEVE: When you get competitive people doing a
sport, they're going to think how to get the edge on the other people. And the edge was,
this is the lighter, more responsive, bigger sweet spot paddle. With
this paddle the way the game changed - 2 ways. Senior citizens and children
could play it more easily because the paddle was lighter in their hands. A lot of seniors have
switched because of how light and easy it is to play the game. The ball's light. The paddle's light. But now,
also, the great athletes can move their hands so quick with
this that it's become a fantastic athletic sport where people are just
demonstrating tremendous athleticism with this kind of paddle because they can do more with the ball.
Well, just like any other sport, pickleball has evolved. And it's still
evolving. The paddles are still improving. »ARLEN: I've always been kind of an inventitive-type
person. I've come up with lots of inventions and things. I've got several patents on different
things. You know, just part of my make-up I guess. I like to make new things and try things out.
»STEVE: Well, I was just complaining to my dad about the weight of the paddles, and he comes
up with these composite paddles to my surprise. I had no idea he was working on this.
And he comes over and throws these paddles on the ground and, again, we just loved those paddles.
It just... it changed the sport a lot.
»ANNOUNCER: No matter where you are, pickleball can bring us together to celebrate community,
learn new things and have fun. If you know someone we should feature on
on a future episode, we would love to hear from you. All you have to do is send us an
email and tell us your idea. This episode of "I Heart Pickleball"
has been brought to you by Hyland's Leg Cramps, America's #1 over-the-counter leg
cramp medicine. For more information go to Hylands.com.
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