THE OWNER
My name is Caleb, the owner and founder of Da-le Pickleball paddles. I started playing pickleball with my girlfriend around the fall season in 2022.
I attended and graduated at Montreat College with a business degree and concentration with sports management. I also ran track and field / Cross Country at Montreat College. I come from a small tennis background and fell in love with pickleball the moment I started playing. I was a little hesitant at first being a tennis player coming to pickleball, but I enjoyed it a lot and wanted to keep at it. I firstly noticed paddles and the different types of paddles there were when I first started. I tried many different paddles out and I honestly did not like the majority of the paddles I tested. At this point I was working on getting more advanced 4.5+ in my level and eventually bought a diadem warrior paddle. I loved this paddle for a while. Finally I thought I found my perfect paddle, but after 2 weeks the grit was gone and it was hard to spin. I loved the control the diadem warrior had and it felt really powerful. I then bought a CRBN that everyone was talking about and I loved this paddle. It was the closest I felt to a tennis racquet with the three balances of power, control, and spin. However, between the CRBN and Warrior, It still couldn’t beat the touch /control the Warrior had. This is where my journey begins with making my own paddle similar to my two favorite paddles with my own taste and feel.
BEGINNINS
One day at an open session I met a nice friend who is an awesome lady who started making her own paddles and her own brand called “Single Double.” This conversation had really inspired me and had me thinking why not just make a cool paddle suited for me with a nice tennis feel with a cool design to it. I was still in my last year of college about to graduate so things were a little challenging at the beginning. I did my research and got things going. I designed the graphics myself with an Ai document and researched the things I knew I needed to make a great paddle. I thought to myself if I can make a similar combination with my top two favorite paddles with some modifications of my own that this would be a really great paddle. So I got some samples within a few weeks and things were rolling from there.