People I trust have been telling me the 11SIX24 Power 2 line is special since it dropped, and I agreed the way you agree about a restaurant where you've only ever ordered the fries. I liked my time with the Vapor. I never loved it, and I could never tell you why. Maybe none of the shapes fit my hand. Maybe I was busy falling for other paddles. If I'm honest, I never gave the line the full college try, and that's on me.
The Ultré is where that ends. Same core, same face, one new shape, and the paddle everyone kept swearing by finally makes sense in my hands. It hasn't left my bag in two weeks, it's a top-three paddle of my year, and it talked me into a belief I'd been resisting for longer than I'll admit: the paddle that doesn't wear out is finally real.
The grit made me a believer
Durable grit is having its moment. Six Zero's Coral Pro has it, Honolulu's blue-grit paddles have it, the Spartus Spitfire has it, and every launch video now promises the texture will outlive the paddle. I'd seen the wave coming and I had one worry: that a face built to last wouldn't bite like traditional raw carbon while it lasted.
I was wrong to worry. Matt's Pickleball calls this the roughest face of any paddle he's put to the test. John Kew measured the spin at 2,384 RPM and Matt got 2,381, independent testers landing three RPM apart, both in elite territory, and Kew rates the HexGrit's durability in his top tier. On court it shows up exactly how you'd hope: rolls dip harder, serves kick, and the ball listens.
The part that converted me is that it's still doing all of that. Two weeks of sessions and the bite feels identical to day one, which has never been my experience with raw carbon.
So put it on the record: any paddle that launches from this day forward without durable grit is a no for me. Gen 4 foam cores don't crush from the inside the way honeycomb does. Durable grit doesn't shed. Put those together and you get something this industry has never sold before: a paddle that doesn't wear out. Great for you. Terrible for any company whose business model needs you buying a new paddle every three months.
The shape everyone is going to copy
The flat top is what was missing, and I only know that because the Ultré showed me. No taper, no aero curve, just 16.35 inches of reach with the sweet spot sitting up where you actually make contact. It plays like an elongated when you're reaching and like a hybrid when the ball is at your hip.
What's genuinely impressive is that the shape gives up almost nothing to get there. Of all four Power 2 shapes, the Ultré posts the highest firepower and the highest spin in Kew's testing, beating even the elongated Hurache-X, which is not how this is supposed to work. I can't feel a dip in control anywhere. Bottom line: it's the best of the line.
It's also changed how I look at every other paddle. I'm hunting flat tops now. My favorite paddles already have one (the RPM Q2 and Friction Pro run flat-top variants), and this shape is even making me reconsider the JOOLA Kosmos, which is not a sentence I expected to write. Give it a year. Every brand will ship one of these.
One more thing, about that name. It's the Ultré, accent and all, and the spelling is stupid. But what do you expect from a company that named itself after a jelly bean contest? Marketing isn't their strong suit. Pickleball is. Call it the Ultré, call it the Ultra, call it whatever you want — the paddle is legit.
Where it lets you down
It's a stiffer, crisper face. It doesn't hide your flaws, but it doesn't expose them either. My drops and resets took about a week to feel right again, and if the soft game is how you win points, plan on an adjustment period. If you're brand new, start on something friendlier for less money.
Two pieces of fine print. The claimed swingweight is 108 to 112 and the published measurements land around 115, so expect it to swing a touch heavier than the box says. And it's UPA-A approved only. Check your certification rules before it becomes your tournament paddle in a USAP-sanctioned event.
How it stacks up
- vs. Vapor Power 2 — same core, same face, same price. The Ultré adds reach and moves the sweet spot up to where you actually hit, and it costs you nothing in return. There's not really a trade-off here. It just does everything better.
- vs. Speedup Tide 14H — my favorite 14mm paddle of all time, and these two disagree about everything. The Tide holds the ball and lets you shape it; the Ultré ejects it with spin and pace. If your game is built on dwell and touch, the Tide is $47 cheaper and softer. If you want the ball gone, spinning, and heavy, this is the one. Both are in my bag.
- vs. RPM Q2 — my other favorite, also available flat-topped. The Q2 still hits harder; the Ultré answers with more control and better grit. It's $212 against $199.99 with code, so it comes down to which of those your game wants more. And keep an eye on October, when RPM's new Jade arrives to challenge.
My setup
Out of the box it's very playable, but here's mine: five inches of half-gram tungsten tape on each side of the throat, about five grams total, which settles the face without slowing my hands. Stock grip with a Bodhi overgrip on top, swapped out once a week. And the colorways deserve a mention: lavender, teal, white, plus limited runs like peach and strawberry. It's a good-looking paddle that happens to live in the same family as the Jelly Bean 2, which is the best-looking paddle 11SIX24 makes, so it's used to losing that fight at home.
Who should buy it
The aggressive intermediate-to-advanced player whose game runs on spin. If you serve heavy, roll from the kitchen, and finish with pace, this is as complete as that package currently gets, and at $199.99 with code NICOTHELEFTY it's mid-tier money for top-of-the-line performance. Two weeks after the testing ended it's still in my bag, and it's a top-three paddle of my year.
Skip it if touch is your identity, if you need USAP approval, or if you're early enough in your journey that forgiveness matters more than ceiling.
How I tested
Twenty-plus hours over two weeks: drills, rec doubles, and competitive play, much of it back-to-back with the Tide 14H and my RPM paddles.
I don't own a bench rig. The spin, swingweight, twistweight, and grit numbers in the rail are averages of the measurements published by John Kew and Matt's Pickleball, which land within three RPM of each other. The weight specs are checked against 11SIX24's published claims. Where claimed and measured disagree, I say so above.
The durability claim is the whole reason to buy, so it gets the full treatment: I'm re-checking the face and the spin feel at 50 hours and updating this review with what I find, including if the grit story falls apart.
11SIX24 sent this review unit, and both 11SIX24 and Bodhi are affiliate partners — code NICOTHELEFTY takes $10 off the Ultré and works on the overgrips too. Neither brand saw this review before you did.