Pickelball Paddle

I  made this for  my friend Dave in the High Chaparral park. Dave was a flooring guy and an avid pickelball player until he got Alzheimer's and that stopped everything. He gets to the clubhouse at 5:30 each day and make coffee and spends  the day there watching TV. He used to spend his day at the pickelball court every day!! We were talking about the paddles one day and I thought that if you had a perforated paddle, it would have less wind resistance and you could swing it faster. So I made this one for him with a solid "sweet spot" and holes all around it. 

This is the first time I made one of these paddles and the first time I made a split spigot to hold the flat end while turning the handle. It is not leather wrapped so I cut some grooves in the handle ( to keep it from slipping in your hand) before I moved it off center each way to make the handle oval. it is made from Baltic birch plywood and walnut for the handle and finished with clear gloss enamel.

 I don't know if it will ever be used but Dave will have it.