From Russian Spies to Pickleball Lies (and a Sleigh Full of Christmas Opinions) | David Tallant w/ Social Dink

📝 We’re coming in hot with:
🔹 A snowman resurrection, carrot controversy, and Jack Frost PTSD
🔹 Die Hard vs. Gremlins vs. Whatever That Elf Movie Was
🔹 Our last Dink or Destroy of 2025—some holiday hot takes didn’t survive

Plus, David Tallant with Social Dink joins us to talk about tracking Russians, losing a friend, and building a badass pickleball bar where your Dink Rating doesn’t matter—but your beer hand might.

🎧 Listen now before someone calls the Polar Express “mid” again.

The Pretty Pickleball Company
Paddles that are as beautiful as they are functional.

BlooBallz
Play hard. Smash harder.

Dink and Dash App
Capture the chaos, the courts, and the characters of your pickleball life.

Pickleball Journal
Pickleball Wisdom & Life Hacks for Winning On and Off the Court

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

speaker-0 (00:00.51)
What about Jack Frost? Michael Keaton dies come back as a snowman? I don't f***ing Pretty controversial scene in there.

Jack Frost.

remember it.

I do remember it. I do remember what the carrot...

How many of you all just screamed in your car right now because she got that? This is Big Dink Energy, the pickleball podcast that's half insight, half nonsense, and all entertainment. If you love pickleball, don't take yourself too seriously and think a little trash talk makes the game better. Welcome home. This is the place where life and pickleball intersect. We celebrate the chaos, call out the nonsense, and put the fun back in dysfunction. You're either in or you're out. And if you're still listening, you're in.

speaker-0 (00:43.278)
So let's go. Big Dink Energy starts now. Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy caught in a landslide? No escape from reality. Open your eyes, look up. It is the official podcast of Pickleball. Big Dink Energy.

That was pretty good.

Thank so much. Thank you so much. Listen, this episode is sponsored by Blue Ball's new animalistic paddle before it drops. And yeah, it's nasty, so nasty you'll probably call it Miss Jackson. Explosive power, mean spin, zero apology energy. I feel like I just described my court play. This thing doesn't play nice and it's not trying to. If your current paddle feels soft, polite, or like it's holding you back, why are you still using it?

Go get the animalistic paddle from Blue Balls. Want to see what I'm talking about? Head on over to BlueBalls.com. That's B-L-O-O-B-A-L-L-Z dot com. Blue Balls, play like an animal.

speaker-0 (01:40.59)
I got the big dink energy. How about you?

So I thought this week in Kitchen Talk, since we're getting closer and closer to Christmas, we would talk Christmas movies.

this is okay. So I love Christmas number one number two I love movies and now we're combining the two things if I mean now we got food and snacks and candy This is my season right here

So our... This is Fat Guy season. literal fat guy. Are we even... Are we even... Are we even watching movies anymore? Are we watching Christmas movies? Are we watching them all week long, every day, on the weekends? Are they just background noise? What are Christmas movies doing in our lives?

The Waste Only.

speaker-0 (02:29.198)
I'm a Christmas movie watcher. I listen I'm gonna go fast and hard with this one the one that I like the one that everybody says may not be a Christmas movie okay. Go ahead. Go ahead. All right As hell yeah

We haven't even got there yet. Are we watching Christmas movies? Yes. How many have you watched this year, Guy? Yes, but how many have you watched this season? Okay. How about you? Every day. Every day you're watching one? Yes. Okay.

I'm gonna watch one tomorrow.

speaker-0 (02:51.042)
so far.

speaker-0 (02:57.294)
Mark? Yes. Yeah, I knew it.

Work and lifetime.

I haven't watched any either, but if I do, they're usually on in the background. Like, I don't think there's maybe one or two, and I guess we'll get to that in a few, that I actually sit down much. But what counts as a Christmas movie? Hard?

Well...

Guy Hard is a Christmas movie. 100%. 100%. Number one Christmas movie.

speaker-1 (03:18.53)
Love it. You consider it? Okay, good. How about gremlins? What? You've never seen gremlins? Get out of here.

Yeah.

Christmas movie? No. my god. my take, turn your mic off. my gosh. night. This is what you're watching tonight or tomorrow.

Okay, how about... Alone.

Yes.

speaker-0 (03:38.03)
Of course.

Do you guys watch Home Alone every year? Yeah. Really?

Yes. No, the first... Number two is okay, but number three, it's just horrible. And yeah, I stopped there.

I just wanna get dumb.

speaker-0 (03:49.902)
Which one had Donald Trump in it?

Yes. yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. OK, so like, what is an untouchable Christmas movie? Like, absolutely has to stay. It's the number one Christmas.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

love that one. I like Miracle on 34th Street.

That's my favorite.

speaker-0 (04:09.528)
That's a good one.

It's a good one, but it's not one I would watch every year. Like, I have to watch comedy.

I like it. It's warm and cozy.

I do like Elf. Yeah, like any of those comedies, I can re-watch comedy, but I can't re-watch anything that I already know the outcome to.

That's a kind of a staple now.

speaker-3 (04:28.426)
Bye buddy!

Hope you find your dad.

How about a Christmas movie that can just go away? Y'all know mine. I got a few. I'll start. How about The Grinch?

I don't

Yes, we know that you hate the Grinch.

speaker-0 (04:45.166)
It crunches a staple. That stays. That stays.

I am not a fan. You know what I've never seen either is the Polar Express.

Yeah, I haven't seen that. I'll tell you one that can go. And I've never seen it, but I'm just gonna say, controversial.

my Grinch I know is controversial. hell no. That's that's those are amazing. I love the Madea movie. Have you seen the Madea Halloween is really funny. OK, I'm just the only one that likes Madea.

I'm a deer, Christmas.

speaker-0 (05:09.225)
Gotta go.

speaker-0 (05:15.872)
about J-

I've seen one Madea

Jack Frost.

Michael Keaton dies come back as a snowman.

that's an old movie. Yeah. I don't remember it.

speaker-0 (05:25.87)
Pretty controversial scene in there.

I do remember it. I do remember the carrot.

how many of you are just screaming your car right now because she got that

With the carrot. With the carrot. If you don't know, go look it up. Or don't, I don't know. I'm not going to be responsible. How about ones that we never need to see again?

I have no idea.

speaker-0 (05:45.038)
David and the elves.

We tried to watch that one year and it was all dubbed. We didn't realize it was whatever country it was.

we didn't bring up Lethal Weapon. That's Christmas. That's a Christmas movie.

I guess. Jingle All the Way with Arnold? Yes. Have you seen that one? Mm-mm. that's a good one. That one was really funny. comedies. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. guess I don't really know a lot of non-comedy ones. That's a one. Bill Murray, yeah. That was a good one. That's a good one. It's a toaster. How about you? You just like the feel-goods. Yeah.

Absolutely.

speaker-0 (06:04.312)
for Christmases.

Yeah, yeah.

speaker-0 (06:11.82)
Scrooged. That's the Al with Bill Murray.

speaker-0 (06:20.82)
All hallmark all the time. All lifetime. Lifetime stands for paddle princess. I should have wore some flannel tonight. No. Get you in the movie energy.

Yep, that's what I like to watch.

Alright, well what movies are you like at home watching all the time? Let us know in our YouTube comments or in our Instagram comments

Get up in there Get all up in there

Like Jack Frost.

speaker-0 (06:45.998)
Come in. It's fan mail. Fan mail.

it's fan mail. We got fan mail from Unshut Moe. Hands down the only podcast to date that is targeted towards something like Pickleball, yet is the most relatable podcast for anyone, even someone who knows completely nothing about Pickleball.

Yeah, Moe, you've also been invited multiple times to play Pickleball. We know you're not in Vegas anymore.

Yep, so come play pickleball with us.

This segment sponsored by Dink and Dash, powered by Dink and Dash, the pickleball app built for people. Find pickle pals, keep your Dink diary, earn badges, follow at Dink underscore and underscore dash to get it. Launch coming soon.

speaker-2 (07:30.996)
Just the tip, quick pickable wisdom, in and out before you know it. Most errors happen after you rush the point. One extra dink beats one extra mistake.

That's true. When I was doing my private lesson with that lady, she said, you have time. Don't rush it. Don't be like Paul Abdul. Rush, rush. you know Hurry, hurry. but Dinkin' Dance coming soon.

One extra drink.

speaker-2 (07:53.806)
There you go.

speaker-0 (08:02.142)
It's time.

for Pickle Pals.

speaker-0 (08:07.896)
Yes, yes, yes. The music already told you what time it is. Our guest spent years in the US Army Military Intelligence tracking Russians, then traded his uniform for a cowboy hat and became a cowboy action shooter. We're definitely gonna talk about both of those. Slinging Bibles and bullets is an outlaw preacher. And now he's opening Corinth, Texas' brand new pickleball facility right off of I-35. Four outdoor courts are already done, three indoor courts coming soon, and his timing couldn't be better. What do you know, Dallas just hosted the 2025 World Championships. with 35.

hundred players some of the best pickleball this sport has ever seen. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome the outlaw preacher himself, David from Social Dink. Now David, our first question's gotta be, how do you go from tracking Russian intelligence, then to cowboy action shooting, being a Bible thumping shooter, and then slinging dinks in Corinth?

Well, first of all, thanks for having me this morning. And, uh, you know, lot of corporate hours in between is really what happens. And, know, uh, my progression into the sport really happened with my best friend. My best friend begged me to play pickleball with him, I guess, since about 2017, he was in the sport and, in 2024 in January, he passed away and, I never would play with him because I was an army guy.

And of course, you know, I told him it was probably the dumbest sport that ever existed in America. And, I would never get out there with him. You know, I just told him it was, it was just too dumb for me and, I wouldn't, I just wouldn't do it with him. And I regret that. And so I take it back. was 2023 that he asked me to do that when he passed away. And so his wife asked me to come play with her after he passed. And I did. And I fell in love with the sport and I really, really regret not ever doing that with him.

And that's probably, I'm gonna be honest with you, that's one of the only regrets I have in my entire life, is just not playing pickleball with my friend.

speaker-0 (09:58.966)
Yeah, that's got to be tough. I mean, you're already a cowboy preacher, so I know you know he's watching. He's seeing you. He's watching you do it. Did he do anything cool, like have his ashes pressed into a paddle or a ball or something like that?

No, but we did host a tournament earlier this year in his memory. you know, we had about, guess we had about 45 people that came and participated in the event. And you know, of all people that could have taken that tournament and won it, it just happened to be me. So that out well for me in his honor.

awesome. So are you gonna do like an annual maybe for him?

You know, his wife is thinking about it, but I'm just not sure if she wants to go down that road anymore. It was pretty tough on her to do that.

Yeah, yeah, I can imagine. Well, that's great. And certainly a sad story, but out of that, you know, Phoenix from the ashes kind of thing, you're in it now. And I think you're carrying on that legacy and that memory for him in the best way possible. Absolutely. So now, listen, I've got to get to the good stuff. All right. Let's talk about the outlaw preacher and cowboy action shooting. Everyone picks an alias from the Old West, obviously. And so what made you choose the outlaw preacher pathway?

speaker-3 (11:08.142)
Well, I'm a huge, huge Clint Eastwood fan. And I'll tell you a quick story. I happened to be at the Defense Language Institute back in 1992 and I was in my full dress army uniform and I was still in my car up with gas at a gas station in Monterey and a limo pulled up next to me and said, Hey, are you in the military? And of course I was like, well, uh,

No, it's Halloween.

And he said, well, what are you doing tonight? And of course my eyebrows raised, you know, very leery of this question. And he said, no, no, no, I was just wondering, you know, if you had plans tonight, because I have tickets to an event and I was wondering if you'd be interested in attending. And I'm like, well, sure. What is it? And he's like, well, it's a barbecue. And I was like, well, you know, I'm from Texas, so I love a good barbecue. I was like, well, absolutely. So he gave me a ticket and lo and behold, it was a ticket to the premiere of Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven. Wow. Wow. And it was.

probably one of the most wonderful events that I could have ever been invited to in my life. For number one, I was a huge Clint Eastwood fan growing up. He was one of my idols. So being invited to this event was just a culmination of a lot of things in my life. One, I got to meet my idol. I got to meet Clint Eastwood. I got to meet John Denver. I got to meet Tom Selleck. I got to meet Chuck Norris. Wow. Just a lot of people in one location all coming together.

So yeah.

speaker-3 (12:28.214)
And then I got to attend the premiere. got to see the premiere of unforgiven, which, you know, ended up winning a best picture, best director for that year. So it was just a wonderful event. And at the time, Flint was the mayor of Carmel. He had the hogs breath in, which was a bar in Carmel. So, just a great, great experience of being in the army at the time.

Man, that is a fantastic story. you know, having been in the military myself, there's so many stories like that where you just right place, right time. But it also goes the other way. Wrong place, wrong time also, depending on your rank a lot of times. then so that just, did that lead to the cowboy action shooting stuff?

Now that came a little bit later. I did choose the name based off of his movie Pell Rider, where he was pretending to be a preacher, but he was actually an outlaw. So that's kind how I developed the name Outlaw Preacher from that perspective. I am an ordained minister, so that's kind of where that came from, from that perspective, and kind of just combined the two together to create my alias for the cowboy action shooting.

so in that have you ever done a wedding as a cowboy preacher

No, but I have done a few.

speaker-0 (13:35.96)
A funeral that you caused as the outlaw?

I didn't cause it, but it was my mother.

And so for those that don't know what cowboy action shooting is kind of give us the the cliff notes version. Yeah

Cowboy reaction shooting is a competitive event where men and women and even teenagers and children come together to compete in a series of event. Usually it's stages consisting of about 12 stages where you compete with a shotgun and a rifle in stages and you're knocking down targets basically. And you go through these stages and you're really competing against yourself more than other people. And it's usually the toughest competition that you have trying to beat yourself.

Yeah, for the pistols, are all smoothbore, right? Yes, they are. Yeah, go look that up if you don't know what that is and see how difficult that is to even hit a target with those things. And then you'll have a different understanding of the cowboy movies you watch on TV, too.

speaker-3 (14:18.744)
Yes they are.

speaker-3 (14:29.038)
It's a lot of fun. There's a lot of great people just like in pickleball great people in cowboy action shooting people that will help you if anybody's ever interested in doing that there's a lot of clubs around all over the state of Texas all over the country and Boy, it's just a great sport as well

So let me talk about military intelligence for a little bit. So that trains you to analyze threats, patterns, strategies, obviously everything everybody thinks about. Does any of that translate to reading people on the court?

Sure. Strategy comes into play and I think that's probably one of my greatest strengths on the court is really strategic ball placement, strategic analysis of what to look for and what to expect from play. Not every time, but definitely from a consistency standpoint of really understanding what to expect from pickleball placement. Yeah. And that really just comes into play, not only from the military, but from, I'm going to say from competitive sports growing up.

Yeah, no doubt. Now the social dink, we gotta talk about this for sure, because I love the concept, I love what you guys are doing. You open with four outdoor courts, and then three indoors are coming soon, and you're right off I-35. How did you guys pick that location where you are there in Corinth?

Well, the, the investment team that I'm working for, they've owned that land for quite some time now, and, they've been investing slowly there into building up the community within Corinth. So they have an apartment complex that they've already built out there and they're getting ready to do a major build out there from a retail perspective. And what better to add there.

speaker-3 (15:56.652)
is pickleball. But one thing that we're bringing to the table there that really isn't in that North Texas community is alcohol. And that's really what we're going to be adding there too is we're adding the bar feature to our facility. So be able to serve alcohol while you play, can beer, can cocktails and can wine and having folks come out and just enjoy a cocktail while they're playing and literally while they're playing. So we might be hosting some tournaments where you have to play while you're holding your drink.

man, that's awesome. I love that. This is total military stuff right there. I always thought like one of the best things to do and I just haven't seen it done yet and I haven't done it is like dog shot collars. Yeah, so maybe somebody on the sidelines has it though.

Yeah, right, right, right.

speaker-3 (16:39.853)
nice.

I love that. love that. Yeah, that's some good stuff.

Yeah. So now obviously PPA world championships were there, right? I mean, there in your backyard, Annalee Waters, Dominique.

were you able to get that were you able to go now

no, we didn't get up there. We had a conflict going on at the time, definitely, you know, we definitely want to come up to that area, but you know, we didn't get to go to that event. You know, Annalee Waters dominating, Federico dominating. Obviously this had to impact you guys, right?

speaker-3 (17:12.265)
Absolutely, absolutely. We're pretty fortunate to have right next door to our facility is a hotel. literally like within 25 yards from our facility. So this is ideal for us. Pro players can stay there. They can walk over. They can use our outdoor facilities to warm up. They can come in and use our indoor facilities if the weather's bad before they head down.

That's gotta be awesome. So most of our listeners are rec players. We have a lot in Texas, but we have a lot that just are traveling through. So what's the pitch? Why are we going to Social Dink when we're traveling through that area?

Oh man, hit the major, major button for us is we have no membership fees. Wow. So that's what separates us from the rest of these large facilities is no membership fees. We're pay to play. And when we say pay to play, it's $10 to play at our facility. we are cheap, probably the cheapest in the DFW Metroplex. And not only is it $10 for our outdoor courts, it's going to be $10 for our indoor courts as well. So $10.

And that's not per person, that's $10 a court. So if you bring three other people with you, we're talking pennies on the dollars to play at one of our courts. And then you can just enjoy your day. so for families, you know, for families that are, you know, living on, on the downside of our economy, this is a way to get out and, you know, spend some of that money on some entertainment. That's cheap to have a good time with your family and, know, just have some fun and get some, exercise and really just.

creating that inclusive space where, you know, no matter what your age is, you can have that vibrant community and just enjoy the sport. That's really what we're trying

speaker-0 (18:54.606)
That's fantastic. I've always said, you know, pickleball is like a great first date location as well. You learn a lot. There's a low barrier, obviously at social dink, low barrier to entry to begin with, but you learn a lot about a person really quickly on a pickleball court.

That's not real.

speaker-3 (19:09.826)
You know, it's funny you brought that up guy, cause that's something that we really want to do there as well is I would really like going back to my friend that's a widow and she's 56 FYI. And you know, I want to create like a dating, you know, like a speed dating thing. I want to bring that to a social day. So I'm really about the social aspect of the sport there. And I really want to do some of that stuff at our location as we kick off in 2026.

We're really not about the duper there. So if you're about your duper rating at social day, we're, really not the place for you, know, you know, head on down to the Pickler or the Oasis down in Rockwall. That's really not.

and pay a ton more money and be around some snooty people.

Yeah, and that's okay. That's good. You know, there's a place for that and I'm all about that too. It's just not us.

Yeah, that's fantastic. You guys are definitely a court we would play at if we were up in that area. I'm sure we're going to come through there at some point doing something. I mean, you can't live in Texas and not go to the Metroplex like that.

speaker-3 (20:07.8)
But if you like to drink, come see us. We'll definitely get that.

Good. I'm going to need the Johnny Walker, black or blue. Either one will do. Yeah, very good. All right. What's all the social handles? How do people find you?

there you go. Alright.

speaker-3 (20:19.746)
socialdink.com, come see us on the website. You need to sign up for a pay to play account. It's free and that just signs our waiver so you can use our courts and that's really all you have to do. And then, you know, just a $10 charge and you can use our courts anytime you want. On Instagram, it's just social.dink and that's our Instagram handle. Awesome.

Follow go over follow them for sure get involved in everything that they're doing possibly shot-caller Pickleball in the near future. We'll see how that goes And there you go the cameras are running for that one David man. So good to have you on really appreciate it I know we're gonna be following you guys and we'll do some more stuff in the future for sure

I appreciate it.

speaker-0 (21:05.038)
Dink or destroy, that thing that we dink, we send it up over the net with thumbs up for us or destroy it, thumbs down, don't like it.

speaker-0 (21:16.115)
yes, so if you like Dink or Destroy, sorry, it's going away.

speaker-0 (21:49.068)
Destroy. Gotta go.

speaker-0 (21:54.264)
First note, I'm out. Dink. Yes, dink.

speaker-0 (22:00.386)
Thank you.

speaker-0 (22:05.144)
Santa yes, thank you

speaker-0 (22:11.18)
DICK

What a dink. The dink. It does not stink.

speaker-0 (22:22.062)
Dink. I'm good. Just-

speaker-0 (22:28.942)
only if it's the Muppets version.

speaker-0 (22:37.528)
golden rain.

speaker-0 (22:42.467)
Thank you.

That's a beetle. That's a beetle. You don't say no to beetle.

speaker-0 (22:53.474)
Remix appropriate remix

speaker-0 (23:01.281)
yesterday.

speaker-0 (23:10.478)
Yeah, thank you.

I'm so glad you didn't say the Jackson 5.

destroy.

speaker-0 (23:31.59)
Yeah, tell us what you think about Dink or Destroy if you liked it. Sorry, but we got something new coming for you that we think you like it anyhow.

speaker-0 (23:41.496)
thumbs with your thumbs down.

speaker-0 (23:52.076)
Attention attention breaking news right now that you can use around the water cooler at work.

speaker-0 (24:16.802)
knew it was coming.

speaker-0 (24:34.2)
Gotta go.

speaker-0 (24:40.824)
Can't wait till Texas does it. I mean, we have the most courts in the United States here in Texas, so.

speaker-0 (24:55.982)
All right, now listen up, listen up, listen up. A real attention here. We've got one last episode dropping next week before 2026. That's 2026 for you laypeople out there. No guest, just us. A full look back at how this started and how it turned into what it is. The official podcast of Pickleball. That's it for this episode. Unless you've got something to say, think we got it wrong? Have a better take? We want to hear it. Find us at bdepodcast.com.

or at BDE Podcast on the socials. Drop us a message. We might just feature you in the next episode. If you had a good time, well, same z's. If not, maybe try again. We grow on people. So you know the deal. Follow the show, tell a friend and leave us a review or just pretend this never happened. Until next time, keep the dink soft and the energy big.