Tournament Drama & Tesla Paddles | Igor Hiller w/ Dink Different

We’re coming in hot with:
 🔹 A group of 3.0s bringing Olympic-level drama to a backyard scramble
 🔹 What happens when Gen X meets tournament time limits and bedtime
 🔹 A Pick 6 question that has us all laughing (and maybe getting divorced)
 🔹 Tesla enters the pickleball chat... and we have questions

Plus, Igor Hiller from Dink Different joins us to talk child acting with Robin Williams, adulting in comedy, and why LA pickleball is its own sitcom.

🎧 Listen now before your serve gets fact-checked by a 3.0 with receipts.

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.

Chapters

• 1:28 Sponsor Ad
• 1:47 Kitchen Talk - Hot takes, weird news, and what’s on our minds this week
• 7:41 Fan Mail (Shout Outs, Comments, Love)
• 8:11 Just The Tip - Pickleball Wisdom
• 8:55 Pickle Pals - Deep Dive with a Pickleball Court, Club or Influencer
• 36:51 Pick 6 ( 1 question and 6 answers)
• 38:01 News You Can Use
• 41:06 Wrap-Up & CTA - Final thoughts, shoutouts, and how to engage with us
• 41:31 Mic’s Off, Mouths On – raw, unfiltered chat

Transcript

speaker-0 (00:00.416)
That was softer than I expected.

I can't wait till we switch partners.

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. So let's go.

Big Dink Energy starts now. Welcome to the Thunderdome.

What?

speaker-0 (00:43.701)
world that was not even a

speaker-0 (00:54.83)
That's right, we are not.

speaker-1 (01:01.494)
Real play today, hot off the courts. I just put four straight hours in the quarter to tournament using their animalistic paddle. Go find it now and get it in your hand. That is a live use case right there. It was awesome today. I came in, what did I come in? Third out of 16 with the animalistic paddle and boom, solid feel, consistent shots, no drama. If you want gear that actually holds up when you're playing hard, who doesn't?

And just for looks good in a bag, the Blue Balls delivers. We play with them, we trust them, and today they showed up. People were intimidated. You did. I did for being the best generation.

really really well.

my gosh.

So we're recording this after we just played four hours at a tournament It may have been longer. I'm not sure

speaker-2 (01:49.698)
was only four hours.

think it was. I think it started at 7 a.m.

It feels like it did.

was supposed to start at 10, but there were some hiccups. And so it didn't start. It didn't even start.

You're going to

speaker-1 (02:06.446)
I don't know about hiccups, there's a lot of sneezing, I can tell you that. Oh my god. You too, with your allergies.

Show you

Is out of control

I sneezed probably 45 times in a row and it was so annoying.

It's just miserable. Yes, I know.

speaker-1 (02:21.72)
fun fact they're not cedar trees they're juniper trees okay I just didn't want people to correct us getting our DMs and let us know those are juniper trees you've got off our

multiple times.

So we did a scramble tournament. There was 16 of us. So I think it ended up being four pods or it wasn't originally then I guess the lady showed up, but then she left. And so they had to redo all the pods. So we ended up with three pods of five and we ended up starting late and it went on for a very, very long time. And by the end of it, I was done y'all.

I showed up because it said scramble and I'm like, where is the eggs? And there were no eggs at this tournament. do not understand. Oh, did. know, the Sinistack. Give me a Sinistack.

wanted the Rudy to be fresh and fruity you know

speaker-2 (03:12.864)
I just want to point it out that Guy got third, but he was my partner twice and both times. I carried you. Yes, I did.

I had to carry you.

speaker-0 (03:24.542)
I came in, I don't even know because...

if you've never tried playing pickleball with an anchor around your neck.

Stop it!

We weren't even in the same pod. You and Paddle Princess were in the same pod, but I was not. I was in the pod with my sister and Kim and Lisa and

Which is weird because a group of whales is called a pod, so why are they called pickleballers pods? I don't

speaker-0 (03:48.82)
Maybe I just called. Did he call it that?

Now I think he called it group, but the lady who was next to you said, we're pod A, they're pod B. And so that's what she called it. I don't know the actual.

It was just very long and I'm tired.

It was fun.

It lot of fun. was just with the allergies and everything else going on. It was just exhausting. It was taxing.

speaker-1 (04:14.614)
And I did, you know, I did not play that well initially, Miss Paddle Princess, because I did have to warm up. I'm of the best generation, Gen X.

Your warmup is like three.

hours.

I've, hey, whatever it took, I got there, I? I finally got there. Yeah, so I mean, I had a good time. It was great. I hadn't played in a while because of my maladies, my injuries, my old man niche, my VA.

Yes, that's what I would call it. V-A-N-S is what we call it.

speaker-2 (04:44.098)
Your Venus.

Thank you to the VA taking care of me. Thank you to you letting me serve my country. You're welcome for my service.

was nice to start back the new year with a tournament like right out the gate. was.

So especially so many friends

So many friends there today, so it was awesome.

speaker-2 (04:59.886)
I had a whole group of friends. yeah, the drama was fun.

Monica

Little bit of drama. The drama in the three group was off the chain. Yes. So unnecessary. They were every time they switched partners. There was some type of argument, some type of let's go back and watch the video. gosh. Ridiculous. It was comical, actually. I was like, y'all, it is pickleball.

Thank you.

speaker-2 (05:26.86)
And you're only three O's. Like come on. This is not...

fighting about serves and you served and no you served and I was like it wasn't even medals

What a duper rated turnip. No, they're what are you.

There's so many-

Yeah, I kind of wonder was the tournament like a lot like we forgot about this

speaker-0 (05:46.648)
I don't know, usually they have medals, but I don't know. But the irony is, is you did all that fighting and all of that energy just negative for what?

For what reason? Like what was reason? And none of the people that were fighting got on the podium.

That's why because they weren't having fun.

None of them made the podium. It was like...

I'm glad you know, because I was still-

speaker-2 (06:11.598)
You had two games left.

And so I'm glad you got to see who got on the podium because it was they were my gosh. They were it was just

was so bad.

Who too knew everybody there? Like who were some of the people that were there that you all knew?

Lots of people. Well, we brought Janine in and then, know, Kim and Lisa and Michelle and just all lots of great people like we and they were all in our 2.5. So we just have fun.

speaker-2 (06:29.418)
It was so nice to meet her.

speaker-2 (06:41.838)
You know who I was missing? Ricky. I'm to text him.

Ricky wasn't there. I'm- Dale!

Do not sleep on Dale. If you are going to play Dale, he's tall and he wears two knee braces, but do not sleep.

I think that Dale's gonna go up into the 3-0 like by the next trip. They were, but it was so funny because Guy and Dale were on the same team and Tempe's like, look, the nursing home is over there playing.

He probably doesn't want to because those people were mean.

speaker-1 (07:09.806)
Look, the nursing home beach, y'all.

Yeah, you did.

That is true.

It's fine, fine, but it was still just so funny.

We had Jello to look forward to.

speaker-0 (07:18.348)
You guys had to get done by five so you could make dinner. It's bedtime. You guys are gonna miss arts and crafts.

Wait, what are you talking about?

Matt locks on. I gotta watch Jessica Fletcher ride her bike for 15 minutes of an opening.

Exactly. No, but it was a great time. Lots of friends, lots of labs, just a very long day.

Very long day.

speaker-1 (07:39.458)
Yeah, all right, awesome.

speaker-1 (07:45.88)
Yes, yes, yes, we keep getting the fan mail and please keep sending it in to us. We love to hear from you all out there to know that we're doing something in your life or making a difference at least, or you had us on for a second. I don't care what it is, just send it in. This is Janine Ratcliffe. She said she listened to our podcast after meeting us this week and she loved it and was so excited to play pickleball with us. Well, Janine, we were equally excited to play with you as well.

Just the tip. Quick pickleball wisdom in and out before you know it. I just learned this two days ago. A two-e is a two-handed backhand. Yes, so I always am like two-hand backhand, two-hand backhand. Apparently it has a name. It's called a two-e. Chewy. So players use this for more control, added stability, extra power.

Two hands back in.

speaker-1 (08:33.606)
no, that's chewy.

speaker-0 (08:41.894)
on the backhand side. It's especially helpful on hard shots or when you're stretched and need the paddle to feel locked in. We will not be doing twoies. I can tell you that.

I wanna learn.

Just

speaker-1 (09:02.217)
It's time for Pickle Pal!

speaker-1 (09:08.066)
Yes, yes, yes, Pickle Pals. And today's guest was once a child actor who shared the screen with none other than Robin Williams and Bicentennial Man. He grew up to be a comedian, trained at UCB theater, had a sketch comedy featured on Funny or Die and College Humor, and appeared in Dear White People on Netflix. But somewhere along the way, he picked up a paddle, started an Instagram account called Dinkdifferent, and built a following of over 16,000 pickle ballers. And now he has attempted an insane 40-hour world record. We're gonna talk about that.

Now, from West Hollywood, California, welcome Igor Hiller. Now, Igor, listen, first question. You were literally in a movie about a robot trying to become human, and you've tried to play pickleball for 40 hours. Is this kind of method acting now?

Well, I think if I were a robot, maybe we would have been successful. know, it's our wet human parts that sounds more disgusting than it is that let us down. You know, that's it. I really appreciated that intro, Guy. You're a real professional. I see why this is the official podcast of Pickleball. It all makes sense now.

We would love for Pickleball to know that we are the official, even though we tagged ourselves that. So thanks for that compliment. let's unpack that a little bit then. So the 40 hours, man, I've done a couple of weird things in my life, being in the military and doing some special operations stuff, but the 40 hours of Pickleball, that sounds like a hill I could never climb.

I think that what we did is definitely more difficult than any special ops stuff and certainly way more important to the country. you for your service. Yeah, yeah, and I appreciate you saying that and I don't hear it enough. And I wish that I would get better seats on planes, but maybe next year. That's really cool, Guy, by the way. I'd love to hear more about that. That's amazing.

speaker-1 (10:53.55)
just stuff I did. yeah, so I mean, how, okay, how many hours did you get?

Yeah, so we made it to 24 and a half, 24 and a half. And yeah, we had to stop because one of the guys, stopped, he lost feeling in his hand. jeez. And it was the middle of the night and we kind of didn't know what was going on. We were scared. One of the things we were worried about is heart trouble. yeah. And so we were scared that he was having a stroke or something. It turned out later after he went to the doctor that he had...

torn some of his like wrist tendons a little bit, you know? I think he could have kept going, you know what I'm saying? No, no, but you gotta... You're saying that, not me. I would never say that publicly. Yeah, those... But yeah, so that's what happened. Yeah, we still had a long ways to go, so we had to stop.

What was man?

speaker-1 (11:41.29)
Any thoughts of trying to get in the future, trying to kill your friends that way?

Well, it would be a fun way to get my resentment out, but I think that, I don't know, because it was really crazy what happened two weeks after us, I don't know if you heard about this, but two separate groups also attempted one in, I think it was Pennsylvania, and then the other in Texas. attempted to break the same record, and they started, I think, 16 hours apart or something. And the first group, they went for 48 hours, and then the second group went for 49.

So, you know, now we have to see if Guinness is gonna validate their attempt because that's a whole kind of admin thing and Guinness is really particular about it. But I don't know. I mean, the thought of going for 50 hours just sounds really horrible. I kind of want to break a different record like most serves in a minute or something.

Yeah, yeah. And Guinness is one of those, it's a weird thing for people who don't know the background of how those things usually get done and then set and then broken. I guess I'm weird because I have two friends that are Guinness World Record holders and now obviously being connected to you, attempting, maybe it's my catalyst that says you got to go try something, but I'm not that ambitious for

You clearly you've got a type. Yeah, but but I think that people don't realize yeah I mean, I guess it makes sense is they're the keeper of the records So they're gonna be really particular about rules and stuff Yeah, but yeah, there's a lot of very specific things that you gotta get right when you try to officially break it so

speaker-1 (13:11.438)
So Bicentennial Man with Robin Williams. remember growing up watching Robin Williams. Do you remember much of that? yeah.

Yeah, that was very memorable. was, I think, 11 at the time, and I was a big Robin Williams fan. I mean, you he was in all these movies that I watched as a kid. You know, I remember Flubberer and Mrs. Doubtfire. These are real classics. Yeah, it was amazing. It was amazing. It was really, really cool to be on set with him, and he was...

a really sweet guy and naturally funny and very generous with his time. just wanted, you know, there are some actors that when they're working on set, they wanna keep to themselves and they wanna kinda stay in the zone. And then other actors that just wanna chat and socialize. And he was one of those. I had my dad with me on set and my dad was like the huge Robin Williams fan. And he was so nice to him. And one of the things that blew my mind is he could speak Russian.

Wow. Essentially fluently. Which was crazy. I speak Russian with my family and so, and he was talking to us in Russian. It was crazy. mean, the guy, you know, Robin Williams was a real genius. So that was a very cool, cool, you know, moment for me. Yeah.

You know, that should have come to me naturally with a name like Igor, either you're ringing a bell in Notre Dame or you have some sort of Eastern Bloc background,

speaker-3 (14:30.166)
Yeah, Igor, I always tell people it's like, you know, was I an ugly baby? I mean, what was going on there? But yeah, yeah, I was born in Ukraine and there, you know, Igor is like Jim. You know, there's just a bunch of Igor's running around.

Yeah, then of course you have, you know, Young Frankenstein and the comedy that came along with that too. So I'm sure you've gotten that.

It's not a comedy to me, you know? It ruined my life.

Well, I mean, with the first name Guy, obviously I had to learn to fight early in school, you know, because you get compared to Guy. I had to go deep undercover. So, you you kind of brought out that you had a good time with it. But, you know, a lot of we hear a lot of child actors, they have complicated relationships at that time in their lives. And it seems like you look back on it kind of fondly.

Now the special ops makes sense.

speaker-3 (15:12.856)
Well, yeah, that's just because I wasn't successful enough for it to have ruined my life. You know, like I never got to the cocaine phase of child acting. Dang it, so close. I know, I know. it was, I had the experience where it was like, you know, some kids they go to like soccer after school. And for me it was, you know, going to auditions and doing this thing. This was like my...

my after school thing and then sometimes there would be like these really cool experiences like getting to be, know, in movies or in commercials and stuff like that. But when I was a kid, for me it was just very fun and natural and no problem. And then, but then like as I got to like start, you know, becoming a teenager, it switched for me and I started getting really in my head. And then there was, I guess like a little bit of a cliche child actor thing where my dad started to like, it felt a little bit more pressure.

It was like, we gotta really prep for this audition. This isn't natural enough, you know, let's practice again, let's practice again. And I did start to feel, it started all of a sudden to be about something else and not just being in the flow of it. And that's when I stopped, at least as a kid. And then I came back to it when I was an adult.

Yeah, that's interesting. And I kind of, have a little bit of that. did some TikToks that went kind of viral. And then it, know, cause I like to make these things all about me. But it got, it was the pressure then. It was like, we got to produce, what's the next hit? And we got to be doing this every day. And now I got to do two a day. And it's, I just walked away from it. I was like, nah, I'm out. This is, already have a job. I have two jobs actually. And so I don't, no, we're not doing this as a second, as a third job. You know, there's only so many hours in a week.

Yeah, well social media is definitely no joke. I think, yeah, and whatever you do, if you don't enjoy the process of it, I don't know how you could last without losing your mind.

speaker-1 (17:03.936)
losing a part of yourself too. you know, then you go into comedy or became a comedian, trained at UCB, right? Had a sketch team called Kids, Kids Table? The Kids Table? Featured on Funny or Die, College Humor, I mean, great, great sites. And then appeared in Dear White People. Some top sites. Yeah. So how was that all that kind of transitioning in there?

yeah, yeah.

speaker-3 (17:24.578)
Yeah, well after college I just always loved comedy. I was interested in comedy, I was a nerd. I mean, even when I was a kid, I was such a nerd, I'm checking out joke books from the library. I'm memorizing them. Then I'm going to school and trying them out on people. all that stuff is always really fun for me. But then also, I would watch documentaries about comedians. I wanted to know what are these guys like behind the scenes? I wanted to be in that.

in that world. And so that's what I did, you know, instead of going to law school, and that was a mistake. I just want to say, go to law school if you're thinking about it. Instead of doing that, you know, I went to LA and started doing that. So UCB is the Upright Citizens Brigade, it was, especially at the time, like the top improv comedy training center. so I went in there and I was an intern and I'm cleaning the toilet, and then I'm getting to meet, you know, all the top comedians, know, Aziz Ansari's coming through, and C.R. Silverman.

and all these, know, Louis C.K., they're all coming by and they're practicing their jokes that they're just reading from their notebook. was so. yeah, yeah. And making friends and that's where, you know, I met my friend Marvin and we started this sketch group, The Kids Table, because he had just graduated film school and now he's a director. He directed a Disney movie. And so, you know.

It's exciting.

speaker-3 (18:48.814)
being in these circles and getting to be creative and starting to write and I'm performing improv around town, all of this training and experiences, it was super exciting and it just kind of, it helped me to sharpen, because I think a lot of people, first of all, some of the funniest people I know are not comedians, like they're not working in comedy, they're not working in entertainment, but I think if you want to do that, you need to train the muscle of being able to do it

every day and you know, like there's a Jay Leno quote. It's like, yeah, you can be funny at a party, but can you be funny every night at seven and 11? Yeah. Like, and that's, think, you know, the kind of the difference. So that was really cool. And getting to, you know, the sketch group, we did all kinds of different genres and it was a lot of fun. I think I just wanted to take, it was a long story, but I hadn't experienced working for a production company when I was really, really new to LA and

I wanted to move up, I wanted to work with the creator of the show and they were like, look man, that's not how it works here. You start at the bottom and then when there's an opening, you move up, you move up and then eventually if there's an opportunity, then you'll get that chance. And I was like, I don't wanna wait. I wanna create my own opportunities. I've always had like a little bit of an entrepreneurial streak in that way or maybe it's just impatience and not wanting to in lines. So I just, I got together with other people and wanted to make my own stuff.

I love it. you know, obviously comedy, people that know, they know comedy is all about timing and reading the audience, obviously. How do you find, that translate pretty good to reading people on the pickleball court?

That's funny. Well, I think like, you know, one of the great things about pickleball is you see like people's quirks come out. Like I love seeing quirks. I love seeing, and there's quirks on every level. Like from the way that somebody has their serve routine is like that's quirky to the way that they are with themselves after they miss a shot or make a shot. know, are somebody talking smack? they, all these things are so funny. How are they like,

speaker-3 (20:51.086)
Is somebody like coming to the court five minutes late like juggling three coffees, you know Or are they there like ready to warm up? All these things are really funny to notice and I don't know as far as if it helps me in terms of analysis I wish I was smarter with like reading my opponents. I think I maybe I would do better in tournaments, but I do like seeing how weird people are. Yeah

I love it. I'm a people watcher, airports, all that kind of stuff. I love to sit and the pickleball court is kind of like the malls used to be. You're gonna see every walk of life out there. The quirks are so interesting to me. And it does kind of leads me down paths of humor. Like, I could easily make fun of that. I could trash talk that, but that's my inner monologue that I don't always bring out on the court. So probably thankfully I wouldn't be invited back much.

the best

Yeah, so let's talk about dink different. Obviously, you know, on Apple there's think different. So I don't know if there's some intentionality there. Are you kind of trying to be like the Steve Jobs of pickleball?

Thank you for recognizing that. and I do have a mobile phone coming out that I've been working on. you can, I know, but that is where I got the inspiration from mostly because it just basically sounded the same and I kind of liked it. I always liked that tagline, think different. And I liked what it stood for. And I think too, it was aligned where Dink Different

speaker-3 (22:20.088)
came from for me because I was just sort of seeing what people were making online, like the pickleball videos. And I thought like, maybe these could be a little bit different for lack of a better word. maybe, maybe they seem a little bit the same. They seemed a little bit the same, but I also like in general, in terms of a frame of mind or a perspective on life, I think that it's always worth coming at the same things from a different angle.

what does it look like when you turn a thought or way of seeing things on its head or left to right or inside out, then what's true? know, I also, know, in between, there was a few years where I worked as a life coach and one of the things that you do there is you take, one of the ways that you work it is you take a belief of yours and then you flip it and you go, if this was true, then what? And just see what comes up. It doesn't mean necessarily that that's.

more accurate, but what would that reveal? That stuff always just is attractive to me, so I think that's kind of what the name is at least partly about.

like that. I like that. See, I mean, I'll brag for you. You got over 16,000 followers and you're making pickleball content in LA and that's obviously one of the hotspots, the most competitive content out there. So for you, what's working? Is it just the humor or what makes people hit follow?

No, think, well, first of all, don't 100 % know. I think there's always some amount of you don't know what's going on. But from what I see, it's a combo of funny stuff that people click follow for and helpful stuff that people click follow for. And then I would say like a third little bucket is, I would call it like culture. So if I'm talking about like, is the etiquette on the court? How do you?

speaker-3 (24:10.062)
stuff about like ball on and calling out and if you lost and now it's time to put the paddles back in the rack, don't run and sprint and beat the people there that just won the game. Give them the right of way. These kinds of things.

Their royalty now, I mean, really. They've just won.

Royalty for a minute. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they deserve it, you know? So I think that those things kind of also speak to people.

I think you're right. the comedy comes in sometimes from the regionality of pickleball too. Like you take someone from LA pickleball and put them in Texas pickleball, even in the summer, that's going to be a huge shift in dynamics there. And then likewise, if we take someone from Texas and put them in New York pickleball, there's going to be some dynamics there that will probably lend itself to comedy. So I bet you find a lot of that on the court. The comedy just comes naturally from the different characters that are out there.

Yeah, for sure. And usually, if something happens and it just makes me go like, then I'll make a little note in my phone and that'll be a half idea that maybe I could turn into something. Man, that regionality thing is so true though. it really, one of my goals is to be able to just travel more and play pickleball in different places, not only in the States, but internationally and get to see some of these.

speaker-3 (25:32.728)
cultural differences. was just in Minnesota for Thanksgiving and I was playing, you know, at an indoor court. And it was me and yes. And I had another person and then we asked, I asked two random people if they wanted to play. And the lady that I was with, she was like, we never, we would never ask anyone else to play like that. We only play with our set groups. That's, she had never in...

two or three years of playing pickleball. She'd never kind of just played with strangers like that. Oh, wow, that's so, that's interesting. Here, you know, I started at a park so that was more normal.

Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, let's talk about that. Then Plumber Park, you want to them a shout out in West Hollywood. Yeah. What makes them so special?

Yeah, Plumber Park in WeHo run by Tenacity and the City of West Hollywood. It was very open. It was, I just had like the sort of classic open play experience where I see people playing, I go, how do I do this? They go, this is how you do it. Come on this day, this time, this is how. And then, and I just showed up and was messing up, you know, left and right and missing everything. And people are going, it's okay, it's okay. You know, just keep trying. And...

You know, then like a month later, they go, hey, have you ever heard of this shot? It's called, you know, a third shot drop. You you could hit the ball, you know, kind of slow. You can hit it up actually, instead of just straight ahead as hard as you can. Whoa, whoa, that's so wild, you know? It's just a nice energy. It's good people who, I just always, felt welcome there and it was close to where I live and it just made me, I wanted to just keep coming back and then.

speaker-3 (27:12.68)
You just have this bizarre experience as an adult where all of a sudden you're making friends unexpectedly and with people that you wouldn't normally think are going to now become a part of your life. And I started experiencing that. And so, yeah, I just have kept coming back and now it's been three and a half years and now I teach there, I coach there and I still play there all the time. That's so awesome. know, I got a game at three today.

dang. nice. Yeah, I absolutely love that. There's so, I mean, there's some communities that are like pickleball. You the thing I equate it to that I understand is kind of like motorcycle riders. You you won't break down on the side of the road on a motorcycle and not have 18 bikes stop that see you and ask how they can help. And it's kind of like that in the pickleball court where, you know, everybody wants to surround you and everybody wants to be part of the community. And I think we, as so much of the world, if they don't have that in their life, then they're missing out.

because they don't have someone that puts their arms around them during the dark times or the down times, or can laugh and cry along with them. So yeah, that's one of the great things about pickleball for me.

It's unreal and I think that's the thing that we've got to preserve because pickleball does have this phenomenon of once you get a little better, all of a sudden you don't want to play with beginners anymore. so that, it's like we've just got to watch that and really continue to remember what our positive experience was like at the beginning and pass that on to other people, even if it feels annoying at first.

I, you know, especially, you know, I teach an intro, an intro to pickleball class every week, you know, so teaching people from zero. I've probably taught like a thousand people now how to play pickleball from zero. seeing, you know, adults, fully grown adults get all of a sudden that like when they hit the ball for the first time and it goes where they want it to go and they just like light up and laugh. Yeah. Is, you know, it's an amazing experience. You see with kids, but with adults, it becomes more rare and it's special.

speaker-1 (29:16.174)
Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. You see so many people have lost that spark, right? And when you can cause that spark on the court, you know you just lit a fire on somebody, you know? And then you're like, then you're attached to them too, just as they're attached to you. Because I remember my first intro court class and I still know the guy who I still play at the court and we talk every time because it was so impactful. And so I love that you're doing that for people and getting them into the sport and just kind of putting their arms around them and causing a spark inside them, especially as an adult.

It's really cool to see. It is special. There's an 87 year old guy also who plays and he just sent us an email and was saying, like, you know, he's asking about programming. He wants to sign up for all kinds of stuff he's saying because he's like, I feel dedicated to this. I want to improve. He even says like, I want to be respected on the court is what he's saying. And he goes, pickleball and you your programming over here in WeHo is, he goes, it's literally extending my life. wow.

You know, you get messages like that and it's like, whoa.

Yeah, all the terrible people that are out there and come and cross your life at some point, that kind of just erases it right then. It just illustrates, this is absolutely why I'm doing it for sure. Yeah. So five years from now, right? What does success look like for Dink Different, for Igor? What's going on in five years from now?

First of all, think success would be, you when I was talking about that travel, like if that would be part of the job, quote unquote, is going around. You know, I had this experience, I was on vacation with my girlfriend, we were in Copenhagen, and I, of course, what do do? You travel with your paddle, you gotta travel with your paddle. And you know, I'm in Denmark, and I managed to get on some Facebook group with 60 people and have it auto-translate into English, you know, and I find this open play.

speaker-3 (31:03.468)
And they call it, it was amazing, they called it American style open class.

So there's a bunch of hot dogs and fat people out there.

It was like, what they meant by it was like, cause over there if you wanna play pickleball you have to be part of a private club. wow. Like you need to pay a month, that's the only way they do it. So this was in a park on this like weird gravelly cement and this kid, he would come and literally chalk the lines. Nice. So the kitchen's all squiggly.

world style.

Yeah, there we go, there we go. But it was so cool, you know, that this kid, he's a college student, I call him a kid, but he's a college student, he studied abroad at Berkeley and then he brought back pickleball to Copenhagen and he started to teach his community and people are coming and he's chalking three courts and I was like, man, it was so cool to see, I'm talking to him and I was thinking, man, I would love to tell these kinds of stories, you so you you're saying five years from now.

speaker-3 (32:00.374)
Man, I've always liked, like I think I'm an okay actor, but I think I'm a pretty good, you know, what you're doing here, you're hosting. I like hosting. I would love to do that kind of a thing, to go around, to profile, to see the people who are, you know, really, really, really supporting and bringing pickleball to their communities, especially internationally, not just in America. I think that would be cool. Yeah, soccer, your days are numbered. That's right.

Overshadowing soccer for sure.

comment

It's over brother. is the last World Series Cup, brother. See don't even know the name.

Yeah, they're gonna score in a net or something like that. think they call it football get out of here

speaker-3 (32:37.591)
Yeah, start using your hands. They're fun.

I love it. So being the official ambassador, worldwide ambassador in crushing soccer.

But not just profiling it from that way. think also, we're talking about the characters of Pickleball and the weird moments, the weird people. That's also really fun for me. I love getting kooky with kooky people and seeing what is going on. So there's a show, Nathan for you. And if you've ever seen it, the show, the premise is, hey, I'm gonna help business owners with their business. But then he starts to burrow into their lives a little bit.

And I was thinking, that would be fun. That would be fun with Pickleball. So I think that would be nice. And then I think too, from like a media side, just shining a light on all the different sides of Pickleball, whether it's the local, the business-y side, the pro side, and just helping continue it to grow and being like a media brand in that. But that's not too stale and not, I don't like like...

There's some pickleball media things where they'll just post pickleball fights. Yeah, that's easy. weird, like that kind of a thing. Yeah, that's low barrier That isn't as interesting to me. Yeah. Maybe. I get that that gets views, that's, I don't know, it doesn't really speak to me. So I would wanna do other stuff like stuff that I'm kind of a nerd for. Yeah.

speaker-1 (34:03.298)
Maybe pickleball brand rescue around the world. Like the restaurant rescues and stuff like that where they get really involved. Like how bad do you suck? And then I'm gonna help you figure this out.

Put me in coach. Let's go.

Okay, let me let me ask this before we wrap up Robin Williams still with us right and we get him on a pickleball court What do you think his game would be like?

my God, his game would be complete chaos. Like he would be jumping around, he would be doing voices, noises. He would start mimicking everybody else on the court. You know, he would start mimicking the bird calls. he would be doing behind the backs. I don't think he would hit at one normal shot. Everything would be a tweener. It would be amazing.

I think so too. When I was doing the research, I thought about that. said, man, I got to ask him this because I have a vision of it myself. So, how's everybody going to find you, connect with you, and stay up with everything you're doing?

speaker-3 (34:59.36)
I think probably the best is Instagram. know, just find me DinkDifferentPickleball on Instagram. I'm on the others too, but I think, but right now that's where I'm, you know, really the most active and present. And, you know, I think probably more stuff to come, but for now that's where to find me.

Yeah, obviously with doing this, it's going to blow you up overnight. So I hope you're prepared for all the success that comes out of this.

said that that was kind of why I agreed to come on. You kind of pledged that as a promise.

I'm gonna guarantee right now three more followers for sure, for sure. You can take that to the bank. Igor, Ukraine Jim, thanks so much for being on the Big Dink Energy podcast, man. We love having you.

Okay, that'll work.

speaker-3 (35:43.63)
Thank you, thank you. Love what you're doing and I'm glad you're getting, I know you had James Ignatovich on recently and so now me. So I'm glad that you're having pro after pro after.

Yeah, the bar was there and then now it's up here with you. I don't know where we go from here. I think we've hit the pinnacle, but you know, we'll take a look.

Yep, I think you can probably just end it here.

Awesome. Thanks so much for being on. Thank you.

speaker-1 (36:14.008)
Yes to Just Pick Six is where we take one question, each bring two answers, and immediately regret agreeing to this segment, I can tell you that. So the question this week for Pick Six is this, things you can say in pickleball, but not to your partner or your spouse.

Next time, aim lower.

Don't come in the kitchen.

Yikes. I love when you give me a soft one right down the middle.

speaker-1 (36:47.03)
Yes.

That was softer than I expected.

He's a banger.

i can't wait to switch partners

speaker-1 (37:02.04)
Tell us what you think, let us know in the comments. Send us yours. What can you say in pickleball, but not to your...

my god, I love that.

speaker-3 (37:16.184)
News can use.

speaker-0 (37:21.57)
E

You don't have to pay extra for those sound effects folks.

Now he brought that into the new year just for you.

Right.

All right, so here's some news you can use. We'll see. When you hear Tesla, you probably think electric cars, not Nicola Tesla. It's named after times change. And now Tesla has entered a pickleball. They teamed up with Selkirk to release a Tesla branded pickleball paddle. It looks slick, very Tesla, very minimalist. But here's the catch.

speaker-1 (37:46.551)
Yes.

speaker-0 (37:57.962)
It's $350.

No. Immediately no.

Elon Semi

So unless this paddle parallel parks itself or comes with autopilot, I'm not sure I'm convinced to buy it. No, it's a cool collab. But I think the jury's still out on this.

you're just paying for

speaker-1 (38:16.658)
out for me. am going to get one. If someone knows Elon, shout them out. Let them know I need one of those paddles or sell Kirk. Get up in our DMs. Let me know how can get one of those.

Okay, both those companies are like really really cool and we're not

They know me. They know me.

We are not on their level.

They're like, yeah.

speaker-1 (38:36.302)
Is there a 1.5 out there we can send a paddle?

They're like all those paddles that we don't need. Yes send them to big decanter Those people don't care Yeah, so kind of cool. We'll see we'll see if guy ends up getting a paddle If you're out there and you have this paddle, please let us know

No.

speaker-1 (38:51.234)
Yep, I am pretty

speaker-2 (38:55.82)
I want to know if it is just a gimmick.

I wanna know. No way. Tesla really doesn't do anything gimmicky.

But I feel like you're

They don't. You're don't be a hater. You're listening to the noise.

You seen this?

speaker-0 (39:09.26)
I the cyber truck, I'm not a fan.

love the Cybertruck. You know why you don't love it? Because you haven't driven it.

I don't like it because I have control issues.

No,

I literally watched a video of a guy taking the cyber truck apart with just his hands.

speaker-1 (39:25.774)
Yeah, but you could, yeah, but sit in there and try to get shot. Not gonna happen. You're protected.

That's not always my worry ever

Can you drive through a puddle of mud without getting stuck? Yes. No, I want-

Beats Ferraris on the road

How do I get through Chick-fil-A? Can you fit through there?

speaker-2 (39:42.734)
You people, you're listening to the noise. listening to the noise. You're noise. you can't even pull a bass boat. Oh, Bully.

I'll get you a beach safari off-road too. I'm not

that you couldn't even pull basketball.

Take off a hind dog's leg.

Can you go get shit from Lowe's?

speaker-2 (39:59.843)
pound

speaker-1 (40:05.983)
are way into the weeds right now. We're talking about a self drive that paddle right over here, you know

Sorry. I'm sorry.

speaker-1 (40:13.208)
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 bdepodcast 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.

you

speaker-1 (40:49.678)
It's

speaker-3 (40:54.455)
You