Selkirk Luxx Control Air Review
Specs
Price: $249.99
Use code ADV-PBSTUDIO to receive a $30 digital gift card for your next order.
Thickness: 20mm
Core: Polymer
Face: Carbon fiber+paint grit
Shape:
S2
Epic
Invikta (I am reviewing the Invikta)
Handle: 5.35”
Grip: 4.25”
Weight: 7.8-8.1oz
Swing weight: 114
Twist weight: 5.75
Spin RPM: 1895
Warranty: Life time
As many of you may already know, the Luxx Control Air is the official release version of the 003 that will fall under the Selkirk line. Similar to what the Power Air was to the 002.
When I first started hitting the Control Air I immediately noticed how much more solid it felt than the 003. It didn’t have that tingy hollow feeling nearly as much. It feels more robust and solid than the 003 out of the box. The swing weight was higher at 114 compared to 105 on the 003 which is probably what contributes to the paddle feeling more robust.
My immediate thought was that the Luxx may just be a 003 with the weight shifted into more strategic locations to enhance pop and power. If you recall, the biggest complaint about the 003 was that it was too light and needed lead tape to add power and stability. Most people who played with one added lead and really enjoyed that setup.
So, my hunch is that the Control Air is not much more than a 003 that had lead on it.
I even tested this. I took my old 003 and added lead from the throat up the sides to get the swing weight to 114 and the paddles played very similar. Identical? No, I wouldn’t say so. However, it was similar enough that I don’t think I could have called one definitively better than another. I think it’s important to understand this to set expectations properly for the paddle. The 003 weighted up was a really solid paddle. So, having the Control Air be similar out of the box is a really good sign for the paddle.
Control:
Based on everything I’ve said, you can probably imagine I don’t have a lot of new information to present to you about the Control Air when it comes to control and power since it’s basically a modified 003.
I will say, after using so many power paddles this year I had forgotten how much easier something like this is to control. I felt like a reset machine on the court and doing a drop from the kitchen while my opponents were at the baseline were considerably easier compared to most paddles that I play with.
I just felt like i could get the ball to go where I wanted without having to be as conscious about my grip pressure. Which, is a really nice feature. With a lot of the power paddles you have to be really careful about how big of a swing you take or what your grip pressure is. With the Control Air, you have to think significantly less about those things.
Power
Now the flip side of that control is that as someone who has a hard time generating power, that was only exaggerated with the Control Air. I’m not going to pretend like you can’t generate any power. It’s more than a stock 003 out of the box, but if you come from a thermoformed paddle, you may be a bit disappointed in the power. The more frustrating area for me was counters at the kitchen line. Since it doesn’t have a ton of pop, I just felt like my opponent would consistently get the better of me in hand battles.
A lot of peoples paddles expectations is based around what they have already. If you come from a softer paddle like a Vatic Prism Flash, you probably won’t be too concerned with the power of the Control Air. However, if you play with something like a CRBN1X, you may find that it’s a really large change and that it lacks power. So, anytime you watch a review, try and remember the context of the paddle you’re coming from.
Sweet spot:
The twist weight of the Control Air is still fairly low, coming in at 5.75. While overall it feels much improved out of the box compared to the 003, I still felt that the edges of the paddle were more jarring than I would prefer. Whenever there’s an edgeless paddle, you can usually expect the sweet spot isn’t going to perform as well as one with an edge guard because of that perimeter weighting.
I doin’t think it has a bad sweet spot, but thermoformed paddles have truly spoiled us when it comes to sweet spots. The energy return of those paddles is so much better than most non thermoformed paddles on the market.
As you can probably guess based on my sweet spot comments, I think this paddle needs lead tape still. Which, in some regards is a bit disappointing. With the swing weight being increased about 10 points, it doesn’t give you as much room to experiment with lead. You still have a fair amount to mess with, just not as much as the 003.
I decided to use my exact same lead tape setup on the Luxx and found that my complaints for the sweet spot pretty much went away. But with how many people didn’t want to add lead to the 003, I wonder how many will do it on a paddle that has a higher swing weight out of the box.
The lead setup that I applied to the Control Air (pictured is the 003, but I tried it on the Control Air as well)
After adding this lead, my paddle went up to a 7.19 twist weight a 119 swing weight. So the twist weight got a significant bump, and the swing weight also went up quite a bit, but it’s still not unmanageable. While I prefer something in the 114 swing weight, I would rather use the Luxx with this lead to make the paddle more stable overall than have that faster hand speed.
Now, I want to add context to be clear. I’m not saying the Luxx Control Air has a bad sweet spot. In fact, it’s MUCH improved from the 003, but I still think it could be better. If I were to use this paddle, I would be using it anticipating that I’m a right sided defense player trying to setup my partner. So, in that context I would want the paddle to be more stable.
Most people will find it a huge upgrade for the sweet spot from the 003.
Spin:
While the RPMs of mine were very solid at 1900, they are still using a paint grit on the Control Air. As far as I can tell, durability does not seem to be improved significantly. If you watch the video review you’ll hear from one of my testers who really enjoyed the Luxx. We recorded his talking section a few weeks ago and I asked him while writing this review how the grit was holding up, he said he still feels he can generate plenty of RPMs, but he did say the sweet spot area grit was wearing down.
I don’t think this is a surprise to anyone, paint grit has never lasted a significant amount of time. If you’ve used a Power Air or 003 in the past, you can likely expect a similar longevity here. Also, keep in mind that my friend is a 5.0+ player and is going to wear down the grit faster than the average player.
Closing thoughts:
The Control Air is a good paddle, but it’s good in the same way that the 003 was good once you added a lot of lead tape to it.
So, I suppose that the Control Air is better for the masses because they may not feel it needs the lead as much as the 003 did. So, less people will have to customize it to make it usable out of the box.
However, if you own a 003 and already have a good lead tape setup, I really don’t know if you’d feel this is a big upgrade.
At first I was disappointed that the Control Air wasn’t more different, but I had to realize that the 003 was a really nice paddle once you added lead to it, and that’s effectively what Selkirk did to the Control Air. I think the only thing they could have made better was the sweet spot, but when it comes to edgeless paddles I just don’t know how good you can actually make the sweet spot without adding a lot of weight around the perimeter which may make it heavier than what most people want or expect for an edgeless paddle.
This paddle is for people who:
Love dropping and resets
Can generate their own power (or don’t care about power)
Don’t mind the higher price
It’s not for you if:
You can’t generate your own power
You like to play aggressive
You generally like power paddles
This paddle is not going to be for people who can’t generate their own power, like to play aggressive, or if you are very budget conscious. While the Control Air is an awesome control paddle, you also have to consider that you could get nearly 3 Vatic Prism Flashes which would last longer for the grit and is also a fantastic control paddle. I would also mention that if you REALLY enjoyed how fast the 003 felt in the hand, be prepared for the Control Air to feel heavier. A near 10 point increase from the 003 is very noticeable and may not be something that everyone appreciates.