Gherkin Draco Review: I haven't lost with this paddle yet

Gherkin just entered the gen 4 power game with their new Draco paddle. It features a gen 4 floating core, but the difference is they developed their own foam. Let's see how it plays.

Image via Gherkin

My name is Pickle Li. I'm a 5.0 pickleball player and reviewed over 35 paddles. I created MyPickleList, which does community driven paddle ratings, and there are currently over 700 ratings.

Caveats & Disclosures

Reminder: This is a first impressions review, not a full review. I played with this for a week straight but can't speak to long-term durability.

I'll be rating this paddle on my website MyPickleList at the end so stay tuned for that.

If you are interested in buying this or any Gherkin paddle, use code PICKLELI for a 10% off.

Shout out the Gherkin for sending this paddle over for the review.

Quick Specs Overview

The Gherkin Draco only comes in a hybrid shape. It is similar to some of the Honolulu paddles in terms of shape.

It features their Floating Piston Core construction which is a modified floating core design.

And like I mentioned, they developed their own Nanocellular Polymer Foam.

Long story short, Gherkin claims their new NCP foam is more powerful, stiffer, more durable, and less affected by humidity than older foams, giving better power and a more consistent feel.

With code PICKLELI you can get it for $162 when pre order releases on January 26th.

Their preorder special is that you can get a free g spot pro 2 which features the same core and foam which is pretty funny in my opinion. But yeah basically a free g spot trainer if you preorder it.

Also there is a 30 day trial period so you can return it if you don't like it.

My paddle weighed in at 7.97 oz. I did try it with additional weight. I will say the part I liked least about the paddle was the butt cap area. This may not affect most of you, but I am a flick weight user since I like having more weight on the handle. The thing is their buttcap area is raised and i could not do my normal setup since my flickweight couldn't really stick on there, I just added around 3gs to 4 and 8 o'clock. The weight after was 8.17oz.

Also, I do think the handle is a bit thicker than others, if you are sensitive to that.

Now let's get into how it plays.

On-Court First Impressions

Pop

So my initial reaction was that this paddle is very poppy, and that was my general thought for the first day of it. It was too bad to control, but the ball felt like it popped right off the face.

Compared to a RPM widebody, it was significant poppier and did not feel like the ball sunk into the paddle.

My general preference is I like softer paddles, not something too poppy, but I played decently well with it the first day.

Then when I hit it the next day, I realized it was significantly softer. I asked my friend as well and he agreed. It probably got softer over time when I was playing, but it just hit me more given my intial thoughts and hitting it again the next day.

I did see that Gherkin told the reviewers to give it at least 3 days to unlock it's full potential, and this is apparently expected by Gherkin.

After the break in, it feels softer off the face. Still on the poppier side overall, but not as instant as it was before.

Control & Feel

Before break in, it felt kind of poppy like a boomstik, but more dense compared to the hollow feel of the broomstick. Afterwards, I would say it has a slightly more poppy standard gen 4 feel.

In general. Most gen 4's other than the boomstik and like Inferno feel very similar. They are more solid and dense feeling and usually on the softer side compared to other power paddles. The Draco has that dense solid feel but with some extra pop off the face.

After adding my lead tape at 4 and 8, it didn't really make too much of a difference in my opinion. Maybe enlarged the sweetspot a bit if anything.

Overall it has an intuitive feel that makes it easy to play with.

Especially after breaking it in, I probably played some of my best pickleball with the paddle. My first day post break in, I felt like I didn't miss a drop the whole day. Maybe a couple were high, but in general, I was able to get a decent drop or drive everytime I hit a third or reset.

The next day had a bit more regression towards the mean, in terms of not missing, but for those two days, I didn't lose a match. Not the most scientific metric, but all I'm trying to say is that it allowed me to play pretty well.

I don't think it has crazy spin or anything, nor is the sweet spot way bigger than normal, but overall me to play my game well.

The only thing I will say is that due to the pop, some resets popped up higher than i'm used to, especially on the first day, but overall that is more drilling/getting used to the paddle.

Power

When I first hit the paddle pre break-in, it felt like it hit very hard, but it could be the pop influencing my perception. I feel like it got softer/less powerful once it broke in, which is fine, but I think overall I would put it in the mid tier power paddle category.

Definitely not as hard as a boomstik or quanta with a setup, probably closer to a Pro IV and probably a bit higher than the majority of gen 4 paddles.

Early Verdict

Now let me rate this on MyPickleList. MPL is a website I built that does community driven paddle ratings. The purpose is to be a quick and easy way to see how good a paddle is without having to watch youtube videos like this one. We currently have over 146 members and over 700 ratings, and it's only going to get better with more ratings so please join!

If you're in the atlanta area, you're in luck since we are currently giving $20 giftcards to Premier Racquet Sports if you rate and comment on 5 paddles. We had 29 out of the 100 people redeem them so far.

Back to the review. I really enjoyed this paddle more than I would have thought. The initial feel was very poppy which is not usually my preference, but once it broke in, I played very well with it. It has more pop than your average gen4 paddle, and it did what you would expect.

And currently it is only 162 with code PICKLELI + you can get a free g spot trainer. The paddle plays well in stock form and probably could play better with a specific setup. Unfortunately it had the butt cap thing that prevented me from easily trying my ideal setup.

Overall I will give the Gherkin Draco a 9/10.

This paddle is for you if you want a gen4 paddle for the durability, but like more pop. Most gen 4's are more solid, soft, and dense in my opinion, and the ones that aren't may be too poppy and powerful to some (for example the boomstik and inferno. If you are looking for something to bridge that gap, the Gherkin Draco is it.

Great Gen 4 paddle from Gherkin and it's a bit different than the others which is a nice switch up. I also appreciate choosing a hybrid shape instead of making elongated paddles like everyone else. Greta first time using a Gherkin Paddle, and excited for what they come out with in the future.

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Want to buy the Gherkin Draco? Get it here with code PICKLELI → (10% off)