On November 10, Selkirk launches the Boomstik ST at $350 — the follow-up to the $333 Project Boomstik, the paddle that made full-foam cores the center of the power-paddle conversation. The ST is a genuinely interesting paddle, and this post isn't going to pretend otherwise.
It's also built on the same core idea as our H-BLITZ: a full foam core instead of a polymer honeycomb. Same category. Same 16mm thickness. Same elongated shape, near enough. One costs $350. The other costs $99.90.
So what does the extra $250.10 actually buy? We compared the published specs — Selkirk's and ours — line by line. Everything below is drawn from the manufacturers' own product pages, checked on November 8, 2026. Where a number is a manufacturer's own claim rather than a shared measurement standard, we say so.
First, an honesty note
The two foams are not the same material, and we won't claim they are. Selkirk's core is its proprietary PureFoam™, fused with an EVA power ring. Ours is SXD microcellular foam, a foam we developed specifically for pickleball and padel, built as one uniform core with no ring and no honeycomb anywhere inside. Different recipes, different construction details — the same structural idea: foam all the way through, so there are no honeycomb cells to crush, delaminate, or go dead in patches.
Neither paddle in this comparison has been play-tested by us against the other — the ST isn't on sale yet. This is a specs and construction comparison, not a review. Anyone who tells you they've done a definitive on-court shootout with a paddle that launches Tuesday is selling you something.
The core story
Honeycomb cores earned their place, but they have known failure modes: cells crush under repeated impact, faces can delaminate, and the response changes as the paddle ages. Full-foam cores exist to answer exactly that.
- Boomstik ST: a 16mm PureFoam core surrounded by an EVA power ring, fused together. Selkirk says this delivers its signature explosive power with no core crush and no break-in period.
- H-BLITZ: a 16mm SXD microcellular foam core in a single uniform piece. One material, one response across the face — no glued cell walls, nothing to crush unevenly.
Two engineering routes to the same destination: a core that hits the same in month six as it did on day one.
Spec by spec
| Selkirk Boomstik ST | HUDEF H-BLITZ | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $350.00 | $99.90 |
| Core | 16mm PureFoam™ BoomCore™ with EVA power ring | 16mm HUDEF SXD Microcellular Foam Core |
| Core construction | Full foam, fused ring design | Full foam, one uniform core |
| Face | T700 carbon fiber (Multistrata) | T700 carbon fiber |
| Surface texture | InfiniGrit® Ultra | Zircon grit infused in the resin |
| Shape | Elongated or Widebody | Elongated |
| Length × width (Elongated) | 16.5" × 7.45" | 16.5" × 7.4" |
| Weight | 8.0–8.3 oz (avg) | 8.0 ± 0.2 oz |
| Handle length | 5.8" (Elongated) | 5.5" |
| Grip circumference | 4.25" | 4-1/8" |
| Swing weight | Not in Selkirk's published tech specs† | 116 |
| Tuning | Adjustable MOI weights (7.5g, removable by hand) | Decorative weight strips included for fine-tuning |
| USA Pickleball Approved | Yes | Yes |
| Warranty | Limited lifetime warranty | 30-day returns |
†Selkirk's published tech specs for the ST (checked November 8, 2026) do not list a swing weight. The 118 figure sometimes quoted for a Boomstik Elongated belongs to the original Project Boomstik (Selkirk's published 118 ± 2), not the ST, so it is not used here.
Read the table and a pattern emerges: on the fundamentals — core category, core thickness, face material, shape, weight class, tournament approval — the two paddles sit in the same place. The differences are in the extras, the tuning philosophy, and the price.
Where the Boomstik ST genuinely gives you more
A fair comparison has to name these, because they're real:
- Limited lifetime warranty. Selkirk stands behind the ST for the life of the paddle. We offer 30-day returns. If warranty length is your top priority, that's a legitimate point in Selkirk's column.
- Adjustable MOI Tuning System. The ST's 7.5g perimeter weights come off and go back on by hand, so you can change the paddle's balance and swing weight on the spot. It's a clever system.
- Sharktooth Groove Technology. A perimeter groove Selkirk says improves dwell, spin, and reset consistency. Selkirk also publishes a measured dwell time of 0.001729 seconds for the ST — their own lab figure, not an independent one, but they publish it.
- Two shapes. Elongated and Widebody. The H-BLITZ comes in elongated only.
- Selkirk's scale. A big brand, a big retail network, and a sponsored-pro roster. For some buyers, that ecosystem is worth money.
Where they're level — and where they're tuned differently
The ST is a power flagship. Selkirk calls the original "the Power Paddle of the Year," and the ST leans further into maximum pop. The H-BLITZ is tuned for balanced pop with control — power that stays composed, with a softer, more uniform feel across the face. Those are different targets, and neither is a spec-sheet win. If you want the hardest-hitting paddle Selkirk knows how to build, the ST is aimed at you. If you want full-foam consistency with a calmer hand at the kitchen line, that's the H-BLITZ's brief.
On spin, both brands made the same bet: texture that lasts. Selkirk's InfiniGrit Ultra claims 4× the friction and 2× the grit durability of its previous InfiniGrit (Selkirk's figures, against its own earlier surface). Our zircon grit is infused into the carbon fiber resin itself rather than sprayed on top — texture that's part of the face, designed to hold up because there's no coating to wear through. Different methods, same goal: spin that doesn't fade in a month.
The $250.10 question
$350 buys the ST. $99.90 buys the H-BLITZ — about 3.5 times less. Put differently: three H-BLITZ paddles cost $299.70, which is still $50.30 less than one Boomstik ST.
So the honest question isn't "which paddle is better?" in the abstract. It's this: are the ST's extras — the lifetime warranty, the hand-adjustable weights, the groove, the second shape, the badge — worth $250.10 to you, on top of the same full-foam foundation? For some players, yes, and they should buy it with our respect. Selkirk builds excellent paddles.
But if what you actually want is the thing both paddles are built on — a 16mm full-foam core that can't crush, a T700 carbon face with durable grit, an elongated tournament-approved paddle in the 8-ounce class — that thing costs $99.90. It did before the ST had a launch date, and it still does the week the ST arrives.
Full foam is the future of paddle cores. It just doesn't have to cost $350.
Shop the H-BLITZ — $99.90, free US shipping
Data sources & testing methodology
Comparisons are only as honest as their sources, so here is exactly where every number in this post comes from. We keep three kinds of data separate, and we never mix them in the same comparison.
1. Manufacturer specifications. Price, dimensions, weight, core and face materials, and approval status are taken from each brand's own product pages — selkirk.com and hudefsport.com — checked on November 8, 2026. One note: Selkirk's own pages differ slightly on the ST's average weight (8.0–8.3 oz on the ST overview page, 8.0–8.2 oz on the product page). We use 8.0–8.3 oz. Tournament approval is stated per USA Pickleball's official approved paddle list and each brand's product page.
2. Manufacturer performance claims. Some figures come from a brand's own internal testing — for example, Selkirk's published InfiniGrit Ultra friction and durability multipliers and its 0.001729-second dwell time for the ST. These are labeled as that brand's own claims wherever they appear. They were not produced under a shared standard, so we do not set them against the other paddle's numbers.
3. Independent third-party tests. Where reviewers or labs have measured a paddle — for example, JustPaddles' Paddle Lab figures for the ST Elongated (40.40 mph exit velocity and 1,675 RPM under its own protocol) — we attribute the figure to them and note the configuration tested. No equivalent H-BLITZ measurement exists under those protocols yet, so those figures stand as records of the ST only and are not compared against the H-BLITZ anywhere in this post. A third-party measurement and a manufacturer's nominal specification can both be accurate and still differ: sample variation, installed weights, grip state, and measurement method all move the result. Until both paddles are measured under one protocol, by one lab, with the same balls and setup, we won't declare a winner on measured performance — and we'd be skeptical of anyone who does.
Specs and prices per the manufacturers' product pages (selkirk.com and hudefsport.com), checked November 8, 2026. The Boomstik ST launches November 10, 2026. Selkirk performance figures (friction, durability, dwell time) are Selkirk's own published claims. HUDEF is not affiliated with Selkirk Sport. Boomstik, PureFoam, InfiniGrit, and Sharktooth are trademarks of Selkirk Sport.
