JOOLA Perseus Pro V vs Selkirk LABS Boomstik Raw Carbon: The 2026 Flagship Faceoff Every Malaysian Player Is Asking About
Ask ten YouTube pickleball reviewers which 2026 flagship they would put in a beginner-serious 4.0 player's hand and you will get one of two answers, delivered with a lot of certainty. The JOOLA Perseus Pro V or the Selkirk LABS Project Boomstik Raw Carbon. That is basically the entire debate on Pickleball Reviewer, ManVsDebt, PaddleFarm, and half of TikTok's paddle side right now.
Both are elongated, both are foam-forward, both sit in the top price tier of what actually reaches Malaysia in quantity. Both have UPA-A and USAP PBCoR .43 certifications. But they play like they were designed by two different engineering teams asked opposite questions - because they were. Here is the honest read on which one belongs in your bag, and which playstyle each one actually rewards.
The two paddles at a glance
JOOLA Perseus Pro V (Ben Johns, Blaze Red Global) - RM1,299, elongated shape, available in 14mm and 16mm. This is Ben Johns' signature Pro V generation, JOOLA's answer to the noise around the Pro IV. Rounded corners at the top of the paddle keep the sweet spot deep in the face while extending reach.
Selkirk LABS Project Boomstik Raw Carbon (Elongated) - RM1,053, elongated shape, 16mm. Selkirk's Labs paddles are the pro-only, small-batch line the brand uses to prove new ideas before they hit the retail Vanguard and Power Air ranges. The Boomstik is the loudest thing in that line - literally and figuratively.
Price gap is real. The Perseus Pro V is RM246 more expensive at Picklefox. If you were looking for the tell early, that is it: the Perseus is being sold as a refined instrument, the Boomstik as a weapon that happens to be legal.
Power and pop
On paper both paddles do everything. In the hand, the Boomstik is meaningfully more explosive. Reviewers who bench-test balls off the face at fixed swing speeds consistently see the Boomstik put up higher exit velocity than the Perseus Pro V, and it is not a rounding-error difference. It is the paddle that made "one-shot" a controversial word again in 2026 doubles.
The Perseus Pro V is intentionally the opposite move. JOOLA's whole pitch for the Pro V generation was to walk back some of the wildness of the Pro IV - the raw dwell-based power is still there, but it comes with more predictable feedback. If you hit a drive slightly off-centre with a Pro V, the ball still goes roughly where you meant it to. Do the same with a Boomstik and you might discover a new wall.
Spin
Both faces are Toray T700-grade raw carbon with modern grit treatments, and both will happily deliver 2,100+ RPM on a clean topspin drive in a hitting-machine test. In real play the differences are subtle. The Boomstik has a slight edge on slice and drop-slice, particularly on outdoor balls that get scuffed fast in Klang Valley heat. The Perseus is a hair more consistent on spin serves, because you can trust the contact point more.
If spin is the single spec you buy on, the Boomstik nudges ahead. But you would not be able to tell the two apart at 3.5 level or below. Above 4.0, the Boomstik's spin ceiling is genuinely higher.
Sweet spot and twist weight
This is where the two paddles diverge most, and where a lot of Malaysian buyers pick wrong.
The Boomstik has a wider effective sweet spot than most elongated paddles at its power level, thanks to a carefully engineered perimeter mass and the way its foam core distributes energy on off-centre hits. The twist weight is high for the class. That said, it is still an elongated paddle, and mishits toward the throat feel dead in a way the Perseus does not.
The Perseus Pro V wins on plush touch. Resets, dinks, and blocks feel more absorbed - it is the paddle you would rather have in a fifth-shot exchange at the kitchen line. If your win condition is out-controlling opponents and picking your spot on the counter, the Perseus is doing more work for you between shots.
Handle and shape
Both are elongated with roughly 5.5-inch handles - long enough for two-handed backhands, short enough that they do not feel like a badminton racket. The Perseus grip is JOOLA's now-standard sweat-wicking wrap, which holds up well in Malaysian humidity. The Boomstik ships with Selkirk's raw carbon-textured handle wrap that some players love and some overgrip immediately - and Selkirk explicitly does not include a paddle cover in the Labs range, which is worth budgeting for.
Shape-wise the two are close cousins. If you have played the Perseus Pro IV, the Pro V will feel like a slightly friendlier version of the same silhouette. The Boomstik feels a touch broader in the head and top-heavier at swing weight.
Which one actually suits Malaysian courts
Playing outdoors at Kepong Metropolitan or on hard courts in Petaling Jaya, the Boomstik's extra power is genuinely useful. Outdoor pickleballs in KL get scuffed and slow within a few sessions, and a paddle that generates its own pace helps compensate. The Perseus Pro V is our pick for indoor gym play - Wangsa Maju, TTDI, most of the KL Sports City courts - where the ball moves faster off the floor and control matters more than raw pop.
For humid conditions, both handles behave well but the Perseus's wrap is a slightly safer bet if you sweat a lot and do not want to re-overgrip every fortnight.
Who each paddle is for
Buy the Boomstik Raw Carbon if you are a 4.0+ player who already relies on drives, punches, and speed-ups to score. If your game is built around forcing your opponent into a mistake rather than waiting them out, this is the paddle that rewards you every time you swing hard.
Buy the JOOLA Perseus Pro V if you are a 3.5-to-4.5 player who wants a paddle that will forgive an average swing day and let you outlast opponents in longer rallies. It is the more universally usable of the two - less spectacular, more reliable, and the paddle we would recommend if you can only own one.
If neither of these is quite you
The Six Zero Black Opal at RM899 is the sensible middle path. It borrows the modern foam-core feel of both paddles at a friendlier price, has plenty of stock right now, and is the paddle we recommend most often to players stepping up from a beginner setup. We covered it in detail in our lead tape guide earlier this year if you want to squeeze more out of it.
The verdict
The Boomstik is the paddle of 2026 for players who want to hit harder. The Perseus Pro V is the paddle of 2026 for players who want to hit smarter. Both are excellent. Neither is wrong. But they are not interchangeable - and the one that wins your next tournament is almost certainly the one that matches how you already play, not the one you wish you played like.
Both paddles are in stock at Picklefox in Kuala Lumpur, with same-day dispatch on orders placed before 3pm on weekdays. The Perseus Pro V is available in 14mm and 16mm variants; the Boomstik Raw Carbon is the 16mm elongated. Ping us on WhatsApp if you want a demo swing before you commit.