From Big Waves to Small Paddles: How Brett Lickle is Redefining Pickleball

 

 

Pickleball Spotlight: Brett Lickle, Founder of PKOLL

Maui waterman, innovator, and founder of PKOLL paddles is on a mission to SHAKE UP the status quo…one game-changing paddle at a time.

Maui—I met Brett Lickle the way you meet the best people…at the pickleball court.

During a visit to Maui, I stopped by a local court and was introduced to Brett. Within minutes, he had generously donated a few of his PKOLL paddles, and even a PKOLL backpack for our ambassador team to test and review. No hesitation whatsoever.

A former professional windsurfer and pioneer in big wave riding, kitesurfing, and foil sports, Brett brings that same restless creativity to pickleball. What began as a reluctant game with his daughter quickly turned into a daily obsession and a deep dive into paddle design and innovation.

He started PKOLL, a brand that’s challenging norms with small, high-performance paddles designed to move faster, hit harder, and essentially “school” the competition.

Without further ado, please meet Brett Lickle!

 

Brett (R) with his doubles partner, Rick Kepler, after winning Gold at the ESPN Honolulu Tournament (Apr 2025) in the Semi-Pro 4.5 (55+) division

 

Where did you grow up and what brought you to Maui?

I grew up in Wilmington Delaware. I moved to Maui Hawaii in 1984 to pursue a career as a professional wind surfer. From there, surfing took over my life and I started to pursue riding the biggest waves in the world. I was a member of the strapped team where we put “Jaws” on the map as the best big wave in the world. I was intricately involved in the birth of kitesurfing, hydrofoil surfing and wingfoiling.

How did you discover pickleball?

I discovered pickleball when my daughter’s boyfriend’s grandfather came back from War Memorial, where the State had set up a net with a bag of balls and paddles for anyone to play.

He kept telling Kelson Lau and Skylar Lickle, “You gotta come play pickleball. It’s incredible.” And the kids said, “No, Grandpa, we don’t wanna play pickleball.”

Then one day, they went down—and when they did, they both loved it. They came back to the house and said, “Dad! You gotta go play pickleball with us.” And I said, “I ain’t playing no pickleball. I don’t like pickleball. It’s a stupid name.”

I continued to resist for more than a month until one evening my daughter said, “Please, Dad, just come play pickleball with us.” I played my first game of pickleball and declared it the best paddle sport in the world.

From there, I was obsessed. That’s my company slogan: THE ADDICTION IS REAL.

How often do you play?

I play seven days a week sometimes twice a day, three hours at a time…I am completely and totally obsessed with the game.

What do you love most about pickleball?

What I love the most about pickleball is the camaraderie and the open play…meeting new people and experiencing each different person‘s game and their strategies of how to play pickleball. Everyone’s game is kind of different. And that’s what I love about pickleball…it’s like playing chess. It takes a lifetime to master.

What inspired you to start PKOLL?

The thing that inspired me to start my own paddle company was I was confused on why no paddles were 17 inches long and still to this day, you can’t find a paddle that’s 17 inches long.

When you have a paddle that’s 17 inches long, it gives the player more reach so for shorter people it’s a no-brainer.

PKOLL paddles are smaller than most and stand out right away — what was the thinking behind the design?

So I was obsessed with the 17 seven formula. I was cutting down paddles and then adding length to get the paddles up to 17 inches. Which made it so the width had to be 7” to be under that 24 inches pickleball formula. So, my paddles ended up being 17 x 7.

At the same time I was working with playing with all kinds of different paddles. I was buying kids paddles. I was making kids paddles with long handles. I was doing all kinds of cool things, when I came across the Franklin trainer paddle. I played the Franklin trainer paddle and instantly fell in love with it, and realized there was this incredible dynamic to it that no other paddle had.

The only problem was it was it wasn’t 17 inches long and it wasn’t USAPA Tournament approved. So I couldn’t play a tournament with it and I said, “hell, I gotta build a paddle that I can play with in a tournament”.

So I played with the Franklin trainer for about three months while I started looking for manufacturers in the USA and China. In the end, the attention to detail in the China company won and PKOLL paddles was born.

Meanwhile, I was playing with the Franklin trainer paddle and just was schooling people. The kinetic formula on my paddles = the smaller the surface area, the more velocity.

So, if you bring the size of the paddle down, it moves through the air faster, and to me that only made sense. And when I thought about it and I looked at what people were manufacturing, I felt like everyone was just following the same mold that everyone else was because that’s what pickleball had been—it was a square paddle and had a certain amount of size to it…and no one had even thought about playing smaller paddles.

So PKOLL LLC was born and I started producing the PKOLL Spoon from there.

What kind of feedback have you gotten from players?

I saw that people were just kind of still in that doubting place so I started producing larger models.

The next model we designed was the Quiet.

The Spoon came in at 17” x 6“ wide and the Quiet came in at 17 inches long by 6 1/2 inches wide.

The next paddle was the Touch. It came in 17 inches long and it was 6 3/4 inches wide.

Then the biggest paddle we make is called the Biggie and it’s 17 by 7 inches. Our motto at PKOLL is none of our paddles will be over 7 inches wide.

I’d like to say the Biggie is the trainer paddle for the small paddle so it’s kind of the opposite of what people have been thinking in the industry.

People will play a trainer, thinking it’s gonna make them better with the bigger paddles. I like to say my trainers, the Biggie, the Touch or the Quiet are training paddles to teach you how to play with the Spoon. The Spoon is the only paddle I play with. It’s my go-to tournament paddle.

I’ve got a couple people in the same category as me over on the mainland…they just love the Spoon. It’s a paddle that you have to learn not to blame the paddle and to realize that when you miss a shot with the smaller paddle or with a Spoon, you probably would’ve missed the shot with your other paddle.

Also, there’s not many people out there that are playing error free so having that less size or the smaller paddle blade really helps to move that paddle through the air, whether it’s in firefights or whether you’re trying to just whip a ball. With the 17 inch length and the 7 inch handle it really allows you to whip the ball like no other paddle out there.

And we like to say the paddle face on a PKOLL paddle is all sweet spot.

The PKOLL Spoon2; photo courtesy of Troy Lau Photography

What’s been the biggest challenge in launching and growing a paddle brand?

I think the biggest challenge with launching a paddle brand has been dealing with the USAPA and all the testing and all these things there they’re trying to implement into the sport of pickleball.

I really agree they need to control the top end of these paddles so that we can keep it as a user-friendly game—where you can go out with grandma and play the five-year-old with out scaring them out of the sport.

It’s really hard for the little paddle companies to compete with the big boys. We don’t have the machines and all the testing equipment that a company like Selkirk has. As for the future of pickleball, we believe that people will be playing smaller paddles and that eventually every pro out there’s gonna be under 7 inches. They might not be at 6” like the Spoon, but they’re gonna at least be under 7” wide.

Have you always been entrepreneurial, or was this your first time starting something from scratch?

I have always been an entrepreneurial person. I have six or seven patents to my name, but I’m a player more than anything. So it’s really hard for me to spend the time to grow the company.

I worked in the industry with mountain board sports and designed their brake system that they still use. I launched together a company called Surfball, which was a balance trainer, which is similar to a bongo board or a voodoo board.

Yeah, I’m constantly trying to fix or grow whatever sport I play, whether it’s surfing, windsurfing, kitesurfing, wingfoiling or foilboarding, I have been a important part of the development of those sports.

PKOLL Paddles; photo courtesy of Troy Lau Photography

How are you hoping to connect with the broader pickleball community? Any upcoming plans?

We’re hoping to connect with the pickleball community by doing an event September 4 -7 called the PKOLL open at the Lahaina Tennis Ranch. It’s a four day event; mens, womens, and mixed, and should be a lot of fun.

Our goal is to have it be more of a festival kind of environment where everyone comes to have fun. There are cash prizes and money to be made and trophies. We spent some time putting together our trophies for the moneyball games and I think people are going to love them.

What’s next for PKOLL?

We are in the process of actually releasing our newest and smallest paddle the Baby Spoon which comes in at 15 inches long by 5 1/2 inches wide on the blade. This paddle is incredible as a trainer or tournament paddle if you really wanna challenge yourself.

We are also in the process of putting together a quiet paddle called the PKOLL Zero and this paddle will be like no other paddle on the market. It is zero noise so hopefully those people that have been struggling to play where courts have been shut down will be able to reintroduce the quiet side of the sport to their local community. This will open up the doors for everyone to be able to play pickleball everywhere.

If someone is curious about trying a PKOLL paddle, what would you want them to know before they pick it up?

I think the best thing you could do is start with the bigger models and and then work your way down. If you play at the 4.0, 5.0 and above level, you can pick up any of the PKOLL paddles and school people right away.

Remember—don’t blame the paddle.

The addiction is real, and remember…we are a revolution and we are here to change the game of pickleball one player at a time.

Read our ambassador team’s review of PKOLL paddles in the March 2025 issue of the magazine.