11SIX24 Vapor Jelly Bean 2 Review: UPA-A, Not USAP

Updated October 7, 2026

Short version: the 11SIX24 Vapor Jelly Bean 2 is a $169.99 foam-core control paddle that launched on 21 August 2026, and the most consequential thing about it is not how it plays. It carries UPA-A approval and is not on the USA Pickleball approved list. For rec play that changes nothing. If you enter USA Pickleball–sanctioned tournaments, it settles the decision before you get to the spin numbers.

I have not played this paddle. What follows synthesizes published measurements from the PPA Tour’s Paddle Lab and from Pickleball Effect, specifications from 11SIX24’s own product pages, and durability testing published by Pickletip. Every figure below is attributed to whoever produced it, because on this paddle the labs do not agree with each other and the gap is the interesting part. Our full method is on how we evaluate gear.

Certification decides this one for a lot of buyers

UPA-A and USA Pickleball are two separate approval systems with separate lists, separate fees and separate testing. UPA-A’s own 2026 certification page states that UPA-A certification is required for all professional events at PPA and MLP, including the PPA Challenger Series, Pro Qualifiers, PPA Tour Asia, PPA Europe and the Australian events. The same page says of its amateur draws: “The amateur competition will accept the UPA-A certification standards, but it is not mandatory for play as long as the paddle has USAP certification and is currently on the USAP Approved Paddle List.”

Read that the other way around and you have the problem. Approval flows in one direction at a UPA event and not at all at a USA Pickleball one. A UPA-A stamp does not put a paddle on the USAP list, and USA Pickleball–sanctioned tournaments are governed by the USAP list.

11SIX24 lists the Vapor Jelly Bean 2 as UPA-A approved. Pickleball Effect’s lab page for the paddle tells readers to skip it if they “require USAP approval,” and Pickletip states plainly that the Jelly Bean 2 line is “UPA-A certified” but “not currently USA Pickleball approved.” Three sources, one answer.

One wrinkle worth knowing before you shop the rest of the brand’s 2026 range: 11SIX24’s Vapor Power 2 product page presents USA Pickleball approval as implied by UPA-A certification. It is not implied by it. Matt’s Pickleball lists all four Power 2 shapes as UPA-A only. If a tournament is the reason you are buying, check the paddle against the USAP list itself rather than a product page. Our 2026 guide to banned and decertified paddles covers how the two lists are maintained and how to check yours.

What the paddle actually is

The Jelly Bean 2 is a full-foam build, not a honeycomb core with foam walls. 11SIX24 specifies a 16mm EMA foam core it describes as soft and dense, under a face it calls HexGrit — a triple-layer CFC lay-up of Toray T700 carbon fiber and fiberglass. The PPA Paddle Lab records the core as “Full Foam (EMA + EVA + expanding foam)” with a grit-infused peel ply surface.

That is a different animal from the original Jelly Bean, which used a conventional three-layer carbon face over foam-reinforced walls. The line comes in four shapes — Hurache-X (elongated), Vapor (hybrid), Pegasus (widebody) and Ultré — all at $169.99, all with a 12-month defect warranty and a neoprene cover. This review is the Vapor, the hybrid.

The specs, and where the labs disagree

The spin figures are 237 RPM apart, about 11%. That is not one lab being wrong. These are third-party rigs run to their own protocols — different balls, different head speeds, different capture methods — and neither is USA Pickleball’s PaddleVision procedure, so the numbers are internally consistent and not interchangeable across sites. The useful move is to read each lab against its own field rather than against the other, and Pickleball Effect does that for you: it scores the paddle’s firepower at 46, the 27th percentile, and classifies it “Control +”.

Where the three sources converge is more decision-relevant than where they split. Twist weight lands at 6.66–6.73 on both benches, which is mid-pack stability — forgiving off-centre, not a wide-body safety net. Swing weight sits somewhere in the 116–120 band on measured figures, above the brand’s own 114–117 claim on one of the two rigs. And drive velocity is below average on both. If any of those terms are doing no work for you, our explainer on swing weight and twist weight is the shortest way in.

What those numbers mean at your level

A swing weight in the high 110s is moderate-to-high. It buys plunge-through on drives and stability on blocks and costs you speed in a hands battle — the same reason a 107 widebody feels quicker at the kitchen and vaguer on a reset. Pair that with below-average measured drive velocity and the paddle’s character is clear: it does not hand you pace, it asks you to supply it and then holds the ball long enough to place it.

At 4.7 the number I would weigh first here is not spin, it is the 6.7 twist weight. Spin ceilings mostly separate paddles at the top of a rally; twist weight decides whether a ball caught two inches off centre on a fast exchange comes back playable. 6.7 is fine, not a cushion, and it is the figure that would tell me whether this paddle survives the level of play I am actually in rather than the level in the marketing.

If control is the whole reason you are shopping, it is worth reading this against the field in our control paddle guide.

The durability claim, examined

11SIX24 sells HexGrit on the premise that its spin does not fade, and there is a published test behind it rather than only a marketing line. Pickletip ran 200 impacts and reported that measured RPM increased 3.4% across the run, against traditional raw carbon losing roughly a third of its starting spin. Pickleball Effect’s write-up agrees in direction, saying the Tier 1 HexGrit surface “does not wear off the way raw carbon does.”

Take it for what it is. That is one outlet, one paddle and 200 impacts, which is a session, not a season. It is a real result and it is not yet a durability record. What it does justify is treating grit longevity as a point in this paddle’s favour rather than as an unsupported claim — which is more than most surface-texture marketing earns. For context on how much face material really drives spin, see our piece on what “graphite” actually buys you.

Two alternatives worth the comparison

The original Vapor Jelly Bean, $99.99 — and USA Pickleball approved. Same hybrid shape, same 16mm platform in its older form: a three-layer CFC face of two raw Toray T700 carbon layers plus fiberglass over foam-reinforced walls, 8.0–8.3 oz, brand-quoted swing weight 114–117 and twist weight 7.0, with a longer 5.75-inch handle. You give up the full-foam core and the HexGrit surface, and with them some of the spin ceiling and the durability argument above. You get a paddle that is legal in sanctioned play and $70 cheaper. For anyone who plays USAP tournaments, that is not a compromise, it is the correct paddle. More at that price point in our under-$100 roundup.

The Pegasus Jelly Bean 2, $169.99 — same platform, faster hands. The widebody in the same line. Pickletip puts swing weights across the four Jelly Bean 2 shapes between 111.38 for the Pegasus and 121.08 for the Ultré, so choosing Pegasus over Vapor trades reach and plough-through for quickness and a bigger sweet spot. Same core, same face, same certification caveat — this swap solves shape, not legality.

If you want the brand’s feel with pace handed to you instead, the Power 2 line at $209.99 is the stiffer, crisper build — Pickletip describes the Jelly Bean 2 as soft, dense and muted with higher dwell against the Power 2’s more immediate rebound. Matt’s Pickleball measures the four Power 2 shapes between 107 and 115 swing weight and lists them all as UPA-A only, so it does not solve the certification question either. For a broader look at how two well-matched paddles diverge in practice, our Six Zero Coral vs Selkirk Omni comparison works through the same kind of trade.

Where to buy it

11SIX24 sells direct at 11six24.com at $169.99 with the cover included, which is the most reliable stock. Marketplace listings for the brand come and go, so it is worth checking current 11SIX24 Jelly Bean 2 listings on Amazon before paying full price. The older, USAP-approved original turns up there too — Jelly Bean listings on Amazon — and 11SIX24 has been discounting the Hurache-X original to $79.99 from $99.99 on its own store.

The verdict

Buy it if you play rec, club or UPA-sanctioned events, you want a control paddle that holds the ball rather than one that fires it, and you like the idea of a surface whose grit has at least one published test behind it. At $169.99 it is priced against the middle of the 2026 control market, not the top of it, and both benches that measured it agree it is a legitimate control paddle rather than a rebadged budget build.

Don’t buy this if any of these is you:

• You enter USA Pickleball–sanctioned tournaments. It is not on the USAP approved list. This is not a close call and no amount of on-court quality fixes it. Buy the $99.99 original instead.
• Your game is won in hands battles. Measured swing weight in the 116–120 band is not where quick exchanges are won; the Pegasus at about 111 is the in-line answer.
• You want power out of the box. 27th-percentile firepower on Pickleball Effect’s scale and below-average drive velocity on both benches. The Power 2 exists for this reason.
• $70 matters more to you than the spin ceiling. The original Jelly Bean is the same shape and family for $99.99, and it is the tournament-legal one.

The paddle is good. The list it is on is the thing to check first.

How we review gear — including how we get the paddles we test and what the money never touches — is documented in our review methodology.