Hi guys,
I’m really excited to make this review. I just finished a two hour training session with my new DHS Hurricane King acB blade. I’ve attached some images below. I’m going to share my thoughts on the blade and give some comparisons, particularly to Viscaria and W968 Letters. My FH rubber is DHS Hurricane 3 Neo Provincial Blue Sponge and my BH rubber is DHS Hurricane 3 Neo Provincial Orange Sponge (both rubbers boosted two layers Haifu Seamoon)
First Impressions
My first feeling when doing standard warmup with my training partner was that it was fast, but very controlled. Definitely more controlled than my previous blade the Viscaria. It was hard for me to miss with this blade in warmup.
Forehand
This blade is excellent to play on the forehand. Not as good as my old W968 letters but better than my Viscaria. It feels like it sits in the middle of these two blades. This is due to the inner koto structure, where it provides some kick but control when needed. Topspin was so fun to play with this blade and I felt like anytime I played the FH topspin I would win the point easily.
Backhand
I thought I would struggle with BH initially, since I used a H3 on BH before on a Super Viscaria before and hated it. This couldn’t be more untrue on the acB. It was very easy to create spin on my BH with this blade and speed wasn’t totally a problem either. It also blocks pretty decently too. It’s not as good as Viscaria but it’s pretty close in my opinion. I have a philosophy in which DHS on the BH can only pair with DHS blades. Playing BH to BH rallies was exceptional and I could barely miss.
Short Game and Flicks
I think this blade is equal in short game to the W968 Letters, which is strange considering it’s Limba vs Koto. Nevertheless this blade was extremely easy to control in the short game, much easier than Viscaria. Touching and pushing around the net was a piece of cake and flicks were easy as well, both banana flick and forehand flick.
Counters
Countering is pretty okay with this blade, but you need to time it quite well in my opinion. If you do, and put full force into the shot, you can have a deadly counter topspin, but if you don’t, it’s very easy for your opponent to return.
Blocks
I actually thought blocking wasn’t hard at all. Even with a Hurricane 3 both sides, blocking felt very similar to a Viscaria. It was far easier to block with the acB than W968. You still need to have some movement during your block so that it doesn’t drop into the net, but you can do this less compared to W968. Still not as good as Viscaria in this area however.
Conclusion
Overall, this is probably one of the best balanced blades out there, and in my opinion might be one of the closest blades we can get to a W968 FH and control and Viscaria BH and blocking. For a blade cheaper than the usual DHS and Butterly blade, this might be one of the biggest steals ever. I’d recommend this blade to intermediates and above who loves to attack with topspin with some mixes of blocks and wants some more control compared to Viscaria. I don’t think a beginner should play with this as it’s still pretty quick, but if you have solid foundations then this blade is great as the next step up from your typical beginner and all wood blades.
