What is your equipment journey?

[joshmak10]

Before you mentioned you stop playing becaouse of school. So you keep playing

I basically stopped playing. I don't train anymore. I just play when I can. Which is still not often.

 

[victormanriquey]

Uf this is a good Q haha the 90% comment was indeed great 😂

For me I started with a tibhar iv balsa straight blade and 729fx and super fx, didnt like the blade at all and changed to stiga all round with same rubbers, did some vega europe and vega pro months here and there too, but mostly it was stiga + friendship.

Then decided I was a pro (read: I sucked badly) and went for the best blade of course, Viscaria + Hurricanes, which was way too fast of course 😂

From there I tried many things (some very stupid, some less stupid xD) in between but then played a fair amount of violin/acoustic + boosted hurricane and 8-80.

Then I moved on to DHS blades with WCQ and started experimenting with hybrids on BH, things like Dignics 09c, where I always had a love hate relationship, then more DHS blades, also some yasaka cameos with rakza Z and ma lin/YSE to try, then still DHS with all hurricanes that I could try back then, and then nowadays the tests you all know about.

Recently my finger injury got worse and I changed my grip a bit more towards BH and I'm still experimenting on the best blade for that. Im liking Ovtcharov S2 (this one the most nowadays) and Harimoto ALC and TP ligna basalt inner flared so far, but Im sure as I keep trying stuff I may find something better, so for next months Im experimenting on the blade. And ill keep B2X with tape for now to keep testing on same blade.

Rubbers for FH im fixed to H3N provincial BS 39 and backhand I still experiment, Im in the dignics 09c corner in any case, so I go back on forth with D09c, Dynamic, Helix Hybrid, soon testing J2 and so forth. I also liked HY-Q 48 and MK hybrid, they play different but also fun, but for competition likely something like D09c.

Now that was a wall of text hahaha

 

[RPB Enthusiast]

No particular order
Blades: Premade bat, Stiga Intensity NCT, Ma Lin Extra Offensive, DHS PG15, DHS Hurricane Hao III, DHS Hurricane Hao III, Stiga Dynasty Carbon, DHS Hurricane Long 5x, DHS Hurricane Long 5 Golden, DHS W968, DHS 301, BTY Zhang Jike ALC, NEXY Custom Blades, Donic Zhang Jike Original Carbon, Stiga Cybershape Clipper, Fan Zhendong Super ALC, Superman Super A1, Superman Super S1, DHS N301, Felix Lebrun Hyper Carbon, Viscaria Super ALC

FH: VICTAS Triple Double Extra, DHS Hurricane 3, DHS Hurricane 3 Neo Provincial BS, DHS Hurricane 3 National BS, DHS Skyline 3, DHS Skyline 3 BS, 729 Battle II Provincial BS, 729 National BS, DHS Hurricane 8, BTY Zyre-03, BTY Tenergy 05 Hard, Donic Bluegrip D1, DHS Skyline 2, DHS Skyline 2 Blue Sponge, JOOLA Trinity Charged, Nittaku Moristo SP, Daweii 388D-1, BTY Feing Long II, VICTAS Spectol S2, VICTAS V0>102, VICTAS Spectol S3

BH: Nittaku Fastarc G-1, BTY Rozena, DHS H3N 40°, DHS H3N 37°, DHS H3 37°, DHS H3N BS 38°, BTY Zyre-03, Stiga Helix Platinum 55°, DHS H8-20, DHS H8-80, DHS H8 37°, DHS H3N National 37°, BTY Tenergy 05 Hard, Donic Bluegrip J1, Donic Bluegrip D1, JOOLA Trinity Dynamic, JOOLA Trinity Charged

*Short Pips and Long Pips can be either Forehand or Backhand since I was using SP on forehand only and one point LP and SP*

I might be missing some stuff, but yeah lol. Overall I should've just stuck with Stiga Intensity NCT (until I got much better, then move to DHS N301 aka listen to my buddie's girlfriend's brother because he told me I should stay with it as well as the buddy that gifted me the setup since it was my 1st custom blade), DHS on forehand and DHS/BTY on backhand. Kinda disgusted in myself with how much equipment I've tried out, but I can say some of the blades felt much worse than other ones of same brand I bought (EX: Hurricane Hao III I'm using now feels much worse than when I bought it 1st time in 2024 or 2025?).

 

[Faker]

No particular order
Blades: Premade bat, Stiga Intensity NCT, Ma Lin Extra Offensive, DHS PG15, DHS Hurricane Hao III, DHS Hurricane Hao III, Stiga Dynasty Carbon, DHS Hurricane Long 5x, DHS Hurricane Long 5 Golden, DHS W968, DHS 301, BTY Zhang Jike ALC, NEXY Custom Blades, Donic Zhang Jike Original Carbon, Stiga Cybershape Clipper, Fan Zhendong Super ALC, Superman Super A1, Superman Super S1, DHS N301, Felix Lebrun Hyper Carbon, Viscaria Super ALC

FH: VICTAS Triple Double Extra, DHS Hurricane 3, DHS Hurricane 3 Neo Provincial BS, DHS Hurricane 3 National BS, DHS Skyline 3, DHS Skyline 3 BS, 729 Battle II Provincial BS, 729 National BS, DHS Hurricane 8, BTY Zyre-03, BTY Tenergy 05 Hard, Donic Bluegrip D1, DHS Skyline 2, DHS Skyline 2 Blue Sponge, JOOLA Trinity Charged, Nittaku Moristo SP, Daweii 388D-1, BTY Feing Long II, VICTAS Spectol S2, VICTAS V0>102, VICTAS Spectol S3

BH: Nittaku Fastarc G-1, BTY Rozena, DHS H3N 40°, DHS H3N 37°, DHS H3 37°, DHS H3N BS 38°, BTY Zyre-03, Stiga Helix Platinum 55°, DHS H8-20, DHS H8-80, DHS H8 37°, DHS H3N National 37°, BTY Tenergy 05 Hard, Donic Bluegrip J1, Donic Bluegrip D1, JOOLA Trinity Dynamic, JOOLA Trinity Charged

*Short Pips and Long Pips can be either Forehand or Backhand since I was using SP on forehand only and one point LP and SP*

I might be missing some stuff, but yeah lol. Overall I should've just stuck with Stiga Intensity NCT (until I got much better, then move to DHS N301 aka listen to my buddie's girlfriend's brother because he told me I should stay with it as well as the buddy that gifted me the setup since it was my 1st custom blade), DHS on forehand and DHS/BTY on backhand. Kinda disgusted in myself with how much equipment I've tried out, but I can say some of the blades felt much worse than other ones of same brand I bought (EX: Hurricane Hao III I'm using now feels much worse than when I bought it 1st time in 2024 or 2025?).

How was the super S1 and Super A1?

 

[greenbeanmachine]

High school:
- premade Butterfly Dan Seemiller bat (AN) + Wakaba both sides. God I miss that bat, so sad it got discontinued
- upgraded to Ma Lin Extra Offensive (FL) + H3 + H3
Used Seemiller grip cuz it felt like Western grip from tennis

College: played tennis and squash, forgot about ping pong for a while

Grad school:
tried Seemiller grip again
- Ma Lin Extra Offensive (FL) + H3 + Rasanter R45

switched to jpen cuz it's more natural than Seemiller
- premade Butterfly Nakama (jpen) + Sriver
- Darker Speed 90 (jpen) + Tenergy 05 --> Hurricane 3 --> Skyline 2 (Chinese rubber feels so good on hinoki)

switched to cpen cuz apparently I have a wicked RPB loop:
- Nittaku Miyabi (cpen) + Skyline 2 + H3
- Ma Lin Extra Offensive (cpen) + Skyline 2 + Skyline 2
- Stiga Rosewood V (cpen) + Skyline 2 + Skyline 2
- Dynasty Carbon (cpen) + Xuperman + Skyline 2

switched to short pips / long pips cpen with twiddle and RPB
- Ma Lin Extra Offensive (cpen) + 802-40 + Skyline 2
- Clipper (cpen) + Spinpips + H3
- Ma Lin Extra Offensive + Dawei 388D-1 + H3

back to inverted cpen
- Stiga Rosewood V (cpen) + Skyline 2 + Skyline 2

started playing squash again, muscle memory transfers nicely to chopping in TT:
- Xiom Allround S (FL) + H3 + Dawei 388D-1 (junk I threw together as an experiment)
- Diode (ST) + Arthur China + Curl P1V
- Zebrawood Defensive (FL) + H3 + Feint Long II --> Feint Long III --> Spinpips D3

now I've got a DHS 08x FL, probably gonna put Xuperman and maybe Curl P3aV on it. We'll see how it goes

 

[Federal_Agent]

Nittaku Violin [rozena + rozena];

Cybershape wood [ H3 BS nacional + tenergy19] [H3 BS + Dig05] ,

Cybershape Carbon [H3 BS nacional + Tenergy19] ;

TMXi Pro [H3 BS nacional + H8-80 provincial];

Viscaria Super ALC [Xuperman powerplay-X + V22] [H3 BS nacional + V22];

Viscaria [H3 BS nacional + V22] [H3 BS nacional + tenergy19] [Zyre03 + V22] [Zyre03 + Tenergy19].

Today:
Primary Master = Viscaria 94g - fore Zyre03 + back Tenergy19;
Backup = Viscaria 93g + Zyre03 + V22 double extra.

 

[zwin]

2023: donic schildkrot appelgren 300 (got this from my brother, no grip, literally after some time the rubbers and sponge turned into hard rocks on some sections and it had cracks in it (like droughts).
2024: stiga magic (could never find this racket on google cuz it never existed apparently)
2025-late: Terrasphere ts-500, had two sides of double dragon top energy, a step up but still very bad.
late 2025-early 2026: DHS H3 Neo star edition (XP version) BS (fh) on that stiga magic racket, played nicely??? using speed glue on it made it even better (shh)
mid-2026 - now: DHS PG5X [729 Battle 2 Provincial BS 38 deg (FH) + DHS Hurricane 3-50 37 deg (BH)]

 

[RPB Enthusiast]

How was the super S1 and Super A1?

Super A1 I used short pips and H3N 37°. It had decent power, but it was nothing special. FZD and Viscaria Super ALC felt much better and stronger than Xuperman Super ALC.

Super S1 I had Xuperman Powerplay-Xb 41° and Xuperman Powerplay-Xr 38°. I felt like the 38° lacked power, but the 41° it had good spin. The ZLC for the Xuperman blade lacked more power for me than ALC on other brands. I had triedy buddies BTY Zhang Jike Super ZLC with Tenergy 05 and that felt good, but I was using it on shakehand and my shakehand is not good like penhold, but I would prefer BTY ZLC over Xuperman ZLC.

Both Xuperman blades were cheap, but they took almost a month to ship to me, especially since it looked like they would get to me earlier in the US since it was stuck in one of the states for a while.