A few comments.
I have heard that the national version is not as sticky and is softer than the commerical version. To me, that is kind of weird. I might as well spend that money on a tensor rubber. I have only bought commericial orange sponge H3 neo. I have not bought provincial or national version. So far I have been very happy with commercial H3 neo.
I have always boosted. I might have put a regular H3 (not neo) onto an old blade, not boosted. I did not like the feel of it at all.
I agree. If you are going to get hurricane, just boost it. You will not regret it. If you don't have a booster, borrow someone's booster at the club. Two layers are good enough. Three layers, the sponge warps up in a weird way. Give it 12-24 hours between applying the two layers.
100% I agree that you need to "break" in the hurricane rubber. The only way is to play it a couple times and the extreme tackiness will wear off. I can totally understand spreading the new ball powder to make it less tacky. But I rather just break it in naturally and get a feel of the rubber when it is new.
After breaking in, the surface of haurricane is still tackier than any other tensor rubbers (G-1, Rakza 7, Rakza X, Barracuda, etc.). I don't know why Japanese and European rubbers just have trouble creating that tackiness. Or maybe it is done intentionally because the players in their market are not used to tacky, sticky rubbers.
I grew up playing penhold and was using Sriver, before switching to Mark V, and then Friendship 729. Only a few years ago, I switched to shakehand. I started off with Tenergy on both sides and had a really hard time. Once I found H3 neo on the forehand side and G-1/C-1 on the backhand side, my problems resolved. I still do not understand why there is this obsession that Chinese rubbers are to be avoided because once you use it, you cannot go back. Isn't that a good thing? The way the forehand strokes are performed, it is just better with Chinese rubber, whether you are European-built or Asian-built. Many Korea players are now using hurricane on their forehand side. Many European players are now using Dignics 09c which is supposedly tacky. I just think everyone should give chinese rubber a try on the forehand side and figures it out for himself/herself.
I am now in the stage of pealing off old hurricane that was boosted and putting them on some old paddles I had. Honestly, I still feel the booster's effect months if not a year or so later. Maybe the neo sponge itself was factory boosted already. I really do not feel the booster's effects wearing off a couple months later. I have a couple blades with Mark V rubbers on them (I bought some Mark V for old time's sake) and trust me, H3 neo a few months later or a year later still has more catapult effects than the good, old Mark V.
Finally today earlier in the club, I just tried Sanwei National Target rubber with blue sponge on it. First day. Not boosted. It played really well from the get go. I was surprised because the surface is very tacky as well. Somehow the Sanwei National Target did NOT need to be broken in; it just came out of the package playing like a broken into Hurricane 3 Neo. I was totally confused. But I guess that is why you try different rubbers and try to find out what you like and what you don't like. I also installed hurricane 3 neo, new, boosted, onto an older DHS Bo Carbon blade. Yeah, it was totally dead today, new, after peeling off the plastic layer. So I went back to playing with the Sanwei National Target rubber ad had a lot of fun with it. I will break in the H3 neo on the Bo Carbon blade later this week or next month. I have time but I don't have THAT MUCH time. I have been using a 5-ply wood blade for a couple years now. I am now in the middle of putting my current set-up on Tibhar Fortino performance carbon, DHS Bo Carbon and Donic Waldner Senso Carbon with H3 neo on the forehand side in a quest to find a bit more speed. Today's experience with Sanwei National Target rubber on my regular 5-ply wood blade just messed up that experiment. I will have to put that experiment on hold for now. But long story short, if you don't plan on boosting your hurricane, then spend that money on the Sanwei National Target rubber instead. I don't care it is $10 more expensive. You don't have a booster and time is money anyway.
