First Hurricane attempt

[Jan_]

Sorry mate, but its you should look carefully videos you send. I saw that test.

Look p3 4:07 where blogger talks about hf nat black. When he add even more black booster h3 becomes even softer, but still not like others boosters. So blogger still needs to add a lot of effort to play with h3.


If you just open first video, checked table sheet and see “very hard feeling” near black booster it doesn’t mean that booster makes sponge harder. It means that after one black booster soft touch feeling remains hard compared to other boosters.

Otherwise using you logic after reboosting with the black booster sponge should become even harder. But its not.
So black booster makes sponge softer but not so much like other boosters do.

And of course this test are subjective without using durometer numbers. If tester used durometer - there would not be so much misunderstandings.

It expands the sponge so it lowers the density and makes it softer, again, I thought that was obvious enough?

The rubber still remains hard, much harder than the other boosters, and when playing it feels even harder. So what are you on about?

 

[Jslick89]

Hey @SleepyMaster . I switched from tenergy to H3N a little less than a year ago. when i first got my hurricane, i tried it unboosted for several weeks. it was a lot of fun. then i boosted with two layers of seamoon and it was VERY FUN. i played with that rubber for like 6 months before i boosted it again and it was like a brand new rubber feeling. i guess what i'm saying is you cant really go wrong with your experimenting...but eventually you will find the booster magic and love it.

one word of warning...when you boost the first time, the rubber expands. in my case, i had to recut the rubber to get it to fit my paddle. and then the third time....i was hard to reglue on my paddle because i couldnt line it back up perfectly lol. but maybe you will be better at it than me. cheers.

 

[turbozed]

I've only boosted rubber with Haifu Seamoon and baby oil.

Every boosted sheet resulted in a softer sponge as tested with a Shore O durometer, anywhere from 1 degree to 3 degrees (3 degrees was a Loki Rxton 5 with several layers of baby oil).

For an expanded sponge to be somehow harder than unexpanded, the pressure from the air bubbles would have to be stronger than the sponge itself. Not sure how that actually works with a permeable sponge.

I've always assumed that the effect of boosting was just to put the top sheet into a pre-tensioned state to aid in rebound. Means you have to put in less energy to get your rubber to a fully stretched state. So you go from like 10% to 100% instead of starting from 0%.

Whether that makes a huge difference will probably depend on the power and technique of the player.

For competition purposes it seems like some pre-tension should allow you to make better quality shots while remaining mobile. Using more power makes recovery more difficult.

The sweet spot seems to be finding the right amount of pretension that doesn't affect the short game where the negatives outweigh the benefits. Given how pro players have incredible touch and feeling, they can probably get away with extremely boosted rubbers (whether from the factory or from the bottle).

So whether we as amateurs decide to go with a lot of pre tension or not depends on what we want to focus on improving. Tension rubbers will maybe make us lazy when it comes to footwork and proper stroke mechanics. Dead rubbers might make us lazier about developing soft touches and feeling (similar to how some people decide to use pips to avoid thinking about receive as much).

A good thought experiment would be whether it would be a good idea to train using unboosted Chinese to learn strokes and tension to learn short touch. Of course switching equipment will mess some people up pretty bad. But when the player then ends up playing something like boosted H3, both power shots and short game would feel like easy mode compared to their training.

 

[Master Capybara]

It expands the sponge so it lowers the density and makes it softer, again, I thought that was obvious enough?

The rubber still remains hard, much harder than the other boosters, and when playing it feels even harder. So what are you on about?

Same happened first time also.
First booster layers also expand sponge and make it softer. Not harder.
All boosters in the list make sponge softer. Someone just a little bit, someone a lot.
But there are no boosters that with first layers make sponge harder and when reboosting make sponge softer.
Lets stop this discussion where it is unless someone provides tests with durometer.
I have one, and I have couple types of boosters, but have no hf black to measure and give an objective proof.

One thing I need to mention is that boosters can NOT influence on tackiness of the topsheet. We can find in the videos that blogger said some boosters increase tackiness. And this is also wrong impression

 

[Jan_]

Same happened first time also.
First booster layers also expand sponge and make it softer. Not harder.
All boosters in the list make sponge softer. Someone just a little bit, someone a lot.
But there are no boosters that with first layers make sponge harder and when reboosting make sponge softer.
Lets stop this discussion where it is unless someone provides tests with durometer.
I have one, and I have couple types of boosters, but have no hf black to measure and give an objective proof.

One thing I need to mention is that boosters can NOT influence on tackiness of the topsheet. We can find in the videos that blogger said some boosters increase tackiness. And this is also wrong impression

I don't think you understood what I said... The sponge just remains harder than other boosters and the effect made, makes the sponge feel more dull, or hard for lack of a better word. We're saying the same thing at this point.

 

[Wrighty67]

I don't think you understood what I said... The sponge just remains harder than other boosters and the effect made, makes the sponge feel more dull, or hard for lack of a better word. We're saying the same thing at this point.

To be fair that is not how I understood what you said either. In your first post you stated : "Black hardens the rubber even more than it already is" which is very different from saying it "remains" harder as you are saying now.

 

[Jan_]

To be fair that is not how I understood what you said either. In your first post you stated : "Black hardens the rubber even more than it already is" which is very different from saying it "remains" harder as you are saying now.

It makes it feel even harder, that's what most people say.

 

[Wrighty67]

It makes it feel even harder, that's what most people say.

No - your first statement clearly said that the booster makes the rubber harder than without the booster (which is not correct) but now you are saying that the rubber doesn't soften as much as the with the other boosters - two very different things.

 

[Jan_]

No - your first statement clearly said that the booster makes the rubber harder than without the booster (which is not correct) but now you are saying that the rubber doesn't soften as much as the with the other boosters - two very different things.

You know what I mean. The rubber feels harder and becomes hard to play.

I'm done with this, we're going in circles.

 

[SleepyMaster]

🌚

 

[JJ Ng]

🌚

TT11 fixed your order?

 

[SleepyMaster]

TT11 fixed your order?

It was a NovaPoshta delivery error (shipping service that tt11 cooperating with for Ukraine delivery) - but we figured out it together. I met a girl that got my order - luckily she was from Kyiv also and working in the office near the cafe that I own. So we met there - drinking some coffee and changing our packages with additional laughing about such things that happens.

Btw I already boosted Hurricane with two layers yesterday - it curled a lot. Waiting till the end of the day and will glue it to the Bty Ovtcharov alc 🫡

 

[Lazer]

It was a NovaPoshta delivery error (shipping service that tt11 cooperating with for Ukraine delivery) - but we figured out it together. I met a girl that got my order - luckily she was from Kyiv also and working in the office near the cafe that I own. So we met there - drinking some coffee and changing our packages with additional laughing about such things that happens.

Btw I already boosted Hurricane with two layers yesterday - it curled a lot. Waiting till the end of the day and will glue it to the Bty Ovtcharov alc 🫡

Most likely it will take longer if You expect it two uncurl 😉
For me it takes over a week, so I say to hell with it, just glue anyway and put it under pressure…

Also when testing, don’t expect it feel great the first session it needs a little breaking in time.

Cheers
L-zr

 

[dingyibvs]

It was a NovaPoshta delivery error (shipping service that tt11 cooperating with for Ukraine delivery) - but we figured out it together. I met a girl that got my order - luckily she was from Kyiv also and working in the office near the cafe that I own. So we met there - drinking some coffee and changing our packages with additional laughing about such things that happens.

Btw I already boosted Hurricane with two layers yesterday - it curled a lot. Waiting till the end of the day and will glue it to the Bty Ovtcharov alc 🫡

Every video I've watched of top Chinese players talking about boosting they glue it fairly soon after they finish boosting, so should be good timing! I had a very different experience with D09c boosted with FTL though, gluing it up the next night every backspin I tried to loop went into the net, while the H3N BS played great.

 

[dingyibvs]

Without booster the touch and control is incredible. If you can't hit into the sponge you're probably just too weak. 39 degrees NEO sponge is not going to be difficult to hit into.

I don't think I've been accused of being too weak before lol. It's mostly a matter of technique anyway, and if you think unboosted H3N BS of any degree can be regularly hit into in a match situation then you probably aren't playing at a high enough of a level.

Unboosted H3 is really primarily a western construct. Only very low level players in China play with unboosted H3, basically people who don't glue their own rubbers. If you buy rackets from enthusiast websites/sources in China e.g. QSB or Yin Hang they even boost it for you by default. It's not that it's unplayable unboosted, it has great touch and spin on brush loops is amazing. It just doesn't promote the right technique of hitting into the sponge because you can't.

If you want to play a consistency game of just keeping the ball on the table, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that and can get you very, very far in the amateur space, then unboosted H3 is perfectly fine. @SleepyMaster seems to aim to practice a lot and continuously improve his game in every respect, however, so I would suggest something that wouldn't limit him.

 

[SleepyMaster]

Most likely it will take longer if You expect it two uncurl 😉
For me it takes over a week, so I say to hell with it, just glue anyway and put it under pressure…

Also when testing, don’t expect it feel great the first session it needs a little breaking in time.

Cheers
L-zr

I will not be waiting until it uncurl. Just will wait about 12-20 hours after adding a second layer as @Master Capybara suggest me

 

[Master Capybara]

Yeah, there is no sense to wait uncurl. Because we need to get tension on topsheet so uncurl sheet should be glued.
If you have no sealing on the racket surface it will be fine without putting weight over.
Depends on amount of booster you can get a curved (just a little) edge of rubber. But its also totally fine. You can see that effect on chinese player’s rackets during matches on closeups. Like at this picture you can see bending of the edges and it totally ok

 

[Jslick89]

Yeah, there is no sense to wait uncurl. Because we need to get tension on topsheet so uncurl sheet should be glued.
If you have no sealing on the racket surface it will be fine without putting weight over.
Depends on amount of booster you can get a curved (just a little) edge of rubber. But its also totally fine. You can see that effect on chinese player’s rackets during matches on closeups. Like at this picture you can see bending of the edges and it totally ok View attachment 31412

are you boosting your H3N before you glue it on the blade for the first time? I have a couple H3N Prov BS that ive been waiting to use. i dont nkow if i should go straight to the booster or try for a couple weeks without the booster like i did with my OS commercial H3N.

 

[claregreen]

Today got my first Hurricane Neo 39 blue sponge at third year of training.

I have a few questions: to boost or not to boost and on what blade forehand is better to attach it? Inner or outer composition? I have used outer with D09c for a last year plus minus.

So the variants can be Ovtcharov alc/Lin-Gaoyuan alc/ Viscaria or FZD SALC 🤓

Congratulations on getting your first Hurricane Neo 39 blue sponge! Deciding whether to boost it or not depends on your preference for speed and spin. Boosting can enhance the sponge’s performance, making it faster and spinnier, but it also changes the feel and requires careful application.

As for the blade, since you've been using an outer composition blade with D09c, switching to an inner composition might give you a different feel with more control and dwell time. However, sticking with an outer composition like the Viscaria or Ovtcharov ALC will provide a more direct and faster response, which pairs well with the Hurricane’s tacky surface. The FZD SALC could offer a balanced feel between speed and control due to its special ALC fiber placement. Ultimately, it depends on whether you prioritize speed and power (outer composition) or control and spin (inner composition).

 

[SleepyMaster]

Yeah, there is no sense to wait uncurl. Because we need to get tension on topsheet so uncurl sheet should be glued.
If you have no sealing on the racket surface it will be fine without putting weight over.
Depends on amount of booster you can get a curved (just a little) edge of rubber. But its also totally fine. You can see that effect on chinese player’s rackets during matches on closeups. Like at this picture you can see bending of the edges and it totally ok View attachment 31412

I have glued the rubber - it was not so easy considering me doing it for the first time - so it’s looked not so fancy as it can be probably.

I did serving a bit - it was very easy to serve short. Will trying it out fully tomorrow in the training hall 🫡

The rubber looks like