Tuesday, November 07, 2006

DHS Cloud & Fog 3 Long Pimple rubber review

Well I've had a hit with this one before, and was again quite impressed. The pimples are very soft, quite long, and well spaced out. They are also very grippy. The sponge (1.0mm) is also quite soft.

These parameters is pretty much ideal for long pimple effect such as whobble, since the pimples bend so much.

Blocking again almost any type of spin produced good whobble balls, and cause many opponents to mis-hit the ball. The balls appeared to be floaters with a small degree of spin. Blocking against loops was quite easy and consistant, an open bat face with a slight forward movement produces best results. For heavy topspin the blade needs to be closed a little more.

Chopping away from the table gave good control, but only average spin reversal. Since this is grippy pimple rubber this is to be expected. This long pimpled rubber is fairly fast, so there is some trade- off between control and speed. The 1.0mm sponge would make it faster than the more commonly used 0.5/0.6mm as well.

Attack against backspin was easy and very effective. Chopping with a sidespin action produce very awkward results, once again very effective. Hitting was quite good too, since the grippy surface at leats offered some grip, which allowed you to produce a bit of topspin, providing some control.

Pushing against backspin still allows you to keep the ball if you brush the ball, since the sides of the pimples offer decent grip for some spin.

In conclusion, the is a high quality long pimple rubber, and if you have the skill to control it's VERY effective both for attack and defence. It is certainly not the easiest to control, but if you've tried a few long pimpled rubber and have gained some good experience, and are after something with more of the 'long pimpled' effects, this is worth a try, especially with the cheaper price tag than the japanese / euro options. I probably suits attacking/blocking style players more than defenders/choppers, but it's quite effective for both styles.

NOTE: I used this on an LKT XF balsa blade, which is around OFF and fairly rigid.

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