Review: Nittaku vs Provincial Neo Hurricane 3

Hurricane 3 has always been my favorite forehand rubber and while I have always been a believer in the provincial version (H3-P), the Nittaku version (H3-N) caught my eye.  I've seen some posts online comparing the two but now that I've had a few months to compare both of them (on the same blade) I'll now share my findings.

H3-N is marketed as a Japanese sponge with the same H3 topsheet but I find this hard to believe.  Apart from being slightly less tacky, I also found that the H3-N topsheet had a glisten to it and you could see the pimples underneath while the H3-P had no shine at all and therefore didn't look as nice through general wear.  H3-P was also more sensitive in that blemishes such as natural oils from your fingers or table related injuries would be much more apparent.  

H3-N is noticeably lighter than other H3's.  Uncut (4 sides) it weighs 62g.  My 38 degrees H3-P (6 sides) weighed 65g.  To put it into perspective, H3-N weights less than Fastarc G1 and Tenergy 80 FX (which is on the lighter end of the Tenergy spectrum) which weight 65g each uncut.

I glued both rubbers on the same blade to decrease variance in my highly scientific press test where I do a hard press on the rubber on different sections of the bat to arrive at a conclusion.  My H3-P felt harder but not by much.  H3-N did seem more elastic, however.  As most people would say, I'd agree H3-N falls into the 37 degrees hardness category but I wouldn't disagree if you called it 37.5 (not that such a rating exists) or 38.

At the end of the day, you're dealing with very similar rubbers and both share the H3 traditional properties like good short game, high arc loop, strong serves, etc. so I'm just going to highlight the two key differences I observed.  The first one is that H3-N is a notch slower which I would attribute to the softer sponge.  The second was that I had to exert a lot more effort into looping backspin balls with H3-N.  You need a faster, heavier blade or a really good stroke with H3-N.

For consistency purposes I am comparing playing both versions on a Stiga Super Carbon WRB blade.  H3-N was put on the lighter blade (84g opposed to 87g) but I personally don't think this would have made a huge difference.  My thoughts are you need to put it on a fast blade - 7 plies and upwards of 90g to get some good power out of it though I can't confirm as I haven't tried.  I briefly played H3-N on my 5-ply Eternity VPS (89g) but the lack of power was very apparent so I switched back to H3-P (38).  I'm looking at trying 39 degrees next.  I do not boost at all.

For mere mortal Hurricane enthusiasts, I still think the provincial version is king.  It has more speed, spin and ages better.  I thought I had found a cheaper alternative in the H3-N when I first opened it up but was proven wrong after a few weeks of playing.  I found H3-P to be a more reliable and consistent rubber and much better at producing potent shots than H3-N.  I had to rely more on placement with H3-N as opposed to loop kills. 

Who will like H3-N?  Players who like Chinese rubbers and complain about the weight may appreciate it. Fans of Euro/Jap rubbers will be disappointed with the speed.  Making the transition from Euro/Jap to Chinese will depend on your level but Yinhe's Big Dipper fits the bill better.  Developing players who hate the dead feel of commercial H3 may also find this to be a suitable upgrade too. 

Hope this helps or you at least found it interesting.

Happy table tennis.

For me personally, the specific sponge hardness control alone makes Provincial H3neo more worthwhile to use than Nittaku H3neo.  Provincial gives you a choice of 41,40,39, and 38 degrees specified on the packaging and the sponge.  Nittaku's sponge is stamped 39+/- 2 degrees.  

For anyone in need of sponge hardness consistency, Nittaku H3neo is a poor choice.  

@tom: yea the nittaku h3 pro (reg) does curl up. user grandpa posted the same results in another thread. however, reg h3 doesn't get much benefit from boosting. it makes it better but still lacking compared to boosted neo. they're really meant to be speed glued.