This is a good question to pose to petermoo. He is a high level player who prefers S1 to S1 Turbo and who has no use for Bluefire, M1-3.

I think it's a matter of preference but speaking from a business perspective, yes, Donic will sell far less Acudas with the introduction of Bluefire. 

Bluefire is Bluefire, and Acuda is Acuda... not everyone prefers Bluefire over Acuda... Majority of equipment enthusiast might favor Bluefire, but the other percentage of the Donic fan database would still use Acuda, baracuda, and the older lines of Donic... i think the older lines would have to discontinue first before the Acuda series gets in line... One question is when would a M1 Turbo come out! :)

I tried the S1 you sold me and would say that its harder to use the rubber for on-the-rise strokes compared to S1T, maybe because of the throw angle or the dwell time, or maybe because its just not for my style of play... I just guess different strokes need different equipment. 

 

I love M3 on the forehand side, but my backhand has always been more of a slappy full-arm bang shot.  I prefer S3 on the backhand because it has more low-speed bounce - M3 on the BH side requires more effort, and I'm used to softer, bouncier rubbers.

 

There are at least three RC2000 players around here who exhibit the same predilection.

I tried s1 red 1.5 years back and the durability was really bad - is it better now?

I feel that M1 has better spin & performance than S1 on slower strokes & opening loops. S1' spin feels better for higher hand speeds and faster games. 

S1's throw is also more consistent (in soft strokes vs hard strokes). M1's throw seems to be higher for harder strokes and that takes some getting used to (though T05 users shall find it easier to switch).

No wonder that some of the better players gravitate towards S1.

Hmm, it could have donic baracuda instead acuda :)

I am one of those who prefer Acuda S1 over S1 turbo.

I find the turbo to be a bit too heavy and even though it has a better catapult than S1, I found the mat, non grippy surface did not assist my serving at all, even though on the flipside, It produced good spin in loop drives and is the easiest rubber I have ever used in the lifting heavy backspin department. (almost too easy).

Acuda S1 is harder than Turbo which is more of a medium rubber.

I found that as I improved as a player, I gravitated more towards harder sponges and whereas medium is probably more preferable to most people, I love the solid linear feel of the Acuda.

Now on to the greater question of the Acuda series, especially in the light of the emerging Bluefire series.

Its no secret that I have never been a great fan of the tenergy rubbers. I find that they are too heavy, certainly for two sided use (like Bluefire).

Indeed I find the Bluefires to play almost exactly like the tenergy maybe with M1 being a little faster and M2 a little slower but still very similar. I prefer the trajectory and kick of the Acudas over the tenergy and Bluefire and I have not found a rubber that creates more havoc in serving than Acuda S1 (in black).

Choice of a rubber is not a simple matter of choosing the rubber with more spin and more speed. I remember back in the day when there were several rubbers faster and spinner than sriver L and yet if you did a list of the top 20 players back in the 80's they were all using sriver.

Today the same thing is true of the Hurricanes.

But more on that later....

Petermoo

Thanks Petermoo,

A question for you on harder sponges:

It is no secret that many European players use boosted Tenergies.

Is it also true that many European pros use Tenergy with harder sponge than the one that normally comes on T05?

Also, I did not find the S1 to be much lighter: my S1 max was 68g uncut & only about 1g lighter than my T05 when cut to my Butterfly blade (S1: 48g vs T05: 49g. That T05 has shrunk to 46g now).

Are the S1s you use much lighter?

Most of the players who I personally know are in the lower divisions of European TT. I do not have direct knowledge of the real pros.

All the players that i know use the standard off the shelf tenergy along with booster. (And a few do not boost at all)

I have seen Tenergy without the packaging in China with harder sponge and a lot of chinese or Japanese writing on the back of it. I take it, these are customized sponge hardnesses.

Once, I sat next to Liu Gouzheng and he took out a regular sheet of sriver and put it on his bat right next to me. There was nothing special about it at all!

On the other hand, I once got a used sheet of Bryce from a Chinese national player (again with chinese characters on the sponge) and the sponge was rock hard.

I do not have the benefit of a scale, right now,but I can guarantee you that my S1 is at least 10% lighter that any sheet of Tenergy I've seen.

Petermoo

Thanks,