It's a win win for me if I want to play BW2 again- the old ones are now 15 and 20 dollars and the new one is 30. BW3 still 90 though....

 

hey no problem. I'll probably do a full review compared to the old BW2, I played it long enough that i still remember it well. Granted it might be better to buy one of the older versions also since they are cheap. I can get a new one and an old one and still spend 25 dollars less than one sheet of tenergy. Or I could get two new ones and still spend 15 dollars less than a sheet of tenergy.

 

I'm sick of the differences along the cycle of a tuning job, and I don't like NEO. I was thinking of either starting to just super prime my rubber and see how that goes... or go back to BW2. And now that i've seen this, I'm thinking I'm going to give BW2 another shot. At least that way I won't have to mess around with my racket for a while, because BW2 is just fast enough all the time, as is Hammond X... which I don't know why more people aren't using this rubber also..

 

My only complaint about BW2 ever was the fact that the topsheet seemed to not last, but I have a sheet of BW3 that seems to tell me otherwise.. so maybe it's fixed by now.

 

Either way, I'll let you know how it goes.

 

I find it kind of ironic, because it's no where near the most expensive rubber out there with both BWIII and Shark III at $90/piece.  Compared to them, Tenergy is a bargain.

 

The rubber prices I really find absurd are under the "special rubbers" section of prott.cc.

I don't think you got the memo, Anton, but actually Timo Boll rubs each new Tenergy 05 sheet off the factory line against his tummy for extra luck. You can't put a price on luck.

Hmm...hmm. Hmm. HMM. Sounds good enough for me. I think the $100 Hurricanes were lightly rubbed under Wang Liqin's right armpit to tune the sponge with luck. Again, I must stress that you can't put a price on luck. As always, "Latin phrase".

Funny that you mentioned that. I've always believed Albert was legit. Then I made a thread called "DHS NEO Sponge Ripple" and icontek claims that he's gotten some non-rippled smooth-sponged Hurricanes (implying that they were fake) from Albert. I don't think any of the ones I've gotten from him were fake though.

I almost forgot that he sold the provincial rubs, thanks for reminding me. It's at least $10 cheaper, not figuring in shipping costs. Guess I'll never get one of those sweet blue sponges. 

 

twice as fast would be scary lixiao......... lol. Have you ever used BW2 before?

 

I think If i can hold out till next check, I'll get a sheet of old and a sheet of new and try a comparison... but really what will likely happen is i wont be able to wait and I'm going to just buy a new one and do a comparison based on memory. I'll weigh it and junk when I do get it because I know how people care about that.

 

Also, the red sponge will look sexy on my clipper with all its red stripey-ness.

 

 

 

I've always really wanted to try it, but I haven't gotten around to it. I really want to buy some Whale III, since its much cheaper in Asia than in the US. 

 

It's definitely a great rubber, 2 or 3. Where do you find Whale 3 in asia that's cheap? I'll tell you buddy, that's a great rubber. It's almost the perfect rubber. And I only got to try a used sheet.

 

I'm psyched about the new Whale 2 because it seems like a step closer to 3, and I know how great 3 is.

 

Are you still using photino/T05/T64?  

Perfect blade to have a red sponge. My Clipper has that going on as well, hooray for color coordination.

After playing so well the other day with the training version and all this talk, I really can't wait any longer. Going to explode.  Must buy...

Can anyone tell me if the Haifu 40 deg is on a similar scale as the H3's?

Thanks, bluebucket. I was just at the checkout when I refreshed this page and saw your reply. I'm going to purchase the 38 deg. My last BWII was 37. Hopefully it arrives on time before the university closes for the summer. 

38 degrees haifu has the hardness of 40 degrees dhs at close table. Mid and far distance is another story. I'll explain.

First thing I realized  is the Mid distance problem with Haifu Black sponge is gone. Sometimes you could experience sudden drops at hid and half distance. With the black spoge version although many of my fellows loved the service and close to table characteristics they quit using it and continued using euro and jap rubbers.

The sponge is hard but bouncy ,not stiff. The top sheet looked like a little bit different to me. Myabe its because its a sponsored version of the rubber the top sheet is more flexible and looks more gentle but I could not see any colorization in a month while a DHS provincials lasts only a month for me.

The rubber is definetly for the power spin player who also wants close to table control aswell. 

Dhs h3 still has the best top sheet. I can do better openings and serves with Dhs H3.

Haifu has the power. I can do better and more controled rallies with the red sponge Haifu Bw II.

Although it has more flexibility I still recommend All wood or arylate blades for more efficient use.

 

I heard that stuff was going for like 600 dollars a bottle to some chinese provincial players.... insane.

 

 

 

BW2 is weird on speedglue, but I kind of like it. I used to do that. It's worth trying if you can speedglue.

 

 

I'm sick of the differences along the cycle of a tuning job, and I don't like NEO.

 

 

 

I was in a similar frame of mind about the neo series ,thought it seemed too " plastic like" etc. I stuck with the regular H3,then I decided to spend some time playing this rubber and believe me Beeray 1  this is way better more powerful than most rubbers on the market,I think you should but another sheet of Neo Hurricane and give it another try. 

With the new red sponge you get almost the same close to table futures + Euro/jap like mid distance performance.

The sponge is more flexible. This may cause your balls to jump higher in serve returns.

The serve is more spinny.

You do not get a feel like you are hitting a brick (which I like actually).

You get more speed.

In first times I had difficulties in controlling. The ball was going off the table in critical balls (especially when I was tired).

National version black sponge version topsheets are sticked to the sponge much better. I did not experience yet but my professional friends had bubbles in few sheets. Maybe we need to wait for national versions.

Off the table half cut ball spinning is more efficient.

Counter spinning is more deadly.

Only negative thing is close to table/net control is lost little bit. You could do more deadly drops with black sponge haifu's.

If throwing angle is necessary I can give a link to one of my training with red sponge haifu.

That is all I can write right now.

thanks

edit:

Seems like the way it was cut make it look like it is a little porous, above comment was made without zooming the pic..  

 Thanks for the pictures. At least, the top sheet looks "top" rated, very nice.

Those old ones were far superior to Permanent Tension ones - which of then is closer to the new Whale?

Drove home to find my new blade (from Megaspin) and BWIIs 38 deg (from MYTT) arrived on the same day! Don't you love when things just work out like that?  Here are some pics, but forgive the low-res quality since I only have my Logitech webcam available at the moment:

This is the sponge with the plastic still on, obviously. It's a very deep red, almost maroon/sangria (if you really want to get specific...)

Here is the sponge and tuning layer with the plastic off. I didn't want to rip the entire thing off, but you get the idea.

Now I'm just being silly. Here's my wind-up robot traversing the grippy/tacky landscape.

So, I don't have a scale so I can't tell you whether or not it weighs less than the old BWII, nor do I have an uncut old BWII anyways so it wouldn't even matter. But it feels lighter.  You'll notice I didn't bother taking any pics of the sponge and topsheet edge, that's because the webcam doesn't have a macro feature so the pics wound up so blurry it wasn't even worth showing.

But the obvious differences are that the new topsheet is thinner as suspected, and by comparing the logo edge with the old BWII, the new pips are spaced slightly closer together, and are also slightly thinner and longer in comparison. Once I cut the rubber and separate the sponge from the topsheet on the leftover bits, I can confirm whether or not this is true.

I don't have the eye of a fly, but the sponge doesn't look very porous, meaning I can't spot any noticeable pores with the naked eye. It does has a grittier look, but that could just be the red color. I really can't squint at this damn thing for too long.

Also, the top sheet isn't super tacky. It's not like, hold-a-ball-tacky. In fact, it didn't hold a ball up at all. It's glossy but not nearly as glossy as a fresh H3 Neo, and noticeably different from an H3 Neo topsheet as in it has that somewhat slight, distinctive "grainy", "noise-effect" topsheet that I find on most BWIIs.

Can't wait to slap it on the Viscaria (which I got at 88gm)! Unfortunately, the university has closed for the summer so it is quite bad timing. I'll just have to find some seedy place in Chinatown. Hope this has answered some questions, and brought up some new ones as well. 

There is a 11 next to the 'WHALE' and the chinese writing

Yuh, clearly a yellow "II".

 

BLUE BLUE BLUE!!!

Glad someone had something to say about the pics.

I feel better.

Actually it's called "Whale Power".

I think the other factor involved in this is that the topsheet is thinner. The old BW2's had such a rigid topsheet that it was really hard to curl up.

 

I take it you guys got the untuned? I didn't see an untuned for it, so you guys are just speedgluing right over the tuning layer or are you taking it off?

 

I ordered 39 tuned, I would have ordered 40 usually but I heard these run harder than the old stuff. I'm still really excited about it.

 

I agree, it never seemed to really make a difference, not a lot anyway. Not like the old tuning did lol.

 

But I figure people are hungry for a review, so I'll try it as is to let them know what it's like out of package. I'll weigh it and everything. Plus, i always thought the untuned was fast enough as is anyway. It looked like you guys grabbed up all the 38 hardness lol. It wasn't even an option when I ordered.

 

I was always satisfied with 39. I used to be a beast though, with my 100g clipper CR and at one point 41 hardness BW2. Now I feel more human haha. Also more realiistic and honest with myself than when I thought I was cool with super difficult equipment. I pick that thing up now and put it right back down, or use it as a "weighted racket" to build arm speed. That setup is soo heavy. But hey, it's part of the learning process I guess.

 

I'm glad this stuff is catching on. I miss bw2, i just don't miss that slick topsheet at my 5th floor level TT club in the middle of Iowa Summer. Humid. Humid. Humid.