New rubbers from China

Brand new start of EJing in the Year of Monkey. I just couldn't help since I'm spending Chinese New Year in Hong Kong, I can order some stuff from China and have it shipped to HK.

1) Tibhar Hybrid K1 (a tacky rubber with european sponge, the package said it's made in Germany), I think this particular rubber is only market in China at the moment. It's marketed as a contender to provincial hurricane 3 like every other brand tried in the past.

2) National Hurricane 3, yes, but with sponge #65. It's said to be the current backhand rubber from Ma Long. Unlike the backhand rubber of Xu Xin, which uses the orange sponge #60, this sponge #65 is in beige color. Both #60 and #65 sponge are porous, I plan to put one to two thin layer of Kailin oil on it and have it put on my OSP Virtuoso carbon as the backhand.

3) Provincial Hurricane 3, nothing new :-)

4) a very cute jpen keyholder from Yinhe

Gah, yes.

The images look promising.  Yellow, porous sponge.  Not like the solid slabs that Xiom used with Tau, for example.

My will has broken and I've dipped my toes into the murky world of taobao agents.  Pray for me.

Like AndySmith has mentioned, the topsheet is not as sticky as you'd expect (they market it in China that it's going to be revolutionary replacement for provincial H3, lol, like everybody else), and I'd the rubber can produce ok spin, but not at Hurricane 3 level. The rubber is bouncier then H3, however, when you try to do stronger loop, you'll feel the K1 is under power.

I don't like this rubber myself, good that it's only 150rmb.

As it is, it plays super-linear, very solid feel.  The slight tack takes some bounce away and adds a little spin to brush shots as you'd expect, but it's a small overall effect.  Pushing and serving are good, it's great for keeping things short in general.  Because the sponge is hard and the tack is low, it's much better in the flat game than traditional chinese rubbers and most of the other hybrids I've tried.  Smashing is reliable and effective.  Blocking easy too.

On drives the speed is OK, nothing amazing, and there isn't a lot of catapult so it takes some effort away from the table.  However, it throws a lot higher and with more...violence...when brushing so you can loop-loop quite well.  It's like a toned-down Tau - much easier to use.

On harder shots - full strokes - you don't get enough out of it, and this is the main problem.  On brushes the tack isn't enough to really rip the ball, and the sponge is too a bit hard to support more of a drive loop approach.

It's more at the euro end of the hybrid spectrum.  The tack is enough to avoid ball slip and just enough to support brush looping, but it reminds me more of something like a slightly tacky, slightly harder Adidas P7.  Which might appeal to the P7 crowd more than H3 users.