DHS Hurricane 3 Neo Review

Hurricane 3 Neo has the classic Hurricane 3 topsheet on a specially tuned Neo sponge to compensate for the ban of speed glue. It is a classic chinese tacky rubber and has been one of the best selling rubbers on the planet for over a decade.

Im a big fan of chinese tacky rubbers they have a completely different ethos and feel to European and Japenese rubbers. They are used for third ball attacks and trying to kill the point off with maximum spin as soon as possible. Hurricane 3 Neo has been the choice of the top Chinese professionals for more than a decade – Ma Long, Fan Zhendong, Xu Xin, Zhang Jike, Lin Gaoyuan… the list goes on. All use religiously Hurricane 3 Neo on their forehand and if that isn’t a credential of this rubber I dont know what is.

[rwp_box id=”0″]

Hurricane 3 Neo is a spin behemoth, its spin capabilities is just amazing there is no other rubber quite like it. Yet it is quite a slow rubber with very linear properties it suits and rewards a certain style of play.

Manufacturer’s Description

Powerful “NEO” sponge and Hurricane 3 rubber with special glutinosity could create stable and high-speed arc, improve hte scoring ability of players, NEO Hurricane 3 has a high speed and low fast loop, changeful arc, strong spin.

Spin

This is the spinniest rubber I have ever used… period. Not many rubbers come close to the level of spin produced by this rubber, not even Tenergies can compete. This is and has been the standard to which spinny rubbers are measured and I think it will take a while until it is knocked off its topspot.

The combination of its tacky surface, its hard thick topsheet, pimple structure and dead sponge seems to be the perfect combination to produce lethal spinny balls. Hurricane 3 Neo is designed for brush looping with a thin contact so it does not suit everyone so dont believe you can just pick up this rubber and it will produce the spin for you especially on more powerful shots – you have to put the effort in. It rewards a technique with a more vertical full arm brush stroke but the potential is astounding, just watch the chinese players.

Topsheet grip – Because Hurricane 3 Neo is a tacky rubber it has amazing levels of grip. Even to the point where you can pick up the ball from the table. It hasnt got the most tacky topsheet of all chinese rubbers but it the grand scheme of things this rubber is pretty tacky!

The grip level of this rubber is extreme and the slow linear nature of the sponge really helps you produce mind bending spin with slow shots. Serves, touch shots and chops can be loaded with heavy spin and its easy to keep short. Even with fast shots when using a brushing contact loops are extremely loaded with spin. H3Neo is just king of the spin

Arc – The arc of Hurricane 3 neo is quite unique, it has quite a low throw and arc (chinese rubbers in general have a very low throw) but because of the extreme spin generated in loops balls suddenly dive on the table and give a really nasty kick on the opponents side of the table. This makes it a nightmare for your opponent to return these balls because they stay low and are deceptively spinny. Loops with chinese style rubbers are extremely hard to return.

Speed

Generally Hurricane 3 Neo is slow, but its not as slow as you might think. Sure nearly all japanese rubber and European rubber will be faster at slow to medium speeds or even high speeds. But Hurricane 3 neo does have speed in the top gears its just really hard to access it. H3Neo has a very thick and stiff topsheet so it can be hard to get the ball to penetrate into the sponge but when you do it can be pretty quick but sometimes you have to swing so hard you wonder if its worth it! The dead sponge also plays a part in what makes this rubber slow. The sponge is very dense and not very lively. On the plus side Hurricane 3 neo is very very linear and consistent in regards to the amount of effort you put into the shot so you can accurately vary the amount of effort in the shot to get the speed that you want much more effectively than you can with Euro/Jap rubbers. You could argue this is another reason why the top chinese players are so consistent.

So in summary the speed can be there but you have to work really hard for it. Overall though its not going to be able to compete with Japenese/European rubbers for speed. If you watch closely when Chinese players play when they have to smash the ball they sometimes even twiddle to the backhand side (which they normally have a European/Japanese rubber – normally Tenergy) to play the shot.

Control

Hurricane 3 Neo (like most Chinese rubbers) has great control as it has a hard, dense, non reactive sponge and is pretty slow in general. Combine this with the spin you can generate with a tacky rubber at slow speed shots you can be very precise even when loading up spin loaded serves and loops. H3Neo is super linear and its very easy to moderate the pace of your shots. H3N is not very bouncy at all and has little to no catapult effect so you can play touch shots and serves very effectively. Chinese rubbers in general excel in the short game.

DHS Hurricane 3 Neo also has a very consistent bounce and reacts very predictably. Sometimes I find Euro/Jap sponges that have larger pores to have an inconsistent bounce I.e doesnt react the same way everytime. Denser sponges with little to know pores seem to have a lot more consistency in this respect and Hurricane 3 Neo is a prime example of this. In terms of Blocking H3Neo can be challenging, its a very much get out what you put in rubber and if you just block the ball you can offer up the opponent a very easy shot but it can absorb a lot of pace.

Control is one of the main advantages of H3N and nearly anyone can pick it up and not be overwhelmed by the power because it is very versatile. Amateurs can use it and still be able to control it. To get the best out of it though you need to have an extremely high level of skill.

Feel & Hardness

In General Hurricane 3 Neo is rock hard! It has been described online as a slab of concrete or like playing with a brick and I sort of get why. Not only does it have a hard sponge 40deg or 53deg in Euro Hardness but the topsheet is thick and stiff which makes it hard to penetrate the already hard sponge so overall this rubber feels incredibly hard. Its made this way because it compliments the Chinese style of play or fast arm explosive swings and it works well with a tacky topsheet. This also mean that it is very hard for this rubber to bottom out.

The feeling of H3N takes some time to get used to. It feels very hard and almost has a metalic/plasticy feel when you hit hard and it definitely sounds like this. You dont feel the blade as much as you do with Euro rubbers and you dont feel the ball sink into the sponge so there is a distict lack of feeling that you have to get used to especially when coming from a Euro/Jap rubber. Im personally not a big fan of the feeling it feels very artificial but it feels very crisp and sharp when brush looping so it does have its advantages. I feel I can play any angle and the tackiness will grab the ball. When you go to play flatter shots or power loops when you want to engage the sponge though you get this sort of disconnected feeling which isn’t ideal.

Shots

Serve: simply deadly. You can load up huge amounts of spin and be very precise and keep serves short at the same time thanks to the non-reactive sponge. I honestly cant think of a better rubber for serves.

Slow Loop: Superb, loads of control and the tacky topsheet enables monstrous levels of spin. H3N in its element.

Fast Loop: Again fantastic but only when you retain the brushing stroke and add more force. As soon as you try to engage the sponge a little too much it can get a bit unpredictable.

Drive: Good but flatter drives will have a very low margin of error, because its hard to penetrate the sponge you have less feeling so you have to be very very precise.

Block: Not great. H3N is one of those rubber where if you dont play a shot then you offer the opponent a very easy ball. It can absorb a lot of pace but ultimately blocking is not good.

Flicks: Good but you have to be committed, if you half play a shot you will be punished.

Smash: Not good. Infact most Chinese pros chose to use twiddle to their backhand rubber to smash. When you play flatter shots with this rubber the error rate goes up massively you have to swing very hard and be very precise. It is not forgiving.

Flat Hits: Terrible. I cannot think of a worse rubber for flat hits, its just not what it was designed for.

Counter: Truly great with Hurricane 3 Neo. you can take it right off the bounce and because the sponge is on the dead side you dont have to compensate so much for speed from your opponent you just have to focus on the spin and where you want to play your shot. Its very easy to play counter loops with this rubber.

Chop: H3N is actually a great chopping rubber but there are better Chinese style rubbers that suit choppers better but for spin and control, very good for choppers

Arc: low, Lower than most Euro/Jap rubbers but does have quite a sharp dip at the end of the trajectory when there is lots of spin on the ball.

DHS Hurricane Neo 3 is designed to be the ultimate weapon for a brush looper. If you brush the ball with thin contact with a large full arm motion you will love this rubber. The spin you can generate with H3N is like no other and you can produce fizzing sharp dipping loops with penetrating force. One of the best looping rubbers in the world.

Who Is This Rubber For?

Hurricane 3 Neo suits players that stay very close to the table, has incredible movement, primarily has more of an upwards motion of stroke with a fuller arm and players want to finish off the point as soon as possible. It suits players than want to put as much spin as they can on everyshot and look to get their loop in as fast as possible. If you flat hit or block then this is not the rubber for you.

I cannot emphasise enough about the movement. You need to have very good footwork to get the most out of this rubber as it is very unforgiving when you are out of position. Even when your slightly out of position it can impact the stroke. If your prepared to put the work in this rubber has so much potential, in my opinion even more than the best Euro/Jap rubbers.

Its a rare rubber than anyone can use from amateurs all the way up to world class players but it is extremely hard to get a good level of performance out of it. This is not a forgiving rubber at all so beginners beware.

Quality/Durability

Good and Bad. Durability its very good, the tackiness of the rubber stays for a long time and when the factory tuner sheet that comes with Hurricane 3 Neo wears off it stays very stable. Iv picked up a year old sheet before and it still plays great and its still tacky. It plays much better after a year than any Euro/Jap rubber would after that period of time.

Quality is not a strong point of Chinese rubbers in general. You could buy 5 sheets of DHS Hurricane 3 Neo and they would all play slightly different and all have different levels of tackiness. Iv had a lot of sheets and some have a slightly different colour/tone, some of them have no tack some of them are really tacky and some sheets iv had have got marks on the topsheet or slight dead spots. The quality control of these rubbers is really not great compared to Euro/Jap rubbers. Then there is the issue with the red sheets. The red sheets of Hurricane 3 Neo play differently than the black sheets, are harder and are noticeably less tacky. For some reason black dye enables the rubber to be tackier and the topsheet softer. I have noticed this through personal experience and other people online seem to agree. So my advice is if your only getting one sheet go for the black colour. This is just something you have to chance when you buy Chinese rubbers.

Price/Performance

The price is a real plus point of the Hurricane 3 Neo at roughly £21.00 its practically half the price of most European Tensors (Rhyzer, Bluestorm, Evolution) not to mention Tenergies and do you get half the performance? Absolutely not! It suits a specific game style but this is such a good value for money rubber. Sure there are occasionally quality control issues but most of them are minor and you still get roughly the same performance out of the rubber. If you can cope with the slight quality issues theres no getting away from the fact this is a World class rubber. Ma Long (arguably the greatest player the world has ever seen) like countless other top Chinese players have used this rubber on their forehands (or a pro version of this rubber) for their entire careers so you know the performance is there waiting to be unlocked. And for this price its outstanding.

Overall

This is a world class rubber and there many reasons why top Chinese professionals all play with this rubber on their forehand. I don’t think Iv played with another rubber that has so much potential. However Hurricane 3 Neo is very hard to play with or at least to get the most out of it if you are an attacker. It requires very good technique, fast arm speeds and extremely good footwork otherwise your shots will lack power and there will be a lot of errors. Its suits a specific game style and tends to reward people who brush loop rather than drive-loop. Ultimately this is a really hard rubber to use as an attacker.

I have tried to make this my permanent forehand rubber for years because I know the potential and hitting wining loops are really special with this rubber. But if you have a bad day with this rubber and your techniques or footwork is off it can be catastrophically bad. I know I don’t train enough to get the most out of this rubber. I think of it like this – 8 out of 10 days I will play better with a Euro/Jap rubber because it is more forgiving but the 2 out of 10 days I can play better than I ever would with Euro/Jap rubbers.

It can be used to refine and improve your technique but it is a trial by fire as when your technique or footwork is even slightly off the rubber will punish you with an error or an easy ball for your opponent. This is not a forgiving rubber.

Despite its less than forgiving nature there is no denying that this rubber can be a formidable weapon in the right hands and remains one of the spiniest rubbers ever produced.

Have Your Say on DHS Hurricane 3 Neo and Leave Your Review Below!

Users Ratings

[rwp_box_criteria id=”1″]
[rwp_box_reviews id=”1″]
[rwp_box_form id=”1″]