OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Its been quite some time since I did a review, but I got this rubber from Haggisv for coming up with Hookshot's Avatar in the comp ran a while ago and I put it on my spare Gergely to try. I've hit with it on and off and figured I'd run it through a quick review here:

1. The reviewer: Well I think most members know me, but for those who don't I play at something akin to 2000-2100 US at a guess (cos I'm an Aussie) with a LP combo attacking and blocking style from both wings. I have a heavy hitting FH with a low trajectory loop-drive that accelerates into a smash at almost every opportunity.

2. Physical Properties: The sheet I have is black in 2.2mm sponge. The topsheet is a little dull looking and doesn't look the quality of more expensive tensors. It is a grippy sheet, not at all tacky. Packaging is under-stated as the look of the sheet itself. It has a very velvety quality looking sponge oddly enough in a burnt-orange sort of color. I haven't weighed it, but it has a fairly heavy feel to it, certainly heavier than Hexer+.

3. Speed: The rubber has gears without a doubt and it quite nice for a slow loop, but will power up in a reasonably linear fashion. The top out speed is not quite as high as Hexer+ or most other tensors I've used, but its not slow either. I've done more hitting with it against the robot than real people, which means you get less "real world" feedback on the speed in terms of how a person of known capability handles it. I don't think it lacks power though.

4. Spin: This is no tenergy rubber as far as spin goes, but it is still fair in this arena. It doesn't carry the pricetag of tenergy either. Against the robots spin I have no problem bringing the ball over the net and back down on the table. I've done a little serving practice with it and its quite serviceable.

5. Control:
I can't really comment too much on blocking from game experience, but from the general feel of the rubber and my overall experience blocking with inverteds, this is not a bad blocking rubber. It has the hallmarks in its feel that tells me I could cushion and redirect an opponents drive into a block back and direct the placement to be tricky. As I say, that is untested, but its my assumption. Overall, the rubber is well behaved and control is not a problem.

6. Other Playing properties: I would rate this a medium throw rubber leaning toward the low end of medium. Its slightly higher than Hexer+, way lower than T05. I couldn't see the rubber bottoming out, the sponge is a little too firm for that. The sound is not as crisp from this rubber as Hexer+, but its not a dull thud exactly either.

7. Reference: Obviously I am using Hexer+ which is on my primary setup (Gergely) as the reference for this review.

8. Other comments. I think overall this rubber is under-rated with very little air time (excuse the pun) given to it by most people. I've not seen anyone else mention using this particular Air rubber. I think Silver has reviewed a different variant, I don't think it was even a Scirocco though. May have been X30 or something? I personally didn't think I would have the rubber on my secondary setup for long as I expected to dislike it. The more I have used it the more I have enjoyed hitting with it. Its not so far away from the Hexer+ that I need to make any real adjustment between using the 2, except the slight weight difference (could be ~10 grams).

Edit: Actually the review by Silver was on Rob's forum, it was Scirocco, but it was the SF variant!

_________________
I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

Reb, there are three different versions of Scirocco. I think its designed to be a TENERGY replacement as the manufacture used different pimple designes for the different versions. I think the sponge should be the same on all different versionb, but I think one has medium pimples, one has fat pimples and one has skinny pimples. I may be wrong.

We should ask Cole Ely as he stocks this rubber in his store about the rubber stats.

_________________
SPW/Solo

Thanks for the review Reb!

_________________
OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

I used Scirocco SN quite a few times on some different blades. It is a very decent rubber and for a lot of midlevel amateurs it would be quite enough on their OFF-, OFF blades for everything they need.

However, when I compare it to my Palio tensors (ME 47.5 and Blitz, which cost approximately the same amount of money - 24-28 dollars) I can see that SN loses to ME in almost everything: speed, spin, sensitivity, flat game, strong loop - not by a lot, just a little bit but basically there is no motivation for me to buy SN for the same money. It is holding his own vs PME 47.5 only in blocking department. And I am not even talking about Blitz and difference in spin. Away from the table it has almost no extra kick which you can expect from regular tensors (and PME) when you really hit the ball - it's too linear, or perhaps it bottoms out on a hard swing. But with some small adjustment in technique it will serve you well and reliably, so it is indeed a very nice rubber... just it's only one of many and it is no better (but, by some parameters even a tad worse) than some comparable rubbers of the same price.

_________________
Rubber: cheap, hard and fast
Blade: something a bit off the beaten path