DHS Hurricane 8-80

I found this rubber researching on good rubbers to replace expensive ESN hybrid rubbers. The benchmark I used is Donic Bluegrip J1, a great rubber, but expensive. With the price of a J1 I can purchase 3 H8-80 and glue with the change. Well, in my comparison, H8-80 is a little slower but spinnier than J1. At my forehand, with a layer of booster, I was easier to counter top spins. I am using Yinhe PRO 05 blade and the ball impact sound makes it obvious when the activation window is hit, when close to the table and with slow game, I hear a hollow sound, but once I hit hard I hear a high-pitched cracking sound. Amazing. My conclusion: professionals will lack extra speed, however, for intermediate and advanced players who want a more forgiving rubber, this is a great choice.

OCTOBER 13TH UPDATE: My blade Yinhe Pro 05 now with 2 H8-80 38º is my training blade while spare my J1s.

One thing that stands out about this rubber is its unmatched durability.

I am an intermediate-level amateur, and have been playing with this rubber for 10 months (trainings and competitions). By my own estimates, I have played with it around 140 hours. The rubber is still good after that, with lots of spin and barely any drop in performance, and it can easily go another 1-2 months it seems. I always kept the rubber clean and used the protective film when storing, so that helped.

I have the 38-degree version, black. The first 2 months I used it on my forehand. After that, I turned the racket and played the 8-80 on my backhand. The rubber is very easy to use, very controllable. It is definitely not the most powerful rubber, but for me it was not a problem as I can always generate enough power simply with the kinetic chain. As for the spin, you could probably find a spinnier rubber, but this one still has enough spin for most amateur players.

One big advantage of this rubber is that it doesn’t require boosting. So among the non-boosted rubbers, this one will be one of the top choices, especially given its price (around 30 EUR).

The only drawback is a relatively high weight. I personally didn’t suffer from it a lot, because my other rubber was luckily a bit lighter. But if you put 8-80 on both sides, this would be way too heavy.

The ratings are not accurate. I use Hurricane 8-80 (38 degrees) on my forehand with a flexible blade. It is a true hybrid between European and Chinese rubbers. While the sponge is softer than others in the Hurricane series, the topsheet is equally tacky. It is faster than most Hurricane rubbers and very forgiving. In fact, it is one of the few hard Chinese rubbers you can comfortably smash with.

The short game remains identical to other Hurricane rubbers, but in lower gears, the H8-80 is more versatile. It truly shines in higher gears. Unlike Butterfly’s Dignics 09c, which drops the ball in slow gears if you do not grip it properly, the H8-80 does not. As it ages, it becomes even softer and the dwell time increases. It is soft enough out of the box to not require boosting.