Haifu Shark and Whale 3 Forum Testing

I gotta say the whale 3 doesn't live up to the expectation of a tuned rubber, so I'm going to boost it tonight with two thin layer of Kailin oil on top of the original tuned glue layer, and then I'll put it on my best wooden blade N656 :-)

qualizon wrote: Hey Matt Pimple, after boosting your whale 3, did you get any metallic sound from the rubber when hitting the ball?

I finally had a chance to test the Haifu Whale III (hard sponge) yesterday though the session was quite short so a full test report will come later.

I was referring to the shark 3 as the bh rubber not the whale 3.

42, you can pm alexli

My whale 3 soft plays superb on backhand. I dont know why anyone would find it slow on active strokes.

yogi_bear wrote: Alex have these in his store

Alex have these in his store

Ah this looks amazing. I've been looking for a replacement for Haifu Shark II 2.0 soft recently as it is harder and harder to find.. I hope the Shark III plays in a similar way. I've played with Shark II for like 3 or more years..Can anyone who has played both comment on this?

TTNPP appears to be out of stock. :c

The Shark curled up quite a bit more than the Whale after 2 layers of Dymax Maximizer booster; you can also see the "H" marking for hard on the sponge:

added my review

Update May 23rd, 2045 .

Haha just kidding. But it seems that rubbers are performing better now. The sticky rubber protectors ( like really sticky fyi, these things stick to your skin) with the vega pro blade seem to have a very positive effect on the rubber topsheets.
Im finding my rubbers to be faster. Especially the red shark. Black whale feels faster on my bh as well. Perhaps the tuning is giving way, and sponge(or maybe the glue layer which acts as a cushion) is become slightly more firm.

I prefer the rubbers more now , than when first few days out of the vacumn sealed packet.

I took a couple of picks last night of the domed Haifu Whale. You can clearly see that the WBG layer has been removed and you can see the "H" (for hard sponge) in one of the pics.

I also received my Haifu Shark and Whale 3 rubbers yesterday after returning from a 2-week long Trip. So thanks to Alex and yogi for giving me the opportunity to test the rubbers. The first one I unpacked last night was the Whale (black topsheeet and purple sponge) which turned out to be the hard version. Since several people already reported that the tuning effect was rather mild I decided I was not going to test it unboosted but would immediately boost the rubber with Dymax Maximizer. Since I do not use WBG but RC I decided to peel off the glue layer and then weigh the rubbers. The results were somewhat surprising.

Just Had a session with my Pet Red Shark and Black Whale. Glued to Xiom Vega Pro (91 grams) ST,
the combo felt uniform throughout. A lot of people label these two as Heavy* rubbers and frankly I don't see them as heavy at all!

I glued my rubber with tearmender on blade only. The sponge comes
preglued so just let the tearmender dry properly on blade and slap it
on. My rubbers marked as S (soft) were easy to cut with a scissos.
The
rubbers also come with thick plastic film on both sides. Top of
topsheet and on sponge side. They make good rubber protectors if you
don't have some already.

The Whale has a much different feel to that of the shark. Reminds me the feel of my good old Oiv pro. Unlike OVPro, Its not a smooth feel. Also Unlike the omegas, the Whale starts off light tacky and tack wears off every game or so. Used it on my backhand, and it felt great on blocks, pushes (like omega V, great thing!) and drives like omega iv pro. One of the guys I play with said "God what is that weird topspin" during backhand rallys. I haven't had any reaction like that using Omega V pro for the past few sessions.
It's just so controlled on slow strokes and fast exactly when you need it to be. You can chop topspin with it like Omega V pro. I could never chop with OIVP.
IMO it has the best of OIVP and OVP.

The Red Shark is something else. It loops like my tg3 skyline neo and my OIVP. I have never really come across a rubber that can slow loop like (classic in some terms) Chinese rubber and loop drive like Esn rubbers. My whole life I have been stuck with one or the other. I Had to sacrifice either slow loops or fast loops and go into driving the 5th shot. Now I can switch it around from slow looping heavy underspin to loop driving slightly less heavy underspin.
Serves are just great like my tg3 skyline. I can make the ball slide off the side of the table with sidespin serve and w/e comes back, loop down the  forehand lane with all my might :) perks of being 22.

A more experience player immediately after 2 forehand loops, asked me if I changed my gear. "That's not your tg3 neo right?"
IMO Shark is faster than the Whale. Also shares the multiple gear capability. Short push, long push. Block. and loopdrives!

 

Some things to note: The Red Shark looks more durable than the Black Whale. It's only been one session and maybe too early to speak on how long they will last. Whale seemed to have these glossy circles over the top sheet. a little bit of water helps clear it off . They come back eventually.
The Red Shark doesn't suffer from this characteristic. I hope it's just my sheet and that it doesn't affect the durability of the rubber.


Some pictures. uploading......













And finally for pip structure comparison. I leave this one to you, the reader :)
Top to bottom  Black Whale, Red Shark, Black OVPro, Red Tg3 skyline neo.





UPDATE 5/15

Update 5/15
Went 6-0 against the guy who beat me 4-3 last night.
The rubbers have settled in and I am very happy with how well they are playing on the vega pro blade.
The issue with the circular marks on the Black whale have disappeared with a little more water (2/3 drops and light wipe with my palm)
Very happy with the set up. Thank you Alex for supplying us with these great rubbers! Thanks Mr. Bear for organizing the event! You guys have opened my eyes to a new line of equipment. I had always stayed away from soft (haifu scale ) rubbers and my pet shark and whale have changed my mind.

Edited by asifgunz - 05/15/2015 at 11:16pm

Here is my Haifu Whale 3 review:

My BW3 came without gluing instruction. MAX, upgraded, black, medium hardness. Not as heavy as the BW2 national I used but I have no scale.

BW3 has a medium to medium hard topsheet with a springy sponge that come tuned (unlike the BW2 national that I used which I can't feel a lot of tuning due to the 40 degree hardness). The BW3 topsheet is sticky out of package but with one session the stickiness is wearing off somewhat and the rubber become fast. It is still sticky to the touch but not enough to hinder the speed of the sponge. In comparison my BW2N has maintained the stickiness pretty much throughout.

BW3 plays like a traditional Chinese rubber, like H3neo, with turbo. It is the ideal forehand rubber but fast enough for backhand. The rubber is very linear at almost all speed. In the short game the player can easily use mostly the topsheet to generate a great deal of spin. The control is super because the topsheet is hard enough so that the player would not engaged the sponge too much at low racket speed. Unlike rubbers like T05 one would feel that it's too bouncy because at low racket speed one the ball is in too much contact with sponge. The serves using BW3 is outstanding. Short serves are spiny and long serves are easy with such fast sponge. BW3 (medium) is the best forehand rubber for looping since the spin is awesome and the arc is safe and high, but once landed the ball usually accelerate forward and drops down fast. Loops are much harder than T05 to handle. But if need be the player can hit into the sponge more and produce a fast loop like T05 with not much more effort. Once the rubber is broken in it blocks well and not overly spin sensitive as one would imagine.
I am using it on a Korbel and would recommend using BW3 on an all wood blade to bring out the advantage of the rubber. However, BW3 Medium would work on most blades. In short, for those who use Chinese rubber for forehand BW3(medium, upgraded) is a hit.

Short game: BW3(m) 9/10, BW2N(h) 8/10, H3 8/10, T05 6/10.
control:    BW3(m) 8/10, BW2N(h) 6/10, H3 8/10, T05 7/10.
Speed*:     BW3(m) 8/10, BW2N(h) 8/10, H3 6/10, T05 9/10.
spins:      BW3(m) 9/10, BW2N(h) 8/10, H3 8/10, T05 7/10.
loops:      BW3(m) 9/10, BW2N(h) 7/10, H3 7/10, T05 7/10.
blocks:     BW3(m) 7/10, BW2N(h) 6/10, H3 6/10, T05 8/10.
quality:    BW3(m) 9/10, BW2N(h) 8/10, H3 5/10, T05 9/10.
weight**:   BW3(m) 5/10, BW2N(h) 3/10, H3 5/10, T05 7/10.
Smell***:   BW3(m) 8/10, BW2N(h) 7/10, H3 6/10, T05 3/10.

*   Note that the BW3 speed rating will go up and the spin rating will go down a little as the rubber is broken in.
** No scale, by feel. Heavy one is rated lower.
*** Yes, need to air rubber to rid of chemical smell.