Yasaka Hovering Dragon Review

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   I ordered this rubber back in October 2020 as I saw that it became fairly popular on wechat by merchants in China. Got it in hard sponge hardness in black and medium hardness in red. Before I was using unboosted 39deg H3 orange on forehand and unboosted 37deg orange on backhand/Rozena, I was struggling with both actually on BH in some aspects but really liking both in their own way.
I never tried the Rising or Shining dragon series before unfortunately, so I can't really make direct comparison with them. But I believe the Hovering dragon is the replacement or successor to Rising dragon and the Thunder dragon is for Shining dragon.

Opening the package I immediately noticed some things that still confuse me to this very moment and I hope someone can help me to clarify. At the back of the cardboard I noticed that the marketing bs had a label on it with some better description. As far as I remember Yasaka marketing has been pretty non-existent, but the cardboard description here is outright misleading, the label is actually informative. I will post photos later when I get home because I took some.

The Hovering dragon is a non-tacky topsheet, it's glossy but has no "Chinese tackiness" at all. The glossiness a bit reminds me of Yinhe Moon Speed but the Hovering dragon is proving to be more durable than that by a lot. One other discrepancy I found that some asian websites show the Hovering dragon to have a plastic foil on the rubber sheet. Well mine had nothing, just a piece of paper.

The sponge looks very similar to Butterfly spring sponge. Unlike the Rising dragon here both black and red rubbers have orange/red sponge, with probably similar size pores as Dignics. The sponge had a surprising speedglue dome out of the package, but I couldn't smell or touch any booster oil. Also the rubber doesn't have the disgusting Chinese rubber smell that H3 or Big Dipper has.
Another weird thing was that on the same Asian sites the sponge has a some description printed on it with ink, as you see on the photos mine has engraved description.

The rubbers are light, black was 63g, red was 61g uncut. Didn't measure the dimensions unfortunately.

After sticking it on my Yinhe Viscaria clone blade I kind of thought these rubbers are more similar to Rozena, than to Hurricane just from bouncing and spinning the ball. It felt a bit catapulty, and not sticky at all. It almost felt as a soft rubber.

The playing characteristics:
My initial impression was immediately countered, because my Hurricane stroke mechanics worked right away while with Rozena I couldn't hit a ball over the net on FH.
The hard sponge version feels pretty hard, not as hard as an unboosted Huricane, but not that far off. It can give that "metalic" sound that most Chinese rubbers have. The sponge indeed has some spring to it but not much.

It doesn't like to lift the ball, or at least I have no idea how to make a soft spin with it from below the table. I honestly don't think it's possible with the hard version and on the forehand.
So opening loops are a bit weird in fact: You can either just loop kill anything if you are in position and over the table, or you have to put in some major effort to pull up the ball from under the table. I can't really say the classical spiny, safe opening loop is much of an option with this rubber. (or at least I so far I couldn't get the hang how to do it)

Loop driving is just OK. Not super fast, not as slow as H3, but you need to put in your whole body and legs to generate the pace. It doesn't do magical stuff, in this regard but it's fairly consistent and linear.
Loop drive against loop drive is however pretty awesome, it's so secure to play with that you can outplace your opponent and since it has a low angle loop drive you opponent will really struggle.
What I noticed that this is a forward motion rubber, if you hit forward it generates the spin and the pace very well. If your stroke is more upward it won't generate much speed or spin. It's a weird rubber and I think this is why it's also good for over the table loop kill shots.

Counter-looping above the table is awesome with it. Again the low angle helps and it is super insensitive to incoming spin.
Blocking is also fantastic, you basically can't miss, and even the extremely spiny opening loops can be controlled. It's a good feeling that you are not pressured into doing some half-assed opening loop because you can't block your opponents spin if he takes the lead.
It never made that hiss sound when the ball slips on the rubber, it really is a master at spin control.

Touch game is pretty darn good. Insensitive for incoming spin, I don't feel it puts in much either over the table, but you can keep the balls low and short. Also you can push out sharply.
Flicks are awesome with it. My opponents must feel kinda disgusted playing against it.

Flat hitting is excellent, I think it would suit Mima Ito very well.

On backhand the medium soft version is awesome. There is a lot of difference in feeling between the hard one. It is easier to play with, it sinks in the ball and has a bit more catapult effect. But it's not the disgusting Rozena or MX-P type when it just catapults soft balls off the table. It's more of a sink into the sponge and "gentle" push and because of it over the table banana flicks are just amazing and the control is probably the best I encountered. You can basically banana flick everything.
Touch, block is amazing, you can even punch loop drives effectively. I can do opening loops on my backhand interestingly, I guess because of different movement mechanics than FH.
Loop drive is much more consistent than H3 or Rozena from every distance.

I'm a left hander so I do get into FH vs BH loop driving rallies and with this rubber the BH was really solid, I'm not scared to just let it rip.

I feel on BH it generates more spin than on FH, but to be honest I always had this weird feeling with H3 too that it's not making as much spin on FH.

Serving is not that great I think... Making short spiny serves is difficult with it. However long jumpy serves I could do very well. I think it's again similar to Chinese rubbers that you need a strong-long motion to generate lot of spin. Unlike with EU or JP rubbers where you can get away with small wrist movements. With H3 I also noticed similar things, I can't generate very spiny short serves.

Durability is excellent. I have more than 30 hours of good use in it. The only really visible marks of use are where my fingers are. The ball contacts have not caused any visible wear. You can see the photos.

I used it with Joola Flash and DHS DJ40 ABS ball, it is better with the DHS ball since it's a bit heavier and faster. I can't say I like the Joola Flash styled seamless balls but it is the most commonly used ball in my country unfortunately.

Sorry for the very long review. I hope it will be useful for some of you who are interested in it. I wonder what the players who used Rising dragon can say or confirm as similarity.

P.s: One of my Chinese friends said that on Taobao there's a pro version and a normal version for different price. She is not an expert at equipment, but I wonder if the mentioned inconsistencies are because of this?? I didn't pay attention to this until I noticed the differences and then I just got confused.
I would be surprised if Yasaka had this kind of business practice even though this is a Chinese made rubber.

Edit: added photos

Edited by Zwill - 01/19/2021 at 3:36am