DHS Hurricane 8-80 Review: A Great Budget Hybrid Backhand Rubber

The DHS Hurricane 8-80 is not the most famous DHS rubber but it is a fantastic budget rubber overall and my personal backhand rubber nowadays. Many people recommend it as a budget and more controlled alternative to the Butterfly Dignics 09c and I have to say that I agree to that.

Since I like it so much, I thought to make a nice and detailed review of it for those of you who are considering whether to buy it or not, but before we start, let me tell you a small story of how I got to use it in the first place, which I think will be useful to understand how the rubber feels and plays.

It was the spring of 2024 (I know, sometimes I sound like an old man), and I had been using the Hurricane 3 Neo 37 degrees on my backhand for quite a while. It's an amazing rubber, and when properly boosted, it can do it all. I understand that Wang Chuqin loves it for his backhand, but I'm pretty sure he is heavily boosting it, otherwise it's not an easy rubber to play with, you miss tempo in the rallies, openings are not easy, and base speed is low, control is great though. So I was looking for a similar rubber than the Hurricane 3 Neo 37 degrees, but with those problems solved. Ideally I would also not need to boost it, so I only had to boost my forehand, which is already a hassle on its own for us normal amateurs.

I kind of typed the above into google and got into one of the table tennis forums (can't remember which one, but thank you forums!) where people were talking about it, so I thought, let's try it, why not, it's not that expensive!

I think it was love at first sight, and ever since then, I've used it very often, alternating it with the Dignics 09c (and others), and I have gotten very fond of my chinese hybrid red sponge and the highly tacky topsheet. It's a really nice rubber that (for me personally) plays amazing on the backhand, but also on the forehand for those people like my friend Nick who prefer a softer and more lively tacky rubber as their forehand rubber of choice.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the slightly long introduction, and for now, let's talk about the rubber in depth!

DHS

Hurricane 8-80

View ratings in the Rubber Database

The TL;DR

The technicalities

The rubber comes in a nice purple-ish package, weighs about 65g uncut (not bad for a hybrid), and has a nice red sponge (likely bigger pores, more flexible walls than H8) with a very tacky topsheet. The topsheet is definitely more tacky than my commercial Hurricane 3 Neos (barely tacky nowadays) and I feel it's also more than the provincial Hurricane 3 Neos I have. The first time you bounce a ball on the just glued rubber, it dies very quickly.

The rubber comes in 2 degrees, 37 and 38, kind of letting you know that this is primarily designed for the backhand, and the thickness is 2.1mm. Besides that, there seemed to be national and provincial versions in the past, but I can't find them anywhere nowadays. I have always used the 'commercial' version and sure, there are QC issues, but I have not noticed super big differences, and have had more than 6 sheets.

Lastly, I did the testing of the rubber on several blades, which included: Nittaku Violin, DHS PG7, DHS Fang Bo B2X and DHS Wang Chuqin.

The DHS 8-80 in depth

Sponge Feeling

The sponge is softer than traditional Hurricane rubbers (i.e. compared with Hurricane 3 Neo 37) and you can feel this clearly when you hit the ball, it is livelier and gives you more feedback in the hand. It's not as much as some of the other hybrid rubbers (the so-called 'european' hybrids) but it's noticeable if you are used to the Hurricane 3 Neo for example.

All of this means that the sponge is easier to activate and that it has a bigger built-in catapult effect than your traditional hard tacky chinese rubbers, which explains why most people that play with those, will prefer having the Hurricane 8-80 on the backhand.

Speed & Control

I'd say that the average speed of the Hurricane 8-80 is okay-ish, not too slow, not too fast, probably like a Hurricane 3 Neo 37 unboosted but about 15-20% faster. However, with the right technique, (hit-brush with the correct use of the body, similar to how Wang Chuqin, Lin Shidong or Lin Gaoyuan play on their BH), and paired with a carbon blade (i.e. DHS Wang Chuqin) it can have a lot of power and kick.

Even though it can be fast and it's categorised as a hybrid rubber, it's still quite linear, which I really enjoy, and you always know what you will get with it. It's a very precise and controlled rubber, and it's much more predictable than many other hybrid tensors I have tried.

So if you enjoy a balanced, all-round hybrid rubber that still has the extra gears when the situation calls for it, you may very well enjoy the 8-80 too.

Spin & Grip

This is where the Hurricane 8-80 really shines. I have never experienced any kind of ball slippage except when I was the one who caused it with poor technique. The tacky topsheet and softer sponge grip the ball really well and the amount of spin that the rubber can give you is very high. Perhaps the spin is not as high as with the Hurricane 3 Neo but it gets pretty close. I think for all of us amateurs it probably won't be much of a difference anyways.

For normal hurricane users, I'd say that this won't feel super special, it's just how the other ones also feel, but if you are coming to the Hurricane 8-80 from some of the tensor rubbers that suffer from slippage, you will be positively surprised here, especially for backhand flicks, counterloops or out of position balls where your only chance is to purely brush the ball in order to put it back on the table.

Throw Angle

The throw angle is medium I'd say, with a slight tendency towards the 'high' level. I personally enjoy this for my backhand as it makes it more dangerous (and my preferred technique is the one that drops the wrist like Lin Gaoyuan, so arc is naturally produced) but some other players prefer a much high throw (i.e. Rakza Z, Dignics 09c) so they can more safely attack backspin.

In any case, if you play this rubber with a more 'chinese backhand' it will not be any problem at all, the ball will have a ton of spin so it will clear the net nicely and get back on the table (the so-called Magnus effect). If you, however, play your backhand with less body and weight transfer and more of a high elbow/arm and wrist brushing, then you may struggle a little bit with the throw (and power for that matter).

Loops

All loops are great with the rubber, but my favourite part is the opening against a long backspin push or serve. The rubber has a lot of grip and if you do the technique correctly, the amount of spin and power that you can put onto the ball means that the returning shot usually goes over the table. Due to this, something that I do a lot nowadays is to serve a normal half-long pendulum and then, instead of pivoting with the forehand, rip the ball with a fast backhand loop to the wide backhand corner. I used to pivot in all my pendulum serves but as I get older and the game evolves, I started using my backhand more, and the Hurricane 8-80 gives me plenty of confidence to do that.

Normal topspin loops are also very good, and you can choose to just brush the ball for a pretty annoying ball, or to really activate the sponge by hit-brushing into it (see modern technique of Wen Ruibo or Lin Shidong) to get a lot of power. I think this is why many people say that the 8-80 is a slower budget version of the D09c, they play similarly in that regard but D09c has more power, spin and overall kick while the Hurricane 8-80 has more control and linearity in return (which I enjoy).

Serves

Serves are a pleasure with the Hurricane 8-80, there is a lot of spin due to the high tackiness and very few bounce, so you can keep those backhand serves short and low. I find that opponents have a lot of trouble guessing how much spin there is in my backhand serve, and I can usually get a bunch of free points in the beginning of every game. Because the backhand serve can be hard to read for amateur players when you use a very short side motion, the rubber fits wonderfully on your backhand if you use it a lot to serve. And by the way, from time to time, a long serve to the middle or backhand are also very annoying as you can put a lot of top-side spin onto it, so it often goes over the table in the beginning as well. Don't use that serve too often, but it can surely get you out of trouble from time to time!

Flicks

It's pretty easy to play powerful but also spinny backhand flicks with the Hurricane 8-80. I'd say that it's not as good as the Dignics 09c or Rakza Z for example, but that's because the throw angle is lower than those. It's nevertheless quite easy to play those flicks a bit later as the ball is on the descending path, and this is because you have a lot of grip to work with.

On the forehand, my flicks were a bit more difficult but I usually don't flick on that side during games because I find that a well placed aggressive forehand push, a short drop or even a backhand flick when possible (when I'm fast enough), have more success percentage than a forehand flick. Only if the ball is higher or dead, I will flick with the forehand, but I didn't feel that the rubber was particularly good at it, just okay. Since I believe that it's a backhand oriented rubber anyways, the forehand flick doesn't matter as much, and since backhand flicks are very good, I'll stick to that!

Pushes

The rubber definitely has a great amount of control for short and low pushes, and also a lot of spin when you aggressively push longer and from your wrist (not from arm/shoulder, those should remain close to the body). Just like any other Chinese hard tacky rubber, it has the natural fantastic short and spinny game and the only difference is that since it has a bit more catapult built in, you'll have to do some tiny adjustments but it's very minor, I don't think the difference is so noticeable with something like a well boosted Hurricane 3 Neo 37 anyways. I do prefer the feeling of the 8-80 as opposed to the short pushes of Dignics 09c, there is more control there in case you were wondering how those compared to each other.

Blocks

This is another category where the 8-80 is very good in my opinion, blocks are very easy as opposed to some other high catapult tensors, but you do need to be active though, this is not a rubber that will block automatically like Rakza 7 or Xiom Vega Europe. But compared to the Dignics 09c again, I found it much easier to put the ball back on the table when the power from the opponent was high. Overall, I find blocking with the Hurricane 8-80 very comfortable and predictable, I enjoy it a bit more than with the Hurricane 3 Neo 37 somehow.

Flat hits

While the Hurricane 8-80 is not as bad as your other traditional Hurricanes, it is not a rubber made for flat hitting, it's a rubber made for looping, and you can notice that. So all I can say is that if you play a lot of flat hits/counters, then this will likely not be your rubber of choice. One last thing here though, please do not confuse flat hitting with hit-brushing, it is not the same, hit-brushing is actually needed to activate the full power of this rubber (and any other hurricanes).

Boosting

I don't think you should boost the Hurricane 8-80 if you are a normal amateur player like me. I have boosted it once just to see how it would feel and I didn't like it as much, the rubber became 'agitated' instead of stronger/better like a Hurricane 3 Neo would. This is probably due to the 80 sponge, and even though high level players may want to boost it for extra power, I think that going for a Dignics 09c would be a better choice in that scenario.

Price

Lastly, I think this part speaks for itself, the price is usually around 25-35 euros so it's pretty good, and that's why it's one of my favourite backhand rubbers. It has the price of a medium budget option (not as cheap as some of the Yinhes or Lokis) but almost all the spin and a bit less speed (but more control) than the premium gear options. I think that if you are an amateur player looking for a hybrid backhand rubber that is cheap, controlled and spinny, the Hurricane 8-80 should always be in your Top10 options.

Durability

Durability is one of the best things of the Hurricane 8-80. In my own case, playing around 7 hours a week quite intensively, the rubber performs perfectly fine for at least 4 to 6 months without any noticeable drop in quality. After that, it's still decent for about 3 more months. The good thing is that the tackiness holds up quite well over time, especially if you take decent care of it, so it doesn't suddenly have a big cliff like some others rubbers do.

So who is this rubber for?

Hurricane 8-80 can be a very good choice if you want a hard tacky rubber that is easier to activate than the traditional Hurricanes. If you are looking for a controlled and very spinny rubber that still has a lot of gears when needed, you should consider it. I prefer it for my backhand but it can be a perfectly safe choice for the forehand as well, especially if you want a livelier, softer, non-boost alternative to the Hurricane 3 Neo 39.

And who may not enjoy the rubber?

I can see two scenarios here: If you enjoy softer (tensor) rubbers on the forehand or backhand, you are likely not going to like the Hurricane 8-80. Beside that first scenario, if you do like harder tackier rubbers but are still a beginner, I'd say there are better options. You could try it and see how it feels, but something like a Yinhe Mercury 2 is likely to be a safer and definitely cheaper choice. You can always come back to it later.

Final thoughts

The DHS Hurricane 8-80 is one of those rubbers that in my opinion, doesn't get as much attention as it deserves, but for the right kind of player, it can be a nice surprise: it combines all the good stuff from the classic Chinese tacky feeling with the extra added liveliness to make it usable without the need for boosting it.

For me personally, this is why I keep coming back to it for my backhand. It gives me a lot of confidence in the serve and return game, it's stable in openings and rallies, and has enough gears for when I need it. It's definitely been an improvement over my Hurricane 3 Neo 37.

However, is it for everybody? Not at all. If you want more 'effortless' speed, high catapult, or a very forgiving rubber, there are better options out there. And if you are chasing maximum performance at the highest level, something like the Dignics 09C will still offer more power and overall quality. But for the vast majority of amateur players under 1800 USATT, it can be a good budget and more forgiving alternative to the Dignics 09c.

So, if you are someone who likes hybrid rubbers on the backhand, doesn't want to deal with boosting every few weeks and wants a medium budget option, try it out, it might surprise you. It certainly surprised me!

I hope you enjoyed reading this and that it was helpful! And if you need any personalised gear advice, you know where to find me, check the section below.

Have fun and see you at the table!