First Impressions
I’m going to hold my impression back a bit so you pay attention to our Nova review.

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Tamer Elbaga (Lefty)
Style: Tweener
RPM: 375 rpm
PAP: 5 & 3/8 up
Average Speed: 18.5 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: low
Axis rotation: medium/high
Test Equipment: 15 Pounds
Layout: 4 x 30

Sean Jensen (Righty)
Style: Power player
RPM: 475 rpm
PAP: 5 1/2 & 1/4 up
Average Speed: 18.5 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: low
Axis rotation: medium
Test Equipment: 15 Pounds
Layout: 5 x 50

“Keep in mind that coverstock accounts for 70% of ball reaction, but the core creates the dynamic shape of the reaction. Your driller will alter the shape to suit your game.”

Pattern
THS: 40ft, 23ml
Sport: TBD

Specs
The Storm Nova uses the new Ignition asymmetric core inside the R2X hybrid coverstock.

15 pound = RG of 2.49, diff of .052, mb of .019
14 pound = RG of 2.53, diff of .049, mb of .018
Coverstock finish: 3000 abralon

Overall
I think Storm was smart about what they did with this Nova. Let’s start big picture; we have a big hybrid asym. Here’s the thing, let’s think about the balls in arsenal slots. Storm has the very successful and versatile Proton Physix. The Reality is quite similar in strength if a little rounder but is also a great piece. Then you have the successful Roto Grip RST X-1 which is a hybrid so a bit of a competitor to the Nova. So you could technically put all 3 of those balls in the Strong Defined category. You could maybe let the RST X-1 lane shine and maybe use as a mid defined. Surface finish will dictate where you might want to slot the ball. Now the Nova, with its huge core and hybrid medium cover could potentially go head to head with the RST X-1. Will look at the ball reaction and see. But what I wanted to say is that the Nova is a very strong asymmetric core. These big tumbly cores want to get into a very early roll. If they didn’t put a medium strength cover on it, they might have turned it into a 2000s MoRich ball. Those old enough will know what I mean. Anyway, the Nova is early and rolly so it does prefer some volume but it wasn’t totally ridiculous where it’s unusable on the house shot. What I mean is that you can open up the angles a bit and get it to bite back. And I’d probably say it has a clear sweet spot for me around the 3rd arrow which is enough oil up front. More direct left me with a 7 pin every other ball more or less. But get to the sweet spot and boom it looks really good. And as you get in, it starts to lose steam a little bit but it prefers in over out. It’s just a little too strong from direct but maybe a touch too big a core to get super deep unless you have big hand or slow it down. Bottom line is, it’s not as strong as the Proton Physix or Reality but more chuggy and earlier than the RTS X-1.

With my rev dominant 2-handed style you might think this is too much but that bit of chug I described earlier made it fairly easy for me to throw 2-handed. Yes I was pretty deep but that early roll meant good control and relative smoothness in the transition. So I just pushed it to the spot and it made a nice smooth transition. I did leave a couple of 6 pins and a couple of 10 pins but I felt pretty comfortable overall throwing it 2-handed.

Final Thoughts
Not sure I am personally fond of the covers but I guess the weird bubble gum swirl will catch the eye. That said, the Nova is a pretty good ball but where does it fit. I think it somehow straddles the line between strong defined and strong control, in some ways like the Omega Crux. It is certainly a touch less than the Proton and Reality but not hugely. It’s also not clean enough in out of box to be mid defined. For the average bowler, it is possible to creatively slot this as Strong defined minus or even possibly strong control. It’s a little bit of a chameleon which I think will make it an interesting option for Storm.

A Power Player’s Perspective
TBD

A Stroker’s Perspective
It’s Bryan’s turn to test the Storm Nova to give you a perspective on what this big hybrid asym is like. At first he was a tad confused. It seemed a bit release sensitive. He quickly figured out what was going on and then it was off to the races. The Nova actually looked great for Bryan. He was going through 11 to 7 and it looked great. He moved 2 and 1, still great. Another 2 and 1, guess what, looked great. You can see the core want to start up. Somewhere around 35ft its transitioning and by 50ft it’s rolling. It just rolls heavy. I wasn’t really sure what Bryan would see since I found this personally to be a bit less than the Proton and Reality and earlier than the RST X-1. Sometimes earlier stuff kind of dies for Bryan. This ball just seemed to smoothly but reliably turn over. He got all the way in to the 3rd arrow before he felt like there will be a touch of deflection but that’s a lot of room on a house shot for Bryan which would potentially make this a house shot killer for him. He took the opportunity to compare it to his Lock since that is one of his go-to balls. It’s currently in his strong defined (-) so just in between the top ball and the medium defined shape. That’s basically what I described where the Nova would fit for me. Now the Lock does have a good amount of games but he always keeps the surface fresh and you can see that the Lock is a little cleaner and a touch more angular. The bottom line is that while the Nova is a little earlier and smoother, it would have a chance to fit in that slot when he finally needs or wants to replace the Lock.

Sport Shot
TBD

Thanks for watching.