First Impressions
On paper, the Storm Absolute should be another big shiny asym and while we’ve grown accustom to those from Storm, the Absolute is a bit different.

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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: 14 Pounds
Layout: 50 x 5 x 45

Bryan Hoffman (Righty)
Style: Stroker
RPM: 280 rpm
PAP: 4 1/2 & 1 1/2 up
Average Speed: 18.5 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: high
Axis rotation: medium
Test Equipment: 14 Pounds
Layout: 50 x 5 x 45

Tyler Church (Righty)
Style: Power Player
RPM: 450 rpm
PAP: 5 1/2 & 1/2 up
Average Speed: 19 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: med
Axis rotation: medium
Test Equipment: 14 Pounds
Layout: 50 x 5 x 45

“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: 42ft, 23ml
Sport: TBD

Specs
The Storm Absolute uses the Sentinel asymmetric core inside the R2S Deep Hybrid coverstock.

15 pound = RG of 2.48, diff of .050, mb of .021
14 pound = RG of 2.54, diff of .045, mb of .018
Coverstock finish: Reacta Gloss

Overall
Where am I going with this? Well let’s take a closer look. The Absolute puts a huge strong asymmetric core inside a middle of the road shiny coverstock. I have said in the past that while I liked balls like the Astrophysix that used R2S on a top line ball on their merit, I didn’t like such a middling cover on a high end ball in practice. Me personally, I struggle with the value proposition when a top line priced ball fits in a mid late category that can be fulfilled by a multitude of less expensive balls. Above this, I hate reactagloss, plain and simple. Sounds subjective but truth is objectively, I have yet to see a useful reaction with that finish. So I don’t see a big description from Storm on thus ball but the implication of a Premier line ball is the next gen, strong stuff. The Absolute out of the gate didn’t really come off strong enough that I can consider it in the Mid Defined that I expected it to be in. The cover was cracked with a fresh 3000 grit pad, in fact a touch harder than I normally do. What we saw was a somewhat unpredictable reaction. It started out OK for me but for every ball that made the turn, another just felt too smooth to see downlane response. So I’d go from good motion to flat motion. Clearly the ball gets easy length but what we weren’t seeing was consistent motion at the end of the pattern. What I saw was a ball that’s pretty sensitive to release changes. I kind of expected a big core wanting to right itself a bit more and be less sensitive but I think this comes down to the cover. I tried so many things as I never really found a place where the ball was happy. Ultimately forward with straighter trajectories took advantage of the heavy roll of the core.

Up next was Tyler. Sadly it was more of the same really. Yes he will cover a few more boards and that’s relative to his game. Trouble is he had a very similar over/under. He would throw some shots, find the ball a bit strong and start migrating left. Then he would find the ball kind of stop and roll forward but with no angle. We thought eh, could be an errant shot but it happened quite a bit. Now perhaps the cover is a bit weak for this fresh house shot but we test all the balls on the same condition and don’t typically have much trouble with shiny balls being terribly tough to manage. It made me really feel like the cover is extremely weak or it needs a complete resurface to get a different underlying grit and then get a little shine in. I love R2S in general so even if in principal I don’t like it on high end balls anymore, I didn’t expect to see this much trouble using it. We did go a little deeper towards the end of Tyler’s shoot with a 3000 pad and it did cut down the over/under more but the ball I would say didn’t quite face up the way I would’ve liked to see, Given the improvement it had, it puts more credence into a complete resurface.

Next was Bryan. In his case, the Absolute looks a bit better. In his natural groove on this pattern, the Absolute is in its happy zone. So we see that length work but this time it kind of matches up to when the core wants to turn over and the end of the pattern, leading to a good down lane motion. It still felt a bit on the weaker side overall. The only tell-tale in Bryan’s case that anything was amiss was that several times, the shot would look great but leaves a ringing corner. That happened to me and Tyler as well. So it was just a little late coming in behind the head pin.

Final Thoughts
Now obviously we can only gauge what we see and on this walled up house condition and this pair of lanes, the Absolute really didn’t match up very well. It worked for Bryan. I like to think of these high end balls as something that belongs closer to the top of the bag. The Absolute really didn’t behave like a Mid Defined and for all of us would really be in the Mid Late slot. With that said, mid late is already super crowded with the Night Road, Phaze V, Fate, Hyroad, Wolverine Dark Moss, on and on. As it is, I can tell you where it fits and you can decide for yourself. I’d like to come back to this ball with a significant change in surface to give it another shake.

Thanks for watching.