The Intense Storm has arrived…

First Impressions
I was thinking how pretty much every ball I threw went off the deck straight between the 8-9. Then I realized, this ball has those success factors that Storm is known for. Length, heavy churn, heaviness and drive through the pins.

Oh and we can’t get over how much it looks like the No Rules Pearl…
Where’s Waldo?

Our Testers:
Tamer Elbaga (Lefty)
Style: Tweener
RPM: 375 rpm
PAP: 5 & 3/8 up
Average Speed: 18 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: low
Axis rotation: medium
Test Equipment: 14 Pounds
Layout: 65 x 5 x 40
Intent: Medium/long roll with a medium transition at the breakpoint

Jason Boyer (Lefty)
Style: Power player
RPM: 470 rpm
PAP: 4 1/8 & 1/2 down
Average Speed: 19 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: medium
Axis rotation: medium
Test Equipment: 14 Pounds
Layout: 60 x 5 x 40
Intent: Medium/long roll with a medium transition at the breakpoint

Sean Jensen (Righty)
Style: Power player
RPM: 475 rpm
PAP: 4 3/4; 3/8 up
Average Speed: 19 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: low
Axis rotation: medium
Test Equipment: 15 Pounds
Layout: 65 x 5 x 40
Intent: Medium/long roll with a medium transition at the breakpoint

Dave Staboleski (Righty)
Style: Speed/Rev Matched Stroker
RPM: 315 rpm
PAP 4 3/4 & 1/2 up
Average Speed: 17 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: low
Axis rotation: low
Test Equipment: 15 Pounds
Layout: 65 x 5 x 40
Intent: Medium/long roll with a medium transition at the breakpoint

Wayne “Guy” Porr (Righty)
Style: Cranker
RPM: 625 rpm
PAP: 5 1/2; 1 up
Average Speed: 20 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: low-medium
Axis rotation: medium
Ball Weight: 15 pounds

Thanks to Greg Bickta and Perfect Aim Pro Shop for drilling our equipment.
Thanks to Limerick Bowl in Limerick, PA.

Buy the Storm Intense at PerfactAimBowling.com. Check out the video for a limited time discount code.

“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.”

Test Pattern:
THS: 40ft, 26ml
Sport: 42ft, 24 ml, 2.67:1 ratio

Value
8.5/10
The Storm Intense has a similar formula to the Snap Lock and No Rules Pearl. Many bowlers will find the Intense very usable on their typical house shots. Strongish pearl cover gives good length but some midlane control. Core flips and rolls hard the way you expect from Storm. It will help a lot of bowlers scores.

Specs
The Storm Intense uses the RAD-E™ Core inside the R3S pearl coverstock.
15 pound = RG of 2.49, diff of .050, mb of .017
14 pound = RG of 2.53, diff of .050, mb of .014

Overall
8.5/10
We test the Storm Intense on both the house shot and sport compliant shot with 5 testers, but we’ll start with the house shot.
Getting right into it, I’m throwing the ball first on our fresh house shot. Within one ball, I knew where the line was. The ball is clean with that shine but the R3S coverstock provides some midlane read which gives you the benefit of the strong punch downlane. If you look to quick you might think it’s skid/flip but it’s not. The midlane read and churning of the asymmetric core give that illusion due to max energy transition. This is a characteristic that Storm has been getting right with asymmetric pearls for some time now. My shots went through identically through the pins. I’m not that good 🙂 How does the No Rules Pearl compare. Interestingly there is more variation than I expected. Intense stands up harder. The No Rules covers similar boards but is more rounded at the breakpoint.

Jason is a high rev lefty. He also found the pocket relatively easily. With more tilt, he naturally has a little smoother transition to the friction which helps when you have that high a rev rate. The ball still drove really hard through the pins and the more it sees friction the harder it flips. Jason and I both had somewhat of a defined zone on this pattern due to the higher volumes in the middle. Once we hit the cliff, we saw soft reaction. Jason did 3-7-9 testing out the inside limits. On higher friction patterns, the Intense will be sideways.

Dave is a rev/speed matched stroker. These Storm and Roto asyms just plain look great in Dave’s hands. Dave’s got the ability to keep the line in front of him through the track. The ball still displays that good length but rarely thinks about being too long in the track. It’s too aggressive to be soft in the track. Dave pretty much parked just inside the second arrow out to 6-7 at the breakpoint and the ball made a very reliable move off that spot and through the pins.

Sean is next and as a high rev player, he parks between 5th and 6th arrow. The Intense is very reminiscent of the Snap Lock. I do think the Snap Lock core is stronger and that ball stood up a little harder but they are so close. The Snap Lock is Sean’s favorite ball of all time so this ball gives him the same reliable motion he absolutely trusts and can vary surface between the balls to give him different looks. Sean’s pretty much covering the whole lane and despite that didn’t once flag the headpin right. That meant he can totally get comfortable opening up and throw it away from the pocket all the while knowing he’s not giving it up. That’s a recipe for big scores. Sean also tested against the Roto Grip No Rules Pearl and that ball is a touch smoother which makes it a nice compliment to the Intense for him.

Finally we have Guy on the house shot. It’s always fun to watch this much power even though most of us including 2 handers can’t generate it. Nevertheless, my first instinct watching Guy throw the Intense is that he’s easily going to be adding a bunch more 300s to his resume. His sweet spot was around the 4th arrow but he had a pretty big plus or minus. He is not typically a huge fan of pearls due to his power and speed, no reason to add unpredictability. But the Intense looked quite predictable and although he can blow it through the breakpoint with speed, he rarely saw that reaction.

Now on to the sport shot. I started with it shiny out of box and as you would expect found it too finicky. That’s the first shot which was still fun. I came back to the shot after it had settled a bit with a few games not thinking it would change as much on the left side. Put light 3000 pad scuff on it and I was totally taken by surprise. I went from playing 16 at the arrows to 24 with a fairly large swing. Although I would typically not bother playing that deep, I did see something I really liked with some surface. The Intense with R3S became a really strong midlane ball while still having big punch downlane. Solids typically don’t store that kind of energy so it was a bit of a revelation. More volume or on fresh might be really where the surfaced Intense shines on tough shots.

Jason was next and he maintained the shiny OOB surface. You can see that even with the shot broken down a bit, shiny was not the way to go. The move at the breakpoint was somewhat unpredictable, not wildly, but not enough for carry. So this ball can definitely be a sport shot ball but you will want some surface, which will make it a beast, which then means you need a higher volume or longer pattern. Makes sense?

Moving on to Dave. He was closer to the 3rd arrow with the OOB finish. Again, this shot had some lane play on it now but you can still see some softness off the breakpoint. Being a 42 ft sport pattern you really couldn’t move your breakpoint much outside as the ball simply will not make it back and Dave did flag the headpin occasionally trying to find the pinpoint spot downlane. The pearl cover plus surface really played too tricky to make sense for Dave.

For Sean, at this point with a somewhat broken down sport shot, a shiny pearl asym is something he absolutely loves to have in his hand. He is already comfortable throwing the ball away from the headpin with the confidence it will make it back. That hook/set motion of the asym core is perfect for his game on tough shots as the ball just barrels through the pins. He made quick work of this pattern with the Intense and I’m sure it will see light of day for him on sport.

Finally Guy tries his hand. He found himself initially too far right. He was also projecting it right because it will not hold. But it also won’t hook from outside 7 or so. Finally when he got close to 6th arrow out to 10 is when the strikes started flowing. He needed to first find the right breakpoint and then find the right angle to get it there. The Intense is so strong that he had to be deep to use that breakpoint but the ball also had tons of energy through the pins.

Final Thoughts
While you watch some of the shots that didn’t make the cut, here’s the wrap up. The Storm Intense is going to be on a lot of racks at your neighborhood league. Storm has found the ability to provide house bowlers something that helps them score. The ball is clean out of box so no fighting to get it downlane in the track. It chugs and turns heavily into the pocket all on its own without needing to give it tons of hand. Due to its strength downlane, you will find miss room as well. For those of us that bowl on sport shots, the Intense is also an intriguing ball. For the high rev bowlers, they don’t have to touch the surface. Just use it as the edge is knocked off the shot. For medium rev bowlers, putting even just a little surface on it turns it into a beast that is super predictable in the midlane but still aggressive downlane. This is going to definitely be an option for me on longer patterns like Scorpion. So there you have it. You can decide if this ball makes sense for you but right now every one of our testers had something positive with the Intense.