Report Card: XPonent 

We actually did that for a year or two, but the problem there is that you can't really as much of a difference on camera as you might think, plus there are HUNDREDS of different sport patterns as well. Beyond that, they generally they tend to make the ball look worse than it actually is, and very few balls are actually designed for tougher conditions, so trying to do a review for a ball on a condition it's not designed for is unfair. Chromium splits the gap across the board, it's tough enough to keep us honest but be scorable with good shots, and generally reflect the ball reaction "truly," there's enough oil that stronger balls are still in play, but weaker balls can hang out too, so it gives us a really good idea where everything fits. Everything hooks on a house shot, so it makes everything look closer than it actually is, and balls that were designed for sport patterns will look great on tougher stuff, but trying to review the XPonent Pearl for example on a fresh sport pattern just wouldn't be fair or give anyone any kind of accurate information.

Nope, the pearl version will still be the sharper one. When dealing with different formulas, you can throw solid-hybrid-pearl out the window when comparing to other formulas, because the pearl Exotic Gem for example is MUCH stronger than the solid Absolute Power, however in the case where you're dealing with the same (or very similar) cover formulas, the solids will typically be the earliest and smoothest, pearls will be the longest and sharpest, and hybrids will be in the middle even at the same surface prep. It doesn't say as much on the website, very vague actually, but I'd expect that the XP and XP Pearl covers are basically the same thing, so at the same surface, I'd expect the XP Pearl to be the cleaner, sharper, and weaker ball overall.

I have the Summit and ended up getting the Xponent to have a bit more separation than the Phaze 2 would give me. Very happy with the decision, although the P2 would be great too.

A Hustle RIP would be a really good ball down from an XP

@@LukeRosdahl thanks for the advice. Been watching your videos since the Hyroad Nano came out. I still appreciate all the things you have done, and for the technical thought

I try to reference them as often as possible, and I used to drop the charts into the reviews, but we haven't had one in a while, and nothing with the new Global covers on them either, so it's a little bit of a crapshoot at the moment.

@@LukeRosdahlI watch a ton of ball reviews and still can’t keep it straight. Balls like the !Q Ruby can be very misleading if you go by their stats alone. Why do you think the manufacturers don’t publish this info any more? With so many releases, it seems more important than ever.

Because it's better for business if people don't know what they're buying. However, pretty well every other brand has placement charts, ratings, rankings, advice on how the ball would fit for different styles etc., but Storm doesn't, just a ton of ego stroking and marketing buzz.

@@LukeRosdahlthat is incredibly frustrating, especially considering how expensive the balls can be. The ball descriptions they provide are quite vague and a lot of them sound the same.

Lol yeah . . but with a Hyped Solid, IQ Tour Solid and a Tour Dynam-X already, I didn't need yet another ball on top of all that, and they didn't send us global stuff so we had to buy those. Definitely would have drilled one if they'd have sent it, but wasn't going to go out of my way to buy one just for a video and especially when I already had so much overlap

@LukeRosdahl I totally get that! I've already mentioned in other reviews how I've become kinda jaded on the new ball market, ESPECIALLY SPI, bc there are sooo many releases that are so similar to eachother. And at the same time, there are certain holes that could stand a new release that are ignored. I know you've said the same thing too. I personally have the XP and think it is fantastic. I've heard people describe it as a weaker Phaze II. It's been a good one for me. It also makes me a little sad I sold my old Dare Devil Danger (one of my fav mea culpa reviews you did 😄), since they seem to share some similarities. Oh well.

Summit, Summit Peak, Pro Motion, spare, and then ball 5 rotates depending on what I want to have in there.

Yes, the RG difference between the two cores is pretty large, so is the diff technically, but you'll notice the RG difference much more. XPonent will roll quite a bit earlier.

What you'd do there is clean it with the Skuff first, and then finish it with the 2000 pad. The Skuff will get all the surface dirt and junk off much easier than basically having to just sand it off with the pad. For duller balls I recommend using the Skuff first and then finishing it to wherever you want it to be.

Thanks man, makes sense.

I'm not really sure actually, and if they are it's not intentional! She went through a stretch where she couldn't stay behind the ball that well, but has gotten better recently.