Review of JUIC Air Texa
Review Air Texa ST with 2 x 729 Lightening 2.0mm (by Alex)
This is a high quality blade made by JUIC. It's got 7mm of thick and very soft balsa wood, followed by 2 layers of texalium and about 1.5mm of what I believe to be Japanese Abachi wood. See the hi-res pictures below. This gives the blade a VERY soft feel, a softness that I've only in balsa blades.
This tend to make it slow and give good touch in the short- and low impact parts of the game. However the balsa gives it a real kick when you start hitting harder, and since there is such a thick layer of balsa, this blade is very fast once you start hitting or blocking a little harder.
Short game/serves
This is pretty much what I found when I started playing with the blade, combined with the medium speed 729 lightening rubber, the short game felt great, and offered very good touch and control. Similarly for serves, I could generate a lot of spin since the ball did not come off fast, and the good dwell time of the blade.
Looping /loop drive
This is certainly where this blade shines, I could do slow spinny loops and real fast loops. Looping it harder and I could feel the kick of the balsa, it felt great, and in some ways similar to the feel of speed glue. The rubber is not really that fast, so I had to dig the ball in a little to get the speed, but it required little adjustment. Close to the table it felt fast, certainly OFF+, and even at mid distance that power was there. It wasn't till I took a few step backs I could feel the power drop off, so this blade is probably not suitable if you like to loop far away from the table.
Blocking / counter hitting
Again this was superb with the blade, the harder it was hit, the faster it came back, and I felt I had good control over where I put it. It seems quite insensitive to spin, which is likely due to the fast rebound speed of the balsa under high impact.
Smashing
Smashing felt very good and I could just hit through the spin. Again the fast rebound speed made it less sensitive to incoming spin, making smashing more accurate and forgiving.
Chopping
Well this blade is a little fast for chopping, but offers good control considering it's an OFF+ blade. Again for low impact shots the control is very good, but against harder ones it feels a little too fast.
Conclusion
Well I was very impressed with the blade, and I think it really shines where you block and counter hit a lot. Looping is still very good, as long as you don't go too far away from the table, where it loses some of it's power.
I think medium to harder sponged rubbers would be most suitable, as soft sponges would make it feel too mushy due to the soft feel of the blade already. I also think having a sponge not too thick (1.5mm to 2mm) would really help, and this helps retain the great feel of the balsa, and since there is already great power in the blade, you don't need as much from the rubber.
