The Rip’D is the polished half of Hammer’s new high performance duo and it offers more length and a sharper reaction off the dry than its sibling, the Rip’D Solid. The Rip’D can be used to start on medium volume patterns, but it is strong enough to use on some heavy patterns when playing straighter up the lane. This ball shares the asymmetrical Rip’D core with the Rip’D Solid, but this version uses a polished hybrid coverstock. Its shiny Aggression Hybrid CFI cover gave it about the same amount of length as the Gauntlet Fury, but it let all three of our testers play a few boards farther left with their feet.

The Rip’D gave all of our testers a strong skid/flip route to the pocket on our medium test pattern. Cranker and Tweener really liked the strong move the Rip’D made off the dry downlane. The Rip’D was strong enough to hook through the middle of the pattern, but without losing energy at the back of the lane. Cranker liked the length from the box finish, while Tweener liked that the low RG core revved up early enough to prevent his ball from ever laboring at the ...