What I was surprised to find in the TORRENT is a ball that is a solid 3 to 4 board stronger overall than the ROCKET SHIP is with the same layout (50 x 5.5 x 40) which puts the pin above my bridge center.  This is starting point pin up layout for me.   The tweak of the Booster core employed here to make it HV (heavy volume) has upped the RG slightly from 2.54 to 2.56 and lowered the DIFF slightly to .044 from 0.046.   Even though it is overall stronger than the ROCKET SHIP, the TORRENT feels cleaner through the front part of the lane to me and appears to be longer before starting the transition skid/hook.  It’s not night and day different.  It’s about as different as the smidge higher RG.  The TORRENT for me is also stronger motion down lane than the ROCKET SHIP, though the motion is still even and smooth change of direction.  It is not at all abrupt and sideways

The TORRENT comes at 200 grit abralon.  Using it at box finish I found that it made its way through oil just fine but would sometimes labor a little down lane if it saw too much dry too soon or for two long.  That always translated into ring tens for me.  Taking the cover to 4000 made that problem go away for me here around town.  Good buddy, Rich Orf, went so far as to polish his and the difference I see in mine going from 2000 to 4000 is only enhanced all the more in his having been polished.  In that regard, the R2S cover proves itself again to be amazingly versatile.

I see very much the same benefit to the TORRENT that is mentioned by the reviewers at Bowling This Month, who said “we had…less down lane motion than we had with other sanded Storm balls, such as the ALPHA CRUX and PHAZE II.  This allowed us to play more direct to the pocket on the fresh.  All three testers like the difference in motion the Torrent created compared with the other dull balls in the Storm line.  We could stay with this ball longer…since it didn’t want to jump when it saw friction.”

 In the language that has become popular recently regarding ball motion, the TORRENT has slow response time.  For this reason I anticipate it being awesome on flatter sport patterns.  Still waiting to see if anyone reports having success with it at the Open Championships this year.  I have a very strong feeling at this point I’ll have at least one in my arsenal, if not this one with this layout.  The cover is certainly strong enough – especially when sanded --- to handle plenty of volume (I suspect even thick ICE or DEFY oil) without any worry of skidding out.