The Journey is a new symmetric ball in Storm’s Signature line, and is Belmo ball number 7. It features the TX-16 Pearl coverstock, which is the first time we’ve seen the pearl version of the Phaze 2 cover. The core is the F-8 core from the Fate, which comes in at a 2.52 RG and a .053 differential in 15 pounds. The Journey at first glance instantly reminds me of a stronger version of the Frantic or Rocket. I’ve used the Journey on several different conditions with a couple different surfaces. The factory gloss is too inconsistent and sensitive for me, so I resurfaced it down to 1000 on a resurfacing machine, then finished it lightly with Storm’s Step 2 compound. The result was a ball that’s exceptionally clean for the first 30 feet before transitioning into a sharp tumble down lane.
The Journey is kind of a wild experience. Like the Fate, it doesn’t really rev much, so it gives the appearance of loping down the lane. The tumbly shape and medium high cover strength keeps it stable before then delivering a unique shape on the backend. The shape typically creates smoother and slower ball reactions, but the Journey is very sharp on the backend. However if you back your rev rate off or increase your speed slightly, you can really straighten out the ball path. Also like the Fate, the reaction is somewhat ambiguous. The Fate acted clean and sharp, but also got a lot more traction and actual hook than it looked like it was, plus could be very controllable on the backend. The Journey is a quite a bit different shape than the Fate, but retains the same jack of all trades feel, it can be both very long and sharp, but early and smooth depending on physical adjustments.
