I actually got the chance to throw the Napalm today at beautiful
Englewood Park in lovely Englewood, OH (Dayton area). Dayton is an area I need to explore more, but this is a wonderful course that I wish was about 30 minutes closer to me. The course has decent elevation and well-defined fairways framed by mature trees, and as much as I tried to avoid them, I didn't. This is the first mold I've thrown that's come from the Salient/Yikun merger. It is tooled with Yikun's tooling and is the "Jun" in Yikun form but was run in Salient's Liquid plastic.
A couple things I noticed last night were that the plastic was incredibly firm but grippy, and the rim is a little unconventional. The plastic seems to be the same as the Suture I posted pictures of last night. It's a little darker than candy apple red in color and quite firm. I didn't encounter any water, but I had zero issues with grip. The flightplate is pliable (more than the Suture, but I suspect it's also thinner), but the rim takes some effort to flex a little. We're talking stiff, pearly Pinnacle Rival firm. I initially thought the rim firmness might be somewhat caused by the shape of the rim, but after throwing it and the Suture in the same plastic today, I think it's more the plastic than rim shape. I think this red Liquid will feel like butter in six months to a year though. I like discs that start a little firmer because of how they season though. I haven't thrown the Jun in Yikun plastic to see whether this is a plastic upgrade or not.
The rim itself, as I mentioned last night, is both concave and convex. From the inside of the rim it starts to curve down somewhat like a Valkyire. There appears to be a very small bead, but I believe it's just flashing. After the rim curves to flat, it enters the convex portion (like a Roadrunner) and eventually terminates at the parting line. This makes the disc thicker by the outside of the wing as a result. I'm generally more attracted to putters and mids so please correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen a wing like this on any other mold. It is definitely unique in the hand but by no means uncomfortable.
In terms of flight, I think the 11/5/-1/2 rating is pretty accurate except with the glide. The Napalm, Suture, and Flatline all have glide ratings of 5, and I would rate this one in the 3.5-4 range. That's not to say it's lacking glide like I found the earliest Proculs to be because it gildes. I just found the Flatline to float like crazy, and the Napalm didn't give me the same feeling. It did love the downhills though. It's no secret I don't have a big arm, but I was able to throw with a little hyzer and see enough turn to flip it up and keep it flying straighter for longer than I was expecting (I throw Patriots for distance, and this is considerably faster). Thrown flat it would turn gently, but it isn't turning enough for me that I would consider it a line shaper. Above 300', I definitely see this being a hyzer flip dream. There was a mild fade that was skewed a little closer to immediate than forward fade. There was also a little wind coming off the "lake" today, and I had no trouble adjusting my throws for however it was blowing.
After my first two rounds, there are some decent-sized surface scratches and a rim blemish from the earlier mentioned tree hitting. I have trouble keeping rims in decent shape, but I'm surprised by this. The Vein and Backdraft I tried in Liquid plastic both finished their rounds without showing damage. They're also a softer blend of Liquid. For me, I would like to see a softer blend. As much as I like firmer plastic, this is just too firm for the rim thickness. I will throw the Napalm in the fun bag to see how much it softens and how much HSS vs LSS it loses.
