Seriously guys, why do I keep hearing from so many bowlers in-person (including pro shop operators who know far more about bowling than I do) and on the internet about how hook monsters from the last couple of years are so much stronger than the hook monsters from about 15 to 20 years ago? My personal experience of trying out balls from both eras tell me a completely different story.
With the same exact layout and applying a fresh maroon scotch brite pad to everything, I could accurately compare the reactions of all of my bowling balls on a fresh (FLOODED) sport pattern of 29 ml and 43 feet long (solo practice session). I am relatively heavy-handed and have a lot of axis rotation as well. I tried out my Sure lock and Jackal Rising back to back standing at the 8 board and leaking it out to the 5 board. Both balls struggled to read the midlane and hooked sharply at about 45 feet resulting in an ugly wash out respectively with each ball.
I switched to the Columbia Reaction Arc and I MISSED outside my mark by a board in the OB yet the ball grabbed up to 10 feet sooner, hooked sharply and missed the head pin on the left side
. Keep in mind that the Arc (along with everything I tested during this session) has the same exact surface prep and layout as the Sure Lock and Jackal Rising. The Arc even has more games than the other two. I switched to the Trauma Response and it grabbed another couple of feet sooner than the ARC and crossed over past the head pin with less angle. My next ball was the Track Champ. It got down the lane slightly better than the other two with an even look but it still seemed to hook significantly earlier (and more) than the Rising and Sure Lock resulting in Brooklyn hits.
The last particle ball I tried was my newly reconditioned and resurfaced (maroon pad again) Danger Zone HPH. This ball had almost exactly the same length and hook as the Rising and Sure Lock but without the ability to continue from deeper angles. I went back to the Jackal Rising and played in the same spot as the other balls. It still got down to about 40 feet but it was actually hooking sharply to the pocket now with a bit of transition up front and in the midlane.
I continued this cycle of switching back and forth among balls (and making angular moves with my feet and target) just to see how each ball responded to the transition (it was quick with all of that surface I was throwing). The Response, Arc, and Champ where all hooking very early and crossing over after a total of two games worth of shots while the Rising and Sure Lock seemed to still get down the lane and angle to the pocket. The Danger Zone HPH still got down the lane almost as well as the Rising and Sure Lock but when it hit the dry, it would puke and start hitting like a pillow. In fact, at a certain point, the HPH would not recover at all which is fine because the HPH is naturally a hook/set type of ball.
I am not making this up; my Reaction Arc, Trauma Response, and Champ all run circles around the Sure Lock and Rising on the fresh floods and it puzzles me when I keep hearing about how these old covers are "obsolete" (meaning ineffective in this context) when they actually traction much better on the Noah's ark conditions than these new oil balls EVEN with the same exact grit.
