Yesterday I took a tour of the Storm/Roto H.Q. and it was awesome. I was on my way through Utah and wanted to see would they give me a tour. I called in the morning and they told me to leave a message with Corbet telling him what I wanted to do. After leaving the message I figured that was it and there would be no tour since I had to talk to a voice mail. An hour goes by and my cell rings, it was Corbet asking when I wanted to come in. I tell him that I'm a truck driving passing through and would like a tour in about 2 hours could he make it happen, the answer was yes.
I pull up in my truck and think this will be cool. They first thing you see when you walk in is ever bowling ball they have ever made. I was thinking I could use most of those gems today. The next thing you notice is all the good looking ladies they have working there, awesome for Storm. By this time they have paged Corbet and is on his way.
Corbet comes and gets me and were off. First thing he shows me is all the half balls they have ever used so I could see the change in cores over the years. Now we start the ball making process. Of course they start with the core. I saw how they make it, the machines they used and how they get it in to the ball. I got to hold the cell core fresh out of the mold, still hot. After they put the inner shell around the core and that cools they then put it in another mold and pour the resin around that. Thus far I am in total amazement by this process. They a bunch of cool machines that then cut down the ball and make it perfectly round. He took a ball the Hyper gravity (overseas) and showed me how they punch find the cg and mass bias on the balls. He showed me what it will look like when its all done and let me tell you the Hyper gravity is sweet looking. After that was done he showed me the engraving and coloring process which was also cool to see. Now on to the testing area.
They have two lanes there, one wood one synthetic freshly oiled with the current nationals shot. On the rack was all the latest stuff, dimension, 2dimension, virtual, rogue cell, mars and even a bandit II (throw back). So week talk bowling for awhile and he gives me some key chains and I start to head out the door. He then ask do I want to roll some and I'm hell yeah, even though I will be late for my next pick up lol.
I go get my stuff out of the truck and remember all I have are my brunswick balls, crap. I say screw it and bring them in. I lace them up and get at it. I crush the first 5 or so while I'm warming up and he compliments me. I tell him wait till I get warmed up that will stop, then he and the ball driller just laugh. They turn on the C.A.T.S and say let go. So I start with my twisted solid playing like 13 to 10 and hit a few and dump a ton. I am so nervous my hand is shaking. As I pull my ultra zone he tells me we need to get me some new balls, I laugh. I move in and go 18 to 11 and crush the rack. By this time I am feeling a little less nervous and just having fun playing with the C.A.T.S. We talk about drillings and the PBA staffer a lot before I leave.
Mr Corbet was they nicest and best host you could ever ask for. He told me if I ever come through town again just stop in. This tour made my week. When I called that morning I never imagined I was going to have such a great time. Everybody I met there from the high ups to the workers were all smiling and saying high. I finally got to see what my rev rate was(390-460) and bowl were the PBA comes to test. I had the best day ever and now I am a Storm/Roto supporter. Thank you Corbet for the tour and bowl up a Storm.
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working on my game
Weapons of choice
arch rival
rival
ultra zone
twisted solid
smash zone x 2
twisted fury
vapor zone
pit boss old faithfull
Edited on 2/28/2009 1:11 AM
