First the non-bowling related items... Ate at The Library the first night where the service was ok, the food was not so great, and the guys revving their sport bikes and doing burnouts in front of the bar were annoying. It if weren't for the outfits of the waitresses it would have been a total waste. Ate at Maloney's which had good food and bad service. I guess the servers figure they don't need to come around often when they serve beer by the liter. Oh yeah, and some guy pulled a knife on someone else in the bathroom and got arrested while we were there just to add a bit of excitement to our evening. That was fun. Next we ate at Tuscanos, the Brazilian steakhouse. By far the best meal we had and great value ($18.95 for dinner). Just make reservations if you want to go as it was always packed when we walked by.
We stayed at the Embassy Suites which was very nice. Had a shuttle that would drop us off right in front of the convention center and then came to pick us up. All we had to do was call the bell desk and the longest we waited was 5-7 minutes. Good breakfast there too.
On to the bowling... We worked with Mike Jasnau at Holiday Bowl the morning before our 2:30 team event. It's well worth the money if you get a chance to go as it was by far the closest recreation of the USBC shot that I've encountered. The $15 I spent came back many times over through brakets since I didn't have to worry about picking out the right ball in practice. I already knew which one it was. About 45 mins (figure 1.5 team games) into the session the lanes started to breakdown so you can see what the transition will look like.
Team Event... Shot was exactly the same as what was out at Holiday. Break point at 42-43' on 9 or 10. On the fresh, if you pulled, it went left, outside 9 and it stayed right. The lanes played really tight and were very speed sensitive. 197 first game with 1 open on a 2-4-10 and a 5 count fill ball (tried different ball), 231 second game with 6 bagger to start and a 4-9 split finish, and 177 last game with 1 more 2-4-10 and a 4-9 again in the 10th (that one cost me $500 in brackets). So a 605 series that should have been 650ish. I only moved 3 boards left and that wasn't until 7th frame of the last game.
Doubles/Singles... Bowled at 9:20am behind guys using all pearlized equipment. I started out exactly where I started team with the same ball and didn't move at all, not one board, through either set. 170 to start doubles with 3 2-10 variants in first 4 frames (thank you 4 ball warmup) then 215, 225 to finish with 610. Singles went 204, 183, 195 for a 582.
To give you an idea of the carry,I didn't have a non-split spare miss until the 10th of the first game of singles when I wiffed a 10 pin. I missed two other spares, a chop of the 2-5-8 and a chop of the 3-6-9-10. Otherwise every miss was a split and I went 3 for 7 on split conversions. So 7 opens in 9 games and I managed 1797 for All Events.
I had seen some people post that the convention center was cold and it was. I believe that this was the difference between what we saw with Mike Jasnau and the actual shot when comparing the breakdown of the lanes, or lackthereof. The colder temp seemed to help the oil stay put through the team event even though 9 out of 10 of us on the pair were using equipment at a dull 2000 grit or less. In Doubles/Singles, the guys using pearlized stuff didn't help us out at all. When the lanes did start breaking down the area created was hold, there was no swing.
What I took with:
Overtime (drilled 2"x4", PxCG), used for all but 3 frames
Complete NV (4.5" pin under, MB @ 45), other 3 frames
Black Widow solid (pin 4" under, MB @ 30)
Momentum (4"x3")
Angular One (5" pin under, MB @ 75, 360 grit)
Big Blue Spare
All balls were OOB except the Ang One. I would strongly suggest taking a ball with a surface of around 1000 grit. The Overtime is at that for may arsenal, but I probably needed stronger drilling to take more advantage of it.
