I recently bought one of these in a two for one deal that Elite was offering. I was hoping the hook potential was as advertised because I needed something to play inside the 20 bd. I have succeess everywhere from the channel to about 20, but then my equipment starts to lose the energy needed to carry. I'm a cranker/tweener with med.-high speed and revs who can usually hit his mark consistently. What I don't like doing is throwing the ball 13 mph on flooded conditions in order to get the ball off the corner with any kind of hitting power. So I was really hoping this ball would allow me to keep my speed up when I was forced to play deep on heavily oiled conditions. It did.
I punched this one up with Elite's recommended 3 3/8" Leverage layout. I left it in out of box, 320? 400?, I'm not sure, but dull to say the least. I was throwing on the second oiliest PBA Senior Regional #? (can't remember which #). I was throwing about 17mph using 20-22 at the arrows out to a juicy 7-8 break point. The ball never made it to the break point, burning up halfway down the lane and rolling out every time. Just way too strong in out of box for these conditions So, undeterred, back to the pro shop I went where I took the surface to 2000 w/no polish. Now the ball began to retain some energy through the middle and had a much improved move off the break point, with added hitting power. It was still rolling out a little bit and leaving flat tens on this condition, but the 2000 no polish surface would probably match up perfect on something even oilier. So again, it was back to the pro-shop where I took it to 4000 with some polish. Once I applied a little shine, oh my, this Shark started to hunt. Now the ball was retaining all of it's energy in a beautiful, heavy rolling arc that culminated in a controlled, yet violent move off the break point. The pin carry was equally powerful, with what seemed like a lot of help tripping out those late 4 pins and 4,7,10 combos. As long as my delivery and targeting were there, this ball did everything I asked it to without any strange hiccups or uncharacteristic ball roll. It was steady, responsive to hand position changes and controllable if thrown with a little skill. Oh, and by the way, did I mention that THIS THING HOOKS? It does...at your feet, if you're not careful!
Now, having sung the praises of the Shark, I feel compelled to indicate that I don't think this is a ball for your average league bowler. Perhaps something a little less aggressive in the Elite line would be the way to go in that situation. Because this ball is designed for extreme oil, it is much better suited to those of us who take this game seriously and have developed the skill and desire needed to play those flooded sport conditions that can turn the strongest equipment into a White Dot. In these cases, where you need something to hook at your feet, this really might be it. I compete regularly in tournaments where once carry down becomes a factor, we often struggle opening up even a small area on lengthy, tight conditions. This ball eats carry down with glee and could be the answer many of us are looking for. I know I may not always have to use it, but I won't go anywhere without it.
"It's better to have a gun and not need it, than to need a gun and not have it."
