My son is bowling in a tournament there next weekend. Anyone have insights into the lane surface and how it plays?

I thought it was SPL II but searching here, I found a post saying Mad II.

Back ends supposedly are jumpy.

He’s limited to a 5 ball arsenal so trying to get as much information as possible to make decisions.

We won’t know the pattern until the tournament is about to start and he must submit his arsenal choices this week.

Thanks in advance.

Has a ton of ball choices. Had a good year winning ball raffles last year and he got a job with more hours than he was getting before. I enjoy his paying for his stuff now.

His specs are I believe
16 mph at the foul line, 325 rev, 23 degrees of tilt.

Sure Lock
Alpha Crux
Warrior Elite
Snap Lock
SonIQ
IQ Tour Solid
Hy Road
Hy Road Pearl
Wreck ‘em
Hustle Ink
Hustle RIG
Rack Attack Pearl
Black Hammer Urethane
Plastic Spare

So far, we know the IQ Tour Solid and spare ball are going. Probably the Ink

Really looking for what type of lanes there are and if there is much of, if any, difference in SPL II and Mad II.

That's a lot of options. He should decide which 5 or 6 can cover the most conditions.

If he's limited to 5, leave plastic at home and use urethane as double duty

Urethane is giving him issues on left side spares(he’s rh) and blistering his middle finger for some reason. So probably gonna stay with plastic since it’s a two day tournament.

I've bowled there plenty of times and they have AMF MAD synthetics that were installed less than 3 years ago.  Traditionally, the lanes there tend to play little longer/slicker but the backends open up fairly quickly.  The track tends to be 6-10 in that place.  Depending on the pattern, I would likely play with angles that are a little more closed to start.  An asymmetrical solid such as the Sure Lock or Alpha Crux starting out would probably work well as that can allow him to keep angles a little more closed while still carrying in back.  From there, the IQ Tour is a must have as a benchmark in that house.  I'd bring the urethane instead of the spare ball as that can be beneficial if the backends really start to fly and control is needed.  From there, I'd probably throw in a SonIQ and then either the Wreck'Em or 1 of the Hustle balls depending on the motion he is looking for.

The other thing I can tell you is that Ryan Ciminelli drills bowling balls in the pro shop at Airport, so he may also be a good person to talk to when there in person.

Now having bowled on SPL and MAD, I think MAD holds up a little more with the oil patterns overall.  But they are similar with good pin action in most cases and you'll still have a good amount of friction once the shot opens up. 

I've bowled there plenty of times and they have AMF MAD synthetics that were installed less than 3 years ago.  Traditionally, the lanes there tend to play little longer/slicker but the backends open up fairly quickly.  The track tends to be 6-10 in that place.  Depending on the pattern, I would likely play with angles that are a little more closed to start.  An asymmetrical solid such as the Sure Lock or Alpha Crux starting out would probably work well as that can allow him to keep angles a little more closed while still carrying in back.  From there, the IQ Tour is a must have as a benchmark in that house.  I'd bring the urethane instead of the spare ball as that can be beneficial if the backends really start to fly and control is needed.  From there, I'd probably throw in a SonIQ and then either the Wreck'Em or 1 of the Hustle balls depending on the motion he is looking for.

The other thing I can tell you is that Ryan Ciminelli drills bowling balls in the pro shop at Airport, so he may also be a good person to talk to when there in person.

Now having bowled on SPL and MAD, I think MAD holds up a little more with the oil patterns overall.  But they are similar with good pin action in most cases and you'll still have a good amount of friction once the shot opens up.

Thanks for the info.

My son and I appreciate all the replies.

We believe that they will be re-oiling the lanes after 6 games, 4 men per lane. Then 3 games of 5 per lane. That’s day one.

Day two, no re-oil. But only 3 game of 5 per then 9 games of Bakers. Probably only one team per lane.

So guessing break down won’t be as much as an issue as originally thought. I’m going to do my best to confirm the re-oil on day one.

Well, I found out the pattern last year was a modified Junior Gold pattern. Still trying to find out what about length it was.

My guess would be something in the range of 38-42’.