I subbed in state tournament this weekend for a friend who has been really sick. Shot 710 in team. Happy as hell with that. Bowled doubles and singles today. Not so good. Shot 560 in doubles and lucky enough to shoot 570 in singles. Had nothing weak enough to play the lanes. Pulled out the weakest ball I had and tried to take all my hand out of it. Still covering most of the lane.

I don't mean this to be a tangent but I sometimes wonder if the solid oil that is used in today's machines have a significant effect on the lane play and how dry they appear. Back years ago on wood lanes solvent based oils were the norm. I have noticed for the past 2 years the lanes appear to be drier and with more traction. I am learning to play deeper as playing the beak is no longer an effective alternative in leagues in the area I bowl. I am not sure it is so much less volume as viscosity of the oil.

Thats why I use a Slingshot for my spare ball so that when they get toasted I still have something with a decent weight block to throw. If you don't have a low end ball like the SS etc you should if you bowl tourneys. The houses I bowl in around here can be toast in less than 3 games.

Isn't strange how they keep wanting us to buy more hook but then you go to a tourney and you need a plastic ball to even be able to stay on your side of the lane. Go figure!!!!

Totally agree - had some similar "revelation" around here, too. Summer season has more or less started, and centers start putting down even less/shorter oil. In two houses where I went for practice I had, for instance, to put my Hell Raiser back into the bag after 3 frames, because it could not be played at all (at least by me).

Yesterday in training I used my Solaris Blackout - certainly not a strong ball - and had to stand on 30th board and deeper in order to get the ball into the pocket at all.

I mean, where does this lead to? I am slowly getting fed up because I do not have to work on being exact, my biggest challenge has become taming down the back end of my equipment, getting ever more length out of it while trying to keep up a sound skid/hook/roll transition? It has become more or less impossible for me to put some hand into a ball...

Lofting is not the issue. But I'd rather use these tricks in LATE games, and not on something that is supposed to be fresh! 

Ah, sorry for my misunderstanding. Anyway, I was pretty successful in that training session with my Pure Hammer and an old Faball Blue Hammer (which works wonders on such turf), for a 1197 through six games.
Adjusting is not the problem, but I am a bit upset by the HUGE gap between what modern balls are capable of (and actually need to pertform well), and the respective scarse oil volumes I frequently face? It's disturbing?

This is something I have mentioned in other forums/topics on here.  The lane surface will not become 65 feet in length nor will it go from 39 boards across to 44 to compensate for the strength of the equipment.  Furthermore, bowling centers wont go to a standard 42-45 foot pattern and/or beef up the volume.  Some centers have more oil in the middle.  But most do not.  They are using similar lane conditions as they did 10-15 years ago. 

I just bowled State Tournament here and I was a little disappointed.  Both centers are only running 2 squads a day.  Well, there has been roughly a good hour plus time frame from the end of the first squad to the beginning of the second.  Problem, they dont see a need to reoil between squads when there is plenty of time to do so.  Another issue, was some of our pairs in S/D had 3 on a lane and some had the customary 2 per lane.  Things was, the center made sure to keep about 12-14 lanes for the purpose of open play use; not to mention that the S/D house only put down a 33 foot pattern.  They had enough lanes to put the 2 per lane in effect for everyone.  They just chose not to. 

As far as the reoiling issue, the first squad at the team house only had 18 teams and yet there was about an hour and 15 minutes+ to reoil those 18 lanes.  Several people went and asked the Director about it and he said no.  After that second team squad, I heard a guy in the parking lot say "I average 220 at my home house and come here to shoot 480".  Then we want to know why bowling is declining.  High scratch AE was around 2050 but high handicap is 2400.  A 350 pin difference is a little much if you are trying to keep bowling prospering.  I know that tournaments should not be carry contests.  I totally get that.  However, with the strength of todays equipment, putting out conditions that render them borderline useless is why people are turning away. 

I am sorry.  but when you walk into a 32 lane house and a State Tournament squad barely fills half the house, that should be an "eye opener".

Twohand I agree. I was looking at the results of the city tournament from where I just moved back to. There are 4 centers in town. For the city tournament they had 17 teams was all. How the hell can that happen with 4 centers in town? For all events they had 31 people. Once again WHY? You know what I might just start a new topic on this.