Who else still bowls on wood lanes for their leagues?

My only league this year is and I feel like half the bowling ball market is off limits. Very well taken care of lanes, but high friction, quick pattern breakdown wood nonetheless.

What equipment is working for my fellow wood lane folks? Just curious 

Gamebreakers. Any of them really. I just recently polished up a GB3 for a tournament in a wood house. Ball looked exceptionally well. Played straight up the boards around 2nd arrow.

Edit:

A web tour may also be a great option. Take some surface off of it and I am it could be a good choice.

After Dark Pearl.  i haven't used it on wood lanes, but you'll love the ability to control it and get good length and smoothness

Old, original wood lanes, with the original Brunswick A model pinsetters.

NOT A2’s.  A model.  Original to the center when it was built, as are the lanes.


 Center is located in Mt. Pleasant, Tx. It is the one that Norm Duke grew up bowling in before his family sold it and moved away.


 Over the years, the center has set closed for periods of time. Being in a smallish, east Texas city, where bowling is just “something to do”, keeping it up and running has not always been a priority, and the money to keep things updated just has not always been there.

 Some investors who love bowling bought the place, and have cleaned it up, and have gotten it going again. They have big plans for the place, and I hope they are successful.

 Long story short, the lanes just were not resurfaced for many, many years. The new owner told me he had them looked at and inspected, and was told they should be good for a couple of resurfaces before needing synthetic overlays, and he plans on keeping actual wood lanes as long as possible.

The answer for me on wood surfaces has been Storm's iQ series of stuff.  You can't beat it.  The Brunswick Vintage Vapor Zone has been good too.  In short, you need a little surface on a weaker ball with not a lot of diff, but some.  -- like .030   - just dont make the mistake of polished covers if over/under is getting you.

Urethane can be a viable option too, but be ready to deal with the carrydown.

I've bowled on these lanes for a few years now and it funny the things that work and don't work.

They are resurfaced every years, 44ft medium oil patterns. A bit more blended on the outsides and not a huge cliff at 10 board, so balls don't bank off the edge all that hard. Still being wood, b y game 2 the line has migrated quickly in, and game 3 its 4+ arrow minimum, or 19 mph ball speed to keep more out.

I tend to use a Hyroad Pearl, but as the night progresses, I move in to get the length, but recovery gets questionable. I tried out my Code Black playing between 4-5th arrow game 1 and it was excellent. But if you let it get too far right, it will run out of energy to make it back.

The IQ Tour Solid is another current go to. It's ok, but 10 pins when I have to migrate in, as we know it does anyways.

I'm thinking I need the core to be a step down off the RAD4 in the Code Black, but the cover to stay around that R2S strength.

I'm ready for synthetics like our other houses though. I want to use more of the equipment on the market.