Author Topic: True or false: Oil is a thing of the past. (Read 3621 times)

JessN16 · « **on:** September 17, 2008, 01:56:34 PM »

I bowled three tournaments this summer, plus my summer league and now my fall league.

Outside of the "long pattern" at The Gathering, I have yet to see evidence that oil still exists. The house shot in Winston-Salem absolutely flew. The Alabama State Tournament had automatic back ends and virtually nothing outside 10. A local tournament here was dry as a cat's tongue.

My summer league shot was roughly 32-35 feet of oil, low volume, very little crown in the middle, but without a real wall outside. Averages were down about 10-15 pins from regular fall league. Our first night of fall league, the volume was up and the length had been buffed down to about 40, and everyone shot the lights out, so the next week, it was back to a shorter, lower-volume pattern.

I'm not complaining about the house reining in the shot. I'm just commenting on how hard it is to find oil these days.

Jess

JessN16 · « **Reply #16 on:** September 19, 2008, 03:05:30 AM »

quote:
PB - that's true, but I think in some areas we're talking about the last 12 months or so.

quote:
I think houses are combating modern gear and the price of buying lane oil by putting less on the lane

Two birds with one stone kind of thing. It would be interesting if all of the houses got together and put out less out. How long would the hook monster equipment (generally) last?

Jess - as you know, I recently moved east from Phoenix. I will say that in general, conditions were heavier there but (presumably because of the low humidity and high heat) broke down quicker. Here in the Southeast, the conditions seem to hold up pretty well, but most houses put down a lighter pattern to begin with. Maybe the two go hand in hand?

I've heard that some conditions overseas (Europe) are deplorable in that the heads are totally fried on a regular basis. Thus the Mika loft.
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J.J. "Waterola Kid" Anderson, the bLowling King : Kill the back row

J.J.,

If you haven't been through a Southern winter yet, I can't wait to hear your take on it. In Alabama, at least, when the relative humidity remains up during the winter, it wreaks havoc with oil patterns. As soon as it gets cold down here, balls start skidding for days. Totally different deal than in the summer.

Re: your comment about the heads in Europe vs. here -- Dry heads don't both me much. I grew up in houses with terrible heads and, like Mika, I naturally loft the ball a little now as part of my normal shot. If the shot forces me to loft it more, I typically can compete better. My real problem is when the mids go. And that's what I've been seeing around here now for about a year -- the mids just GO, and then it's all downhill from there.

Jess

Maine Man · « **Reply #17 on:** September 19, 2008, 03:18:07 AM »

Up here in the northeast, I see no problem with the amount of oil, but the footage that it is laid out varies greatly. In the two houses my leagues are in, I have one house that puts it down 38ft., and the other one that goes 42ft. Another thing affecting the shot is how clean the backends are. Up here, most houses have sloppy backends, pins sliding everywhere, and generally poor carry. Nothing worse than trying to bowl on shots where the heads start to go away, and the backends are slopped up to the head pin.
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MainePBA
"I'd rather be a conservative nut job than a liberal with no nuts and no job."

Sean John 369 · « **Reply #18 on:** September 19, 2008, 10:36:56 AM »

Come to AMF alpine in Sacramento..The stay dry...they have been putting more oil out lately but still considered pretty dry...
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mainzer · « **Reply #19 on:** September 19, 2008, 11:23:30 AM »

I am in Wisconsin I have been think the lanes have been drying out the last few years, also we have vastly different shot in summer than in winter because the vastly different temps etc.

In summer temp is 85+ 100% humidity and 60 dewpoint=thick
In winter 0 degrees 0 humidity 0 dewpoint

lots of difference, shots with the same volume play alot heavier in summer than in winter
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MainzerPower

dicnic · « **Reply #20 on:** September 19, 2008, 04:14:49 PM »

I have a difficult time believing that oil dries out on synthetic lanes but at our local house here in SE Florida it appears that is so. The other night when I arrived for league, the lane guy was on lane 5, fiddling with the machine. Apparently it had broken down and he finally got it going again. He ran 5, 4, 3, 2 & 1, then put the machine away.

We started on 3 & 4 immediately, and there was a nice amount of oil, which is unusual for this place. I bowl there three times a week and the lanes are almost always dry with flying back ends. I guess some nights they oil after they close and then the oil sits until the next morning. Senior leagues all day, re-oiling before evening leagues, and the lanes are always pretty dry.

I think their oiling machine is an oldie and not a goodie so perhaps it simply does not work very well. In any event, I am beginning to believe the oil dries out overnight. How is this possible?
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Never take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

StormFreak5552 · « **Reply #21 on:** September 20, 2008, 02:24:12 PM »

Hey, my house almost seems like your bowling on sandpaper. I'm only 13 and i average around 145, but when I go to Edmonton,(I live in Canada) I'll average 170 throwing constant 550 and 600's. I do have to agreed K-dawg here oil is a thing from the past not of the past.

Author Topic: True or false: Oil is a thing of the past. (Read 3621 times)

JessN16

True or false: Oil is a thing of the past.

JessN16

Re: True or false: Oil is a thing of the past.

Maine Man

Re: True or false: Oil is a thing of the past.

Sean John 369

Re: True or false: Oil is a thing of the past.

mainzer

Re: True or false: Oil is a thing of the past.

dicnic

Re: True or false: Oil is a thing of the past.

StormFreak5552

Re: True or false: Oil is a thing of the past.