Gotta give a bump to this awesome topic.  Thanks again Jason  The info on the Pink Hammer was really helpful.

Jeremy
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"Strive to be perfect,  that is afterall the only way to become perfect."

"If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans."

Taken from Desiderata

Proud user of Columbia 300 and Visionary Bowling Products

Hi Eddie,

We are working on developing a new hook rating system.  The problems that we are facing with the old rating system is that each bowling style rates the balls differently, and when you average them out, some of the balls come out almost identical.

For example, when a cranker throws something like the Green Gargoyle (pearlized reactive) on a medium house condition with fresh backends, it can absolutely fly across the lane.  For myself (i turn the ball a fair amount), I can go gutter to gutter, and I would call the overall hook rating on this condition a 90/100, and the backend 95/100.  When a stroker throws the ball, they wouldn't get nearly the same amount of pop on the backend, so the overall hook would be less and they may rate the overall hook rating at 75/100 and the backends at 80/100.  Average it out, and it becomes 83/100 for overall hook, and 88/100 for backend.

Now, throw a particle on the same lane condition, and while it hooks much earlier for me, it bleeds off alot more energy during the front portion of the lane where there is oil, and doesn't have much left on the backend.  I may call the overall hook on this condition 85/100 and the backend 80/100.  When the stroker throws the ball, his low rev rate will allow the ball to retain some of it's energy, so he gets bigger backends and more overall hook.  He might rate it as 88/100 for overall hook, and 92/100 for the backends.  Averaged out between the two styles, and this particle ball now has an overall hook rating of 86/100 for overall hook and 86/100 for backends.

Comparing the two, you get the following:

Pearl Reactive ball - overall 83/100    backend - 88/100

Particle ball - overall hook 86/100    backend - 86/100


Even though we both rated the balls completely different because of our styles, the averages ended up being pretty close to the same.  If a cranker purchases both of these balls, and thinks he is only going to see 2 points difference in backend, he will be disappointed when the particle ball doesn't have even close to the same backends.

Vice Versa, if a stroker buys them both, he would be disappointed that the skid/snap ball doesn't come close to the same amount of overall hook.

As I said earlier, we are working on a new method of comparing the balls, and we should have it ready by the time we release the catalog in June.

Jason Wonders
Visionary Bowling Products

Edited on 5/4/2007 1:45 PM

hi Jason, i am really interested in joining the test staff platinum package but one of the benefits is have 30-50% of all equipment but when checking the website for prices on the new stuff i couldn't find them please help me with this question and i want to thank you in advance for your time
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Remember anything can happen
BOWL TO WIN !!!!!

Jason,

Are you still doing the monthly quiz contests? There are not any winners posted since January.

Thanks
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Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.
                    -Vince Lombardi

VISIONARY TEST STAFF 07/08

My name is Jimmy, and I know a few of the family members, (Jeff and his daugher) i was told about a blue and silver ogre. whats the word on that one?

Hi MC,

We have still been giving away a ball each month for the drawing, the website just hasn't posted the winners for the past few months.  The winners are still being notified, and have collected the balls, it just hasn't been posted.

Hey Oz,

Sorry bud, the stars just haven't aligned right to find those balls for you yet.  I will definitely let you know if any of these somehow happen to show up.

Hi Jimmy,

The Silver/Blue Ogre is going to be a replacement for the Green Gargoyle.  It is a skid/snap type ball that will be best suited for med-drier lane conditions, or house shots with fresh backends.  It isn't meant for much carrydown, but this ball can really open up the lanes when the shot is right.

We haven't set a release date yet, and we were hoping to get it by the end of May, but it looks like it is going to be sometime in June now.  When we have an official release date, I will come on here and post it.

Jason Wonders
Visionary Bowling Products