Nord House Shot Report from Surf:
I brought the Jackpot, Midnight Scorcher and Purple Hammer.
I warmup I started with the Scorcher right up second arrow to see what it would do.
Surprisingly it went pretty long and then had a fair amount of backend.
I found it odd and difficult to control.
It had that Asymmetric reaction that I hate, long and snappy.
I then tried the Jackpot.
First shot up 7, just to see.
It went straight as an arrow.
Then I rolled up second arrow and the black tape in the back and cork in the front flew out of the thumbhole and goo got all over my thumb!
I mentioned this before, something is wrong with the chemical makeup of the moulded thumbhole my PSO made and it is causing any tape to become liquified in short order.
I just put new tape and cork in Saturday!
So the Jackpot was out of play, the goo was so gross and soaked in the thumb it would require a long time and lots of chemicals to get it out.
I put the Jackpot back in the bag sadly.
Total B.S.
The shot up second arrow btw did not react, it just made a token move left and bounced off the pocket.
Here is a photo of the underside of the tape and cork.
You can see that all the glue just came off them.
All glue came off tape and cork.JPG
And here is a pic of the thumbhole showing all the goo in there.
It is sticky and oily and will not come out with isopropyl or nail polish remover.
It has turned into a weird sticky goo.
Liquefied glue in thumbhole.JPG
All I had left was my Purple at 500 grit cross sand.
I put right foot on 10 and rolled right up 10.
Powerful strike.
Other lane same thing and so on back and forth for 6 in a row.
I stopped practicing and went and got my drink and play began.
I am second in the line up.
One other player on the other team was using reactive up second arrow.
My first shot hit pocket and flat 10!
Made spare.
Second shot on other lane flat 10!
And this was it for the whole night.
I moved right, left, more inside, more outside, threw faster, slower.
Nothing would work.
The lanes were so super dry and whatever oil I had in practice, was gone right after my 6 in a row.
No kidding.
Every shot rolled out in 10 feet and went dead straight.
A miss right rolled out and stayed right.
A miss left went high.
A perfect shot rolled out and hit the pocket and did nothing.
All night it was all spares of 10s, 7's, 4-7s' and 6-10s and one pocket 7-10.
Normally the Purple will go down and have a nice little backend roll up that tucks in and carries.
Tonight the Purple went perfectly straight, turned over and rolled end over end straight, only maybe two boards at best of right to left movement!
I have never seen a reaction like this before.
It was great for shooting spares and that is all I had tonight.
In three games I had only 5 total strikes, but I was in the pocket all night.
In game 2 I stopped wiping the oil off the ball hoping that maybe it would make the ball skid more and retain some energy.
Nope, did not matter at all.
I eventually I had a crowd watching me because they were equally puzzled by the reaction.
They were rooting for me to get a strike and on one especially high flush shot that we all knew would strike for sure, the 4 just stood there!
Everyone went, "ohhhhhhh!" and started laughing.
We had to laugh at how dumb it was.
My doubles partner who was 5 pairs down came over to watch me and was just shaking his head.
Meanwhile, with his Code Red he shot a 278 in game 2!
It was a big mistake to take the Purple down to 500 grit.
I really underestimated how super strong this coverstock is.
The Purple is actually stronger than the Midnight Scorcher at 320 grit if you can believe that.
The Purple comes out of the box at 500/1000/2000 grit.
I guess there is a reason Hammer did that.
All the pop was gone and it was a straight rolling dead ball.
Even moving left and rolling directly up 13, it still was dead on arrival.
And if I moved right and rolled up 8, it instantly turned over and died.
If I pushed it from 11 to 8 it just died the instant it got right of second arrow and rolled straight for the 6 pin.
I was rolling the ball well and making most of the numerous spares I was presented with.
In the final frame of the 10th in game 3 I was clean but got a washout with a miss right.
So I opened.
I closed the night with a 162, 180 and 174.
Hard won scores since I only had 5 total strikes over those three games.
My teammates did not do better.
One teammate was using his Crux Pearl and it too just went straight with zero backend reaction.
He closed with a 498.
My other teammate was using a Pit Bull and playing 15 to 8 and if he hit it right that ball came back hard and struck.
But his margin was small for the perfect hit.
He closed with a 517.
We lost all points and have lost all points for the last 3 weeks at Surf.
My team was in first and we have plummeted like a rock now.
How many different lane conditions can Surf throw at us?
Each week it is a different condition.
I don't have enough balls to cover them all!
You may say, "Nord, why didn't you use your pads and take the Purple up?"
Because the Purple was dead perfect in warm up, then the oil was gone when play started!
It is so damn annoying.
Every week out, a totally different pattern, volume and reactions for me.
I just don't have the skill and balls to deal with such extreme variations week in and week out.
Tonight I could have used my rubber ball and killed it, or my plastic ball, or my True Motion.
But why would I bring those?
Normally there is far too much oil for those.
This is crazy.
When I got home I immediately hit the Purple heavy with 1000 grit and then lightly with 2000.
Hopefully this restores its pop.
I highly doubt the Jackpot could have done anything, those two shots I made looked dead on arrival.
Maybe the Gladiator, 14 to 10 might have had a reaction for me that could have carried.
I only say this because my teammate was using a much stronger ball, the Pitbull and making that shot sometimes and getting a good hit.
But he has like 400 rpms and throws 16 mph.
So once again, the environment beat me because I had the wrong balls for the pair.
My guess was wrong again...
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