Hello to all bowlers! I was wondering if anyone still bowls on the old wooden lanes from back in the day besides me?? Just curious.

 Our centers lanes are real old wood.  They say they cannot be resurfaced but they always do.  Last year they replaced a lot of boards.

 

Robert

 

 

I don't know if ours can be resurfaced or not but they seem to be replacing other things and doing other things like painting the ball returns, painting the walls, and getting some new chairs. A few of our lanes are not even level. Everywhere else I have gone to bowl in tournaments have synthetic lanes and automatic scoring. We still take our own score and when I tell people that, they look puzzled.

I bowled on a league this past year where the lanes were old wood. Few of the lanes were so bad that the boards were actually starting to come up like they were warped. If had a bowler that would roll the ball around 8-10mph the ball would jump up at points. You were never able to hit the same spot and get good action on every roll. This was harder to bowl on than the PBA sport patterns. All he wants is the college kids money he could care less about the league bowlers.

Taylor, while when lanes are certified by the local associations before each season they must check out width wise within certain specs the same is not true up and down the lanes so on old wooden lanes you must might find a kind of roller coaster effect.  On synthetic lanes you might find a ball jumping up a bit at the splices, had that happening to me at one of my national tournaments.  However, if the lanes are not in compliance, wood or synthetic, in the ways they should be bowlers should bring that to the attention of the local bowling association, some of whom, including mine at one long ago time, check the lanes from the bar area.

 

Don Gates

My center still has the wood lanes, I absolutely hate bowling on synthetic.  I think it was one of the more horrible things done to bowling.  (Especially the synthetic approaches - every center I have been in they are not maintained as they should be - surface very tacky - not appropriate for a bowler that likes to slide a bit.)

There are a lot of houses with the original wood. I am a freelance traveling pinsetter service technician and I service over 25 different centers on a regula basis. Most of these centers are small, and have wood lanes and about six of them have NO automatic scoring, so don't feel alone. In the old days, when resurfacing got down to the nails, we would  flip the lanes and start over, This would give the center at least another 25-30 years of lane life. Of course, new arrows and dots would have to be added, but hey, at that time, we had no synthetic lanes to convert to so this was less costly than replacing the complete lane.

And besides, I agree with mom2tcdx2 also. I hate synthetics also. 

 FYI, some centers are replacing the (maple) heads only with synthetics and leaving the approaches and the pine alone. This, I can live with.

Lonnie:

There are a lot of houses with the original wood. I am a freelance traveling pinsetter service technician and I service over 25 different centers on a regula basis. Most of these centers are small, and have wood lanes and about six of them have NO automatic scoring, so don't feel alone. In the old days, when resurfacing got down to the nails, we would  flip the lanes and start over, This would give the center at least another 25-30 years of lane life. Of course, new arrows and dots would have to be added, but hey, at that time, we had no synthetic lanes to convert to so this was less costly than replacing the complete lane.

And besides, I agree with mom2tcdx2 also. I hate synthetics also. 

 FYI, some centers are replacing the (maple) heads only with synthetics and leaving the approaches and the pine alone. This, I can live with.

That's really interesting...I've done lane inspections for quite a few years and I always found the whole technical aspect fascinating.  You really don't appreciate the game until you crawl around the pits.

Personally, I prefered wood lanes as well.  Seems like it was more of a challenge and when you threw a score, you earned it.

Chrissy :)

I've been bowling for nearly 40 yrs and have never bowled in a league that had synthetic lanes. I have bowled in 2 houses for tournaments that had synthetics (besides the nationals) and shot  300 games in both places. I prefer wood lanes myself.

Synthetic ar ethe way to go!

 

 

 Synthetics are the way to go! Higher scores, more easily maintained and more consistent lane conditions. Synthetic approaches can be a problem for bowlers who slide. Wood is getting harder to find and is very costly to maintain and keep consistent. Besides this is the 21ST century. Grow with the sport or get left behind. I've been bowling 40 plus years and learned the hard way if you don't change with the times you can't move forward.

 

Paul Voelker 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I too have been bowling since I was 8 years old and am now 55. I also work as a technician on the pinsetters, lanes, approaches and all other phases of the bowling centers, including managing, coaching, pro-shop, etc... I personally find it easier to maintain wooden lanes as synthetic has a tendency to raise at the joints and is easily damaged. The edge of the lane will break if a lofted ball lands on it. Then the panel must be replaced. What is easy about that? It's easier to replace or patch a (wooden) lane board.

You may have been bowling for 40 years, but I suspect you don't do much lane repair and or maintenance. Growing with the sport is fine but having the dicipline to adjust to various conditions in various houses is what makes bowling a sport. If one wants the house to provide a shot to the bowlers advantage, then there would be no challange, no competition. Remember the old Aesops Fables; "When you try to please all, you please none".

Sport: (spôrt, sprt)n.

Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively. An activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively.

 If one learns to adjust to various conditions, then one should be able to bowl good most anywhere.

 

paulv:

Synthetic are the way to go!  Synthetics are the way to go! Higher scores, more easily maintained and more consistent lane conditions. Synthetic approaches can be a problem for bowlers who slide. Wood is getting harder to find and is very costly to maintain and keep consistent. Besides this is the 21ST century. Grow with the sport or get left behind. I've been bowling 40 plus years and learned the hard way if you don't change with the times you can't move forward.

Paul Voelker 

aren't higher scores on easier conditions part of the problem and not part of the solution? i always thought that learning to adjust to conditions that are "less consistent" is part of being competitive.

guinevere:

paulv:

Synthetic are the way to go!  Synthetics are the way to go! Higher scores, more easily maintained and more consistent lane conditions. Synthetic approaches can be a problem for bowlers who slide. Wood is getting harder to find and is very costly to maintain and keep consistent. Besides this is the 21ST century. Grow with the sport or get left behind. I've been bowling 40 plus years and learned the hard way if you don't change with the times you can't move forward.

Paul Voelker 

aren't higher scores on easier conditions part of the problem and not part of the solution? i always thought that learning to adjust to conditions that are "less consistent" is part of being competitive.

 

Yep, and by reading paulv's post it would seem that if he wasn't bowling on synthetics he would be one of the "left behinds". Thank god for synthetics , ehhhh, paulv?

 

sincerely, a wood lanes hack....

Randy J Neustaedter  2523-1020