Resurfacing at the Pro Shop
Scott PohlDescription
When a tire begins to lose its tread, you have two options: rotate it or replace it. A bowling ball with a lot of games on it requires similar maintenance. In this Free Video, Scott Pohl, owner of On Track Pro Shop, explains how resurfacing your bowling ball in the pro shop improves its performance.
No Maintenance
When you continue to bowl with a ball that needs to be resurfaced, you’ll notice declining performance. Pin deflection and skidding past the breakpoint are warning signs that you must get into the pro shop for a resurface.
The bowling ball will look shinier than when you originally bought the ball and because of the amount of games bowled, its original surface number out of the box will change as well. For example, in just a few games, a bowling ball with a 2000 grit finish can go up to as high as a 4000 grit surface.
Resurfacing
The process starts out on a bowling ball spinner in a sink with water, using 360-grit sanding pads and working up to the desired finish. You should have this done every 60 games or six months.
For best results in between resurfaces, you should clean your ball after you bowl. Why after and not before? Because the ball will absorb more oil as it sits and waits to be used compared to just cleaning the ball at the end of training or competition.
Next, apply the surface to your ball as needed. Take your sanding pads and bring the finish back, or change it to what you need for the competition you are bowling. Remember, 75% of a bowling ball’s motion (the way it reacts on the lane) is credited to its coverstock surface.
Hi there. My name is Scott Pole. I've been in the pro shop business for over 30 years. Four time team USA member. One thing that's extremely important is getting your bowling ball resurfaced at the pro shop. I do this a lot quite regularly, especially when I notice certain things happening with my bowling ball. Kind of think of it as a tire going down the road on your vehicle, it starts to wear out, smooth off in certain spots. Right. Well, what do they do? They can either replace the tire, get it rotated. It's the same thing with a bowling ball. We want to have good traction on that ball as it goes down the lane. What if we don't? Well, the ball doesn't hook the right way. There's a lot of pin deflection and it just won't carry very well. I have three different bowling balls in front of me. They were all finished a different process. Well, you know what? This one is very shiny. This one's kind of in the middle and this one is very dull and porous. For example, we started out with this one. This is a 2000 grit out of the box. Well, after we bowl with it for a while, it changes, the surface starts to look a little bit shinier. And the finish actually gets to more like a four or 5000. Even looking more like this type of ball want to do, then I'll resurface that ball. What I like to do is start out with a very rough grit. Get those pores going again in the ball. Start with maybe 360 go 500 1000. On this one, we finished it with a Polish. This one was 2000 and here we went 3000. Strongly recommend keeping that finish right. 75% of bowling ball reaction is having a good surface, keeping it nice and clean. I guarantee you stop in the pro shop, they'll help you out.
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