The Hardest Lanes EVER...Hand Oiled!! 

I work the lanes in a small four-lane club in Texas, and we still hand oil the lanes though I only go out to about 42 ft. With about 30 ml of oil laid out I've gotten pretty good at laying a decent representation of an old school house pattern.

The PBA needs to adopt this as well. This is the grind tournament. Not everyone should have the leaders have 250+ averages.

I’ll take this any day over no oil! I just bowled on a pair literally bone dry throwing plastic over the gutter! Still didn’t even work lmao 😂

I'd like to see more of this in actual PBA competition. They might not seem so superhuman.

6:00 Good to see Simo not being super salty and just laughing at this hilariously unfair pattern. And dat lawft

Welcome to bowling in the 1970s. I used to oil the lanes back then. I used a pesticide spray can to oil the lanes. Oil was everywhere! 5-7s and 8-10s were so common. If you averaged 210 in a league you were one of the top bowlers. Now things have really changed. Now between ball technology and machine oiled lanes, if you average 210 you suck! 🤣

I love how Simo just went "fuck it" and decided to just huck it half way down the lanes. Dude's one of my favorite bowlers because he's so damn creative in his approach to the game.. everything from throwing backups to.. whatever. Dude's a beast.

Awesome video... Love how Simo was throwing on the one arrow and lofting it down the lane... REDICULOUS technique

Welcome to the 1970s. Except we did it on wood lanes. With yellow-dots.

Now you know what real bowling is all about. These artificial 215 to 225 averages you young guys carry today are just that ... artificial. Most of you would carry 185 to 190 on the Lanes we bowled on and with the equipment we had.

Living legend, Pete Weber, still killing it!

In he early 60s all lanes were like this and everyone used a 16 lb ball and bowled down and in. Check out Billy Hardwick, Dick Weber, Nelson Burton Jr. etc. Glenn Allison bowled a regular grip down and in but when he wanted he could spin it like Butturf. He did not because it just did not work on those kinds of conditions. I looked for someone on the 1st or 2nd arrow but these guys just tried to force it from deep outside.

My wife use to bowl on a travel league and one of the places they would go was a 8 lane house and they hand oiled. The ball return was on top of the floor too. Very distracting because you could see the balls come back as you was throwing. Not a lot of high averages at that house either.

Why were the lanes hand oiled, was the machine down? I have had to manually oil lanes before and I buffed out the sprayed oil with a lane buffer mop. I tried my best to recreate the house pattern with this method and when I watched people bowl on it, the ball actually hooked. Our lane machine was down, so I was happy to see the job I did

I bowled a tournament in November that was a 40' flat pattern. My bowling that day stunk up the place. It shows me that I have so much more to learn and practice.

PDW in da house! Damn, that swing/release is still as pure and awesome as ever. Great video chaps, just love watching this sort of tournament. Huge thumbs up.👍

Ive bowled with this type of pattern before wasn't as long as this but we all sanded 800 and it was impossible to hook but we enjoyed it

Holy hell, those looked hard. Simo lofting and playing 35 was insanity but he was making it work

long live the badger..we had the license for it a couple years ago over here in Germany. my teammate and Bill O' Neil are up until this date the only two people ever that have played an official 300 on it :D freaking hilarious

how come you dont just angle the ball into the pocket like norm duke? seems alittle odd everyone is trying to hit pocket from far left side when there is clearly no grip and your leaving 5 pins....

Yes they were hard 😬. League last night they were hooking a ton in the backends… feel like Firelake went bipolar 😂

I was always taught straighter is greater, oldschool! Can some one explain why simo was taking such an extreme angle to the pocket. Why not move right and take some rotation out of the ball and come up the back of it taking a direct line to the pocket? Im not the pro, but in conditions like that, that is what I'd probably do, so I feel like im wrong because the pro's are not doing that.

I haven't seen anyone play the deep inside line like PDW was doing since maybe the 1990's. Maybe even the late 1980's.

Few years ago the house I bowled at had the oil machine break down just before league. The manager an older man in the biz said eff it I'm gonna hand oil. Took a pourer from the bar filled with oil and used a special mop he made on the spot and made a custom 40 to 42 ft shot. We bowl on wood. Shot 620 that night was the highest series that week. One of my prouder bowling moments I must say.

I’d just smoke 2nd arrow and take some hand out at our old alley that had lanes like this. Majority of these guys is high rev so I can imagine they’d have to throw absolute heaters to keep it online.

should have asked pete if his back still hurts from carrying the PBA tv ratings

Let's have a couple Fs in the chat for the person that shot a 97 for a game

Need to bring in some of those guys from Asia that throw helicopter balls or whatever they're called, this is what that shot is made for!

We need never ending Simo! I think he would be great with a channel!

shea chickentender! #youtubeofficial

Interesting angles there. I wonder if 15 or 16lbs used here. Seems like heavier would help with the pocket entry angles played on this pattern

You know those lanes are super hard when you see Pete Weber throwing a proton physix middle arrow and getting 2 boards of break on it lol!!!!

I'm old enough, and grew up in a small enough center, that we didn't have a modern "dial-a-pattern" oil machine until my mid-20's. So I bowled for 15+ years on hand oiled lanes, or with an old school machine that could only apply flat oil on the lane. My play on this lane condition would be to get to the ball side of the headpin, Rule of 31 be damned, play a super tight line pointing at the pocket, and let the little available hook just finish into the pocket. Basically treat the headpin like you're shooting at the offside corner pin (10 for lefty, 7 for righty), except don't use your spare ball. Maybe not the by the book approach, but it sure beats trying to go away from the pocket, and hope you have enough reaction to clear the 5 pin and not leave split.

This is freaking AWESOME!! I would love to give this a try.

How come everyone was playing so far left (or right for the lefties), when they were getting little to no movement?

I used to bowl in a league / house where they still hand oiled. Above ground ball returns prevented a machine from being used. I loved it!

Flooded oil look like hardly any backend hook. Love how they ride with the oil & just go to straight to the pocket.

Wow, great format and pattern! Love it when the pros look just as bad as us normal humans. ;)

I'm no expert, would rolling up the gutter and slowing down the speed work? To maybe get a better entry angle?

Old school...but with much different equipment today.

I want to bowl on this sooooo bad. They should get rid of house shots and just use this. Make spares matter again. lol

I'm certainly old enough to remember hand-oiled lanes... they were the rule rather than the exception back in the day. Some houses would try to oil them the most forgiving as they could under then-current ABC regulations, others oiled 'em flat gutter-to-gutter regardless. Some dragged the lanes parallel, others cross-dragged. Some had urethane finishes, others used lacquer until the latter's insurance rates essentially mandated a switch (too bad, as lacquer was a great surface to bowl on IMO). The bowler must adapt regardless of conditions and equipment; it held true back then and it does today. Just sayin' ;) ;)

damn, those balls aren't hooking at all. is that like 59ft? lol

Just flip some 2,000 paper over and glue it to the ball and you are set!!

Simo....did you lose your suitcase?

You mind putting which tournament you're bowling in future videos? I was surprised to see Pete Weber bowling again

I haven't bowled in 30 years because of an injury and hand oiling was still the norm back then, at least in our part of the country. One house I bowled in hand an automatic oiler but it wasn't very consistent. I averaged 211 one season on hand oiled lanes and it was a lot of work.

Packy....why do the bottoms of your shoes look like they are falling apart?????????

What's your average ball speed. As 2 handed I feel your more Rev dominant than speed but I can't really tell..

Y’all think this is fun to watch here on RU-vid, you should’ve been there in person lol. It definitely looks worse in person 😂

So either the ball hook at your toes and goes brooklyn or you give it just a bit more juice to clear the fronts and it backs up into the pins. That looked worse than 40 flat.

I was there and wanted to meet you but you were always visiting with someone and didn't want to intrude. Maybe I will get to meet you at Wichita next month, guess we'll see.

My center’s lane machine went down a few weeks and they had to do this the only problem is the people that run it are idiots and oiled all the way through the pins🤦‍♂️

Casually bowling next to Pete

I have been watching Mr. Weber his entire career and I was really impressed with his shot in this video. In 42 years of bowling I have never seen the technique of the ball heading to the right as it hits the pocket. It reminds of the tournament where Mr. Simonsen decided for that one event he was a lefty. Mr. Simonsen is the toughest bowler in history. The one thing I keep wondering is why given the super oily conditions our bowling friends didn't stand on the right and throw it toward the pocket like we did in the 1980s and before. Mr. Duke would have surely done that.

I played on similar before .. I just bowled high speed straight

all those lofts simo did and he still hit the pocket and did good strikes

Bowling is sooo much better when spares are at a premium. The better bowler’s truly shine then.

With all that oil shouldnt they be playing a bit more straight over like 1-2 arrow? 😅

During my school meets we hade to bowl at some place that belongs in a museum also hand oiled but i was hooking great

painful to watch ~ next time channel your inner Earl the Pearl Anthony and slooooo down.

PDW (my bowling hero/idol) showed them young'uns how it's done.

Firelake in Shawnee, OK. Chris Skillings runs a good house there.

yeah, no offense but this does not look fun

This lane got yall on the struggle bus 🤣

when i started bowling the place i bowled used a bug sprayer, and a lano duster to oil....big fog and you had to wait for the oil to settle before they would let you bowl

Watching this gives me a headache idk how you guys can bowl on that.

Played a house in a mall n Japan that had so much oil I had a rooster tail and the more finger you gave it the more the hydraulic wedge would force the ball backwards!!! And they oiled through the pin deck!

steve and daniel are some of the best bowlers we got here in louisville and you two crushed them.

All the old-old timers are saying Welcome to our World .:)

this is by far the most interesting bowling vid I've watched... wild conditions out there

Come on people. With tough oil conditions, use the outside line.

Taiwanese UFO players be like: what’s the difference 😂😂

Can somebody explain to me why going cross lane and hitting the pocket light is a better option then just standing on the right (or left) side and throwing it hard at the pocket? With how accurate most professional bowlers are, i feel like that would be a better option and would give more carry

This reminds me of the house I was bowling regularly at in Shenzhen, China. For 6 years before Covid I was traveling regularly there for work. 1 month in the US, next month in China, so I stopped all my league play. My boss there, Chinese-American, was into bowling and got a ball drilled in Hong Kong. He's a little competitive, so I brought 2 balls and shoes there and kept 'em there at the center. The center was built circa mid 80s and never updated, Brunswick 2000 returns and old automatic scoring system that wasn't very accurate. But the kicker was wood lanes and hand oiled. They had an old oiling machine, but I never saw them use it. It was probably broken like much of the things in that center. We'd show up on a Saturday afternoon and could never predict the conditions. I'm a lefty, sometimes I'd show up and the ball would hook the lane into the right gutter. Other times, ball just slide all way down lane. If it hooked too much, the guy would come with the hand oiler, like a big broom. I had never seen that device before. It was made of aluminum it wasn't with a clamped on towel like I've seen before. Definitely a soft surface on the bottom for application and it looked like it could contain oil. I remember at my home center before they got a machine, mid 80s, they used to oil by hand using a rag/towel dipped in the oil, wrung out and pushed down the lane with a broom. Sometimes they'd oil 10-10, sometimes gutter to gutter, or a walled shot - gutter-gutter then 10-10 all depending on which or how many leagues were bowling that night. Thing about the guy in China, that broom-oiler thing was pretty wide, almost the width of the lane. I'm on the left, my boss is on the right. So he'd put the thing down all the way to first board on the left and leave a good 7-8 boards on the right dry. Who knows how far down the lane he went, it was random. For me it was like trying to bowl on the US Open shot 30 years ago. I'd try to explain to him to try and leave a few dry boards on the left but I could never translate it properly and my boss who spoke Chinese didn't help because he wanted to beat me. 200+ games were a rarity.

That Simo loft works! Lol damn those pocket 5-10s!!!!!! You guys might be onto something with this pattern!

Come bowl the Petersen with us, there's always room on our squad. Bowled one year with Rhino Page. I'm not saying bowling with us helped him win 2nd place at the TOC coming off the injury, but he did win 2nd place at the TOC after the injury bowling with us at the Petersen...

I grew up bowling in the 1960s and 1970s a house that was hand oiled twice a week. The lanes were not resurfaced in the first 20 year they were open. It was a 16 lane house and there was exactly one 300 game bowled there between 1962 and 1978. My buddy averaged 175 there when he was 12 and it was the highest average in the entire house. And mind you, this was the era when the house was full of league bowlers two shifts, 5 days a week.

near the 6 minute mark why did you start lifting it

What an honor getting to bowl with Pete

Bowled in a tournament in Columbus, Ohio one year around 1988. Got there early enough to see they were oiling the lanes with a mop, talk about a grind.

Absolutely love this tournament, just have to survive the first couple of rounds, kind of like Wii bowling straight to the pocket.

Maaan, those lanes look like crap. Way too much oil, which is why Simo was having success chucking his ball halfway down the lane. The lanes themselves look like they are made of golf ball skins... can't wait to see the rest of this.

Maybe I'm stupid, but wouldn't the length on this pattern support a much more angular style of play that I've seen all the stars play. Like obviously not because they aren't doing it but it's still a question I have.

The only lanes I’ve really ever played were hand oiled wood

I’ve met PDW in 2015 and was lucky to get his autograph because there was a rumor going around the bowling center that he broke someone’s phone. Lol 😂

Why are the rightys so far left? It looks like you'd only try for 2-3 boards of hook and play straight up as possible. Then keep moving left with your feet and finally throw it a board or two right at the breakpoint

That seems like it would be fun to try.

I bowl in a small house that was built in 1958. Wood lanes with an old style wick oiler. Hardest shot I've ever rolled on. It can humble a bowler quickly!

Who do you think you are?! I am!

Please give us more Simo. He’s the legitimate GOAT.

Cool you got to play around pete weber

PORTLAND SEA DOGS HAT LEGENDARY

My highschool just had a 50ft 1:1 pattern put out for one night of league. It was miserable, but was happy with my 216

I've bowled on this, very small town 4 lane wooden, oiled with a mop. By the end of the first game it was so dry you weren't keeping a plastic ball on the lane.

Back in the Mid 1980's, I bowled the Bangkok International where the Lanes were double hand oiled, 40 feet, with Coconut Oil. There were Rooster Tails of Oil coming off my Ball!!!! I exclusively used Plastic Equipment in those days, as I had a few Revs on the Ball !!!! A Mate used a Brunswick LT48, and when we got back to Australia, it leached oil for over 6 months. We put on a ring in our local Pro Shop, and it became a Shrine to our Trip!!!!

I’m not sure why no one was standing at the 5 board and going right up the 10. Most guys seemed to be shooting across lane which doesn’t seem like the best path to the pocket when the ball isn’t going to snap.

Weber is amazing!

Long before your time I bowled in one tournament where the lanes were over oiled. Rooster tail. These were not synthetic. They were hardwood lanes. Now that is tough.

who do you think you are, i am!