Alright. I been reading around on various bowling forum about lane surfaces. I am referring to the material of synthetic lanes.

How can you tell what company's synthetic lane you are bowling on and how many are there out there? What is the strongest and what is the weakness of each one?

I could be wrong but what is the big factor about each company's version? longevity or more friction?

I am just curious to know more information on the subject.

Some of the surfaces are marked at least withe the brand, but really the only way to really know is ask someone that is sure to know at the center you are bowling in. That might be a little difficult with some of the idiots that work and run the centers though.

Also each brand has several different surfaces out. Some have more friction to them and some have less. I don't know all of them, nor the differences in them.

There was an article about this in Bowling This Month recently. AMF makes two different synthetic surfaces, and they tend to have more friction. Brunswick also makes two types of synthetic, and they tend to play tighter. You can ID Brunswick surfaces by range finders down lane and or every fifth board being outlined . One of the centers I bowl at has synthetics that I believe are made by Kegel, and they play VERY tight. Info courtesy of Andrew Lovely who works for the USBC .

Those companies may be only making two types of synthetics now, but some centers have the older synthetics that these companies made. AMF has at least 3 more older ones and Brunswick has several more as well.

Do you know what Bowling This Month edition it was? I am sure I may of read it but not too sure.

Anyways, I think this is an interesting topic because sure we deal with lane condition with pattern and unit of oil. I am just saying that for the ball to work with the friction, it depend on the lane's material from wooden to old synthetic to new synthetic lanes.

Also, keep in mind of pin actions and how often some center will rotate or restack the machine with new pins or alternative pins.

Like Chubbs said, some of the AMF's are known for high friction, which means a strong backend reaction. Sometimes this leads to higher scores by allowing that extreme entry angle, even with a longer or heavier pattern. This can also make for harder scoring as a ball that jumps too much becomes hard to control. I just stopped bowling in an AMF house that was high friction and often had a short light oil pattern. This wasn't the reason I stopped bowling there. It was challenging and I like a challenge. I know I could score on it, I did last season, but my swing was so out of whack that I couldn't move inside and consistently throw it correctly, same thing for playing outside with a very weak ball.

That's one of the great things about this game, there are so many variables, and in order to be a great bowler you have to have some knowledge involving most of them. It makes the game more of a thinking game, of course sometimes people will over think.

BTM ---> april 2008.
it has the 2-board arsenal on the front.

Here is the chart:

Glass = Hardness of 100
Brunswick Pro Anvilane = 68-74
AMF HPL 9000 = 56-63
Wood with urethane coating = 56-62
Wood with water based finish = 14-20
wood with guardian = 4-7

Harder lanes you will need to find dry boards to get a good reaction, softer lanes you will need to find oil to get a good reaction.

Everything I bowl on is Wood w/ Guardian the first 20 feet. If I recall correctly though, in the past it always seemed the synthetic houses hooked more. Could just be less oil though.

what is the numbers? sorry i have to ask.