I had my first experience with bowling in Brasil the other day. Many years ago I used to bowl in leagues in the U.S. Some years I even served as Secretary or President of the particular league I bowled in. I provide this info so that you the reader can appreciate where I am coming from as I regal you with events of that evening.
It had been a little over 3 years since I last went bowling in the U.S. And even though my league bowling was by now ancient history, bowling in U.S. bowling lanes is pretty much the same no matter where you are in the U.S. and it hasn’t changed much as far as I know. Yes, there are certain nights where bowling alleys in the U.S. host events that may feature an environment not normally found in regular bowling and people can win prizes, but the basic act of bowling is pretty much unchanged no matter the environment.
On Saturday evening past, we headed to the bowling alley here in Vitoria with some Brasilian friends. The bowling alley is a nondescript looking building from the outside and is located along a fairly busy street. We were following our friends in their vehicle, and continued to do so as they turned into an alleyway alongside the building. This opened into a fairly large parking area that was pretty full. This was around 8:30 PM.
After parking and upon entering the building, we received a card with our first name written on it. Each person receives a card and whenever a drink or food or anything involving a purchase is made, it is marked on the card. These cards have to be presented upon exit, so if charges have been made, one must first go pay the amount and have the card endorsed. This seems pretty sensible and removes the need to be reaching for money during the evening. Your total bill can thus be paid at the end by credit card or debit card. In effect, everyone is running a tab. Of course, all charges could be made to just one card if desired, but each card has to be endorsed in order to leave.
We then went to find out when we could bowl. We did not have a reservation, and I do not know if any are even taken for a Saturday night. We were Number 23 on the waiting list. I didn’t notice how many lanes in total there were, but I would say in the neighborhood of 20 to 24. At that point, I had no idea how soon we would actually get to bowl and was thinking that later on we might just give up and go home.
There was a substantial size area populated with tables and chairs, most of them occupied, but we managed to find enough of each to accommodate our group, which numbered seven. A nice thing is that smoking is not permitted in the bowling alley; they have a designated area for that. So while there was lots of noise from conversations and music and balls hitting the alley and pins being knocked down, at least it was smoke free.
We ordered some food, deciding on fillet and batatas fritas. For those who may not know, this consists of a very good cut of beef which is cut into small chunks and cooked with some onions and served with French fries on the side. One consumes this by using a toothpick to spear the pieces of beef and fries, so it is a good dish for multiple people to eat from. While beer was available, we all stuck to orange juice and Guaraná. The two sons of our friends and our daughter went and played pool (or pocket billiards). There was an enclosed area containing about 10 or 12 pool tables, providing a quieter environment for that game.
After about an hour and 15 minutes, perhaps an hour and a half, we were called to bowl. Having bowled in leagues, I had my own bowling ball and bowling shoes that I had brought. There was no problem in doing so from the management perspective. However, upon reaching our assigned lane, it became evident that a different method of accessing and using a bowling ball was in play here.
There are no racks of bowling balls that run along behind the seating area of the lane as one finds in the U.S. Instead, there were approximately 10 or so balls sitting in the ball return area of the pair of lanes. A bowler would select one of these and go at it. They could use the same ball for a second throw or select another. They could use a different ball the next frame. In other words, the balls were like common area furniture, to be used by anyone. Since I had brought my own ball, my daughter informed the people sharing the ball return that it was not “up for grabs”. Given that my ball is a 16 pounder, and I think the others were on average about 12 pounds, I don’t think anyone would have selected it anyway.
Four of us were to bowl, myself, the daughter and the two sons of the other couple. As in the U.S. those without bowling shoes were provided with rental shoes. Mine were showing their age, but still serviceable. The equipment was made by Kopp Technologies and I checked out their web site and discovered that they furnish most of the bowling equipment for bowling alleys throughout South America. The company is located in Brazil. I imagine that U.S. lanes may have seen advancement in score keeping technology since I last bowled there, but I hadn’t seen anything like the set-up I found here.
Each lane had a kiosk that actually sat on the lane at the back end. If one was used to starting their approach from the end of the lane, an adjustment would have been necessary. Fortunately, I start from a bit further up, a tad closer to the pins. There were no overhead screens here as one usually finds in the U.S., but the Kopp Technology web site did show pictures of sites having such screens. I think one of the sons had bowled there before, as he displayed no difficulty in setting up the kiosk that tracked the bowlers and calculated the score. I found myself in the forth position, so got to watch the others start off.
I won’t go into how I bowled, suffice it to say it took a while for me to adjust, LOL. I throw a pretty straight ball and I noticed that down near the pins, the ball had a tendency to move towards the middle. Not dramatically as if thrown with a lot of spin, but a slight tendency to do so. It seemed there might be a slight concavity to the lane I was on. Had to adjust my starting position and spot and it wasn’t until the second game that I developed some consistency.
Then after a few frames I noticed something else, no one was throwing a gutter ball, and there definitely should have been quite a few of them, not just in our group, but everyone. They had guards in the gutters that directed the ball back into play unless you were down close to the pins. Now this may happen only on a Saturday night, as there are a lot on inexperienced bowlers, but I don’t know for sure.
Another thing I noticed was the electronic display of the pins at the opposite end of the lane. All electronic pin indicators are lit when you start to bowl. After the first ball is thrown, the electronic indicators of the pins left standing go dark. This is opposite of my experience. And the pins seemed not to be lively. Usually, if I do everything right in releasing the ball, when it hits the pins it is like small explosion. This night, no matter how I released the ball, it was more like a dud.
It was in the 7th frame of the second game that I announced that I did not want to bowl a third game, as I figured after such a long hiatus I would be getting tired and sore and would really regret it the next morning. That’s when I was informed about another difference from my prior experience. I was told that we had been bowling for 55 minutes, and we only had the lane for an hour. So we were bowling by time, not by game. Managed to get 8 frames in. I guess this was a good thing considering the wait we experienced earlier for if people were bowling by game we might still be waiting our turn.
So, will I go bowling again? Would it be different on another night of the week? Do they have any leagues? I’m told the bowling alley does not open until 5 PM. I will have to garner additional information. Suffice it to say that if I go again on a Saturday night it will be with a different expectation and mindset. I’ll view it more as a social event to get together with friends and spend time together eating, visiting, and chatting and oh, perhaps throw some balls at some pins while I’m doing that.
