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I've always hated pacers, they are too hard for me to use, and a lot stiffer. At our club, all we jump on are the Spirits, and they are my favorite, yeah I'd agree with Brandon and say that you don't have to put as much energy in and get a good return.

I think spirits give are way to slow to jump high on and i've broke twice as many spirits then pacer carbons. I jump 8" higher on a pacer then i did on the same spirit. go figure. Thats 12 years of jumping on both.

lol, i'm not trying to compare the reg spirits and a pacer carbon....of course the carbon is going to be faster and return faster....not trying to sound rude...i was meaning to compare like a "normal" pacer and spirit

i was talking on both reg. and carbon

Somethings wrong here...you've broken that many poles?

To tell you the truth, I'm a spirit guy because thats what Ive jumped on my whole 4 years of vaulting. If I started on pacers and jumped on those for 4 years, I'm sure I would like those better.

um, wow, yeah....dont know how you would have broken so many poles....how many exactly have you broken? just curious

10 long hard career a lot of crappy poles. its not technique it mainly bad poles. I had alot of sky pole carbons break. Jump on alot of big poles for my size.

The Spirits seem easier mainly because Spirits seems to make there poles with a bigger prebend. At least the ones I have measured in the past. I'm not sure what Brian and those guys are doing on there new poles at Pacer. Lon

yeah, that wouldnt surprise me, i mean i do know that the spirit poles at our school have a noticeable pre bend...but either way, it seems easier for the return, thats why i like spirits....that and they move at the correct speed for me

I still don't understand how a pole can move at "the right speed" for anyone. When you move up poles they are going to move faster, regarless of brand. If you can't get around a carbon, then you can't get around a skypole, or spirit, or ........
As far as spirits go, here are some numbers.
I grabbed two here.
1. made in 88' was a 16'5" 17.2, now an 18.0
2. Made in 93' was a 16'5" 18.7 now a 20.4
You can see that they have changed. The last time they were measured were last year. I would measure them again right now, but it is early, and I am currently without coffee.
The first pole, not to be biased towards Spirit, is one of the greatest poles I have ever planted. It bends nice and high, and moves really well. But I hate the other one. it bends really low, and is hard to make work. I am, as everyone knows, a Carbon man. But we do have some regular pacers that I love, along with some Essx poles that are great as well. I know that isn't much help, sorry.

like i get what your saying about them getting faster as you go up in weight, but when like it's your slowly adjusting with those poles....it was like since the first poles i started bending were spirits, i got used to that speed, and my speed changed as i went up on bigger and bigger spirits, so now, spirits are teh right speed for me....i switched to a pacer one meet and to me it just felt like there was a tiny instance of lag in it after it was in a bent, i didnt like that cause i wasnt used to that