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This year my coach ordered us 4 brand new 16ft spirits and they blew. I love spirit but these poles were junk! I dont know what was wrong with them, they wouldnt uncoil. They first time I used one was at regionals and I went under the bar w/a turn and pushoff(thinking I cleared it?) What should I do did my school waste 1,700+ dollars on nothing, or can I do something about it?

before you go blaming the poles, what were you jumping on before? what are the weight/fles of these new poles? how high are you gripping?

The thing is I jumped on the exact same flexed poles the summer before. I had to borrow some different ones this year and all those worked fine. I even had to throw in an old yellow catapole 16-170 in the mix still no problems. In high school I used catapole, skypole, altius, pacer all one pole different ( I had to mismatch poles, whatever I could get) I jumped on all of them and same thing, I usually can grab any pole and jump something with it.????

really didn't anwser any of my questions.....its hard to determine if these were really the right pole for you to be on if you don't tell me what you had jumped on before moving to the new spirits. It may be a case of you just having a good meet and blowing through the pole, or if the pole was genuinely too small, you're coach may have ordered the wrong poles. I doubt that spirit has started intentionally making all of their pole softer....

It is remotely possible - if they where all built at the same time - check dates - that you get some glass in that the resin content is slightly off - makes some difference when you flex them - bigger difference when you bend them - just some idle rambling - of course if it was 90 plus degrees, they were laying in the sun on a black track and you had a tailwind - well guess what

Ok I used a 16- 165 the summer before. I got the same flexed 16-165 along with a 160 170 and 175 all with according flexes. I tried the pole indoor w/no wind or heat! I even used them in practice, they wouldnt uncoil I stayed back FOREVER! I ended up borrowing a 16-165 and 170 catapole and a 16 175 and 180 SPIRIT. Which I had great sucsess on! Spirit are my favorite poles I am not dogging them, and never said they intentionally made them softer, but all of them dont uncoil right. My friend and teamate tried them and they same thing happened.

how much do u weigh. Cause i jump on a simalr series of Spirits, 16 155-170 and i think they are a pretty good poles. it sounds like ur school brought u the wrong size poles

Does nobody understand that I jumped on the same size pole before and after?

do understand that just because the pole has the same wieght marked on it doesnt make it the same weight. not to mention when u go to other pole makers i.e. catapole, or even going to an older/newer pole from the same maker it can provide different results. there is no standard that makes all poles test the same way.

Yeah I jumped in one day on the 165 170 and 175, expecting to get rejected, It felt good until I turned up then it was slow motion to the bar!

Maybe you got heavier

Anyway, none of the UCS guys are on this board, so complaining about Spirits on here won't get you very far.

Kyle said they were ordered based on flex numbers that should have taken the wgt issue pretty much out of it. Question? Same mandrel size? - Since a fiberglass pole is a composite structure - it could be a material issue (thats why we keep the unused glass chilled - otherwise the resin is affected by heat if stored improperly for long periods) - only the shadow knows for sure!