E-Glass, S-Glass, and Carbon fiber Glass Poles...

[scsuvaulter]

I am sure that most vaulters know by now that pole vault poles are typically made from E-Glass, S-Glass, Carbon fiber, or a combination of the three choices...

Knowing that in quality Carbon fiber is prefered, but not by all vaulters because of its characteristics; then S-Glass is prefered, and last E-glass...

How do vaulters know, for sure, which poles are made up of which glass or combination there of???

Does anyone know which manufactures use which and how much of which in each kind/line of pole vault pole they make...

Does anyone else have any thoughts on the types of glass???

Thanks...

[Oldcoach]

A pole is in simple terms a tube described by an inside diameter, wall thickness and length. For durability reasons, you want to maintain a reasonable wall thickness or the pole is susceptible to accidental damage. So the way you change the pole stiffness is mostly by diameter changes.
So if you had a pole made of E-Glass that was built on a certain mandrel diameter and you wanted to make an eqivalent stiffness pole out of S-glass you would have to make the wall thinner or make the mandrel smaller. You can notice this when comparing the diameters of certain size Skypoles to exactly the same flex number Pacer pole. The Skypole will be built on a bigger diameter mandrel. From others comments on the diameters and weights of Altius poles I would suspect they are made from the lower strength/stiffness E-glass.