Weird Pole Break

[fx]

Check out when the pole breaks in the second half of this video. I've never seen a pole break during such a late part of the jump before:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG_uOcoKF3s

[VaultPurple]

wow that one is a pretty strange break... even for there being a crack in the pole, don't they usually break when the pole is under the most amount of stress? This pole had already been unbending for a little....

[VTechVaulter]

i think it means there was a crack on the expansion side of the pole. as the pole bends, the crack opened up, somehow still resiliant enough to not break then, but as the pole recoils and the crack closes rapidly it actually butts into itself putting more stress on that "ring" where the crack was located.

Jeff Watry, the engineer for pacer, was explaining something like that to me once. I may be remembering wrong but, thats my thought off hand

[dj]

Hello

Uncommon break…..

You “might’ determine a cause by looking at the break, if it was on the compression or stretch side? Would be a clue but not necessarily and answer… Or see if the break was at a ‘weak” point like the corner of a sail piece?? AND sometimes the poles get run over by a fork lift and show no damage other than the box…

My choice would be damage # 1 or sail piece corner..

dj

[vaultbilly]

That was me in the video. The pole was really old (+8 years) and had scuffs all over it. It did not have any deep scratches, but was a lightweight pole for me. At that time I was struggling and really trying to muscle the vault. Things were not going naturally. I was trying to really pull through on a light weight pole.