One-Question Survey

[Decamouse]

Must be all the jet jockey juice flowin through the veins -

[ccpvus]

In high school I snapped a 14' Pacer. It broke about 4 1/2' down from top. The bottom portion slammed against the underside of my left bottom arm and then shot down the run way. I had enought momentum to carry me into the pit in a sitting position still holding onto the top part of the pole.

[Atleetwinvaulter]

well im a senior this year and ive already broken 3....

1st....a 15ft pacer doing scafolding....no biggie... just was liek say what....

2nd....a 14ft 145 pacer that was umm lets just say old...guess it had a spike mark took the first jump on the thing and it shattered in two..left a nice welt on my chest, but i landed in the pits...

3rd..(most recent).13ft 160 skypole...i was jsut getting back in the swing of things indoor this year..moved my step back from a 7 to and 8 and umm well exploded my 13 160...and i weigh 135.. well lets jsut say abotu 80 percent of the sail peice came exploding out and the one part of pole bounced back down the runway.wasnt bruised or spikedso yeah....haha. i landed in hte pits fine...got up and threw the handle end at the other piece..stupid skypoles.. ..

[OAKPV2004]

3 poles

14'3" 155. Altius. Summer after sophmore year. Broke into 3 pieces did almost a whole backflip in to the center of the pit. confused for a few seconds.

14'6 165 CarbonFX. LAst year, Second jump out of the cardboard. Broke into 3 pieces landed in the center of the pit. I knew what happend this time. The glued on tip flew about 130 feet down the runway.

15' 160 Pacer Carbon. Was already broken, something was dropped on it and it had a crack in it about 6 inches long at the top end. Put some tape around it and used it for about 5 jumps and it shattered in to 10 pieces, My hand bruised real bad for about a week, and I could not vault. Dont use cracked poles, even if they are the right size.

[rainbowgirl28]

My teammate John jumps from short run on a Skypole Carbon with a HUGE spike gash up the side. Earl or Daniel wrote "DO NOT USE" in big letters on it. I guess the gash is in an ok place

I would never recommend anyone else use a pole like that though!

[Aviendha]

i've never broken one...but a couple of my teammates have. one brand new, broke into 3 pieces, one of them hitting him in the forehead, another in the chest (cuts and bruises in both places), and then later in the year this same guy was having a really off day, got pissed off, and took one of the girls poles and swung it into the storm drain ...broke that in three pieces too....coach was pretty mad at him for that one...

[VaultnGus]

4 real plus one temper tantrum

Broke a 14'140 Pacer (bought with my own hard earned $$$ ) as a senior in HS

Broke a 14'145 & 14'150 Pacer during the summer of '91

Shattered a 14'155 Spirit right out of the box (got a great video of that one)

All 4 of 'em I landed in the center of the pit with a half flip. No injuries save for the ringing in my hands...

The final break was during my vault doldrums of '90 - I got mad and threw a 14'145 Pacer against the wall. Neither my coach nor my wallet ended up liking that action...

[ashcraftpv]

5 all told, all during practice

A white Fibersport training pole my freshman year in HS - clean break right in the middle

a 15' 155 pacerIII my junior year in HS, broke in 3 pieces, one between my hands that gave me a nice scar above my left eye

a 15' 180 senior year in college while bailing out of a short vault and riding the pole into the mats. Gave it a nice hard push to move into the mats. That pole was and old school whie label spirit

a 16' 190 spirit senior year in college, just got a killer plant and took of alittle low, blew up into 5 pieces.

a 14' 155 black cat two years ago. had a nick in it and wanted to test it out b4 i let my guys jump on it. ran from 2 lefts and blew it up on my 3rd jump

landed in the mats on my back on all 5

worst injury was a welt on my elbow and stinging hands

[smokinvaulter1]

11 breaks
Mostly Spirits and a few Skypole Carbons.
Never hurt but never fun. Jumped again after everyone of them.

[lonestar]

My teammate John jumps from short run on a Skypole Carbon with a HUGE spike gash up the side. Earl or Daniel wrote "DO NOT USE" in big letters on it. I guess the gash is in an ok place

I would never recommend anyone else use a pole like that though!

Y'all should've seen this Spirit that Mike Fowler from SWT jumped on last year. It was originally a 4.90 160? that was chopped down to a 15' 180 16.2. Scary part was, right under the label there was a huge chunk of fiberglass missing about 6" long, 1/2" wide that formed a channel that could hold water. Since the damage was on the compression side (runway side of the pole at the plant), we thought we'd give it a try. Ol' Crash Fowler buckled up his helmet, gritted his teeth, and gave it hell. 100+ jumps later, and that baby is still holding up! Was a money pole for Mike too!

[mcminkz05]

iv never broken a pole, but a frosh on my team broke one last year. For some reason or another hed get picked on by some of the distance runners. one week they got the brillian idea to step on his pole everytime they ran by, throw it over a fence, on top of the shed, whatever.. next meet aparently all the abuse ruined the perfectly good pole he didnt even BEND the pole yet, jus jumpin like 7', so went up and it snapped right in half. vaulter fell on his @ss in the runway, pole broke clean in 2 pieces. it was like a 12' 120 pacer i think.

[vaultmd]

My teammate John jumps from short run on a Skypole Carbon with a HUGE spike gash up the side. Earl or Daniel wrote "DO NOT USE" in big letters on it. I guess the gash is in an ok place

I would never recommend anyone else use a pole like that though!

Y'all should've seen this Spirit that Mike Fowler from SWT jumped on last year. It was originally a 4.90 160? that was chopped down to a 15' 180 16.2. Scary part was, right under the label there was a huge chunk of fiberglass missing about 6" long, 1/2" wide that formed a channel that could hold water. Since the damage was on the compression side (runway side of the pole at the plant), we thought we'd give it a try. Ol' Crash Fowler buckled up his helmet, gritted his teeth, and gave it hell. 100+ jumps later, and that baby is still holding up! Was a money pole for Mike too!

Can one of the pole people clarify this for me? I always thought the compression side was the worst side to have a defect on. Not that there is a good side for a defect, of course.