Day 6
Fort Worth, TX to Jonesboro, AR
This day got off to a late start! I accidentally set my cell phone alarm for PM instead of AM, and slept in by about 2 hours!! Bonnie (Bruce's wife) finally came by to see if I planned on getting up, I felt so bad! Even though we were running a little late, we headed out to ESSX with Bruce.
This is the entrance. Very incognito.
The front is an office space.
This is where they roll the fiberglass on to the mandrels.
A sailpiece.
Rolling the sailpiece onto the mandrel.
The ovens
Zack loading the mandrel into the oven
The latest ESSX poles
The ovens with poles in them
Getting the flex number
Safety first!
Flexing the pole to make sure it is safe
Determining the carry weight
Getting the cooked pole off of the fiberglass
They keep the rolls of fiberglass in there... yes it is an old fridge from Subway.
Bruce Caldwell
Zack, me, and Bruce!
After our visit at ESSX we headed up to Jonesboro, Arkansas to hang out at Bell Athletics! We got there pretty late, but we were just in time for some fun at the Shack.
Got to ESSX and met Beto their pole engineer and another guy who works there. They were making two carbon test poles. We watched them wrap the carbon on the mandrels and then I helped stick one of them in the oven. Then we went to breakfast and came back in time to help take them out of the oven. I thought it was very interesting how they get the poles off the mandrels. Watched them flex a couple poles and test one in the machine. We also got a demonstration of how to measure carry weight. Bruce also showed us the program they use to design every pole. It seems like they have most of the kinks out of the production process and are having to make poles as fast as they can.
We left Ft. Worth and drove through North Texas and Arkansas. All I have to say is that everything I've heard about that area is true. On the way we passed through New Boston, Texarkana, New Madrid and Arkadelphia. None of them are even close to as good as the originals. So we arrived in Jonesboro and found the only person home in Dub and Lon's house was Shorty. We heard music pulsing from outside so we wandered around and found "the Shack". Dub, John and Yoo were all up on the stage jamming. I have to say in addition to being a 6'-3" Asian (which is pretty amazing) Yoo can play the guitar and sing pretty well. I feel asleep that night to the sounds of Trey utilizing the bathroom.
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