First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to Columbia 300 for offering me a Regional Pro Staff contract. I am proud to be associated with a company like Columbia and have had most of my past successes with Columbia equipment. I feel confident with a Columbia ball in my hands and I'm sure that many more successes will follow. If anyone has questions about the Columbia 300 product line, please ask and I will try to help you decide on the Columbia ball that is right for you.
First Review: Piranha Retro
First, I must say that I never owned the original Piranha. I did, however, have two Blue Piranha/Cs and loved them both.
The Retro Piranha is a great piece of equipment. It comes in very handy both when the lnes get drier, but also on those wet-dry house shots. Many balls skid too much in the oil and hook too much off the dry for today's conditions, but the low flare potential of the Retro Piranha makes up for that.
The Retro Piranha's greatest asset is not its small flare, but its LATE flare. For the first 35 feet of the lane, the ball hardly flares any at all. This makes it extremely easy to clear the heads and retain energy in the midlane. The ball starts its flare at about 30 -35 feet and after that, comes strong on the backend. Even though the core is not especially strong, the late flare helps the ball retain more of its energy for the pin deck...in fact it often hits harder than the more high-tech stuff.
For anyone that has problems with control or needs something for drier lanes, the Retro Piranha would be a great addition to that person's arsenal.
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Second Review: WOW! Pearl
The WOW Pearl is, in my opinion, a very unique piece of equipment. First of all, the Pearl Particle shell (UFO Pearl) coverstock works great. It is aggressive in oil and not too aggressive in dry - this makes for supreme control without sacrifice of power.
The thing I like most about this ball is the way it retains its axis rotation longer than expected. When other balls have turned over and are in the process of losing energy, the WOW Pearl is still rotating on it's original axis rotation, even when it's starting to hook. This helps the ball retain more of its power for the backend. The ball goes into a very strong roll on the backend, but because it has saved its energy exceptionally well, does not roll out. It seems to keep coming longer than other balls. I haven't seen many other balls that tend to do this same thing, but the one that sticks out in my mind is the original 3-D Violet Offset Hammer. The WOW Pearl seems like it reacts very similar to that ball, just a bit stronger.
My WOW Pearl came with a 5" pin-to-PAP distance. I put the pin about 1 1/2 inches above my bridge, slightly biased towards the middle finger. The CG is kicked out 2 inches from the center of the grip. Because of the low starting top weight (2.25 oz.) I do not need an extra hole in the ball despite the offset CG. The final specs are == 6" X 4" X 4 1/4" == (pin from PAP X CG from PAP X pin above midline)
(I threw that last one in because I don't believe that pin and CG from PAP are enough - pin distance above the midline is extremely important also in my opinion, as a lower pin results in earlier hook).