This Ball HOOKS The Whole Lane ｜ Brunswick Ethos Hybrid ｜ Stealth Hybrid

Welcome back everyone. We got Barks here with the new Ethos Hybrid. Obviously a hybrid version of the original Ethos that came out last year. Certainly a favorite for bowlers who are looking for a ball that got through the front part of the lane real easy and really cornered down lane. This is a bit of a departure from that. A little different coverstock, a little bit of different surface on this ball compared to the original. This Ethos here features the same core as the original. The coverstock is a little bit different. The original had the HK22 base. This one also has the Cohesion additive as we saw with the Criterion last time out. Those types of coverstock tend to be a little bit quicker responding when they see the friction. What is different is the finish of these balls. The original Ethos being a pearl, being polished, this one comes at a 2000 grit. So my prediction for this would be a little bit more overall hook and probably a little bit earlier rolling as well, but the same type of change in direction, just in a different part of the lane. So last video out I was throwing some really strong pieces of equipment. They really tore up the front part of the lane. So this video had to move way right. I'm up against the ball return for most of these shots, which is a part of the lane that I don't play very often. I'm not super comfortable doing it, but when the time calls, you gotta go for it. So my first couple shots out there, not 100% sure what to expect. I probably played a little bit too far left. You can see that ball not quite get to the spot and want to go through the face or even Brooklyn. Moving deeper into the pattern, there's a little bit more oil there where nobody had really played. And the difference was night and day. You could really see the ball get through the front part of the lane and really get to the spot down lane that I needed to get to. Using a break point about eight or nine. Any ball that would hit 12 though would want to go Brooklyn. So I'd be really careful about that. So playing this far right with a ball that is this strong, especially with a sanded cover stock, unlike the original, you can see this ball when it got to the spot down the lane, it didn't jump off it too much. It sort of rounded it out a little bit more. That's the type of shape that I like to see. That's one that to me is conducive of high scores. So the next few shots are really good here. They get to the spot. They don't overhook. They kind of more arc off that spot. And the pin carry is excellent at that spot. Again, going back to the criterion video, this is definitely a ball I'd want to use maybe on a longer pattern, just so it doesn't struggle to get down the lane. I felt like I really had to force it where I was playing. And that's just a product of the lane surface and the type of oil that we use here. So after a bunch of good shots with the Ethos Hybrid, why not throw the original? So making a ball change to the Pearl, I tried to play in the same part of the lane. The Pearl, I felt like I didn't have to force it through the front part of the lane to get it down the lane. I felt like I could just let it go off my hand. It would kind of do it on its own. I had a couple of shots where I felt like I missed a little bit right, and it's still at the pocket. I was very surprised. I thought those are going to go Brooklyn for sure. But that shows the difference in not just the cover stock itself, but also the surface. Obviously, going from a sanded ball to a shiny ball, it's not going to hook as early, and it wants to change direction a little bit harder when it does see friction. So to compensate for that, I needed to move a little bit left, straighten my angles out a little bit. The next few shots are really good. Gets down the lane and doesn't over jump. I definitely see the same type of ball motion, but where they make that motion is very different. In my opinion, it's about three or four feet different. Depending on lane surface and where you bowl and the type of environment you bowl in, one of these balls may be the right one. It's just a question of which ball suits your bowling center the best. That being said, I don't know if you need both. I think you can get the same type of motion just by playing with surface, but time will tell. It's really difficult to know. This is a first impression type video. Obviously, I'm throwing one sanded versus one shiny. I think if you shine them both up or sanded them both, you get a very similar type of ball reaction. Last ball I threw today, because I didn't get a chance to do it on video, was the Trax Stealth Hybrid. I was a big fan of the Stealth line, in particular the solid, but it would be fair to go symmetric hybrid versus symmetric hybrid and see how those do compare. As far as ball motion, I thought that the Stealth Hybrid was a little bit cleaner and a little bit smoother. It does come shiny out of box, so that was a little bit surprising to me, but I think they are two balls that can be interchangeable. I don't see a huge difference between them. I don't see a need to have both of them. Personally, I like to gravitate towards some of the balls that are a bit darker, and being a track guy, I'm probably going to throw the track ball more often, but as far as overall ball motion, I really had to move further right and get right up against the ball return. Not my favorite thing to do in the world, but if the shot calls for it, you got to do what you got to do. If that's where you have to play to find high scores, you just got to go for it. So in conclusion, I didn't feel like it was a huge departure from the original ethos, and I felt like throwing it against that Stealth Hybrid, there was a bit of overlap. One thing I will say, color-wise, it reminds me, it's going back, the Ebonite Futura. A ball I really liked, but a ball I liked a little bit shiny or not as dull. So maybe I'm kind of getting the same vibes here. Time will tell. I might want to shine this up and see how it does. Speaking of balls from the past, question time with Barks. Which ball from the past would you want to bring back? The Futura was a really good one for me. That's probably one that would be at the top of my list, but let me know what you think down in the comments below. I want to give a special shout out to Perry Crowell and everyone at Turbo for all the great gripping products they provide us with. In particular, the Switch Grip. So this year we got a couple new colors for the outer sleeves and for the inners. We got purple and pink. So you can match pretty much any engraving on any ball. And that's why I love it so much. Really easy for us to install in the shop and really user-friendly for the bowlers. That's enough for me. We'll see you in the next video.