A Cue of Extraordinary Proportions.
Some of you know me as JoeyA. I started calling myself JoeyA decades ago because it seemed like my last name “Aguzin” is seldom pronounced the same way by two different people. It can be a bit of a distraction when the tournament Calcutta is held up because Augustino, Aaahguzine, or A-Goo-Zin doesn’t answer when his name is called. I enjoy competing in regional and national pool tournaments and on occasion like to sit behind the mic to do pool commentary when I am not competing or hanging out with friends. The writing is a kind of therapy for me, so every now and then I enjoy sharing some of my pool adventures with my friends on Internet forums, on my blog or in an occasional magazine like AZ Billiards Buzz magazine. I hope you enjoy the article and please say hello when I pass through your town or when we meet at the next pool tournament.
Well, this past weekend (April 22-23, 2017) my son, good friend “Doc Hutch” and I went to the White Diamond Super 9 Ball event. It is a premiere weekend bar table event that draws players from all over the world. It is held twice a year, once in the Spring and once in the late fall. Here in Louisiana, it gets hot during the summer months, so they try to have the bi-annual event when it is a little cooler.
Their tournaments have Calcuttas (player auctions) which regularly climb to the $100,000.00 range, so you can understand how they regularly get 128 players which is where they cap the event.
This event was shaping up with so many great players, that we knew we would be having a great time just like we always do. The three of us are amateurs but enjoy testing ourselves against the best players in the world and they all come to Lafayette, LA which is in the heart of Cajun Country.
I could talk about how good my draw was, my good fortune of beating one of the top pros in this event, my mediocre finish in the top 30 players of this event, my mixed play, the good times with family and friends, the tasty food or the fact that I haven’t cashed in this event in the last several events but what this story is really all about is about a trend that I have been witnessing for the last decade or so.
This story is about how cue sticks have been changing for the better. I’ve been playing with a DymondWood “low-deflection” cue for the last few years. DymondWood is a laminated wood that is impregnated with a phenolic resin and it creates what I refer to as a synthetic wood. The only problem with DymondWood is that it is very hard to work with when you’re trying to create a low deflection playing cue. Quite a few cue makers have successfully made break cues and jump cues out of DymondWood but relatively few have tried to make low deflection cues out of this wood because it is so difficult to work with. I have paid attention to the many distinct types of cues that have been developed over the years by different companies, and it seems that innovation is everywhere. It also appears that more companies are creating cues using synthetic materials than ever before.
This past tournament I was having a wonderful time competing and won a couple of matches and lost a couple of close matches. But in between all the competing, I am sweating a scotch-doubles partners game between some of the young, talented, up-and-coming players that have popped up on the pool scene in recent years. I know most of the players because I have been fortunate enough to be around them at other events in the past, sometimes doing commentary for their matches or getting steep handicaps in friendly action matches with them.
One of the guys playing is someone who I have had the good fortune of being around quite a bit since he lived in my hometown of New Orleans for a brief time and is a talented player by the name of Evan Lunda. I met Evan Lunda in New Orleans a few years ago and at the time he was playing with a low-deflection DymondWood cue so I was very familiar with his game. His prototype cue was made by Steve Titus, one of the founding creators of Predator Cues. This time I see him with a Steve Titus cue, but it looks different this time. From a distance, it looked like it was one of the darker DymondWood shafts but it looked a little different and I couldn’t really tell if it was DymondWood or something else.
So, I’m in between matches watching four pro players playing a scotch doubles match of one pocket. The players are Evan Lunda, Skylar Woodward, Billy Thorpe and Alex Olinger, names that most of you are very familiar with since their names are often seen at the top of the food chain in tournaments all over the country. A month ago, in another big one-pocket event (The Scotty Townsend Memorial Event) at The Arena in West Monroe, Evan Lunda came in third place just behind Billy Thorpe and Shane Van Boening. It was a $2,000 entry fee one pocket event with some of the best players in the world competing for nice prize money and Calcutta money.
Evan’s game had changed rather dramatically since I had last seen him and I now started to really wonder if he had a new cue. Listening on the sidelines, I heard that it was indeed a new cue for Evan. Later I discovered that he had only been playing with his new cue for a few short months, but I could tell that he was dialed into its properties. While I don’t have any scientific data to share about how the cue performs, I can tell you from an experienced player’s viewpoint, the cue is TOP SHELF.
When the four pro players started playing with the cue I heard one of them whine teasingly that the cue imparts English so easily that you can get “TOO MUCH” throw on the object ball. It could have just been a warning to the others or some gamesmanship as I perceived it to be a teasing whine. But as the minutes wore on, I saw their reluctance to give the cue its just due, change to an almost euphoric type of experience as each of the pros took turns demonstrating their prowess at the table. It started right away; multiple rail banks, 80-90 degree cuts, kick shots, and shots of all types, they seemed to make more of them than was usual. Now I know just like the rest of you that these pros can play with just about any cue but what they were doing “CONSISTENTLY’ was pocketing difficult shots and getting shape shot after shot. Each successful shot seemed to fuel the fire in each of the other players and using the same cue. I never could decide who was having the most fun because all of them were stoked, sometimes glassy-eyed and each of them were letting out their stroke with 3, 4 and yes, FIVE-railers being made with ever-increasing consistency. Safeties were not allowed in these games, so the governors had been removed, and all hell broke loose. The four of them were reveling when each of them would make a difficult shot, teasing each other when they came close but missed and in general were having a wonderful time.
When one of their innings was over, they would pass Evan’s cue to the next person. This went on for over an hour. Now everyone enjoys testing out a friend’s cue but most of the time it is returned to the owner rather quickly. As I watch these young pro players make difficult shot after difficult shot, I realized that this is something unique that was taking place. I’ve seen my share of high-level play sometimes competing against the best players in the world in tournaments or just sitting in the commentator’s box, talking with the likes of Billy Incardona and legends like Jeremy Jones. I had happily settled into one of the spectator chairs since seating was limited because of the substantial number of attendees. The spectators, (me included) were just in awe of their raw firepower and high-level play but what I really liked was the fact that none of them wanted to give up the cue, so they all shared this one cue for over an hour. That alone is a good enough testimony that my observations weren’t out of line.
The impromptu Scotch Doubles match eventually came to an end, and I got a chance to renew my acquaintance with Evan and talk with him about his cue. It turns out that it wasn’t a DymondWood shaft like what Evan has been playing with in the past but a Revo shaft made by Predator. Previously, I had played with a Revo cue that had a 12.9mm shaft and while it was nice, I have always preferred a narrower shaft than that. Evan’s shaft looked to be a smaller diameter than 12.9 and it was. The butt of the cue had been made by his friend, Steve Titus. BTW, if some of you don’t know this, Steve is an accomplished player in his own right and is always inventing something new for the pool world whether you are familiar with his name or not.
Now some of you may not know that I am a serious student of the game and of equipment. I teach pool at a couple of pool rooms around New Orleans and enjoy learning about all aspects of pool. In addition to taking pool lessons from professional pool players and professional cueing instructors, I pay attention to what equipment the best players are using, and I ask a lot of questions, mostly about performance because I have always placed performance above style and novelty. I test cues with a variety of different shots to compare their performance to my equipment. It is seldom that I ever come across something that is better than what I am currently using but I knew right then and there, that this cue deserved a closer look and hoped that I would get a chance to investigate further.
As luck would have it, a few days later Evan shows up at my home room, Buffalo’s on Bloomfield in New Orleans. Evan knows the passion I have for the game of pool itself and how I love to test new equipment so he generously shared his cue with me for more than an hour. He just left the cue with me and said he would be back later. I could tell immediately that this cue had a certain “power” to it. I’m not talking about anything from the metaphysical realm. I’m saying that his cue was easier to play with, easier to draw the cue ball, easier to apply force-follow and yes, easier to pocket the object balls. It also seemed like it was easier to obtain precise shape as well. I know it sounds funny but I even found myself keeping my body and head more still than normal. It could have been that I didn’t have to put as much effort into making the shots. The table conditions were perfect so that could have a little something to do with it as well. We all know about the “new cue syndrome” but this wasn’t it either. When Evan returned, he also took the time to demonstrate some of the more difficult shots that are possible with the REVO cue showcasing his immense talent.
When Evan separated the shaft from the butt of the cue, he rolled the shaft across the table and as I lowered my head to observe the light under the shaft’s taper, I marveled at the extreme precision of the taper. It was the most precise taper I have ever seen in any cue shaft. Evan’s unique cue shaft had no ferrule and was charcoal black in color which provided a great contrast against the cue ball and the blue cloth. As always, his tip was perfectly shaped.
The table conditions are very good at Buff’s NEW PLACE located at 5015 Bloomfield-New Orleans, Louisiana, especially since all of their Diamond pool tables are being recovered for their BIG MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT EVENT, which is coming up in just a few short weeks but I was making incredible shots, drawing my cue ball effortlessly and just had the time of my life playing with his REVO cue.
Predator currently makes a 12.4 mm shaft and a 12.9 mm shaft using uni-loc and radial pin joints. I have a marked propensity toward slightly thinner shafts like a 12mm but I don’t know if Predator will be making a REVO shaft that thin or not. I also like a 30” length shaft and a 3/8-10 modified pin, but that isn’t something that they offer right now. Hopefully, as these cues and shafts that are made with synthetic materials become more exposed to the pool world, we will see my prediction that we are entering a golden era in cue building where science allows cue builders to continue to expand the use of these new materials.
It took golf many decades to make the transition from wooden clubs to high-tech metal clubs, but I suspect pool will move along a lot quicker with young ambassadors like Evan Lunda and Predator Cues leading the way into the future of pool. I also surmise that some of the other professional players will be giving the nod toward this cue. Our own local pro, Ronnie Wiseman gave me the “WiseMan Nod” when I asked how he liked Evan’s cue. That says a lot coming from the WiseMan. Anyway, it was a pleasure to see professional players enjoying some of the newer cue technology that is becoming more popular with players every day.
Joey (JoeyA) Aguzin
No comments:
Post a Comment