What brought us here

Wylie first picked up a bowling ball in 1956 and fell in love with the sport. Wylie met his wife Mona at Timber Lanes, here in Vancouver, Washington in 2006.

In 2010 Wylie was describing to Mona the porosity of bowling balls, and how they pick up oil and dirt, clogging the pores. He described the "Rejuvenator" in use in pro shops, and how it heats balls to clear the pores. He also described some of the attempts people had made at doing the job themselves, in order to avoid the cost and hassle of taking their bowling balls to a pro shop. Wylie had heard horror stories of people destroying their bowling balls in kitchen ovens, because most kitchen ovens do not bake at a temperature cool enough to be safe for them.

After they talked for a while, Mona remembered a device used in a geology lab where she had worked. It was used to get the moisture out of rocks, and it operated at a temperature range that would work for bowling balls. We immediately set to work to gather a similar device, and then modifying it so that it would work for bowling balls. The result was a machine that was clumsy to use, and anything but pretty, but did an amazing job of getting the oil out. Over the next year they "baked" their bowling balls many, many times, and did the same for a number of friends. Wylie got rave reviews from all of them about the improved performance of their balls. One friend said, "It hooked so much I couldn't use it!"

In May of 2011 Mona's son Eric INSISTED we read the book "The 4-Hour Work Week", by Timothy Ferris. They got the book on tape and listened to it in the car on vacation. The light came on in their heads at virtually the same moment, inspired by something Tim said. Nearly 2 years and many, many improvements later, we introduced NuBall in 2013.

Wylie and Mona are located in Vancouver, Washington, and is part of the Portland metro area. Vancouver is a bit of a bowling mecca. Several current and former PBA stars live here, most of them involved in pro shops, bowling centers, coaching, etc.