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I have a 16' 210lb 13.0 flex carbon pole...i am 6'6' and weigh in at about 203-208lbs...i have had no luck being able to get this pole to bend at all...there is no prebend in the pole, i am jumping on a 16' 200lbs 9.4-15.1 (i dont know if it is 9.4 or 15.1 or somewhere inbetween) spirit holding low, the stiffest pole i have jumped on before this one was a 16'5" 205lbs(not sure what the flex was) carbon fx (borrowed from a friend for one meet at Univ. or Oregon) and was able to get that into the pit just fine and now a couple years later i am faster and stronger than i have ever been and i still cannot get this pole to budge...so could the numbers on the pole be labled wrong...one thing i noticed was place on the pole where it says Carbon pacer is lower on the pole than any other i have seen, and wonder if the pole was labled and taped upside down (isnt the bend higher in the pole on longer poles?) could something else be wrong with the pole, or is it just me?

Probably your techinque but a 16'5 205 and a 16'210 shouldn't be too far apart. Since you don't know the flex on the 16'5 I would venture a guess and say its softer then the 16'. In my experience with jumping on the original carbons I've found that for the same weight ratings some poles generally have stiffer flexes then the new carbonFXs. hope this helps a little.

If I were you, I would try and figure out some way to flex the poles yourself so you can get a better idea of how they compare to each other.

Need more info

How high do you jump?

How high do you hold?

Well i have done 16'1.25" in a meet came during indoor season this year, and have cleared 17'8" in practice over a bar cleanly in the past...the reason there is a such a big difference in heights is that i have terrible shin splints that hurt most days, but luckily not all days(icing them, toe taps, orthotics, oil massage, lots of IBpruefon and now Bekstra, E-Stim, ultrasound and i dont know how many other things, but this is not what we are talking about) and my timing is off a little bit...I can only count on one hand how many times over the last 8 years that i have not received a compliment about my plant and take off at any meet...that part of my technique is better than most peoples

And i also hold about 2 to 3 inches from the top of the pole

A 5 meter pole and a 4.90 pole have the same relative flexes--all poles, 4.90 and up are measured on a 4.90 span of the pole. So a 5.10 12.0 is the same pole as a 4.90 12.0 only it is 20 cm longer and has a different sale piece position relative to the same grip. And a 4.90 200 lb pole won't be either a 15.1 or a 9.6, but somewhere imbetween. Probably around a 14.4.


I've seen some good marks coming out of K-Falls, but i had no idea who. Are you gonna be coming back to Hayward anytime soon? I'm kinda curious to see you jump now.

vaultguru6 wrote:A 5 meter pole and a 4.90 pole have the same relative flexes--all poles, 4.90 and up are measured on a 4.90 span of the pole. So a 5.10 12.0 is the same pole as a 4.90 12.0 only it is 20 cm longer and has a different sale piece position relative to the same grip. And a 4.90 200 lb pole won't be either a 15.1 or a 9.6, but somewhere imbetween. Probably around a 14.4.

ON older poles this is a true statement.
However we seen some poles yesterday that had differrent spans on them for the 16' and the 16'5" 16' was the same 16'5" was a wider span. 175.5

I realize this change may throw all in chaos so you may need to contact the manufactuer to see if they changed the flex chart again!!!
We have no plans of following this change at this point in time.

i am going to try to come up for the twilight and time permitting hopefully one all comers meet in the summer...just to let you know my name is Bryan Quinn