Why Fiberglass Vaulting Poles Break

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The pole in the picture is two years of usage. Several reasons why this pole broke after being a successful bending pole for over two years.   

It broke, possibly for many reasons!

Let's talk about why poles break! 

They are made of Glass Fiberglass reinforced glass fibers to make them stronger and more flexible. Create a weak spot in the pole at any time on the first day or the 3rd year. It will set up a potential failure/break on subsequent jumps!

We recommend that you catch your pole during practice and in meets, even though rules do not dictate it. 

The Pole can break if you overload them. Our pole rating is a true measure for novice vaulters at that weight so they can manage the pole. If you have been jumping for at least a month or longer, you should move to a stiffer pole, 5 to 10 lbs. stiffer than your weight! 

We realize that high school athletes must match the weight rating. You can do that with FiberSport Poles if you follow this rule:

"Your Goal Shall be Greater than your grasp!" See the guide:   (See section for the chart on VIP fitting Vaulters) 

It is more than the grip- weight- and pole length. It is all about the data; 

1. YOUR GRIP (Measured to the top of the Handgrip)

2. THE WEIGHT OF THE JUMPER

3. THE LENGTH OF RUN (How Many LEFTS or RIGHTS)

4. THE LENGTH OF THE POLE 

5. YOUR STRENGTH (Power or Swing Vaulter)

6. YOUR TAKE-OFF ANGLE (Forward to the back of the Pit or up towards the Bar) 

  DATA NEEDED  L+#+ FLEX+ Brand + your grip+your weight in the video.

Other factors; 

There is a reason why major pole makers use naturally colored glass with no pigments. 

Fillers break down the ability of the Weave to hold load over time. Darker resins have Carbon to darken the colors of black, Blue, etc. Light colors like white, yellow, etc., use titanium oxide for brightness. The molecule under a microscope is jagged/spiked. Both are fillers, and they are abrasive to the fabric over time. How much time? It can be on the 25th jump or the 1,000th jump, depending on whether one weakens the fibers and the strength of the Weave does not stay dimensional. We used Blue glass from 1977 to 1983 and found better results with Natural clear glass. To date, we have always used clear resin glass; however, we had to improve other things to make the poles more durable. In 2000, we added Carbon to our poles (At that time, it was the ESSX pole I founded in 1998. In 2017 I sold the equipment I designed that made the ESSX poles to UST-ESSX. 

In 2020, I worked with Altius to private label FiberSport for us. Altius uses our FiberSport patterns to make our vaulting poles. We work directly with Raymond, the pole maker who has worked for Altius and Sky-Pole (Santos Texas ) for many years; he even made the FiberSport poles to our specifications for us back when FiberSport provided Władysław Kozakiewicz his Gold Medal poles for his 5.78 WR (18'11 1/2") in the 1980 Moscow Games.

We took a good look at the Mandrels. We had some anodized with Aluminum, some steel hardened, and some Aluminum. The discovery was Aluminum expanded too much in the oven, so we switched to all-tempered steel mandrels.

We started realizing that Carbon can also be abrasive in a pole if the Uni-carbon crosses another Uni-Carbon and is not perpendicular (crossing each other). We found we needed to separate the Carbon between layers of glass to ensure this would not be a factor. We discovered layering to adjust the Carbon between body wrap layers to increase the stiffness or the flexibility needed to make the pole the rating.

We don't sand our poles to get you the correct flex number; this is cutting corners; we always use an autoclave system to cure poles. Some have used a cello wrap system to make poles like golf shafts and fishing rods. This will work for little poles under 12'; however, we are more confident about poles with extreme pressure and special heat shrink wrap. Using both gives you the strongest, safest vaulting pole. Making our poles tough is what we bring to the table to keep the Pole Vault Event FUN!