Bowling-Hopping in Korea – Buying a Bowling Ball and More!
The admin team travelled to South Korea recently for a holiday, and before we hopped onto the plane, we had a very specific goal in mind: we wanted to each buy a bowling ball! Read on to find out more about our journey as bowling-hopping tourists in Korea!
The Basics
Before leaving for Korea, there were some essential travel preparations we had to do. The most important thing to note, is that Google Maps does not work well there. Yes, you might be able to find some of the more popular tourist attractions and restaurants listed on Google, but most of the smaller businesses do not have a Google listing. In addition, navigation is not enabled on Google Maps!
Fortunately, there are two local apps, Kakao Map and Naver Map that serve this function well. They can be used in English and are pretty user-friendly too. More importantly, when you searched ‘bowling’ or ‘볼링’, the locations of nearby pro-shops and bowling alleys (‘볼링장’, pronounced ‘bolling jang’) appear immediately!
To make travelling easier, we also recommend you download the Kakao T app, which is a ride-hailing service, or basically Korea’s version of Uber. Some of the larger bowling alleys and pro-shops might be located a little further from the city centre, so it would be worth planning a trip via taxi.
If you would like to purchase bowling balls, do make sure that you are able to bring them back! Most bowling bags should fit in the acceptable dimensions for luggage on flights without having to be declared as odd-sized, so the main problem you would face is the weight limit. Alternatively, you could ship balls back, though that would come with additional costs.
Why buy a bowling ball in Korea?
Price was definitely a factor for us when we decided to buy bowling balls in Korea. For example, 900 Global’s Harsh Reality costs about US$215, while back in Singapore it could cost 25% more!
More importantly, there is an unbelievable variety of bowling balls that are only available exclusively in Korea. We call these balls Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), private label, or simply overseas balls. International ball distributors often only carry one brand of ball, and therefore need a greater variety of products to sell, so ball manufacturers like SPI produce the ball in the USA, but sell them to these distributors (more information here).
There are 3 big reasons why we wanted to buy an OEM ball so much. Firstly, there are many more core and overstock combinations available. For example, if you really liked your !Q Tour Ruby but sometimes wished that it were a little stronger, perhaps it would be perfect with an NRG Pearl coverstock rather than its current R2S Pearl, then look no further than the !Q Tour Galaxy!
Secondly, there are cores and coverstocks that are only available in OEM balls. What if you were looking for a strong asymmetric ball right now, but aren’t satisfied with the current balls in the market? You could explore the Solution series, which is one of the most popular lines of balls in Korea and Japan right now! It features the asymmetric RAD-A Core, with 5 variations each with different coverstocks already released, and yet most of us have probably not heard of it!
Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly to us, the colours on many of these balls are beautiful, eye-catching, and certain to draw lots of envious attention from our fellow bowlers!
Our Favourite Pro-Shops and Bowling Alleys in Korea
As mentioned above, there are many pro-shops and bowling alleys in Korea, and a quick search on Naver Maps would show you this. Here are the 3 most memorable that we visited:
A-Bowl 에이볼
A-Bowl is by far the biggest bowling pro-shop we have ever been to in our life. There is an immense range of balls available, and you can see from the photo below that our phone camera’s lens was barely wide enough to capture the entirety of their selection!
There is also a wide selection of tote bags, wrist guards and other accessories available. We eventually decided on 2 balls here, the Spectre Sapphire (not banned!) and the Honey Badger Ocean Pearl. The pro-shop operator was kind enough to help us get a quote for international shipping. However, we ended up buying a new 3 ball tote as check-in luggage instead! A-Bowl is found within a bowling alley, so if you are feeling adventurous, have your drilling numbers ready, get it drilled there and then, and have a game immediately with your shiny new ball!
A-Bowl is located a little further from central Seoul, nearer to Incheon, and should take 45 minutes to 1 hour to reach by taxi depending on traffic, but it is well worth the visit!
A-Bowl 에이볼Address: B1, 37, Sammisijang 1-gil, Siheung-si, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea 시흥시 삼미시장1길 37 대홍프라자 B1 Opening Hours: Pro Shop: 11:00 ~ 20:30 daily Bowling Alley: 11:00 ~ 25:00 on Weekdays, Sundays and Holidays; 11:00 ~ 26:00 on Fridays and Saturdays
Bowling Bowling 볼링볼링
Bowling Bowling is a very aptly named 24-hour operated bowling alley near Dongdaemun. The alley is separated into two portions, the first comprises of 22 lanes with an aesthetic wooden backdrop, while the second has 8 lanes with a cute, pink theme.
The lanes and approach are really clean and well-maintained, and the house shoes are disinfected with heat and UV light after each use, so there are no worries about hygiene if you choose to bowl a game there with house equipment (which we did!).
Crucially, each pair of lanes comes with a tracking system which shows you a replay of your shots, and other metrics such as ball speeds at the start and end, where your ball crosses the arrows, and where it begins to hook (or your breakpoint). Many alleys in Korea are equipped with such systems, so you can be sure that the Koreans take their bowling very seriously!
Happy Bowling 해피볼링
Another aptly named venue, Happy Bowling is a pro-shop located north of the city centre, which we visited after our torturous morning hike of Bukhansan. Happy Bowling looks like a small, nondescript shop from the outside, but upon entering you realise that it is actually rather large, and contains a rather wide selection of bowling balls and accessories.
The accessories are competitively priced, and we bought a non-trivial stack of thumb tape. They also sell more specialised tools such as bevel knives and bowling workout tools that aren’t easy to come by. We spent around US$100 on accessories alone there, and the pro-shop operator even threw in a couple of freebies for us!
The admin team thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in Korea, and we visited no less than 20 different pro-shops and bowling alleys across 3 cities. Bowling culture in Korea is intense, and it is definitely worth visiting an alley there even if you don’t plan to buy any equipment. The density of pro-shops and bowling alleys in Seoul was quite unimaginable for us, with up to 10 bowling alleys and pro-shops located within some neighbourhoods! The bowling community is also very large and very active, with participants of all ages taking part in leagues and competitions, and even investing in alley shammies. If you have visited bowling alleys in Korea or bought equipment there, do share your experience in the comments section!