The last time we caught up with Patrick Martinez, we were literally talking about South Point hot dogs.

Back then, and I say that in air quotes because it wasn’t even a year ago, Patrick may have been best known for his Patty Cam on BowlTV.

At the beginning of 2025 he announced that he was starting a video production company. The Cloud Media Productions Inc. took a lot of time and a lot of thought to get off the ground, pardon the pun.

Now that he is off the ground with it we decided to have a conversation and call it Cloud Level.

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The 2025 PBA Tour has lots of talented stars and players looking to make their mark for the first time.

What it doesn't have is Joe Grondin.

The San Pedro, CA native who is now living near Lansing, MI announced at the end of last year that he was trading tour life for the working world...and mentioned some great personal things that have him excited for A New Path Forward!

You may remember Grondin from his televised finals appearance at the 2023 PBA Cheetah Championship in Wauwatosa. He defeated AJ Johnson, but lost to eventual champion EJ Tackett in the semifinal match.

The Wichita State grad did not have the success in 2024 he had hoped for, and missed the cut at the PBA Tour Trials in August.

So, what part does bowling play in Grondin's future? Listen to find out!

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What’s YOUR bowling story all about? Tell us!

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Bowling With The Fef! is brought to you by:

Chip Magnet salsa - Raise your snack standards! https://www.chipmagnetsalsa.com/ #chipmagnet

Jerry’s Skor-mor Bowling Supply - The Eau Claire, WI area’s leader in bowling supplies, bowling ball drilling and more since 1988. Located inside Wagner’s Lanes.  jerrysskormorbowlingsupply.com (715) 559-1822

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At the time this is distributed to your favorite podcast platform, Eau Claire area USBC adult members have a little more than a week to register for their association tournament.

And they should! There are incentives upon incentives to bowl this tournament in Eau Claire, WI, and you don’t have to bowl like a champion to walk away a winner. 

Go to bit.ly/2025ecusbc (all lower case letters...it is case-sensitive) to find a registration form and all the rules. 

As you listen to this episode, keep in mind, I am a volunteer member of the association. 

In it, Association President Barb Hanson and Vice President Randy Schenk discuss all the new stuff coming up at this year’s tournament!

NOTES: 

-Your all-events score is the seven-game total. Scores in games two and three of the Doubles/Singles event do not count twice. 

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What’s YOUR bowling story all about? Tell us!

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Bowling With The Fef! is brought to you by:

Chip Magnet salsa - Raise your snack standards! https://www.chipmagnetsalsa.com/ #salsatakeover

Jerry’s Skor-mor Bowling Supply - The Eau Claire, WI area’s leader in bowling supplies, bowling ball drilling and more since 1988. Located inside Wagner’s Lanes.  jerrysskormorbowlingsupply.com (715) 559-1822

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Sometimes things just come into our lives for whatever reason and have a big, honkin' impact.

For Brian Hirsch of Salem, WI that was bowling.

Nowadays, he’s passing on all his knowledge to his son, who is a regular at youth tournaments across Wisconsin. 

It’s Masen and me…the bowling story of Brian Hirsch.

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What’s YOUR bowling story all about? Tell us!

SUBSCRIBE (on YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/c/bowlingwiththefef?sub_confirmation=1

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Bowling With The Fef! on X: https://x.com/BWTFef

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Bowling With The Fef! is brought to you by:

Chip Magnet salsa - Raise your snack standards! https://www.chipmagnetsalsa.com/ #salsatakeover

Jerry’s Skor-mor Bowling Supply - The Eau Claire, WI area’s leader in bowling supplies, bowling ball drilling and more since 1988. Located inside Wagner’s Lanes.  jerrysskormorbowlingsupply.com (715) 559-1822

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It goes without saying that EJ Tackett is leading Team MOTIV at the upcoming PBA Elite League: Battle of the Brands.

In a social media prank that was well executed, MOTIV guys Ronnie Russell and Brett Spangler claimed that Ronnie’s brother in law would be replacing EJ on the team.

EJ took that joke like a champ, and a discussion about the real Team MOTIV is where we started the episode Top of the Mountain.

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What’s YOUR bowling story all about? Tell us!

SUBSCRIBE (on YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/c/bowlingwiththefef?sub_confirmation=1

Email [email protected] and YOU could be on the show!

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Join our Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/855152748614347

Bowling With The Fef! on X: https://x.com/BWTFef

Bowling With The Fef! is brought to you by:

Chip Magnet salsa - Raise your snack standards! https://www.chipmagnetsalsa.com/ #salsatakeover

Jerry’s Skor-mor Bowling Supply - The Eau Claire, WI area’s leader in bowling supplies, bowling ball drilling and more since 1988. Located inside Wagner’s Lanes.  jerrysskormorbowlingsupply.com (715) 559-1822

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I’m a big fan of finding and trying new social media platforms. 

When I first heard about Bluesky several weeks ago, I didn’t see it as a substitute for any other platform or away to signal my political leaning. The former would probably fly in the face of what I’m trying to do with the marketing of Bowling With The Fef!, and the latter is something that almost always has nothing to do with Bowling With The Fef! 

At that point there weren’t many bowling related accounts on Bluesky, but after about a day, I was glad to see an inbox message from Simon Kimber, the creator of the Tenpin Toolkit (tenpintoolkit.com) app.

That led to this episode of the show that we called Bowling’s Swiss Army Knife.

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What’s YOUR bowling story all about? Tell us!

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Join our Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/855152748614347

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Bowling With The Fef! is brought to you by:

Chip Magnet salsa - Raise your snack standards! https://www.chipmagnetsalsa.com/ #salsatakeover

Jerry’s Skor-mor Bowling Supply - The Eau Claire, WI area’s leader in bowling supplies, bowling ball drilling and more since 1988. Located inside Wagner’s Lanes.  jerrysskormorbowlingsupply.com (715) 559-1822

Did Nate Purches just have his best week EVER?

Maybe for now...but, if his current trajectory in bowling continues into 2025 and beyond, he will probably top it soon!

Purches, of Fond du Lac, WI, combined a runner-up finish at the PBA Regional Players Invitational in Reno, NV on Sunday (Dec. 15, 2024) with receiving the 2024 Harry Golden PBA Rookie of the Year award a few days prior.

And Purches is also exempt for the 2025 PBA Tour season because of his fourth-place finish at the PBA Tour Trials in August.

What does this guy do for an encore? We'll have to wait to find that out, but the newly-crowned ROY shares his thoughts on a memorable 2024 in Ep. 188!

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What’s YOUR bowling story all about? Tell us!

SUBSCRIBE (on YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/c/bowlingwiththefef?sub_confirmation=1

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Join our Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/855152748614347

Bowling With The Fef! on X: https://x.com/BWTFef

Bowling With The Fef! is brought to you by:

Chip Magnet salsa - Raise your snack standards! https://www.chipmagnetsalsa.com/ #salsatakeover

Jerry’s Skor-mor Bowling Supply - The Eau Claire, WI area’s leader in bowling supplies, bowling ball drilling and more since 1988. Located inside Wagner’s Lanes.  jerrysskormorbowlingsupply.com (715) 559-1822

Nate Purches of Fond du Lac, WI had a rookie season on the PBA Tour in 2024 that was outstanding. 

Before all that, he was a talented junior bowler who got a taste of the bright lights of TV during the PBA Junior Finals in March 2021.

At the time, he was 17-years-old and a few months away from starting college at UW-Whitewater.

He discussed that on the show along with Shawn Wochner in this flashback episode: Shimmy Shimmy Ya.

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What’s YOUR bowling story all about?

Tell us!

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Bowling With The Fef! on X: https://x.com/BWTFef

Bowling With The Fef! is brought to you by:

Chip Magnet salsa - Raise your snack standards! https://www.chipmagnetsalsa.com/ #salsatakeover

Jerry’s Skor-mor Bowling Supply - The Eau Claire, WI area’s leader in bowling supplies, bowling ball drilling and more since 1988. Located inside Wagner’s Lanes.  https://jerrysskormorbowlingsupply.com/ (715) 559-1822

For the first time in several years, UW-Eau Claire's club bowling program has both mens and womens teams.

Our guest is the coach who guides them all toward success!

In October, the club announced that Alex Bandli would be at the helm of both teams.

The Blugolds have had some great teams dating back to the early and mid 1990s and are working toward creating more magic in the 2024-25 season.

Bandli is originally from the Madison area and, when he's not with the Blugolds, competing on the lanes, or at his day job, he's often launching a drone and capturing spectacular views as an aerial videographer and photographer (flightfirstphoto.com). 

This is where we get to know Coach Bandli and his bowling story!

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What’s YOUR bowling story all about? Tell us!

SUBSCRIBE (on YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/c/bowlingwiththefef?sub_confirmation=1

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Join our Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/855152748614347

Bowling With The Fef! on X: https://x.com/BWTFef

Bowling With The Fef! is brought to you by:

Chip Magnet salsa - Raise your snack standards! https://www.chipmagnetsalsa.com/ #salsatakeover

Jerry’s Skor-mor Bowling Supply - The Eau Claire, WI area’s leader in bowling supplies, bowling ball drilling and more since 1988. Located inside Wagner’s Lanes.  jerrysskormorbowlingsupply.com (715) 559-1822

In July of this year, a new Executive Director came on board to lead one of the most well-known charitable organizations in the bowling community.

Jessica Abel of Broadalbin, NY started in the role at Bowlers to Veterans Link (https://bvl.org/) after two years of work at the International Bowling Campus and a successful run as a competitor at Wichita State University that included a national championship.

"She taught me how to turn my computer on, she'll tell you that!" Luis Benavides said while challenging Abel to appear on the show in Ep. 180.

Abel accepted that challenge soon after, and we will get into her role at BVL along with her bowling story!

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What’s YOUR bowling story all about? Tell us!

SUBSCRIBE (on YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/c/bowlingwiththefef?sub_confirmation=1

Email [email protected] and YOU could be on the show!

Bowling With The Fef! podcast: https://bowlingwiththefef.podbean.com/

Join our Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/855152748614347

Bowling With The Fef! on X: https://x.com/BWTFef

Bowling With The Fef! is brought to you by:

Chip Magnet salsa - Raise your snack standards! https://www.chipmagnetsalsa.com/ #salsatakeover

Jerry’s Skor-mor Bowling Supply - The Eau Claire, WI area’s leader in bowling supplies, bowling ball drilling and more since 1988. Located inside Wagner’s Lanes.  https://jerrysskormorbowlingsupply.com/ (715) 559-1822