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At 38, I am putting on the goalie gear for the first time in my life tomorrow. Hour long beginner clinic, followed by an hour long scrimmage. I've played hockey my whole life. I played defense all throughout school, and transitioned into playing forward once I hit beer league. Now I skate out one night on defense, and one night as a forward in my leagues. Looking forward to learning something knew. All my gear was purchased second hand on GGSU (except mask/dangler.,goalie jock, and sticks, which were purchased new). Looking forward to the clinic, and even more so the scrimmage. Gonna be rough, but hopefully a lot of fun.

30 day VH skate feedback: I would imagine that many, like me, have been reading this forum to try and decide if they should get VH skates. Hopefully for those trying to make the decision my posting will provide some information. After reading this forum for a bit and realizing that my son needed new skates, we took the plunge and placed our order through Kennebec Skate Shop in Maine in late July of '16. Got the skates about 35 days after placing the order. My son is 6'3", 175 lbs., plays defense. Has numerous foot issues including pronate issues, flat feet, narrow heels and low volume feet. Said it took about 3-4 practices to get fully comfortable. He has skated on them about 15 times now and loves them. He describes them as comfortable, light and quick in movement. No wasted "space" between his foot and skate. He is impressed with the light weight compared to his Graf 703's. His experience is that the first couple of times he skated on them they were somewhat awkward. Much stiffer boot than his Graf's. He said he has had to loosen the top couple of eyelets a bit to get some flexibility in movement compared to the Graf's. Early on he said they just felt strange. We had needed to move the right skate blade holder in on his Graf's about an 1/8 of an inch to offset the pronate issue for balance but VH said there was no need. They said they would build the skate boot to compensate for that without blade holder relocation. I think his center of balance was off on the right skate as he got comfortable in them. The boot has "fixed" his pronate issue with extra padding and I am sure the stiffer boot. They have cobra 3000 holders as he wanted to same "Graf" pitch. Says they are as comfortable at the end of the game or practice as they are at the beginning. So far, feels like money well spent. I would also say the customer communication at VH as been great. Every email was responded to and all questions were answered as needed. Nice to know that when you are spending $800+ that you can get specific questions answered that makes you feel better parting with that kind of money. So far nicely done both in product and customer experience.

Played my first league game last night after fucktard broke my ankle four+ months ago. I was doing well at first. Still hard to get up but it is what it is. I ended up letting in a super soft goal. Distance shot, one of the ones where you're 95% sure it's going to be blocked and don't want to go down in case it DOES get blocked and you're down and out. Especially with how hard it is to get up. Second goal was a rebound that went to a wide open guy in front of the net. I doubt I would have gotten to it even at 100%. Third goal was the most painful one. Damn thing just bounced around the crease for a good 20 seconds it felt like, and I just couldn't get a handle on it. Somehow it ended up going in while I was standing? I have absolutely no idea, but I'll have to watch the video to figure out what happened. Last goal (winning goal) was a really good tip that went 5-hole. Hopefully we'll see much less of those once I have my new pads! I made some pretty good saves. Mostly the glove (which is one reason I'm so terrified to use my new glove....) and one toe save to my left in the first period. Probably won't look as nearly as amazing in the video as it felt at the time, though. They never seem to, really.

Probably should update this thing. I played pickup last Tuesday. It went really well, surprisingly. Getting up was difficult, but got easier over time as things loosened up. I ended up letting in only 5 goals over the course of 1.5 hours; none of them I would consider "bad". In fact, I ended up getting applause as I walked into the locker room! Wednesday-Friday last week both groins hurt a lot but that's no surprise considering how long I was off. Also, zero ankle pain. Well, not quite true... I had pain on the INSIDE of my ankle, but I've had that before when I first started playing goal. It's just from a lack of leg strength, forcing me to push up more than I normally would on my inside of my skate on the ice when getting up. That gets better as I get stronger so I'm not concerned about it. I got a text from the goalie who had been filling in for me for the last four months asking if I was playing (she's the other goalie during Tuesday pickup and I guess she noticed I was doing okay). I decided that, what the hell, I was going to give it a shot. If I survived a 1.5 hour pickup with no D, I should be able to survive a league game. So, last night I played a game a week ahead of schedule. I'd been eyeing Oct 2nd since mid-August when I was told I'd be getting off my blood thinners in mid-sept. It was pretty good, no significant pain. I'm using this as an opportunity to get used to getting up with my other leg (using the "bad" leg as the plant leg for standing up, which is more awkward but hurts much less). I still walk with a bit of a limp from the mid-foot still being a bit stiff, and I still ice it every night when I get home from work, but otherwise its seriously like it never happened. I don't even think about it anymore. Now I need to bring all the crap I bought to the used medical supply store. I'm tired of looking at the crutches, the iWalk, the boots, and all the other stuff I bought to make my life easier. They represent one of the lowest times of my life!

Just wanted to say, I installed these on my Nexus N9000s (used the extra shim) and noticed a huge difference. The skates already fit amazingly well but these inserts make it even better. Didn't realize how much I moved my toes (and how uncomfortable that was) until now.

I got these new NYI Stadium Series team stock AX1's off Sideline Sports on Tuesday for $120, and what made it even better was that the seller was right up the freeway from me and I got them the next day. Really happy with this find, I am in love with the colorways.

Well, here it is. My return to the crease. Just a pickup, though. Went surprisingly well. My legs and ankles aren't anywhere near strong enough still so it was pretty painful to get up. But otherwise, not too bad. Funny thing is, a guy asked why I bought NYR pants. "Because they match?" caused him to give me a funny look. He must not know very many goalies ;)