Leaderboard

I'll throw my hat in the ring here as someone who does a ton of profiles and also tests them. Owning a full-service hockey shop gives me the ability to have access to try all different combinations of skates, steel, and profiles. Yes, I am lucky, but this also comes with negatives as well considering I change configurations so often I sometimes physically hurt myself s and it most certainly does take its toll on my skating as well by changing equipment so often. Such is life..... BTW, when I say I hurt myself testing, I am dead serious. I hurt my back not too long ago, slipped a disc. I was testing an unreleased pair of skates with a very aggressive Quad 0 profile that was applied, it still had the full pitch in it and my back just couldn't handle the strain exerted with being so far forward. My back and core were constantly engaged fighting against the extremely stiff skate and the pitch of the profile and something had to give... Something did. My back. Anyway. Quad 0.5 is a great overall profile and as mentioned, what I typically like to start players on if they are coming from steel that has not been profiled previously. It's also very good for new adult players, as the pitch is something they are not yet accustomed to and can throw off their skating. For the young kids, I prefer to put them on a single longer profile until they develop advanced edge control. This allows them to focus on skating and not worrying about balance as much. Quad 2 would be my second go-to. The Quad 0/1 removes a very large amount of steel and also add quite a bit of pitch. Once you blend the toe properly many people feel too far forward and they get short choppy strides due to balance issues and such. There are so many factors I think we can all agree that its truly impossible to say what is the best method and what to use for each player without seeing. Not to mention that some skates have a built-in forward pitch, like TRUE, and many other skates are very neutral. For example, skating on a Quad 0 using the "Pro Sharp recommendation) on my TRUE skates makes me feel unbalanced. When I do Quad 0/1 I tend to remove most of the pitch from the profile to preserve steel and also lessen the forward pitch. I can always add more pitch later but I cannot add steel back once it's been removed.

That's a pretty wide sweeping brush...and I love JR but....there are some great pro shop and sharpening guys on here....LOL (sarcastic smile) It's a joke....🤣

My store bought a bunch of TRUE AX9 pro stock sticks and I have been using two of them for about 2 weeks and roughly 30 hours of ice time so I figure I have a pretty decent amount of time with the sticks at this point to provide some feedback to others who are eagerly waiting for the retail version launch. This is not a review as I still need more time with the stick but I have had a lot of people message me, Instagram followers, asking about the AX9 as they know we got a bunch of them in at the shop. About me: Age: 39 Height: 5'11" Weight: 185lbs Shoot: Right Preferred shaft flex: 70-80 (varies on stick and kick-point) Preferred blade pattern: P28/TC4/W28 (max height when possible) Position: Center or Left Wing Overall the stick feels like the next generation of A-series, which is good. I am a big fan of the A6.0HT and SBP as I have always felt they had a good feel and balance. My biggest issue with TRUE sticks has always been with the blade. The first generation XC9 the blade would fall apart, usually due to the urethane insert being exposed and not inside the actual blade itself, but also the toe of the blade would wear far too quickly. I think all versions of the A-Series had these issues as well, the tow of the blade always seems to wear out very quickly. I personally have never had a TRUE shaft fail, only blades with my TRUE sticks so the overall durability has been pretty good. When TRUE added the BRT+ it made things better as far as overall blade durability but the BRT didn't really address the issues I had with the toe of the blades continuing to fail far too quickly. Disclaimer: I do not tape the toe of my stick, and yes, I shoot off the toe, so this contributes to wear but compared to any of the other brands of sticks I have used my TRUE sticks blades have always worn much faster and the resin itself delaminates. Now, on to first impressions. The looks are awesome. I like how they incorporated the chrome accent but left the rest of the stick fairly plain. I hate flashy sticks so I always felt TRUE has incorporated just the right amount of flair into their graphics. Enough so you recognize the stick brand but not overwhelming as Bauer has dont with the new Vapor series which is overly busy and too loud. The shaft shape on the AX9 is more like the Nexus, kind of flat on the sides with rounded corners. It's not as concave as the A-series and not as boxy as the X-series. It's my favorite shaft shape. The flat sidewalls give you a good stable grip and the rounded corners allow you to rotate your wrists nicely. The blade seems to be mostly the same, it does look like they did make some changes though as the blades now have a textured pattern. I am not sure if the retial model will come like this since these are pro stock versions but I hope they do release them with the textured pattern. I have never liked the fact that Warrior and TRUE retail sticks are very slick without any type of textured pattern on the blade. I can say that the durability of the new AX9 blade is much improved. After many games and drop-ins, I have seen a single mark on the blade whereas my other TRUE sticks would be showing some wear by now. Kickpoint seems to have been moved up a little making the stick much more dynamic. It's still easy to load but it doesn't feel like its a single use stick anymore. If the A6.0HT was comparable to the Vapor 1X Lite I would say this new model is more like a Warrior Alpha DX or a JetSpeed FT2. The kick point is still low, but not so low that you lose power when shooting or the shots come off the stick with low accuracy. The pucks fly off this thing. There were a few goals I nabbed from the top of the circle that the goalie just didn't even see soon enough to react. So if you are looking for a quick release this stick has that. I usually score from below the top of the circle but since I am getting a little more power into my shot I can shoot from a little further out. Weight! Thats the big thing here. Damn, this stick is light. TRUE says 393 grams and I would say that might be an understatement as mine came in at 389 before I cut it. I think 390-400 grams is a sweet spot for me when it comes to sticks so it's taking some time to adjust to a stick this light. Really hard passes are sometimes hard to cradle and there have been a few times when leaning into a one-time shot that I could feel the stick lose leverage to the puck due to how light it is. It feels lighter than 389 grams too! TRUE always talks about swing weight and while on paper the Vapor/Supreme ADV and such may be lighter if you hold this in your hand and swing it compared to those sticks the TRUE feels noticeably lighter. Overall I am very impressed with the new AX9. While I thought the A6.0 HT was a very solid stick it felt like it was designed more as a single-function stick and was not dynamic. It was good at quick release, but everything else was just good, not great. The AX9 has taken this up a notch and I think it does everything great.

Funny you mention 9.5/10.5 as thats what is now standard on the TRUE Shift holder STEP steel and it feels almost exactly like a Quad 0.5.

disclaimer - I am in no way an expert, pretty far from it, but I did find mention of the Quad .5 while searching this site when I was researching profiles a few months ago. I had originally tried a Quad 1 (that Pure Hokey recommended), it was nice but I felt it was too short in the front, felt I was tipping forwards a little too much, so that lead me to the Quad .5 which was my glass slipper. For the record, I'm in a 7.5 skate (263 blade I think), '9" and about 165-170lbs if any of that matters. Again, as for the technical stuff I don't know much lol, just know this one happened to work well for me.

Keep in mind that only a very small portion of the toe of the skate is that first radius. So 6' or even 8' may sound small and like you'd fall over, it's not the part of the skate you're typically balancing on. It's not the same as just getting a 6' or 8' or even 9' single radius. But with what you're looking for 0.5 is definitely the way to go. I have a Quad 1 and honestly I think the toe radius is too short (and I have 272 runners so it feels a little longer to me). I'll be getting a Quad 0.5 on my nest set of steel for sure. If I don't like it, I can always go to Quad 1. With how much steel they take off the toe, you couldn't go from Quad 1 to 0.5. There wouldn't be any blade left.

Warrior lists their lie as one lower than the other manufacturers. So the W88 is really a "lie 5". Bauer lists their P88 as a lie 6. It's not, it's a lie 5. It's a lower lie than the lie 6 P92, lie 5.5 P10, and about the same as the lie 5 P28, PM9, and CCM's P30. In reality, the W88 is a clone of the other P88 variants, with slight differences. Warrior's W03 is a Bauer P92/CCM P29 variant, which are both lie 6. Again, Warrior's lie numbering system comes in to play. With manufacturers reducing the number of curves available at retail, your choices are limited without going custom. Bauer and CCM are only going to give you 3 or 4 choices, with the P92/P29/W03 being the highest lie and the only one that high. P88/W88 and P28/W28 are both similar and lower. With Bauer, a P14 *might* work. It's a slightly higher lie than the P88, with less twist than the P92. The issue with it is that it's a very short blade which may not work for many players. True offers more choices if you can someone that carries them.

I'll cede to your expertise and research. I had just assumed that Quad 0.5 was inbetween Quad 0 and Quad 1. That's not the case (strange numbering on PS's part). With 0.5's larger front radius and more neutral pitch, I definitely agree that it's probably the best starting point.

Excellent points!!!

They hinge a bit both ways. Whether the forearm part hinges down or not doesn’t really matter that much mobility wise though, your arm doesn’t bend that way unless it breaks.

Going t have to disagree with you on this one. Seeing as I takes the least amount of steel off and is closest to the profile study done on most effective profile I would highly recommend the .5 ws a starter. 0 and 1 when done properly take away sooooo much steel and pitch it beyond what it should be based on another study done on blade pitch

Check out the discussion in the ProSharp Project Section. Lots of reviews and discussion on people dialing in various quad profile radiuses (radii?). http://modsquadhockey.com/forums/forum/191-the-prosharp-project/ And, if you search “quad” in the equipment forum, you get a lot of returns. Definitely a ton of info and discussion on this board about it.

Thanks for your support of JR and this site (INSERT SARCASTIC LOOK). I Just don't understand people sometimes. Seriously, there is no one in the business who is better than JR