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Wild...

Pickups from some recent travels. Franklin Vipers pants Easton Pro pants navy 6K Pro M/L shoulders and a full family photo

Got home today from my surgery and related issues. On the mend. Thanks for everyone who reached out. I got a ways to go but it’s not like I haven’t dealt with other significant health issues before.

Coming from a 100k Pro the stiffness was a concern. It was noticeable, though I didn't feel like the skate was restricting me. I had to work them a little harder to get them to do what I wanted at times so my legs felt it. Oddly, my chronic hip flexor and lower back issues seemed to disappear. Overall, super impressed.

Just in... STFU with these things 🔥🔥

Getting back on the ice tonight!!! A little over six weeks from my thyroid removal surgery. A few complications that delayed my recovery, but looking forward to playing tonight!!

When I had the store in Vegas, I would charge customers the same price for a total custom skate as I would for a top tier retail model. I made a little less on the sale, but then I didn't have to carry as many items in stock for inventory, and the customer got custom skates for the same cost. IMO, everyone wins in situations like this.

Round 2.

I have a pretty extensive shell collection at this point but this is one of my new favs

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Alternatively you could delay going to a curve boot even longer by trying to source the Pro Stock Bauer V Cut skates https://www.sighockey.com/collections/player-skates/products/bauer-vapor-2x-pro-v-cut-hockey-skates-9-d-a-280-ls-fly-ti

The retail store is almost done! So much time, effort, and money went into this. Just waiting on a couple more shipments and we will be open to the public! https://www.yelp.com/biz/surfside-hockey-torrance?osq=Hockey+Equipment https://maps.app.goo.gl/XpKW9WbY9LtEwq4z8 For those not local to So Cal, we will be doing online sales. Exciting times!

I think it's pretty much confirmed by the pictures. No other stick had that exact font and stripe on the underside. It's definitely a pshs.

It isn't confirmed that it is PRO, and I tried to get it confirmed and he won't... but if you use logic it is obviously a PRO stick.

For some of us who are old and set in our ways, as person who both contributed to the proliferation of p28esque curves and ultra-stiff boots, this guy is bordering on super villain status.

Poron to standard foams. 3-piece thumbs to 2-piece thumbs. Embroidered cuff rolls to I don’t even know what to call the plastic crap now. That’s just Bauer. CCM has reduced D3O, or the amount of D3O, they’re using. Palm and gusset materials seems to be getting flimsier. That said, I wouldn’t even bother with retail gloves nowadays. Plenty of pro stock options available with better builds and more options. While it’s a shame CPR and Hockey Menders closed for repalms/customization, ITR does great work and continues to improve with every pair

Sounds like you have at least two stores near you. The store with the Bauer scanner and the one without. Go and try on a ton of skates. Seems like you need to figure out what size skate you wear and what boot shape best fits your foot. You’re all over the place with sizing. Do you have access to a store with staff who are skilled at fitting skates? Go and have them help you get your size and shape dialed in. You’ve already made a 1k+ mistake. If you don’t have a local store you trust, spend some time and money driving to one you do trust. Buying skates blind off of the internet, especially customs that may have some weird stuff going on, is just throwing more money around that may or may not work.

While having a larger sample size is always good, I don’t know if MSH has enough technically sound skaters that would be able to give you an accurate assessment lol It would be like asking the hockeyplayers subreddit their thoughts about the on-ice Marsblade. Based on the initial impressions of those who got the holder, you’d think it was the best technological advancement in skate technology since boots went from leather to composite, and now look how many people are actually using it.

You should dispute the stick you got with your credit card company as a product that was as advertised. And then see if you need to do the same with the one that is in production

Labeda Gripper yellow

That’s where I thought you were going and then suddenly it got all Inception.

Sorry to hear you got a bummer stick at the end of your wait. If I were you, I would complain. It's not reasonable to wait as long as you did. That on its own. On top of that to have a product that doesn't match the spec or live up to reasonable expectations (if they weren't going to paint it the way it looks like it does on their relaunched website, they should have given a heads up) is just the sandy sprinkles on a shit cake. You're doing them a favor saying something. As you said, they won't stay in business long if they alienate their previously loyal customers that want to give them the benefit of the doubt. You shouldn't be out a decent amount of cash, or any amount for that matter, for a product that's honestly way below what it should be.

Custom specs: PPF model Hossa cuff (with side tab, which isn’t always done on other Eagle custom gloves) name embroidery (asked for upper cuff though it was done on the side guard piece) custom colors and binding (based on Eagle Design 5 and Design 7) custom thumb embroidery (a logo that I had previously designed for Eagle goalie pads, and also had on a previous set of Brian's goalie gear) PPF pinstripe PPF tone-on-tone embroidery finger length shortened by 1/4" kangaroo goat palm kangaroo goat gussets gussets tapered by -1/4" (not sure this was done?)

Howdy, I really need to show my wife that sticks picture. Mark

Looks like a True version of the Tackla Breeze X1 ProZone Hockey Pants Tackla is the distributor of True Hockey in Finland, so there is your connection.

It's a nice machine in that all you need to do is drop the skate in and set the number of passes. Self leveling and auto height adjustment are nice features. Pressure from the wheel is much harder than that of the SPARX machines resulting in more pronounced burrs than that of the SPARX. If you own a SPARX and have had no issues then there is really no need to switch. Just another option for those who haven't yet purchased a home sharpener. About $100 more than the 3rd generation SPARX and $250 more than the 2nd generation SPARX. It will be interesting to see how this goes for Bauer since IMO I think SPARX has a done a good job in saturating the market.

I go with my own too, mainly because I find most commercial deodorizers are overly scented. I do 50/ 50 water and vinegar, and then add 20 drops or so of Tee Tree oil. It works super well for me and is cheap, effective and not overly strong-smelling.

All they need to do is bring back the XN10 and I’m sold.

It's def a "buzzword bingo" thing. Basically, the 7X4 has trace amounts of fiberglass mixed with the carbon fiber. I argued with the TRUE rep when doing booking for 2024-2025 product because I didn't understand the value of the 9X4 compared to the 7X4 if the boot itself was the 100% the same. If you look at both, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference visually. However, the actual composition is different. I agree 100%, composite = made up of various parts or elements. I hate "buzzword bingo". It makes me die a little on the inside when I see marketecture.

Average consumers too often equate price to quality, so they assume high end true skates can’t be as good as Bauer or CCM if the flagship doesn’t cost four figures. True makes the price four digits, and when Johnny Suburb and his mom go skate shopping in August, suddenly Trues are now on the same tier because they cost more.

People will probably disagree with me but as you said, I’d play around with profiles long before I’d do a holder swap. There isn’t enough difference in size or amount of steel on the ice at any given time to justify it imo. a good profiler could look at your current blades, get a general idea of the balance point and ice contact you like and get you something similar to what you’ve been using. it will likely take longer to adjust to the boots than the blades anyway.

Great to hear! Skate, skate, and skate....get on the ice as much as you can, whether it's on a pond, public skate, beginner lessons, stick & puck, etc. Try having a friend or someone close to you join the journey with you to make it more fun and motivating.

Just sold my Vapor 3x Pros today and I’m thinking of taking the True plunge. I tried on a pair of TF7’s years ago and was meh about them, but my Vapors just never felt quite snug/cozy enough around my entire foot. Looking at the TF7’s, seeing them for $179 (They have TF9’s for $249). Wore a 7, Fit 2 in the Vapor, based off research of the TF line, I should give the 6.5R a go. Does that sound right?

"...escalated to the management and will be used to improve our production process. I'm sorry the stick fell short of your expectations." Makes it sound like you are the one "at fault", what a crock! That isn't an apology, even though they used the word "sorry" in the sentence. The proper response should be "We apologize your stick made it through our rigorous QC process and was delivered out of spec to what you ordered, we'd like to offer you a discount off your next order with us if you'd be willing to continue giving us your business".

(updated) What I sent to Customer service over email - I'm trying to be nice about it but I mean come on "Hello, I placed an order (USA-3751) in January for a stick which I recently received. My stick didn't feature the "nasty" silver colorway as depicted on the website, just black paint with a grey "base" logo in the middle. I ordered a 65 flex intermediate, but this is more like a 85-90, very stiff, stiffer than my 75 flex I had ordered in previous years. In previous talks with customer service I was told the shaft would feature a gloss grip with carbon fiber weave visible, this stick however has thick black paint throughout. I would prefer the stick to have minimal paint, maybe just graphics applied with grip for weight reduction if possible, because when weighed it's closer to 500 grams than it is to the advertised 435 grams for an intermediate. I expected a 12k carbon weave on the blade as it's an "extra stiff" option but the blade came with a 3k carbon weave which seems softer. The stick was only extended about an inch, uneven at the end so I had to trim off not helping the flex by any means. I am disappointed as I've had positive experiences with Base before and I have two other additional custom stick orders in the Base order queue. This was a let down, especially given the 5 month wait and the fact that this could happen again with my pending 2 orders. Please let me know if there's anything I can do. Best regards (Dmitrakov)"

You are taking this way better than I would be. I would have been screaming and kicking just from the delay. After that - the stick should have been perfect. The fact that it isn't, man, I'd be fuming. Sounds like they have A LOT to sort out. Very curious (as others are) to see how they respond to your feedback. If they have any business sense they'll remake the stick ASAP at no charge.

If you complain, worst they’ll do is ignore you. Plus, we are all curious how they’ll respond!

Bascially. https://www.instagram.com/bsharpottawa/reel/C7Us8_oRM64/

Howdy, Stopped there this morning on the way through the area... Pretty decent! New Sticks were $140 iirc. Hockey socks for $10/pair, half shields for $10, game jerseys for $100. Lots of other stuff too. And this was at 11am on day 3. Thanks for posting it! Mark

I use 1 place in Toronto, Duke's Source for Sports. Technically in Etobicoke, which is a district in the west end of Toronto. Another place I trust my skates with is Hockey Lion in Richmond Hill, which is a city just north of Toronto. I suppose a better way of answering your question would be to know where he'll be playing in Toronto?

Not to be that guy... but why not just grab an extra set of blades? - No surprises for your kid between Sparx sharpened blades from home and the shop while you're on the road - No waiting at the shop on a business tournament weekend -No possibility of the shop being closed for _______ reason

ew

That copper shit is a complete gimmick, which is why they had to change their whole ad campaign from claiming that copper had some kind of therapeutic effect to promoting the copper as something that supposedly extends their usable lives and reduces odor, after they were sued by the FTC for false advertising and had to pay a settlement for it. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/cases/151201tommiecoppercmpt.pdf Braces with semi-rigid or rigid hinged supports running down the sides can provide a little protection against injuries to the lateral and medial ligaments, but it's almost impossible to externally support either of the internal cruciate ligaments, because you can't counter rotational forces on knees with external bracing, except (maybe) by using those very expensive, super-heavy-duty custom-made "Lenox Hill"-style braces, first introduced about 50 years ago. Even those hinged rigid lateral/medial supports that can provide some protection for the MCL and LCL against lateral forces have significant tradeoffs, which is why they scrapped them in the NFL after initially providing them to almost all linemen for a few seasons in the late 80s or early 90s. They found out that they changed the anatomical forces on knees in ways that actually increased ACL tears, as a result. There's no such thing as any brace that can do anything for arthritic pain, except through mechanism #2 below: Simple compression sleeves (which I also wear on the ice and while training legs) do provide some relief (even for arthritic knees, like mine), by virtue of (1) temporarily raising the local tissue temperature and increasing blood flow, and (2) proprioception, in ways that reduce pain perception, indirectly, simply by stimulating distracting sensation in other nearby nerves. If you use them that way, it's best to put them on a little while before you get dressed, so your knees are nice and warm by then. I usually slide mine on before I make the drive to the rink.

That is an insane number of sticks.

P28 was never associated to Hall. As far as I can recall hall was p92 (at the time E3)

Liner socks. I wear THESE.

Vapor 8 was where I gave up on Bauer. I saw Graf 705s in person in a shop and I was blown away by the craftsmanship. They were much more comfortable too, of course. But these are making me reassess all I thought about Bauer. My Vapor 8s were size 10.5 and I didn't have a clue about what they should have been. These are 9.5 EE and they feel almost perfect. I had a hot spot at the end of my large metatarsal on one foot--rubbing right at the edge of the toe cap. But the shell has great stiffness and the liner/foam combo felt very similar to my Catalyst 7s. The steel feels great. Speaking of the forefoot vice, even though these are wide, they still look quite narrow. I fully agree about the looks. I thought Vapor 8s were so cool when they came out. Vapor 10s were just a cut above. The only ones I like almost as much are the XXX and Hyperlite. A true Vapor has to have a certain balance of black and grey. These though, they almost sparkle with the metal mesh, and it's nice there's no tertiary color muddling the mix. Even the splash of red in the XXX is a drawback in my book.