GunnarStahl

Socks definitely helped push down the top shin tab. I made some fine tuning adjustments to the lengths of the girdle and everything felt fine during the first skate with all gear on.

I picked up a ST girdle last year but have yet to use it on the ice. While adjusting the girdle fit at home, I noticed that with my shins on, the tight fit of the thigh protection interferes with the top knee plastic and top knee foam pad. This is a dumb question but with a girdle, should I raise the thigh protection high enough to avoid the interference of the shin pad, or should I keep the thigh protection as loose as possible around my leg so it "floats" freely over my knee cap like a traditional pant would? I'm thinking a loose thigh guard defeats the purpose of a girdle. I am 5'-11", 32 waist, and the Medium girdle fits well, but if I were to raise the thigh guards above my shin guards I'd be at -1 on the little velcro indicators...not sure if this is common or not.

I went with the Shift holder.

After skating my whole life in skates that never fit properly and putting up with the pain, I decided to go with some Trues. I took them for a spin today at sticks and pucks, and all I can say is HOLY SMOKES. Without repeating too much what a bunch of others have said about their skates fitting like a glove, these babies are a gamechanger. A few impressions: I normally used 5/8" ROH and went with the recommendation to go one cut bigger to 3/4". So glad I went with 3/4" as the skates turned on a dime and I would have had crazy blade chatter on turns with 5/8". I put my foot in the skates with the top three eyelets open but couldn't thread the eyelet with the laces because the tongue/skate was so snug. Ended up keeping them fully laced and pulled the tongue out as far as it could to get my foot in. Probably worth getting a shoehorn. Minor arch pain at first but it went away after about 30 minutes. I am used to the neutral stance of CCM holders and was cautious with forward pitch of the True holders. The initial awkwardness on the ice only lasted 10 minutes tops and I eventually grew to appreciate the forward pitch especially skating backwards. The new lightweight tongue is more robust than the pictures look and really molds to your upper ankle. The wrap is super tight. The tongue edge dug into my ankle a little towards the end of skating but was nothing more than a minor annoyance. I can't imagine ever going back to retail skates.

I'd love to hear feedback on this as well. TRUE's online shop shows separate options for both a T-guard and metatarsal protection....does anyone know the difference between the two? The main TRUE website groups both under the same picture.

I am also in the market for low profile pads and heard good things about STX. I snagged some senior medium RX3 elbow pads from their online store and they arrived within a week to the west coast. Pretty impressive considering the black friday deals and traffic they had. Their website was a little funky with order status but STX was quick to acknowledge their website kinks and they gave me the tracking number when requested. Long story short the pads seem like keepers. OP - STX has a good return policy so I'd say give em a shot since they might be what you're looking for. Here's a few photos and my initial thoughts: https://ibb.co/NFxMvh6 https://ibb.co/4jHcKBw https://ibb.co/nL6G12L The OP was asking about shorter forearms so they don't hit the glove cuff. In two of the photos you can see how far the pad go down my right forearm. I wear 14" Vapors and the forearm length of the pad is perfect for me. When my hand is flat or lifted upwards, there's about 1/2" to 1" of free space. When I keep my hand flat but move it left, I ever-so-slightly hit the pad with my cuff but not enough to notice when stickhandling. The sleeve was the biggest question mark I had. I prefer the nylon lock straps but seemed like the sleeve will help keep the pad up during games, especially if you have a grippy baselayer. After trying the pad on the sleeve is take it or leave it for me, but I can see the sleeve being the polarizing factor with RX3s. The three piece design is great for mobility. The main pivot point is actually on the forearm, not the upper arm. Unlike the Tacks I can extend my arm straight without any restraint or discomfort. I found these to fit most similar to Vapors and like the fit far more than the three-piece Jetspeeds. The hex material is super comfy and probably very breathable. I'm not a fan of the Curv composite material the high end Bauer elbows have for forearm protection. There's a grid of hard plastic on the RX3s that seem like they will do a good job protecting the forearm.