beedee

Nice! Keep us posted! I tried on TF7's awhile back at HM (around January) but since I didnt ask to have them baked, I didnt get the full experience. Which CCMs are you going to check out?

Hills is the GOAT with the True Hockey Skate line reviews!

Similar boat here, but ended up back in Vapors due to the narrower toe box of the JetSpeed FT485. I immediately noticed that the boot was deeper than my previous Vapor x500's. I really wanted the CCM to work for me, but I ended up in Vapor 3x, Fit 2. That said, I need to shit or get off the pot and pick up a pair of TF9's before they dry up.

I just realized if I try these (6.5), I'll have more adjustments to adapt to since I'll be going to a smaller holder from my size 7 Vapor 3x. Will the forward pitch be a big difference compared to my Vapors?

Great feedback here. I'm in 4-5 month old Vapor 3x, Size 7 Fit 2. Toes barely brush the caps. I was thinking of trying out the True TF9 and plan on ordering a 6.5 Regular. Nothing really wrong with my 3x at all, just really curious to try out the TF9's, especially with their 30-day Guarantee.

Keep us posted regarding the Machs.

Yikes, give us the backstory on how that happened!

Thanks for sharing. I'm still debating if I should jump on the TF9's with that great pricing and just hang on to them until my 5 month old Vapor 3X's wear out.

I have two JetSpeed FT3's I bought almost a year ago to the day. I only use one though, and I play once a week, sometimes twice. (My wife has used my back-up one a few times in Rookie, so I'm not really counting that as usage, lol) I feel like its still holding up pretty good, I'll have to use my "back-up" one tonight in warm-ups to see if I can notice a discernible difference in the two. My shots and passes feel decent enough. As someone else mentioned, maybe the blade is softening up because I feel like sometimes hard passes are difficult to receive without kind of botching it. Then again, maybe its my technique. I do my best though to kind of meet the puck as it comes to me and then soft/firmly cradle it back as it arrives. :shrug:

I have always dropped the top eyelet and used the 2nd one down and never had any issues. However on my newest pair of skates (purchased in February), Vapor 3x's, I lace all the way up with about medium tension (upper 4 eyelets) and flex my foot forward to help loosen them a bit more before tying them. This allows a bit of forward movement still. However, that being said, I have noticed that I have toe-picked a handful of times. Not sure if that is attributed to lacing all the way up, or the taller steel of the new skates? Maybe tonight in my game I will leave the top one undone and see how it goes?

This is the route I went, Jetspeed FT3 Grip Stick INT Flex 65 P90TM, Left. I've been very happy with mine, especially since I didn't have to cut it down at all. I play defense and take a lot of slapshots and wrist/snaps from the point and have scored quite a few goals in my beer league games with this stick (most of which were top corners). Occasionally I still sail one over the net, but those are few and far between after a bit of practice with the stick.

Nice find, this is super tempting.!

Thats a no from me, dawg. (see what I did there)

@PBH to the white courtesy phone please.

The reason I felt bad was because I wasn't too sure of what was done to the skates upon returning them, hopefully they are somehow repurposed. I don't feel bad for HM at all.

I've been using Tacki-Mac for years with great results. My wife recently gave Lizard Skins a shot and I must say it does feel pretty good. Feels a bit more spongy than my Tacki-Mac grips.

I recently tried three pairs of CCM skates, JetSpeed 485, SuperTacks 9380 and 88k Ribcor over a months span. JetSpeeds were purchased from Pure Hockey, no issue returning them at all. SuperTacks were purchased at Hockey Monkey, no issues returning them at all. However after determining the RibCors weren't for me, when I went to return them at Hockey Monkey (where I bought them) an employee initially said that I couldn't return them, and the CCM 90 Day Policy only applied to trying out one pair of skates. I politely asked them to show me where that was stated in CCM's literature, as well as Hockey Monkeys (while having the policy of each pulled up on my phone just in case) and the employee asked me to give him a moment while he headed to an office. The manager said it was "ok" to take the RibCor's back. We went on to purchase a stick and a few other things at HM that day, so its not like I was just using HM to try out the CCMs. Part of me felt bad for trying out three pairs of skates, but that is what the 90 Day Guarantee is there for. They just didnt work for me at all. After all was said and done, I ended up back in a new pair of my old faithful, Bauer Vapors, 3x from Pure Hockey. If Hockey Monkey had my size/fit in stock, I would have purchased that same day I returned the RibCors. Does anyone know what CCM does with the skates that are returned? Mine were all still in 9.5 out of 10 shape.

Yup, too risky imho to buy something site unseen, and especially not being able to try it on. Unfortunately for me, I gave away my S17's awhile back once I got the S29's. Mega face-palm. There are a couple good Play-it-Again sports in my area that have pretty solid selections of hockey gear I may go check out and see what I can find.

In my beer league game last Wednesday night I had my feet taken out from me unsuspectingly when going for a puck behind our net. This caused me to fall and land pretty hard on my right side, with the area just below my right butt cheek taking the brunt of the fall (right elbow absorbed it too). I was very sore to say the least. The area throbbed, but I was able to finish the game. I'm still a tad sore today, but this event has sparked a search for new pants. My current pants are Bauer S29's, sized Medium (I'm a 34"-36" waist depending on brands). They are pretty lightweight, mobile and offer nice rib protection, decent thigh protection but I feel like the tailbone and rear-end protection is lacking. I came from some old Easton S17's which were tanks in comparison to my current S29's. The S17's had so much padding everywhere! I wanted to see what you guys think might suit what I'm looking for. I play D in a mid-level league once a week, with an occasional pick-up game thrown in the mix. I've been looking on SideLineSwap as of last night and found some Nexus pro-stock (college team) that look pretty nice. Only hang up is, I'd be buying them without trying them on (duh) and without really seeing what the inside of the pants look like. Most ads only have pictures of the fronts and backs. Assuming the waist sizing is similar to my Bauer S29's, but more volume since its a Nexus pant? The S29's fit pretty snug. I'm just curious how much more padding/protection they'll offer than my S29's? Is there any other models I should be looking at? I tried on a teammates CCM Pro-Stock pants a couple weeks ago, I believe they were a HPTK31 model? They sat a bit lower on my waistline than my S29's, so it felt weird. That said, maybe something that sits lower might be better for protection? I feel like when I pull my S29's all the way up, the rear-end and tailbone padding sits too high.f Maybe I'll check out some padded compression shorts to supplement the S29's?

I like velcro, but have found the placement on my ShockDoctor compression shorts is pretty low. I wish it was higher up the thigh. I use pro-stock socks that don't have velcro for two of my teams so I use a garter belt. I have thought about sewing in some velcro, but that takes me back to my comment. Sometimes when I've used the velcro on socks with the ShockDoctor jock, the top of my shinguards get caught up on the bottom lip of my pants since I'm not really pulling the stock up far enough to be more snug on the shinguard. I made sure to buy the "large" pro-stock socks too.

How did it go? Do you still have them?

Anyone have a ballpark figure for the retail pricing on the Catalyst skates?

I saw these as I was browsing SLS, not my ad. https://sidelineswap.com/gear/hockey/gloves/4296086-warrior-covert-blue-glove-liners-pro-stock-hockey-gloves

Keep us posted on what you find when trying on other skates. My foot was a Fit 2 according to the Bauer 3D scanner, but I felt similar when trying on a Supreme Fit 2, not as loose in the Vapor Fit 2. But the Fit 1 munched the outside of my forefeet. I’m pretty much a D+ or E- if you will in the “old” systems. Kind of sucks being on the cusp.

You have a great point, at this moment in time I'm just starting to suffer paralysis by analysis. I did pull out the footbeds and you suggested, and they do line up almost perfectly (I'm talking within' 1mm of each other). The Vapor feels better all around, heel sits deeper, toes don't brush the caps, they are the winner for me, I'm done. SuperTacks go back this weekend. Thank you all for your input over the past few weeks!