marka

Howdy, Super cool! My version of this is that I played baseball all through highschool, then never afterwards. It was fun enough to play, but never my favorite. Fast forward 15 years or so and I was at a fair on a work outing and there was one of those "throw the ball at the target and dunk a guy" things. So I proceeded to throw hard at the target... ... and drilled the ball directly into the ground maybe 10 feet in front of me. 🙂 Mark

Howdy, Semi-sorta related to this... Has anyone compared a warrior W28 clone to other 28's? In pictures I saw, it looked like the toe was more closed (like the CCM P30). Curious if that's actually the case. I'm liking the P30 curve, but not really liking being restricted to only CCM sticks. Mark

Howdy, I got a pair of these prostock... I thought it was similar to the Warrior Covert QRL / QRE... Reasonably tight fitting, with a floating cuff to protect your wrist. I'm a huge fan of the Covert QRL stuff and like the HG12. Only downside I experience was that I wore a hole in the palm super fast, but I would assume that that will depend entirely on what palm material the ones you find come with. Mark

Howdy, Aren't you supposed to slowly work up to Nazis, vs. just jumping right to it? C'mon man. Foreplay. Mark

Howdy, Interesting. I notice that it doesn't have the 50 flat profile on it... Are there others from Prosharp like that one? I also never knew that the various quads were like the zuperior, where there's a specified size window for each profile! Mark

Howdy, Yeah, just a short sleeve T-shirt before. Reffed 3 games Saturday with the long sleeve cotton t-shirt over a short sleeve T and it worked pretty well. Hands maybe just a touch cold, but nothing crazy. If anything, my elbow pads stayed in place better as well, so win all around. If I find a good deal, I might try and find some long base layer pants vs. just underwear and impact shorts. I've never liked any of that stuff as a player, so I don't have any laying around. Slowly picking up experience. My last game on Saturday was a bit hairy as the guy I was working with had to leave early in the first since he wasn't feeling well. That left me doing it alone with a group that wasn't super fast, but still faster than I could easily go from behind the play to caught up. I kept up fine with offsides / icing / goal calls, but some chippy-ness started away from the puck that I didn't see much of and it escalated a bit. At least one really pissed off guy (who's not "that guy" normally), which sucks. Mostly all "learned hockey as an adult" players, so differing expectations as to allowed contact, etc. etc. Next time if that kinda thing starts happening I'll probably try and focus on it more vs. positioning / keeping up with the play. Maybe even stop the clock and have a quick chat with the captains. I also just generally need to get better/more consistent at the difference between "two relatively unskilled folks trying hard with limbs everywhere" vs. "penalty worthy". That's improving with experience, but it remains a weak point. Mark

Howdy, The only protocol that matters is that you shouldn't listen to idiots like that. Mark

Howdy, I'll add one to their causes... You might have a grinding wheel who's center doesn't match the others. My 5/8" ring needs 3 to 4 clicks to get the same edge heights as my other rings. Not sure if its always been that way or if its a wear thing (the ring is in the last 3rd of its life). Mark

Howdy, Yeah, you're going to have to see if other edge checkers also do this before you can know what's up. Could be either the edge checker or a tapered runner. Mark

Howdy, So, first go with a long sleeve t-shirt helped for sure. I was able to ref the game without gloves and without feeling like my hands were going to fall off. One question on doing this 'for real'... I'm registered as a player for USA Hockey. Do I need to register independently as a ref as well? I'd like to access the online course materials now, vs. waiting until the next season stuff opens up, but I don't want to waste $45 for 3 months or whatever. Mark

Howdy, Yeah, at times I feel like a bit of an idiot putting on impact shorts, shins, elbows, and helmet when other coaches head out with just skates and a stick. But then I think about how freaking stupid I'd feel if I busted my elbow when I have a pair of elbow pads in my bag in the locker room. 🙂 Mark

Howdy, Hillbilly Impact Shorts for hip/tailbone... I got these initially for public skates when I was just starting out, but then wore them for a brief stint at coaching before my son decided soccer was his thing, and now wear them to ref... They fit under typical ref/coaching pants without any particular issue, at least for me. https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-protective-gear-27041-Impact/dp/B001CSYNZW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1550846430&sr=8-2&keywords=hillbilly+impact+shorts I use cheap CCM 1052 (?? I think?) shins. The lockstrap behind the knee keeps them in place well and they have protection in front for the occasionaly stick whack on faceoffs or whatever. YMMV, but the "shin" part is at least as important to me as the "knee" part. I would think any cheap hockey shins that fit (and at least for me, don't require tape to stay in place) would be fine here. For elbows I use some CCM ref elbows. EP-100. I mostly don't like them, to be honest. They don't stay in place as well as my regular player elbows and are more uncomfortable. They are more minimal (and thus fit under sleeves better) and are cheap though. I have a hard time recommending them, unless you put them on and think they feel awesome. If I were doing it again, this would be something I would look for other options. I always wear a helmet, no matter what. Mark

Howdy, All I can tell you is that I wanted exactly what you're asking for.. A P28 with a more closed face. I just compared the P28 clone I was using (TC4) to the P30 I switched to, it seems exactly like a P28, except the toe is closed instead of open. Blade length and lie are essentially identical. The P30 is a touch more rockered / has a little less heel and the toe isn't _quite_ as rockered / pointy as the P28, but they're extremely minor differences to me. The only noticeable thing for me on the ice is that the toe is more closed. I've never had a P46,so I can't help there. I had a W71 a while back and and don't really remember it being like a P28/P30... I just remember it having a pretty deep / wicked curve. I no longer have it though, so I can't directly compare. Mark

Howdy, P30. Unfortunately only available from CCM, so the stick selection isn't as good something more popular. Mark

Howdy, It looks possible that the right side of the jaw protector doesn't have the vertical stabilizer that the left side has. If that's the case, the rear mount point on the right could be a snap, which would let you unsnap it to pull it out a bit from your face, to let your head in there easier. Obviously some better pictures would help. Mark

Howdy, Let's review. * A customer gets his skates. The skate for _his shorter foot_ isn't long enough. * Skates are sent back to be remade. * True contacts customer to say "Hey, we're going to have to increase the holder length". * Customer (understandably) responds with "what? how come?", because nothing he's asked for would seem to indicate that the holder size would need to be increased. None of that is "expects long detailed messages". At this point what I know about custom True skates is that of the two local guys I know that have bought them, one seems in love and the other is on his 3rd go-around of shipping them back to be fixed. In terms of online experiences, the issues people are raising don't seem to be in the category of "fine tune the fit, like you'd expect" and are more in the category of "The skate was so jacked up that it needed to be completely remade". If I were True, I would be concerned with my image. There is absolutely no question that I would explore options other than True at this point, whereas a year or so ago that wasn't the case. YMMV. Mark

Howdy, FWIW, I think an edge checker is perhaps not _required_ but for sure an "If you're serious, you'll want one" purchase for one of these. If I had to pick between the two, I wouldn't spend money on the optical alignment tool, I'd just get it somewhere near and then dial in with the edge checker (since, in my experience, you have to do that anyway). Mark

Howdy, The "local" Pure around here is now $2 per rivet or eyelet as well. Used to be free if you were just getting a couple done. Progress! 🙂 Mark

Howdy, Did my first games for pay last night... Three games. Went basically ok. I need to be more decisive on penalty calls I think. I think that will come with some experience and self confidence... Looking forward to taking a seminar next spring, as right now there doesn't seem to be much scheduled around here. Question... I've been wearing black mechanics gloves since my hands get quite cold. I'd like to get away from that since I seem to be the only one doing it and Dr. Google suggests its a little unaccepted. The same Google says that either that I skate more / faster or I wear some thermal base layers to try and get my core temp up. I'm doing pretty slow games at this point and don't feel like I'm really out of position in terms of keeping up with the play, so I'm looking at base layers to retain warmth. Any recommendations? I'm worried about elbow pad slippage, since the elbows I use for reffing already aren't great about staying in place. I know there's hockey specific long sleeve base layers, but I'm assuming they're not designed to retain warmth. I'll probably just try a long sleeve t-shirt next time out, but figured I can't be the first person to run into this... Mark

Howdy, I've washed a couple pair of gloves by just soaking them in a tub of hot water / oxy clean, then running them through a washer (Prefer a front loader, but I'm pretty sure I've used a top loader w/agitator too). Air dry. No issues. As much as our hands sweat, I don't worry at all about soaking gloves in terms of damage or whatever. YMMV. Mark

Howdy, I think the Lightning jersey looks cool. In general, I think sublimated jerseys open up some neat options. And I like the effect on the sleeves there. Mark

Howdy, If anyone is interested, I did it twice. First scan is at https://my.volumental.com/en/bauer_custom/e5dbca3d-b4b0-40dd-9008-485ad56890c0/?utm_medium=myvemail Second one is at https://my.volumental.com/en/bauer_custom/c7fd1cce-5407-4807-9ebf-6a17c681127d/?utm_medium=myvemail Interesting that I got reasonably different results on my left foot between those two. Both were done barefoot with a slight knee bend. I'd have said that my weight was centered and I was in the same position, but perhaps not? I currently am using 7.5D Mako M8's. They're in the "well used, but not destroyed" stage at this point I'd say. I've had them for something like 2 years now, skating on average probably 4 to 5 times a week. I'd recently been noticing that my heel seemed to occasionally lift in the skate. To me, looking at these scans nothing is jumping out at me in terms of "need customs", but ?? I'd have guessed that I had fairly narrow ankles with a wide forefoot, but not exactly sure what that is on the scans... Ankle Wrap maybe? I'm a little nervous that an EE width Supreme wouldn't give me a good heel lock. Mark

Howdy, And literally just now I get them emailed to me. Grn. Sorry for the wasted topic! Mark

Howdy, Got scanned w/Bauer again while I was waiting for yet more rivets to be replaced on my makos... My understanding was that I'd be able to access the scan results via an emailed link, but the only thing I see in email is something where I can activate my profile... When I do that, I don't get anything else that indicates how to actually look at the scan results... Anyone know how to do that? I'd have sworn that others here have shared links to volumental's site to share their scan results... Mark

Howdy, Thanks. That looks like the same design as the one I have... Do you push the straw in to close the bottle and pull it out to open it? Mark