helmet91

We've had our Sparx just over two years... I bought it while we were still in the US when my oldest boys were playing Squirt AA. My youngest two also skated, albeit with nowhere near the frequency of the other two. I also played a little old man hockey in the summer. We were a good hour to our "home" rink pro-shop or any of the big box hockey shops - the Sparx saved so much time and allowed me to avoid the crap shoot of who is actually doing the sharpening. Now that we're in the NL the Sparx is a godsend. Throw in COVID, goofy shop hours or even trying to track down a reliable person to do the sharpening and the Sparx has been worth its weight in gold. I honestly don't care about crunching the numbers - the reliability and convenience were worth every penny.

Interesting updates... so is Graf/Vaughn doing a Volkswagen thing? There's an only available in Europe lineup and there's a made for North America lineup? Fun anecdote - I can count on one hand how many pairs of Graf skates I've seen over here... it's about one or two. We were even down in Zurich for an Ivanov camp last summer and no one was wearing them.

I wonder what the HECC and CSA would say about this abomination? That cage looks extremely dangerous... for other players.

My boys are finally back on the ice... They've skated the last two weekends with Paul Vincent Jr (you Boston types probably know his dad) here in the Netherlands. The second session they were out on their freshly baked and sharpened new/old-stock Supreme 2S skates (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!). The LS3 runners seem really nice. They sharpened quite well on our Sparx (5/8 Fire) and held up after the first usage. I'll keep an eye on my sharpening log to see how long they last, but thus far I'm pretty happy with the upgrade. The boys love their new wheels, they had no complaints at all. What a win for dad! LOL

Went and looked at my oldest sons' bags from their old club in the States... They are made by Z2 enterprises in MN. They're really nice quality and are built to last. As in, kids are getting these things in mites and carrying up into bantam and midgets. https://z2bags.com/product-category/ice-hockey/

I always picture a "pro bag" as a huge duffle with everything just dumped in it... no fancy pockets, dividers, mesh or venting. The JRZ bags are exactly what comes to mind.

A great question... I'm in the same predicament albeit with my U13 twins (that's European for pee-wee LOL). They're each getting a pair of Supreme 2S (big sale at IW) for their b-day next month and I'm contemplating getting another set of steel as a backup/upgrade. The new pair comes with LS3; they had been on LS2 with LS1 backups in their previous Nexus skate. Back when we were in the US they were playing 3-5 games a weekend depending on if it was regular season games or a tournament/showcase. I never wanted to trust the random pro-shop at the random rink we were at so the backup set was a godsend a handful of times. We have a Sparx machine, but it's the original so it's way too big to travel with. I think this time around the LS3 should be sufficient(?)... and we're in the Netherlands now. Hockey is quite a bit different - assuming there's a season this fall/winter they only play one game a weekend and there don't seem to be any sorts of tournaments during the season. /end stream of consciousness rambling

I had the 752 Super Tacks version. They only had the pump in the ankle and they had Kevlar. Such great skates... I sold them on Sideline about two years ago. Probably should have hung onto them for nostalgia purposes. 😞

boo10 is correct. I just checked a set of CCM branded soles that I purchased in 2014 or so. Glad to see that there Currex still makes them, although sizing looked limited on their site.

I have a metallic blue Taper-Wall. I'd have to guess that it was purchased between '95 and '98.

I guess it's for the PS100 only.

In regards to Matthews, I seem to recall him using True and STX twigs when he wasn't happy with Bauer... he just ended up with CCM. I would imagine those companies dumped a couple cases of sticks in his pattern and spec on him trying to get him transition over.

We have a pretty decent sized setup of tiles from Snipers Edge. On sale, you should be able to get 20 sq-ft for around $100 or so. They also sell mats. I think the advantage of the tiles is that they're easy to break down and only have a 1'x1' footprint when stacked. Your mileage may vary.

That's pretty much what I told me wife when she said, "Hey check these out, everyone back home is buying them. They look cool." I seem to recall making a joke about the Bosstones… LOL

I can whole heartedly vouch for the Ska-Boots. My 2010s have been using them much of this season (after waiting on a late summer back-order) as they typically get dressed at home (skates included) or in the parking lot if we go to the rink directly form school. The parking lot at our rink is not the best designed and it's no exaggeration about a 600ft walk from the car to the entrance. From that point it's another 600-700ft around and then over the speed skating rink to get to the hockey rink. To leave the building it's a good 1400ft just to get to the exit (you have to walk the long way around the track). From there it's another 600-700ft back to the car. This past week with all the snow the Ska-boots were invaluable, especially when compared to the goofy rollerblade guards most of the kids have. My youngest (a 2013 and a 2015) are using A&R hard guards because we were being cheap... They do the same walk. It can be tough for the five year old on the really narrow, hard rubber guards. Looks like we need to make another order. Ska-Boots could make a killing here in Europe, assuming these crazy lockdowns continue. I have people asking me where we got them all the time. Fortunately, I have access to the US postal system at domestic rates so we were able to order and skip the international shipping and import taxes.