Larry54

I know they're light but you have to admit the T-Blades literally tip the scales in your case.

Maybe that's the beauty of the VH skate. I got plain black because I like to fly under the radar, but you can get any color trim you want. And my custom pair cost me less than a stock Mako pair would have.

Holy crap! That's a mighty duck!

I ordered my custom pair on Monday August 19 and received it on Friday August 30 but I'm in Canada so there was no customs delay. The toe area was a bit tight even after heat molding so I e-mailed Scott and he gave me advice on punching it out and referred me to the how-to video on his website, but he told me I could also mark the spot and return it to him to have it done at the factory if the area was too hard for me to do. I managed to work it out on my own, following his instructions. Coming from Bauer Flexlite 4.0 here are my impressions. It's low cut. In fact the top eyelet is about the same height as the second eyelet on the Flexlite which suits me fine since I didn't lace the top eyelet on the Flexlites. But in doing so I lost some lateral support in order to gain forward flex. There's plenty of lateral support with the VH skate and forward flex is excellent laced to the top eyelet. I've played 2 open hockey sessions with them and have never skated so well! I even feel less tired after a game which I guess is because I'm not wasting so much energy flexing a sloppy skate. Besides having the carbon-fibre-looking patch on the side, I notice it has 10 eyelets instead of 9 like on mine and all other VH skate pictures I've seen. Are they a particularly large size or did you ask for more eyelets?

I just posted this picture in the Sprung thread. Since the picture is already uploaded, I figured I'd post it here, too.

Hey thanks! The chamber is only the size of the middle pickup cavity so it has a negligeable effect on the sound. I didn't do it for sound purposes but only to make it a 2-pickup guitar. USA Custom Guitars make great necks. I just asked for quartersawn maple and actually got a bit of flame in the grain as a bonus. It has a DiMarzio FRED at the bridge and a DiMarzio Humbucker From Hell at the neck. I switch between both pickups in this . It was played through a Digitech GSP1101, recorded direct to computer.

Here's my own Little Guitar Mod Project.

That must have been a challenge getting the A6 on size 6 Flexlites. I put them on size 7 Flexlites and had to mount them as far to the rear as possible to respect the mounting instructions. I'm guessing you had to settle with a bit of a toeish mount?

At the last open hockey session, some kids drank out of my water bottle without asking, as if they were entitled to it. After it was empty, I told them that they could at least go refill it. They just shrugged. Hopefully next time, they won't touch my newly customized bottle.

Whoever is managing the rink should be enforcing the rules. Unfortunately, people take advantage of these situations.

That's right. Bring your own water bottle. Am I being fussy? I think that each player should have his own bottle. With all the colds and flu that's around during the winter, the last thing I want is to catch someone else's crap. I'd estimate that around 1 player out of 5 brings his own bottle. When someone asks for a drink out of my bottle I feel obligated to allow it, just to avoid being alienated. Then the bottle ends up empty before the session is over. And does anyone offer to go refill it? Of course not. Eveyone should have a bottle in his bag. It requires so little effort. Try bringing a somewhat unique-looking bottle rather than a generic hockey water bottle. It won't guarantee that nobody drinks from it but people will have less of a tendency to drink from a more personal-looking bottle, especially if there are a few other "regular" bottles to grab.

I'm sure this isn't you but, the thing that gets me these days is the kids that get shoved aside in the snr divisions here because of lack lustre conditioning, low development or just inexperience. Then get pee'd off because they claim the adults are throwing the kids around. If you step up to a competitive snr division, you are playing with men and you need to adjust to a higher level of physicallity. I had one kid's mum label me a "dirty bastard" for roughing her hack of a son up. All I did was play the body clean and tough. It's not my fault he's a rake with poor skating. Once, again I'm just venting not saying you are the same Angel. Well, in all fairness, Archangel#16 was talking about pickup hockey which is a whole other thing.

You shouldn't generalize. There's no age limit for being a jerk. Sometimes the opposite happens where an older player is getting past a younger player so he trips or hooks him because he can't swallow his pride. I repeat, there's no age limit for being a jerk.

I'm fine with an end-to-end once in a session. I, myself, will attempt it for the thrill of it but not more than once. And I'll usually end up looking for someone to pass to by the time I reach the other end. But seeing how laid back pickup sessions are, end-to-ends don't really prove anything.

That's right. Bring your own water bottle. Am I being fussy? I think that each player should have his own bottle. With all the colds and flu that's around during the winter, the last thing I want is to catch someone else's crap. I'd estimate that around 1 player out of 5 brings his own bottle. When someone asks for a drink out of my bottle I feel obligated to allow it, just to avoid being alienated. Then the bottle ends up empty before the session is over. And does anyone offer to go refill it? Of course not. Eveyone should have a bottle in his bag. It requires so little effort.