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Elbows are tricky because height and arm size don’t always line up. If you have longer, thinner arms, you may need a medium circumference but large length, depending on where you like things to sit. Or large circumference and medium length. I’m 6’2”, and historically wear a medium, because it’s what best fist the circumference of my forearm. Currently in a medium original Reebok 10k. The past few years, when I try things on, I’ve felt better in a large (for Tacks, Vapors, Supremes, and Warriors), as I feel like I need the extra volume around my elbow. Even though my pads are old and I’m 8-10 years older than when I bought them, I don’t think my arms have really changed. To me, it feels like the space your elbow sits into is shallower on recent elbow. —- Total aside.... I feel like elbow pads are the most annoying, least sexy thing to buy. They are hard to size and boring to try on, and if you do it right, don’t notice them at all when you get new ones. You can visually see new pants and gloves and helmet, and they let other players know you are awesome. New sticks allow you to rip shots and make buttery toedrags. New skates change your whole game up and down the ice. New elbow pads...immediately go in the background.

Sorry to be Wikipedia about this, but can you verify your source for us?

What curve do you currently use, and what do you like and not like about it?

Percentage-wise, what’s another $400 on top of a new house? Count it as part of the moving costs. New skates are less expensive than ankle surgery if you break your leg using a skate that is falling apart, and the long term health benefits of exercise from hockey are immeasurable. Honestly, I don’t know if you can afford to not get new skates.

Part of the problem with “skates should fit X sizes down from your street shoe” is that we can’t know how people’s street shoes fit them. Given the wild sizing inaccuracies you see in hockey skates, I can’t imagine the discrepancies in shoes, seeing as they are softer and more forgiving and even easier to wear too large or small.

What don’t you like? It doesn’t seem “big” like other other helmets people don’t like.

I have one of the original 5.2 pros in my basement, which is pretty normal basement temp. - Its grip feels the same as when I bought it, so I’d think it’s more the heat than the time. - I wish the blade wasn’t shot, it was one of my favorite sticks. (I had a brand new 5.2 and brand new nexus 8000 stolen from a rink when I left them there after a game. Every True stick thread is total trigger warning.)

Here’s a link the the VA Tech Helmet study thread, so people can rehash the same debate over and over in that thread, rather than this one.

Welcome back to the game! Another vote for the p88. There’s really only 3 curves widely available at retail now on most sticks- p28, p92, p88, unless you’re buying the $300 flagship stick. The other two curves are hellishly open, compared to what you’re used to. If you go with prostock patterns or curves being phased out, you end up chasing them. Whatever stick your trying, start with stuff that initially retailed about $150 or more. You can find stuff on sale or prostocks for cheaper than that. But, if your initial one-piece experience is with a retail $75 stick, it’s going to have some combination of poor blade feel and/or poor balance.

Feels like you would be wasting the moldability and fit of the Trues by not baking them. They’ll fit better and feel better if you bake them. When baking skates was first a thing, it helped break-in the skate, where traditionally you had to wear skates for hours and hours to make the more comfortable and form to your feet. You would have people arguing that if you don’t bake them, you’ll extend the life of the skate. But, with modern materials, that’s no longer the true at all. Especially on other forums *cough reddit cough*, you’ll see bad, outdated advice that baking skates will decrease their lifespan, or if you just toughen up and skate hard in them, you’ll break them in in some more desirable fashion. You have nothing but to gain by baking them!

Obvious advice, but if you can, try on a bunch of of 14”s. Where that extra inch is added and measured and how it feels can change between models. If you wanna get nuts, here’s a thread where people talk about cutting the bottom off of shin guards to address the same problem you are having.

I’d worry about heating and bending shin guards. If the plastic gets weak, a lucky shot could break the plastic and break your shin, which will cost a lot more than buying new shins trying to sell off the old ones. Worst case scenario, but....

What do you mean by “space between inside and outside eyelets?

For older stuff like this, you can check out the catalogue collection on this site. Also, I think Ice Warehouse typically has good descriptions of stuff, so you can google “icewarehouse 16K shinguards” and see their YouTube review and read the archived webpage.

I have the QLT 290s, predecessor to the Jetspeed line. I play D in a B-ish league with a lot of guys who played D3 or club hockey. So, I’m getting hit by shots from people who have a general idea of how to shoot. I’ve never gotten hurt through the front padding/plastic blocking a shot. I don’t intentionally put myself in position to get hit on the back or side. Those areas have less padding (vented hard plastic on anterior sides, padded foam on interior sides). You’ll definitely feel a shot in those areas. The stiching on my straps is garbage. I’ve had so many rips/tears at anchor points. They’re probably 4 years old at this point, so I expect some wear, but these starting ripping after a few months. As mentioned, above, I find the padding in the knee cap lacking. Maybe it’s compressed and packed-in over the years? But, overall protection from shots has been great, and I’ve never had an issue.

Here’s the thread where he sews in padding: I don’t know the names of different foams. I cut up a pair of padded shorts that people use for snowboarding and mountain biking. A quick goog tells me it might be EVA foam. It’s just soft foam padding that’s like 1/4 inch thick. If you have access to a Goodwill or Play It Again Sports, they might have something used that you can butcher and harvest. Mine is not sexy looking, but it does the job. Last week, I dove to try to clear away a bad rebound (fail, goal against), and landed directly on my knee that historically gives me trouble. It didn’t bother me at all, and I didn’t even think about it, until this thread made me look back on if this padding is helping. I wonder if d30 padding is light and fancy and SCIENCE, but ultimately not as good as just old fashioned soft foam.

Yeah, it should be super easy to punch. Also, with the increase moldability of skates, I’ve found that both Vapors and Supremes now accommodate my accessory navicular with no issue, when they didn’t seven years ago. Spots that feel tight when initially tryingn on, may open as the boot forms around your foot Your shop didn’t suggest or offer punching, and let you walk out the door with those skates...is there any where else available? I assume if you’re driving three hours there aren’t a lot of options, but can you drive three hours the other way?

If you like the Tacks, the solution might be to add extra padding to the knees. I added padding to the knees in my shins. (QLT 290s which I like well enough, but seem like shoddy construction and have been slowly and continuously failing at all the seems). Theres a thread where SkateworksPNW shows off his work where he sewed additional padding into shins and it looks really nice and professional. I cut up foam padding and used looped over packing tape to a fix it right behind the removable liner. I don’t notice it at all when dressing or playing, but it’s much more comfortable when I fall.

I thought a lot of recent discussion in other knee pad threads was people didn’t like the Tacks because they had fairly poor padding in the knee area.

Is anyone else a little cynical that this allows CCM to just stamp “Step” on what is now their mediocre stock steel, or change the production process of Step, so it is more “cost effective.” I know it’s a case of wait and see, and none of us on this board are in a position to predict what the end result of this will be. But, anecdotally, throughout my life, when I like independent company X, and they are acquired by large corporation A, something in the quality/price/output/ “je ne sais quoi” of X tends to suffer. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I like how they say their name is an homage to Koho. No, you are just stealing someone’s name, and probably trying to take advantage of people who aren’t very good at spellchecking or fact checking. I can’t wait until they release their My-Cron skates.

Re: Lies (apologies if I’m over explaining something you already know) The three main curves in widely available, p88, p28, p92, are all “rockered,” meaning that the bottom isn’t a flat line leading to an X degree angle with the shaft. They are rounded, so the lie sorta changes depending on where your measure it or what specific part your have on the ice. It’s annoying in that it’s not just a variable you can look at and say “I need this.” It’s one of those things you have to experiment with, and see what works for you. Where do your sticks hit when you are on skates? Adam’s apple on flat feet seems pretty short. Again, everyone likes different things (Crosby uses a fairly short stick and he manages ok). I feel like for a beginner, the danger of a short stick is that you bend too much at the waist to compensate, rather than a good deep knee bend. Or, maybe the shorter stick pullls you down and helps that. Who knows? Being able to “sit low” and drive everything through your quads and butt is one of the most important skills in hockey.

Those Kings Unis might as well go all the way and have one black glove and one white. I think black glove on the white sleeve, and vice versa, for maximum regrettableness.

At the risk of sounding like a handwringing parent, why wear shoulder pads for protection is you’re just going to cut off the caps? The shoulder injuries I’ve seen in adult leagues are never from checks. It’s typically incidental contact that you wouldn’t otherwise think about. The two that stand out to me are a guy watching the play move up ice and banging hard into the glass, not knowing how close he was, and the other catching a rut by the bench and falling shoulder first into the boards. Both guys are good skaters and just had bad luck while not wearing shoulder pads (but now they both do). In my opinion, if youre going to wear equipment for protection, wear it correctly and avoid potential problems. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Woodward and Berstein is about to blow the lid off the whole home sharpening industry. Prosharp and Sweetstick are already shredding documents left and right. This probably goes all the way to the top!!!