Tapered Shafts: Popularity

[flaming_june 2]

wtheck, where do you guys get the 250 synergys? thats crazy

any shop would cut broken synergys for you if you don't have the tools.

[ambro 0]

They do not sell at all here, mainly because no one carries them. Makes sense... I doubt they'd sell anyways because people would get confused about what blades go into what shafts. One shop I know of didn't order any Synthesises because they were confused to what blades could be used in them.

[joshy207 15]

I don't sell many tapered shafts, nor do I see many in the rinks. The Synthesis has caught on some, and people have asked me for the R2 and the L2 (neither of which my store carries). Most of the Synthesis blades I sell are for broken tapered OPS shafts though. I think the tapered 2-piece will catch on, but there needs to be a much wider selection of blades, especially wood. I told my Easton rep 2 years ago, when the Synthesis came out, that they needed a wood blade if they really wanted that shaft to take off. (They still don't have one....) If there were 8-12 different curves available in wood (and not just old pro T-Flexes or the odd R2 blade) I'd really push the tapered shaft/wood blade combo. Most people who use graphite blades shouldn't be using them, they don't have the hands or the strength to get the most out of those blades. My brother (Prenny207) coached the national champion Tier 2 Midget team, and he and the other coaches made at least 4 kids go back to wood blades. These are GOOD players, too, not house-league benders. Once they went back to wood (tapered, they found some old T-Flex blades), their hands and shots improved significantly...

[flaming_june 2]

I don't sell many tapered shafts, nor do I see many in the rinks.  The Synthesis has caught on some, and people have asked me for the R2 and the L2 (neither of which my store carries).  Most of the Synthesis blades I sell are for broken tapered OPS shafts though.  I think the tapered 2-piece will catch on, but there needs to be a much wider selection of blades, especially wood.  I told my Easton rep 2 years ago, when the Synthesis came out, that they needed a wood blade if they really wanted that shaft to take off.  (They still don't have one....)  If there were 8-12 different curves available in wood (and not just old pro T-Flexes or the odd R2 blade) I'd really push the tapered shaft/wood blade combo.  Most people who use graphite blades shouldn't be using them, they don't have the hands or the strength to get the most out of those blades.  My brother (Prenny207) coached the national champion Tier 2 Midget team, and he and the other coaches made at least 4 kids go back to wood blades.  These are GOOD players, too, not house-league benders.  Once they went back to wood (tapered, they found some old T-Flex blades), their hands and shots improved significantly...

are you saying if we are not elites, or don't have a lot of forearm strength (like kariya's arms) we should be using either wood sticks or wood blades? other than the feel for puck handle, why would using wood blades improve performace in those players?

i recently made a pitch to my friend. because we both have hands of stone, i felt that we should go back to using wood sticks to improve our wrist strengths. i currently use a tflex with a pro return wood blade, and after seeing the otehr thread, im itching to buy the york pro return graphite blade. but after what yo ujsut said, im not too sure anymore.

[steve66 45]

I'm actually surprised to say that I have seen in my league at least the number of tapered shafts go up! No L-2's yet but synths and novii are popping up. A rough estimation would be OPS=60% Shafts= 30% Tapered= 5% wood= 5%

[joshy207 15]

are you saying if we are not elites, or don't have a lot of forearm strength (like kariya's arms) we should be using either wood sticks or wood blades? other than the feel for puck handle, why would using wood blades improve performace in those players?

i recently made a pitch to my friend. because we both have hands of stone, i felt that we should go back to using wood sticks to improve our wrist strengths. i currently use a tflex with a pro return wood blade, and after seeing the otehr thread, im itching to buy the york pro return graphite blade. but after what yo ujsut said, im not too sure anymore.

The biggest reason a wood blade could improve your game is the "hands of stone". I also can't dangle, hard passes tend to bounce off my (wood) blade a little too easy, and I don't have a lot of upper body strength. While a graphite blade might make my slapshot jump off my stick a little quicker, it certainly wouldn't help my pass-catching and stickhandling. And I catch passes and stickhandle much more than I take slapshots during a game... so the positives of using wood blades far outweigh the positives of graphite FOR ME. Everyone's style is different though, so you should analyze your game, try both styles of blades, and see what works best for you.

[Miserable 6]

Just got back from the shop by my office and they had several XN10's and one or two Vapor XV's. Really liked both, the grip and feel is nice on the XV and the xn10 feels pretty light and very nice. Only problem was that this store is crammed into a building that's about 5x too small so they had all of the shafts in a wooden bin and from people pulling them out all of the shafts looked like they had been through a season already. My LHS's loss is Epuck's gain :)

[JR Boucicaut 3760]

I've found that a tapered shaft/wood blade is the best combination for me. I could never get used to the stiffness of composite blades, especially when receiving passes.

[ponty 0]

I just started using a Ultra Lite with a wood blade recently. After using OPS' sticks for about a year I had to adjust. I found that I did not have to leave my bottom hand on the stick gripped so loosely when I recieve hard passes.

The feel is obviously much better as well. I plan on downgrading yet again to all wood later this summer. It should be real interesting to see how that goes.

Last time I tried that I broke the wood stick over the crossbar. <_<

[ponty 0]

Hey..If Lindros can do it, anyone can ;)

I cant tell you how many sticks I broke over the crossbar when I was a kid. Its was kinda nice to do it again as you werent worrying about breaking some expensive OPS that way.

[steve66 45]

I still prefer my wood blade/ shaft combo. I recently went "old skool" with a little bauer number, without a doubt superior feel (and sounds silly, but a gorgeous sound)... unfortunately was a noodle after an hours pick up.

[ponty 0]

I still prefer my wood blade/ shaft combo. I recently went "old skool" with a little bauer number, without a doubt superior feel (and sounds silly, but a gorgeous sound)... unfortunately was a noodle after an hours pick up.

If it gets whippy try spray painting the lower half of the stick and blade. It really does work.

[steve66 45]

Ya i tried that but it still went loopy on me, was an x-stiff too.

[ponty 0]

Sher-wood Iron carbon's tend to hold their stiffness the longest. Oh yea and the Koho Torpedos ...

[Sniper#39 0]

Around here the R2 seems to have gained a lot of popularity.

I see very few Synthesis shafts around. Inno is non-existent here in this area.

There are quite a few Flyweights still being used and boatloads of cut OPS's (many of them too far and with standard blades) but like most of you have stated the issue has been finding blades for tapered shafts. Those who have tried the Synth blades have not been too gracious in their reviews.

I still use Flyweights with wood blades (Ethers & R2's) and won't be switching anytime soon. I picked up an M-1 recently and am still more akin to my old combo setup. I'm hopefull that the L-2 will be an incarnate of the Fly.

With the R2, Synthesis, XV and L-2 blades appearing more readily I think that tapered shafts will gain share.