Well, it's been a while and the time has come for me to get new gear.
I've been using my "old" gear for at least 5 years, maybe more, and it got all soft, glove broken in many parts hurting my fingers each time some medium shot hit the palm... So the time has come for a new set.
First, a bit of a story about my luck ordering new gear. But for those of you who can't wait, scroll down to a short review or all the way to the end where the pretty pictures are.
I wanted to get a new set more than a year ago, so I ordered Sherwood in Fall of 2007. Days, weeks and even months go by without anything happening so I start bugging people for info. Finally, end of winter (and almost end of season), I got a word that SWD had financial problems, so they insisted that all of their European dealers pay all of their debts to SWD before they could request new orders. And since the dealer in Germany we went through didn't do that, nothing happened.
Fast FWD to Summer of 2008. After the dreadful experience with SWD, I then went and ordered a set from Eagle. A big thanks to Chakal for all my questions regarding Eagle gear. Order goes through, I get a production date (early September), and wait. Then again, something awful happens. Vaughn buys Eagle.
We ask question, wait, then ask and wait some more... And again, nothing happens. Not a word about whats going on.
Then, in December, the store owner I had made these two orders, contacts me form a closed fair from Germany, telling me that since the Vaughn buy all Eagle orders were scrapped. F***
Instead, he offers me a brand new PM Bauer Vapor X60. We order start of January 2009, they send us an electronic form with all of the option that can be chosen (took a while of some more bugging and asking questions to find out what all of them are) and we filled everything and send it in the middle of Jan. And again, no news for weeks. I thought to myself "F***, not again..."
Then, last Friday, the guy calls me and goes: "Hey, have I got a surprise for you!"
Well, there it was, a month later, brand new gear.
Clicky pic for gallery
At first, I wanted vintage brown leather color and they said no problem. But a bit later, they informed us that that would not be possible as they are saving this material for the bigshots. So I changed colors "a bit"
Here goes the initial review (after a few of sessions in a span of 4 days).
First, all of it is new sizing (IIHF) with pro logos, PRO custom and everything is extremely well made in Thailand.
All of it is very light and very stiff.
Trapper (catch glove):
Took clarino hand lining, double T trap and extra stiff 3 mm palm and thumb.
Different shape than I was used to but got accustomed to it in no time. Catching feels natural, pucks stay in, the palm is very well protected as I've had some hard shots that I only felt hitting the palm, no stingers or hurters.
Double T trap swallows anything that goes near it and pucks stay in there even without me closing the glove. That is another matter entirely. As it's new, it's very stiff and it's hard to fully close it, but when you do, it's also hard to fully open it again. I'm sure I'll break it in eventually
Inside, there are three velcro straps that can go through four plastic buckles (you can choose which one you'll use). Inside the palm, there is some sort of forming gel I believe, because from after the first session, there are now indentations for my fingers and it's really comfy to wear. Same thing on thumb and the thumb part is very comfortable and doesn't interfere with my hand moving it around (I've had this issue with some other gloves).
There are some minor appearance failitures (why did they put black on the back of the glove, when I've ordered white-blue-sp gold?)
All in all, after the first week I can say that this is by far the best glove I've ever had.
Blocker
A blocker is a blocker. From my old one, this one is closer to the hand and it also has some forming gel on top of the hand. The fingers have all-round protection, I have a clarino palm with "Zeus" reinforcement - this is some gel pad sewn in between the brown and black part of the palm you can see in the picture. So far it's more comfortable to hold the stick than in any other blocker I've had, but I'll let you know how this turns out.
I also had the hand moved 1/2 inch towards the bottom of the blocker
One thing I really hate is the second protection for the index finger which is forcing my stick at a bit of an angled position. I'm thinking of taking it out (it's sewn in to the bottom of the board).
Because both gloves are smaller and my arms have to come a bit closer to my hips/body, there is now less of a hole under my armpit for pucks to slip through which is another good news
Pads
The pads are 35" +1 with 2 point flex at the knee and +1 to boot length (I have big feet). The knee boards are useless as they limit movement and cut into the thigh when not in bfly. Took 'em off already and am looking for RBK knee protectors (the one on suspenders).
Otherwise the pads are pretty good (too early to fully judge yet as I've had a completely different style of pads before). Will take some time to adjust, but already I noticed I'm faster moving around on skates and when down in bfly.
There are some moves that are harder to do now, such as standing up with both pads together and going down with only one knee - if I don't think about it, there's now a hole between the upright pad and the one down on ice.
Also, I noticed a bit wider stance (because the pads are higher and I have to keep my legs more apart now so the tops of the pads don't interfere with each other), which has me using more force to shut the 5-hole in time.
The leg channel is adjustable, you can move the "flaps" for a wider or narrower channel or take them out.
More on the pads when I get much more ice time with them and get used to them.
Update Feb 26th 2009:
Today before practice I played around with the adjustable flaps on the leg channel and have "created" an angled channel (like an offset channel some pads had built in) and it feels a bit better now. Should have thought of this sooner
Also noticed that they slide really well, even on rough ice after an hour of practice.
On new ice they go too fast sometimes, so I slide well beyond the post.
My old ones sometimes got stuck and took more power late in practice to slide across, so now I'm faster post to post and it takes about the same power 5 mins or 1 hour into practice.
Some pictures below, more and bigger photos at my gallery
HERE
Mandatory sofa and carpet fly pics
Enjoy your new gear.
Linear Mode
