Bauer 1S Pads

[TheGoalNet]

This is a new section for TheGoalNet.com dedicated to gear we demoed or to post an initial impression ahead of a long term review.

I don’t feel it’s responsible calling this a formal review when I don’t own a piece of gear or didn’t wear it for an extended period of time.  We take the staff reviews very seriously and find it absurd when guys wear a piece of gear 1-2 times with a company rep present and call that it a review. It’s impossible to know the ins and out of a piece gear in a couple skates.

In the case of the 1S pads, I own them and paid for them. I only wore them 1 time so far and writing this ahead of my long term review.  

On to the good stuff... 

I was so excited about my 1S pads yesterday after wearing them, that I could not wait to get home and share my experiences with them to you. They are not without fault or a few things I would like to change... but overall... holy shit, these are awesome. 

I know the sliding on these got a lot of hype when the came out, but that has somewhat died down lately. All I hear about lately is CCM Speed Skin. Bauer needs to be credited for really diving into this topic and setting the initial bar that everyone else will be held to. 

As soon as I got on the ice, I went to the red line and did my usual warm up routine. I do 3-4 Bfly slides to either side slowly to be a dynamic stretch. I then move into my static stretching. With a very lazy low energy slide, I went about 2x farther than my typical slide during stretching. It felt like I was almost floating on the ice. You can literally feel the difference underneath you with the Cor Tech Skin and you instantly come to appreciate how much Jenpro friction we are all used to pushing through. 

During the pick up skate, I was more comfortable sliding than I am used to and started embracing it. I started to stay down in the butterfly longer and slide instead of instantly recovering to my feet. This was a pick up skate with everyone from D3 NCAA  and junior kids to complete benders. I got left out to dry try quite a bit and fully embraced sliding across. I can now get side to side in a more controlled manner because I am not trying to make the epic pushes to get side to side. As it takes less effort getting side to side, I can stay more in tune with what is going on around me. 

The rebounds are also huge. This is a known feature I was skeptical about. I had always liked the pucks being around my pads after a butterfly so I could try and cover them for a quick whistle. I was concerned these pads would throw pucks in no mans land and leave some pizza rebounds. I have been skeptical of this design concept since the Reebok XLT. This is definitely something I need a larger sample size for, but for the most part it kicked ass.

From my experience, I found two areas it helped. Those firm shots, but not true rockets, that come in too hot to stop near you and end up in the circles instead of in the corners or against the boards, now get all the way to the corners or boards. It then creates more time to recover for the next play. The second area I loved this technology was on breakaways. Sometimes as I am sliding across to make the save on a deke, the puck hits me and I cannot track the rebound well. It's in too tight or I loose it while moving and the puck ends up somewhere close by and dangerous. I got a ton of breakaways yesterday and I noticed the pucks slide just a few extra feet further away. The location of the rebound was not ideal, but at least I could see it and the player usually had to take a couple steps to get there. It was subtle, but I really noticed it on these plays. 

To summarize, this pads literally improved my goal tending abilities. There's very few products we can say that about. 

Stuff I am questioning?

1S pads are stiff, call CNN... That is clearly breaking news!

I have no complaints with the stiffness, but I prefer an S shape instead of a Z shape. I have always gotten away with no knee guards because of a long thigh rise and S shape. I reached out to Bauer yesterday and they said I probably couldn't work an S shape into these pads. I am going to watch this situation and see if my knee feel exposed or not. If they do, I will get knee guards or convert to a Vapor pad. Vapor has a second break above the knee 

Strapping - The strapping works well, but the 1S CRS strap at the calf just seems like a bad design in terms of actually strapping it on? Unless I am doing something wrong, I have to Velcro the portion inside the calf wrap and then outside every time or weave the elastic strap through the calf wing. This might seem nit picky, but I think it's a nuisance and it will be hard to strap in a consistent manner skate after skate. 

Country Of Origin - Some of you could care less, but I hate pro level gear being made over seas. I am fine with lower end gear being made wherever to trim costs, but I don't like it on pro level gear and will never like it. 

 

[bunnyman666]

I will tell you from experience if you need knee guards, Factory Mad are the best, bar none. I had the Bauer and felt exposed. I have taken many shots to the knee in my Factory Mad knee guards and only ONCE did I get a stinger. This guy found every gap in protection and had a very, very heavy shot. No bruises, and all parts are replaceable. 

[TheGoalNet]

1 hour ago, bunnyman666 said:

I will tell you from experience if you need knee guards, Factory Mad are the best, bar none. I had the Bauer and felt exposed. I have taken many shots to the knee in my Factory Mad knee guards and only ONCE did I get a stinger. This guy found every gap in protection and had a very, very heavy shot. No bruises, and all parts are replaceable. 

Yes, I have worn Dennis's knee guards just to try them on and he would probably be my first call

 

 My only concern there might be price 

 I am hoping that I don't need any though! 

[bunnyman666]

1 hour ago, TheGoalNet said:

Yes, I have worn Dennis's knee guards just to try them on and he would probably be my first call

 

 My only concern there might be price 

 I am hoping that I don't need any though! 

After taking an ex-NHL-er's howitzer to the knee and did not even have a bruise, they are well worth the money.

[djtendy]

Man, these are in really good shape. Great pick up! I'm looking forward to your review after further play with them! You'll really begin to like them even more.

[TheGoalNet]

Short strapping system ?? Now i can dial these in 

[Mroy31]

The calf strap is probably my biggest issue. Either you attach both ends each time you put them on (leave it threaded through the leg channel wall) or you thread it through, which always seems to catch the velcro and takes just as long as strapping 2 ends. Also, even with the long straps, they seem super tight unless you strap it so loose you put the velcro in a spot that causes that wear on the binding. 

Would love to macgyver either the Vapor tune fit strap or a scrivens/RRC strap on there. (I'm a sucker for that magnetic clip) 

All this being said, I love these pads for the reasons already mentioned. I get why they might not sway someone completely away from another brand/model, but definitely worth checking out. 

[TheGoalNet]

14 hours ago, Mroy31 said:

The calf strap is probably my biggest issue. Either you attach both ends each time you put them on (leave it threaded through the leg channel wall) or you thread it through, which always seems to catch the velcro and takes just as long as strapping 2 ends. Also, even with the long straps, they seem super tight unless you strap it so loose you put the velcro in a spot that causes that wear on the binding. 

Would love to macgyver either the Vapor tune fit strap or a scrivens/RRC strap on there. (I'm a sucker for that magnetic clip) 

All this being said, I love these pads for the reasons already mentioned. I get why they might not sway someone completely away from another brand/model, but definitely worth checking out. 

Thanks for confirming what I was saying about the CRS. I was hoping that someone would chime in that I was doing wrong, but at least I know I'm not a complete idiot 

[TheGoalNet]

Minor update ahead of my long term review, I'm souring on these pads the more that I use them. The sliding ability is amazing, but there's a lot of things that are NOT dialed in. I can see why a lot of people tested these and didn't stick with them.