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Senior vs Intermediate


Hockey School Dropout

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Okay, so truly, what is the difference between senior and intermediate pads?  Aside from price and sizing of course.  

Is there a significant drop in protection?  I am on the doubtful side of the fence as my daughter is in intermediate pads (28+1) and she takes clappers from the coaches in practices without blinking an eye.  

I am on the borderline for very small senior or extra large intermediate.  If there is no real difference, I can maybe save myself a little dough on a new purchase.....

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What size does she need to go?  Senior sizing usually starts sround 32-33", so if she's going to a 29 or 30" pad, you're safe in intermediate for a while.

And re-reading your post, you're saying on the border between two sizes, so perhaps you're talking about Bauers, which I'm not familiar with.  Either way, a good brand's intermediate shouldn't be too much different than a non-pro senior, which would be more than sufficient.  So I would still say safe in intermediate.

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There seems to be a line, or more specifically size that “Senior” sizing won’t drop below with a lot of manufacturers – and that size is 32. CCM is a good example – you can’t get a senior in 32 – trying to remember which others as I just went through this about 18 months ago. I suspect Brian’s may be the same as I bought some Sub-Zero 6’s that were 32+1 and they were intermediate.

I have played with (by today’s standards) low level Cooper kapok and deer fur pads, moved to V2s in my second kick at the can and now in the fore-mentioned Brian’s. Honestly I believe leg pads today with their rigid foam etc are over designed as I have never felt a shot in them ( not even in the Coopers for that matter). For the record I play with a group in the summers where a couple of guys can make your wrist sting through the blocker – still never had a concern about the leg pads.Of all the modern equipment you wear, the one area I would say I would never be concerned about is leg pads (assuming fit is correct).

Things like CA, mask (catching) glove and let’s call it “central body protection”, yeah – that needs to be high lever these days what with the flexi sticks etc.Note that I am speaking specifically to protection, not durability….

PS - keep the videos coming Gary

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8 hours ago, dreadlocked1 said:

What size does she need to go?  Senior sizing usually starts sround 32-33", so if she's going to a 29 or 30" pad, you're safe in intermediate for a while.

And re-reading your post, you're saying on the border between two sizes, so perhaps you're talking about Bauers, which I'm not familiar with.  Either way, a good brand's intermediate shouldn't be too much different than a non-pro senior, which would be more than sufficient.  So I would still say safe in intermediate.

I am actually referring to myself.  My daughter is only about 5'3"-5'4" and her pads are A-ok.  I am looking for new (or new used) pads and sometimes a 31" seems right in line with the 32+1 I have now.  But I'm noticing most pad makers now don't make senior in less than 33" so if 32" fit as an intermediate, just want to make sure I don't get more bruises than necessary.

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A lot of intermediate pads are 10" wide instead of 11" so if you're comfortable sacrificing width, go intermediate.  If you want maximum coverage, go senior.  I'm right there as a well.  I wear a Warrior 32+1.5" senior, and contemplated going to a 32+1" intermediate, but I don't want the narrower pad.  Would love to save that cash though.

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11 hours ago, dreadlocked1 said:

A lot of intermediate pads are 10" wide instead of 11" so if you're comfortable sacrificing width, go intermediate.  If you want maximum coverage, go senior.  I'm right there as a well.  I wear a Warrior 32+1.5" senior, and contemplated going to a 32+1" intermediate, but I don't want the narrower pad.  Would love to save that cash though.

Good to know on width.  I'll be looking for sales.

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1 hour ago, Hockey School Dropout said:

Good to know on width.  I'll be looking for sales.

Regarding width, this is pretty bang on.  

However, CCM runs the widest intermediate pad at retail, and the difference is so negligible that guys like @TGC-Rance recommend them to dudes that are on the border for sizing.  CCM no longer offers a 32” senior at retail (only custom) and I hear a LOT of otherwise senior goalies have been more than happy grabbing the Premier INT, and saving a few bucks!

Edit: There can be a dip in quality even going from a SR (Non-Pro) to INT, but these are virtually identical, so CCM seems to mitigate that. 

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16 hours ago, Hockey School Dropout said:

Good to know on width.  I'll be looking for sales.

Not sure what they have in stock for large Intermediate, but Lacroix's going out of business sale is still on, and yesterday they posted that there were "New Markdowns."

You could always call ahead to see what they have (I don't think you're in the east end, if memory serves...)

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On 2/20/2020 at 1:43 PM, Hockey School Dropout said:

I am actually referring to myself.  My daughter is only about 5'3"-5'4" and her pads are A-ok.  I am looking for new (or new used) pads and sometimes a 31" seems right in line with the 32+1 I have now.  But I'm noticing most pad makers now don't make senior in less than 33" so if 32" fit as an intermediate, just want to make sure I don't get more bruises than necessary.

She won´t get any bruises because of int pads. Protection is same as it is with sr pads. Vaughn has 31+" sr pads (or at least  had) and some users have said that those are too wide for so small size.

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8 hours ago, Lucky Pucker said:

Not sure what they have in stock for large Intermediate, but Lacroix's going out of business sale is still on, and yesterday they posted that there were "New Markdowns."

You could always call ahead to see what they have (I don't think you're in the east end, if memory serves...)

I was out there last weekend.  Sizes either too big or too small for me unfortunately.

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5 hours ago, Korppi32 said:

She won´t get any bruises because of int pads. Protection is same as it is with sr pads. Vaughn has 31+" sr pads (or at least  had) and some users have said that those are too wide for so small size.

Again, I am looking at intermediate pads for myself.  My daughter is perfectly satisfied with her current gear.

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On 2/21/2020 at 8:53 PM, Hockey School Dropout said:

I was out there last weekend.  Sizes either too big or too small for me unfortunately.

Ah, ok - I was there today (before seeing this reply), and snapped a pic of some CCM EFlex 4.5s that are 32 +1,  But guessing you’ve already seen them if you were there last week.
I also don’t know the CCM lines very well, so maybe these are not what you’re looking for anyway.

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2 hours ago, Lucky Pucker said:

Ah, ok - I was there today (before seeing this reply), and snapped a pic of some CCM EFlex 4.5s that are 32 +1,  But guessing you’ve already seen them if you were there last week.
I also don’t know the CCM lines very well, so maybe these are not what you’re looking for anyway.

Yeah I've tried on some eflex 32" pads and felt like they were interfering and riding high as soon as I stood up.  They had some nice Brian's, both gnetik 4 and optik2 but were both 34+1.  Thought about just trying them on for giggles but passed.

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55 minutes ago, Hockey School Dropout said:

Yeah I've tried on some eflex 32" pads and felt like they were interfering and riding high as soon as I stood up.  They had some nice Brian's, both gnetik 4 and optik2 but were both 34+1.  Thought about just trying them on for giggles but passed.

I bought Gnetik IVs in part because he had a set in 33 +1 (my size)! A real dick move on his part to temp me so! Lol!

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Dont also forget that some sizing is all over the shop and so are the style of pads 

Over the yrs ive gone from wearing a 36 p2 to a 36 v2 then a 35 v3, then 34 brians too big, to 33+2 brians, then warriror g4 33+1.5 too big 

Im now in warriror gt 31+1.5 which is snr 

Iirc the intermediate was only a +1

Todays thigh rise kill some pads, these warrior are a tad small in the knee i am a 33 but the thigh is so large it interferes with movement. 

Im 5'9 with atk of around 17 iirc

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For a contextual comparison, here’s a pic of my Brian’s int in front of my V2 seniors. They are both the same height, but I leaned the Brian’s back a bit so you could see the Vaughns a bit more clearly. I played in the V2s for about 6 years before switching to the Brian's just under 2 years ago.

TheV2s are a 12” wide pad and from there I went to a 10.5”  Brian’s: with them lined up on the right side of the pic, you can see there is a puck diameter difference at the left side.

The first time I wore these I went to a stick and puck to get used to them. I then played my first game of a summer set with a bunch of pretty good calibre players about 5 days later. The result: I had one of the best game’s I have played in a long time.  I never really liked the V2s because they were wide and for me clumsy. As a smaller goalie, I rely on my mobility as much as anything else and the ability to get around in these (because they were markedly narrower) really helped.

TL:DR? Edit: Don’t fear Int for lack of width or presumed lack of protection.

Vaughn Vs Brians (2).jpg

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