ArdeFIN

That would almost go as an experiment in human behavior, different types of person react differently. And some who would react certain way change their behavior due to people next to them reacting. I've only had few times when women are in our locker room and there hasn't been anything to notice as if there was only the normal masculine group of hockey players. More so I've been in a situation that is the whole opposite as I've been backupping our local ladies teams training goalie. I can't see myself in the same locker room with them even if they were ok with me being there. This is the feeling I have and it might be just as natural thing as women visiting our locker room occasionally but I would not be mentally ready for it. Luckily we have extra locker rooms for referees etc in the rinks which I can use instead.

Whats in there? As said they felt like Vaughn and seeing the padding I actually freaked out a bit. It's so thin and the only good thing I see right out is the thick shaped plastic sheet. In addition to this there is a thin soft foam sheet for comfortability in side the sleeve fabric next to skin. The forearm plate felt too wide and actually hindered my glove rotation somewhat so I decided to cut the edge out at the wrist end to make some more room. This isn't really affecting any coverage nor protection as it mostly is inside my glove cuffs. To add some material to the padding I used three different foams. White thin foam to forearm under the original padding, thicker dark foam to bicep area to add more protection here. Bicep area gets more beating usually. And the thickest foam from some Warrior pads I think is used to replace the original thin side paddings in wrist and Bicep sections. Right sleeve in the picture is modified version with new paddings, velcroes removed etc. Front picture isn't telling much as the comparison had the floater over it. The last one is of modified one on the left completed with floaters and all. There are a lot of differences but I think I'll have to take a few detail pictures rather than try and improve my written English...

That was about everything done to the torso part now, it's pretty simple unit technically so it is easy to modify it more if something isn't working. So then the arms which as mentioned in beginning are a bit too stiff to my liking. And to be exact they seem somehow tight all the time and when trying to bend my arm it really doesn't want to and the elbow cup does want to have a life of its own. So first thing is to open all the seams that hold parts together. Best design would be where there isn't anything sewn in for good and atleat the elbow floater and the sleeve part should be detachable. The elbow cup is only held in place with four 50mm wide elastic velcroes. The floater is sewn in with four elastic straps. The sleeve only looks as simple as possible. From puckmarks you could presume that the floater has been hanging a bit low. That will be improved. Looking from the body side and mostly seeing only the elbow cup strapping. Same from outside. You can notice the hole lines where the floater elastics were attached to. And as said earlier the elbow cup wanted to have a life of its own, meaned that when the elastic straps are set properly to feel snug but not tight when hand is straigth, this is what happens right away when I bent my arm in. Trying to reach the 90 degree angle is impossible with the strap attached. So what is the use of hte straps then? Nothing so I got rid of the hook sides of the upper velcros. Why 90 degree you ask? I've targeted that angle from my little experience with C/A's. If I can bend my arm to 90 degree without having to use excess force the arms feel nice and comfortable and I can close the chin straps of my mask. Other than that I basically don't have to reach far out when goaltending.

More of it, continuing to the buckle protection. Simple as possible plate with strapping to get rid of it if not good. Attaching, this might need some re-thinking as it might just be too sloppy around. But going for non-tucking it isn't going to make trouble with pants. Remains to be seen. Flap closed. The original side piece under the buckles is made only with soft foam and no plastic sheet so if the puck ever got there it'll feel, atleast. This extra flap protects the buckles and will aid with ribs too, the other side doesn't get any extra yet. Can be added later on though. Then a little continuation for the shoulder floaters. Picture for thousand words. Right shoulder with original strapping and left shoulder ready for floater. I changed the elastics to different types and lengths to fit the new attachment. Then the attachment in action. What I only assume here is that the velcro will hold when sandwiched, didn't want to use whole size velcroes here. Attached layer is the bottom part of the floaters and includes only MD/HD etc foam with less than 10mm thickness. Easy to figure the huge size of the floaters, even with the top layer is some 15mm in on every edge. Some of the design elements add some extra not-necessary weight to the C/A and could be shaved out of it if needed. But still the weight of the whole C/A isn't too much, Brown is still way ahead.

A few pictures of weight of this unit when starting the project (before washing the unit) Whole weight in grams Body part only One of the arms So the weigth of the unit is almost split in two, hands and torso. And if something would be nice to have lightweight that is the arms that should be quick as possible.

So while we have been in shutdown since the mid december I've had some time to work with my next C/A to get it done and ready for use when ever we get back on ice. It might be in a few weeks already as the Omicron variant has been fast spreading. The project involves C/A and pants that I bought from a retired fellow goalie. He had these ordered from Simmons about 5 years ago. Pretty good shape with some wear here and there and puck marks to tell that not everything has passed by. The C/A was also paired with Simmons own beef up kit, which includes a padding sheet to sternum area and extra sheets for elbow floaters. The shoulder floaters really make this C/A look wide and huge while it doesn't really feel bulky when wearing the unit. Padding on torso is close to what all manufacturers offer involving squared padding with multiple layers of different materials. The hands feel like Vaughn, thin and not very confident. Doubled elbow floaters are thick and feel protective enough. Overall feeling of the unit is pretty mobile, adjustments are really good and simple enough so it took me a little effort and time to fit the unit on my body. Mobility is ok, hands do feel tight and more so when reaching my chin or back of the head which is at the edge and just reachable. Would be wearable as it is, but for arms I would need extra padding right away to feel confident of the protection. And just to mention this unit has been running for five years already. As usual I managed to toss or miss all of the new-to-me pictures so I'll just jump to the project. First one is evidence of being used, rusty eyelets. They had eaten the lace also so just took them off. The jenpro there is plenty to keep the lacing and arms in place. Sideview from the buckles, both of the original ones were broken which I actually didn't even notice when looking this through. So they were still doing their job but for how long. Problem here is once again having no protection for them at all. Then some additional padding. In the torso there was a sheet of soft foam padding that didn't cover belly area at all. As the intention is to use this setup untucked I thought not to add too much material here as it will be lifted off by the pants, but some extra is needed. Noticing also that side padding didn't include any soft foam to make that beloved airbag. 10mm thick foam with support fabric on both sides was used. The cutout on top is to fit the original foam sheet. Comparison of what was added and what was there already. With the chesty opened from the bottom seam I had access to the floater elastics that were pretty much done and floaters all around. Removed the original ones and added new elastics with velcro on both sides. These strap in between the floaters that are double layered and velcroed together. Picture of that is missing too. The clavicle protection has been an issue for me lately with the FrankenCCM and this Simmons design had similar problems possibly originating. So I took the plate of and modified it quite a lot afterall to get the result I wanted. And that installed on place, the bottom elastic requires access to insides of C/A so there's no need sew through all layers but only the top one. I'll return here with some more pictures and progress of the project.

Are the NHL pros moving towards more open and super loose strapped pads with the knee strap down to calf? Is the knee strap still doing something there with stiffer and more inbuilt kneestacks meaning that is the next strap that'll go away? Atleast with Professor strap it propably is useless.

Zero problems with the belt and it operating. Only issues are user related and connecting problems. Then again I might not be the right person to give the true reply on issues with getting hit. As I use only self modded C/As with extra padding all over. But now that I said it I just used the Vaughn VE8 C/A which for the chest part was original and didn't have any problems with that either. And last lame note is that I'm not constantly getting slapshots to my chesty so it might even be that I managed to evade all of them when I ws in with Vaughn for few times.

I'm happy using my Polar H10 but it's the around the chest style belt. Saves all the data into belts inbuilt memory and in the locker room loads the data to mobile app via BT. Biggest issue is contacting the BT to my phone every now and then but restarting the BT on phone does the trick. And just to mention the belt feels damn cold even if you moisten it with hot tap water. Only for few seconds that feeling lasts but yeah.

Watched the same thing, but follow his hands too. Hands are at first really steady and ready. But in the end his hands are all over the place and nowhere near ready to catch anything. Ofcourse this sequence isn't what usually happens in games but a good example that it really is hard to repeat those simplish looking moves more than few times in a row.

What @coopaloop1234 linked says a lot of it. Not that much has changed from RBK to CCM gloves. (And True/Lefebvre are close by naturally just to mention) But please ask and if you run into trouble, insert some pictures of it some of us will help you out.

@creasecollector Something like this? Some RBK gloves had a problem that the inner glove/strapping/etc was sewn together over the knuckle area and that was way too tight and prevented a lot of the good easy closure.

Got my hands on a perfect sample of something or everything being wrong in a glove. This one is CCM Eflex 3.9 and the Speedskin material has ripped from a few spots, but the edge areas are almost intact. Not very reliable seeing the damage. In the picture below red lines are about where the break area is and both lines are where the glove should fold in. The padding includes a plastic strip between these lines too. The green line (yes it is not straigth as it should be) illustrates how the glove has been folding and while compared to red lines show only a noticeable difference it is quite a lot IRL. And more so when you take into account what just said there really is only one fold line and two at all. The blue lining is to illustrate the finger plastic sheet and it should go only to the lower (in picture) red line but in this example it is about and inch too wide or in wrong position. And I don't have to say that the glove is about useless as it is. I had hard time closing the glove with both my hands on the outside of it and trying to use the glove and help the closure with my right hand I wasn't able to close the glove at all. I don't know if I'm going to ever fix this glove but I'll open it for sure to see why the materials inside are so messed up. I've been working with Eflex3Pro and there was no such problems. Keeping in mind that the finger plastic is tied in with that lace going down and the Speedskin is as it should so I can't understand how the insides are now. Except for the possibility that the glove has been opened earlier for some reason and the assembly after whatever done failed badly.

There's some familiarity to Ultrasonic? Edit: gotta be me looking it wrong, or maybe had 1X in my mind on some details. 2X is a lot more like Supreme line which propably also helps with these Hyperlite skinned as Ultrasonic etc mods.

New life started. What you knew about life is what you now should forget. It's never going to be the same again. Congratulations!

Some idea from HD PE, I don't really know if you need more slide over these. And if I needed I'd start with trying to wrap the calf flap with some 3M sticker to test it out. No. I can fly around with speed only having the knee wings PE plated.

Break is folding at wrong lines. You should be able to notice two lines along the break at which the glove should close. Sometimes the closer to thumb line is weaker and gives more flex which results in glove not closing properly. Really hard to explain this in words, but I don't have good enough pictures either to help locating the issue. You can check the break and how it works on your glove. Put your hand in and with other hand try to make the glove close along either one of the two lines of the break and also try to close the glove so that both of the lines bend in with about 50% of the closure on each. I'll try and remember to go to my storage tomorrow and take some pictures for visual example. I have a few Vaughn bloves that are easy enough to give you an idea. Then how to fix this issue. First thing is, assuming the break is folding wrong, to work with closure. Bend it in and close the glove as you would like it to do and then strap around and some weight over it for overnight atleast. Then open the package to see how it works or is there any change and then more work, close in and weight over etc. If you feel handy enough and think there is something wrong with materials then open up the lacing from finger side of the glove first and look inside to locate any problems whatsoever. If it is a 2nd hand glove then it might something as simple as some lace has been opened and then put back together in a wrong way. I had one such project where the in the beginning didn't work at all while being soft and nice. And after opening it up, correcting all the lacing and fixed some materials the glove is a pleasure to use. And this with added padding on all over the palm area. This written shortly; it might be a simple problem of being flod a bit off but the other extent is of it being totally wrong at the moment and requires full overhaul. Edit: is it INT or JR size glove based on the print colors and dummy stiching? You still can compare the internals from 'Mods' where you can look for my project of CCM Eflex3 gloves. Atleast I think there was some insight to them.

? I will be using them on any pads I'll ever buy. I'm so in love to the smooth and effortless slide.

Have to be proud of myself, I was here first with plastic over my GT pads knee blocks 3 years ago already.

Take a picture of the Jenpros over each other and lined up by the wrist edge to show the difference in shapes. There's actually quite a lot of change in between them, to be called with same T5500? Addicting things these gloves are. That I can confirm

Same thing happening in Europe too, Omikron is spreading unbelievebly quick. This might also lead into a situation where the Corona disappears for some time as most of the population has had some level of infection and getting better antigens due to actual infection, and for many of us that is added to what vaccines give.

Tried to find some video which I know to be in the Youtube but didn't. Anyways simple drills for butterfly movements are going around the faceoff dot (or just a puck) and around the center (or B) circle line. In these you have to learn to control the direction you are going and sliding. And in addition ofcourse when going around dot or puck, keep your stance towards the puck at the same time. The last mentioned has helped me somewhat as I'm really struggling to keep my hands in position when butterflying side-to-side and also keep my stickblade in position to stop those fiveholers. Edit: And what helps a lot when learning the technic is that your pads really do slide so you don't have to use all your focus to just get the pads sliding.

For a price of a new one and thinking what it protects, and how much does it hurt when it doesn't do the job. I'd easily pay the price for a new one when my jock is falling apart. Then again I'm using Warrior Xpro which hasn't changed that much over the last years so wouldn't have any adaptation to do when changing to new one. I can't really say how much a new elastic set would cost installed but it'll probably take an hour of work plus a bit of material so less than new jock. Is it worth it?

Yes, I mis-understood the idea of having bubble. They tried to make some sort of but failed. And I read that within the wedding party they even tried to hold the teams in their own floors separated from wedding people and all but afterall even that failed. Too bad anyway as it would've been possible to arrange safely and get the tournament done.

Now I have time to write about this surgery. Patient is the CCM P2.9. Used about 20 times, previous owner had loosened the lacing all around, cut the boot of the T free and added a bit of float and replaced the webbing with mix of skate lace. As is the glove is still unbelieveably stiff to close and even worse to open. I actually can't hold it wide open even when I use some help to push the T straight in. I didn't take any video footage of the beginning but you get your hands on a new similar CCM glove. Then I opened some lacing to find out what is making this glove so stiff. First was the boot of the T, while floating already I took all the pocket lacing off and also opened the edge there. Result: not much, just noticeably softer closure and no change in the opening. I bit of WTF? Next step was to unlace everything to the point where I got the whole T out. And now the glove was like butter, closed fully with laying it on the table and opened in full pancake effortless. Ok. Just to make sure I laced the edges back but without the T and no change in behavior. Soft as a dream glove. Even the bumb of the plastic in the heel area didn't matter. Ok, closure was a bit off yes. So with this evidence the problem has to be on the T as that is the only thing taken away now. What is inside is nothing new from previous mods I've made. The base material supporting plastics is rubber coated fibre material I've never seen before. A bit stiff and could be softer too. Plastics are 2mm and already bent somewhat, compare to the begin picture. The break area has about 10mm open area and looks to be off the line which might need some attention too. So the first test is to cut the plastic on the thumb side right outside to where the thumb of the glove ends and lined as of. At the same cutting process I took a 5mm chunk out from the break to align it better. The finger side is already marked for cutting but first thing here is to make a test to see the results. Insert the T and I laced it only so much that the T stays firmly in but to to the boot area at all. It's better now. Opens easier and closes easier. But still not really soft at all and not opening even close to the max. Next up is the cut on the finger side. The gap between is about 5mm wide and all corners rounded to prevent material rubbing through. Now it got a lot more speed into movements and also the glove opens out a lot better than before. Still I must admit that it leaves a lot to desire when compared to the best gloves I have. To note, there still is the backing material which I could punch some holes to break lines and also the T is built of 4 layers of Speedskin material sewn in tight which already is quite a stiff structure. But the main target for the break in of this terrible piece of gear was achieved and reasons found out. It softens in time from this state and is much more useable now. Not good but useable. Next step was to take some more lace out and see what is in there. Everything looks pretty much new and no signs of use as there shouldn't be. The felt is only about 4mm thick while on Pro level gloves CCM uses 6mm or more. CAn't really understand this choice as said earlier it doesn't have anything to do with the glove being stiff. The wrist/thumb plastic was the next interesting piece and especially the hated bumb on the heel area. Piece of wood is to mimick the break line on the palm and easy to notice that the bumb is halfway over the whole break line. Not only it is heavily against when closing the glove but this also affect the hinge of break. With some heavy heating and molding the plastic between wooden molds I got most of the bumb flattened and then I just cut out the excess of the plastic from the break line. Closure is close to perfect and easily over the "good enough" goal-line. CCM has improved here in the EF5 (and Axis?) generations and removed the bumb too. What remains to be unknown is what was the target with that bumb? While there I also added some insole to add up to the thin felt padding. Just to try this out, it should be Poron atleast All this done I chose to put the glove back together, made some minor cleanups on plastic edges and moved the wrist strap to go just under the nylon fabric and not through the plastic to hopefully give some more life to it.