Toobs

1 hour ago, froese said:

It really is kind of amusing. Although to The Hockey Shop's credit, I called once and spoke with Cam and asked about speedskin and he was pretty open about how bad it was and that no one really liked it. 

CCM obviously knew that too, but I get that they couldn't openly say that. They screwed up. Just like True and their Fastglide. 

What I don't understand is how either of those companies ever thought those products/materials should be used. Bizarre. 

I can’t believe true or CCM haven’t come up with an equivalent for primo/quickslide yet

2 hours ago, UCLALabrat said:

Did you order the same config as the SLR4s? You had one knee break in those right? How they compare in stiffness?

Iconiks should be here Thursday so I’ll let you know then. I actually ordered the stiff no break profile on the Iconik because I wanted the aggressive Z curve. So far with the slr4s the only thing I haven’t loved is how straight they are, I’m gonna try to work in a bit of a bend at the knee break. 

53 minutes ago, UCLALabrat said:

I went to place my order pretty convinced I was going with iconiks and ended up in slr4. I find this post ironic

Haha I’ll let you know which I like better 

3 minutes ago, Chenner29 said:

I contend the domestic manufacturers who offer custom graphics intentionally put out bad stock graphics to force you to go custom

True made solid graphics with the 12.2 and the PX3, and threw out the garbage that is the hzrdus graphic. It’s so bad. 

1 hour ago, xmikex32 said:

Is it just the break or the glove itself? have you ever tried on a Vapor90 and if so how does it compare? i keep talking myself in and out of ordering a glove. I'm currently using a vapor90 and love the closure and the feel and no one near me has the eclipse in store. 

I had a vapor90 and am getting my eclipse delivered in a few days. I’ll let you know how they compare.

Hah that’s my pic and no not offended.

Flat boots have become a thing for 2 reasons. First it allows for less interference between your skate and your pad. It allows the pad to rotate faster and more easily separate from your skate a bit for post integration.

Secondly, it makes the pads fit a bit bigger as they sit higher on your skate. Personally I believe this is a way to combat size restrictions. You can have the same size pad but have it sit an inch higher for more 5 hole closure.

The second point doesn’t apply to most of us beer leaguers, but personally I like the freeing feeling of not having a defined channel. However some people might not like the feeling of being disconnected from their pad. 
 

A lot of manufacturers are heading that direction with their pads though. Both true lines, both Vaughn lines, both Bauer lines all have flat boots. Brians optik line is flat, the Iconik has a slightly defined channel but is still pretty flat. I’m actually not sure there’s any current pads that have fully defined boot channels anymore. The SLR3 did but it obviously got changed with the 4.

8 hours ago, G_B said:

How's the arm width compared to hyperlite? SLR4 look wider but I've read that they're (also) NHL spec.

Also, is it possible to get the shoulder wings lower and wider? They look very tall stock and would probably interfere with the mask?

I’d say the arm width is pretty comparable, no noticeable difference.

The shoulder floaters I haven’t had any issue with my mask. Those options aren’t on the spec sheet for custom, but Vaughn is typically open to a lot so you could check with them.

Just got word that my Iconik/Eclipse combo is in. Ordered my SLR4s and this set like almost 3 months apart and they came in within 2 weeks of each other.

5 hours ago, UCLALabrat said:

Thanks! Think I see what you mean. You can get those straps as spares right?

Right now they only have the laced in ones on their website, but I’m sure you could email Vaughn and they’d hook you up.

14 hours ago, UCLALabrat said:

Also can you explain the V9 upper strap you were talking about? I can't see a difference from stock.

Yeah… the stock straps are thin without much padding. I had on a set of V10s and hated it. They had the option to change the upper strap to the thicker more plush version they used as a professor strap on the V9s, or magnetic version on the slr3. I went with the V9 version cause my V9s were one of the most comfortable pads I’ve ever worn.

V9 style strap

Stock strap

5 hours ago, UCLALabrat said:

So I emailed Dennis yesterday to see if they had shipped and he said they would be out the door tomorrow or Thursday. I'm stoked.

Two things: Dennis is a fucking rock star, he's more responsive than my rep (not a knock on my rep, he's been responding to emails pretty much within a day). I can't believe they respond like that to some beer league schmoe. The fact they give me the time of day is mind-blowing.

 

Second: 99.9% they just posted my pads to their IG feed and HOLY SHIT IM GEEKING OUT RIGHT NOW

 

Edit to link:

https://www.instagram.com/stories/vaughncustomsports/3342493206543720634?igsh=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==

37+1?! How tall are you?! Lol.

Sidebar, my set is Dudo approved lol.

1 hour ago, froese said:

@Toobs My calf wings are fine, just the knee block. Likely not a big deal and I should probably just ignore my OCD 

Yeah I’ve had a few px3 sets and there’s been a bit of loose material in various places and it’s not caused me any issues. But never had any on the knee block.

2 hours ago, froese said:

Speaking of sliding surfaces, curious to know from other px3 owners how tight the material is on your knee block. I have to say, mine definitely has some  extra and isn't wrapped tight. 

Knee block is pretty tight but the calf wing definitely has some loose material 

2 hours ago, UCLALabrat said:

Love it! Wonder if they thicken up the thigh on the knee break version, althohgh that looks a ton slimmer than the velocity line already.

I ordered stiff (no break) with a single outer roll break. We'll see if theres a difference.

I don’t think there will be any difference in thigh thickness. I think I was just kinda fooled in pictures. The core area where the quickslide is pretty thin, but there’s a decent amount of material on either side of it.

It’s definitely thinner than a velocity thigh, but just coming from a PX3 it’s noticeably chunkier than what I’ve been playing in and used to for the past year+. We’ll see if I notice it on the ice at all.

Here’s my slr4 set. 33+2. Added a knee break and also went with the V9 style upper strap. Stock blocker with exception of V10 palm. 70 degree glove. Colors are Kelly green, yellow, and a mix of white quickslide, weave, and standard jenpro.

First impressions are they are chunkier than anticipated. I thought they had slimmed out the thigh and boot more, but compared to my PX3s they are quite chunky. The boot channel is flatter though. I hated the V10 strapping which they copied on the slr4s, which is why I went with the V9 style upper strap and I like it much more. 
 

I love the blocker. It’s a big departure from the SLR3 one piece sidewall, but it feels like a true blocker but slightly improved on. The board is super stiff and I expect solid rebounds off it. The index finger setup is great with 3-sided palm material.
 

The glove is the same as my previous V9 XP70. It’s a solid glove. I’m a 580 truther, so I like the closure and out of the box it closes very well. The cuff is nice and thin and overall the glove feels nice and lightweight.

Picture of strapping with V9 upper strap.

Can see how thick the thigh is.

Flat boot

Not as thinned out as I expected.

Nice closure out of the box.

New sidewall

Love this feature of the blocker with the 3-sided palm material on the index finger.

My biggest nitpick is the colors… the Kelly green jenpro is significantly darker than the Kelly green nylon. I was hoping for it all to be the nylon shade, but the jenpro is just kinda dark.

Chesty is nice, it’s got bulked up arms. Coming from a hyperlite it is significantly beefier and somewhat heavier, but noticeably higher quality as well.

Ive had the pants for a few weeks, I love them. Very protective but also very mobile. No complaints at all.

A note on sizing… these are the SLR4s which are 33+2 lined up next to my PX3s which are 34+2. The SLRs definitely seem like they might fit a bit bigger.

Just got my SLR4 kit today, full set plus custom pants and chesty.

Will post pics and short review in a few days.

Have had both HL2s and PX3s. Personally I find the PX3 to be a superior pad, but that’s personal preference. They definitely are better constructed though. Just get weave on the sliding surface and sliding will be good. You can always add ppf if you need a bit more slide.

13 minutes ago, Teezle said:

The boot channel, softer boot, thicker boot and shin, and thigh rise construction on the PX3 are my preferred specs. I'll likely stick with the Catalyst line going forward, but if it was possible to combine features of both then it would be perfect.

Have you checked out the new options on the hzrdus customizer? You can spec out a soft boot and the same thigh as a px3. The boot channels on both are really, really similar, just a very small difference.

Yeah the slightly thicker boot and shin are a difference, but pretty minimal. The lines between these two sets have become very blurred.

1 hour ago, Madmedic6 said:

Silver weave on both pads. 

That’s strange, usually the weave slides well. Have you tried putting some PPF on?

23 minutes ago, Madmedic6 said:

Interesting. Seems like I'm the only one having shit sliding in trues. But that could just be a personal issue with weight distribution. My ef6 slid way better than my trues. 

What material do you have on the sliding surface?

1 hour ago, Teezle said:

I saw that, too. I like the way I have it on my PX3 setup:

where the elastic strap to the calf limits how much the knee block can move, and the leather strap provides an outer limit for how far my knee can go backward so I never risk falling off the block.

I have a separate question, which is will True mix-and-match features from both lines for a regular customer (not just pros)? If I wanted a PX3 pad, but with the Hzrdus outer roll, calf sliding surface shape, and shorter FRS assembly would they do it?

By the FRS assembly part, I mean where there is a piece that extends down to the boot and overlaps with the inside calf wrap on the PX3, but is absent in the Hzrdus line. PX3 on the left, Hzrdus on the right:

 

Unlikely. True doesn’t really do that. Why not just order a hzrdus pad in a softer build?

2 hours ago, Molitygri said:

Don’t know where to post this but I am considering ordering an Axis XF Pro Custom set when it drops. I currently own a set of True Catalyst 7x3 pads, and I love them, but I am looking for something a little lighter. I looked at a set of CCM Eflex 6 pads in store and they seem pretty light but I don’t like how soft they are and how they sit on the skate. I was also looking at the new Bauer Shadow set but it seems like it would be too heavy. Any suggestions on what I should get or any new specs that aren’t public?

Gonna be honest, the weight differences in pads these days really are negligible. Generally a pro level pad (like the eflex 6) will probably be lighter than an intermediate or senior level pad (like a 7X3) just due to different materials being used. But between pro level pads the weight differences are so minor that it really shouldn’t be something that you focus on. Just get pads that you like the feel of/how they play.

That being said, if you really care, generally Warrior makes the lightest gear, followed by the hyperlite line by Bauer.

32 minutes ago, RichMan said:

@ArdeFIN time for an update brother

I used this for over a year. Honestly I loved it. It was super comfortable and the protection was great, took a couple of shots off the neck/clavicle and barely felt it.

That being said, the foam on the back of the collar started to separate recently which caused the fabric to stretch out and make it not fit as well. Didn’t have any other durability issues with it, but had to replace it with an eco pro foam cause the fit issue. But I got a solid 1.5 years out of it, and honestly I liked it more than I like the eco so far.

3 hours ago, coopaloop1234 said:

I know that the ventus/slr glove wasn't the most popular, but it's dissapointing to see it essentially dissapear.

I assume it'll be available at custom since there is still a user base for it, but I do understand their thought process behind making the change. 

Yeah it’s kind of strange that they got rid of it entirely. I wasn’t a huge fan of it but I know some people swore by it. It was a very unique feeling glove, even though it had essentially a 600 break it was still a fairly unique feel. 
 

Also seems weird to me that they now aren’t offering a blocker with a one piece side wall. The XP/SLR4 blocker isn’t that much different than the standard V10, whereas the previous SLR blocker was pretty different. 

On 3/8/2024 at 10:52 AM, coopaloop1234 said:

Time for the inGoal advertisement video 

Interesting, they didn’t touch on the fact that they slimmed down the pad significantly, and also kinda glossed over that the glove/blocker are now the XP versions, and how the blocker is now 2-piece. The old SLR glove and blocker are totally gone.