Chenner29

Crazy, that just happened to me Sunday night. Same shoulder too. I ended up carrying it as a regular bag until I got home PM Tim, he will help you out. I’m just gonna sew mine with an awl.

He had Bauer holders, not the True holders.

I'm on a 100/75 FBV, came from a regular 3/8 cut. I'd say shuffles are slightly less grippy. C-Cuts feel a little swifter/easier. The biggest difference I see is when I'm chasing a dump in, I have much more speed in getting to loose pucks. Less resistance with pivots, too - but how much is hard to say as I changed to a FBV the same day I got my skates profiled.

GSBB was lightning in a bottle in those years. It came around at the perfect time... There was so much stuff going on in the background in the pro ranks. The league had just resumed play after the lockout with new sizing restrictions and you had guys like Snow come up with pretty clever ways to trick the system (boot risers??) Smart phones were starting up around then, so you'd get potato cam pictures of guys at training camp or during games. Pro Return gear became more readily available both by retailers and on platforms like eBay/Craigslist/etc. Folks on GSBB would obsess over strap placement, an extra inch here or there, "pro logos" (lol) - then others would get the same mods to their personal set and people collectively lost their shit. We had Lefevre in one corner, not willing to make even the smallest change to their design. On the other side, we had CCM who'd clone and mod anything if you'd ask (and were a pro). Turco, Belfour, Brodeur et al. had Vector graphics on their gear. Someone decided to make their gear available at retail. I took a lot of calls during that time for Brodeur or Belfour spec CCMs. TPS released a Lundqvist spec pad and I swear to God, we must have gotten a dozen calls a day from guys in Sweden calling in at 2am their time wanting to buy it and I never had an idea why. They were something like 34+4s and the superficial knee rolls looked like they were moved DOWN on the face of the pad to make the pad look taller. The glove would never close. I don't remember anything particular about the blocker. For us regular joes, if you wanted custom it was pretty much Vaughn or Brian's, and the Brian's gear was (IMO) pretty bad around that time. I ordered a set of V2s once, one of my requests was for HD foam in the outside roll. I was promptly shut down. I was told "it'll cause the clarino/jenpro in that area to wear much faster, and from the inside." The V3 came out a year later and guess what? There's HD foam in the outside roll!

Man, those were the days! I worked retail then, during the transition from Koho to RBK branding. Do you know if your set was made at Lefevre or CCM? You could tell by type of font they used in the embroidery. If it was in block letters, it was made at Lefevre. Cursive font means it was done at CCM. The RBK branded CCM gloves were really weird and the closure felt "off" - didn't matter if it was a 580 break or 590. As employees, we had no way of requesting where we wanted our pads to be done. My buddy had a pair of Koho 585s (which were basically 580 graphic with a single break below the knee) made at CCM. They were produced with the RBK knee block and the 580 calf wrap. I ordered Koho 590s the week right after he put his order in and requested the RBK knee block. I got the RBK calf wedge instead with the standard 3 piece knee wing that came on the Kohos. Another one of my buddies requested the thumb wedge on the blocker with a 590 break glove and got a 580 break glove. Such a wild and wacky time to be alive...lol

Same. Such clean lines. It's the best looking C/A made IMO. Almost good enough to wear without a jersey

There's a seller on Ebay right now that has a Luongo pro return CCM chest pad for sale. Here are some screen grabs. Note the extra rib protection and custom color (navy). Other than that it looks like a pretty stock P1/Unicorn. Wish I could fit an XL!

I've got the backpack bag as well. It was initially a bit of an adjustment but I think I have it dialed in. I do have to use a lot more upper body strength to get it over my shoulder, but I think it makes up for the stress I put on my one hip (usually right) when I am going to and from the parking lot. I still sling my pads over my shoulder as that is something I've always done, and it is less work to unpack when I get home. For shampoo/body wash I buy the wash that does both. Less stuff to lug around. You can put it in a plastic/sandwich bag so it doesn't leak. I don't drink Gatorade, I actually take Scivation BCAAs - lots of tasty flavors to pick from, just don't get the watermelon unless you like watermelon Jolly Ranchers. Strongly recommend Fruit Punch and Blue Raspberry. Unlike Gatorade, there is no sugar, no crash. Much better priced than the Biosteel stuff and it does a lot of the same things for much cheaper (90 servings for $40 on Amazon). It's cheap enough that I used it to replace a bad soda habit as well. You still get electrolytes to help with recovering lost fluid. Also helps with muscle soreness the next morning if you had a particularly rough night. I usually stock two versions: BCAA Go with the red lid has a bit of caffeine in it for before the games (and the morning after), and then I have a shaker bottle with the regular kind for after. I find shaker bottles are a bit more secure than the regular water bottles. I usually pack my jock, jock short, socks, and knee pads into my pants to save space. Then mask (in it's own bag), glove, and blocker. I also have a couple washable mesh laundry bags in different colors to differentiate wet and dry. I typically shower at the rink. When I get home, skates and helmet are taken out to air out, then gloves are placed into a Rocket Dryer. I usually dump the wet garment bag into my washing machine and go to bed.

Carbon steel on the skate - looks neat. I'm assuming it holds an edge better and mitigates that "lost edge" feeling when banging up on the posts?

Believe it or not, those masks are HECC approved...

My current PC - going strong since 2007. Art by Doug Wager/Wzlhed

Well, my new wheels are Insta-famous courtesy of letstalktendygear. Here's the rest of my gear...

25" as measured by CCM. 5'11.

I wear my chest on the outside. I'd love a separate, snug tapered waist that comes a bit higher and then a regular pant.

I would love this too. XL waist with internal belt, trimmed pant length and my proprietary "super secret design for super cheater 5 hole webbing"...lol

Just read the stuff about the Harrison/Potvin design. Dare I say... "Cat fight?"

P31 is the yuckiest curve ever

Ooh thanks for this. I'd really like to try a Bauer 1S/1X but can only find the P31 curve. If I ever see a P30 or P34 I'll snag those up as I'm familiar with those patterns.

Here's an older one of me. Probably 5ish years ago? The only action here is me pulling the puck out of my net...

I started one going over the order process. Will update when I get them

Sort of a show off your gear post. These are currently in production.

Definitely new. Looks like they're carrying more accessories. These are new too!

Here's another thing. I don't think television standards changing to HD did her any favors. It's one thing to see her stuff on the grainy, old standard but look at how sharp TV picture is now, you can really see a lot of the fine details. I'm with you on the Hextall. The Hackett headdress from Chicago was a great concept, too. But at the blobs of light on the Smith mask and Dr Evil clone frontmanning for the Hip. I feel like she put out a few solid designs, got to mail it in while riding out her reputation for a bit, and then people realized there were better artists out there. My Pro's Choice is on the way to Cipra now. Absolute gentleman to deal with so far. I'm fine with delays in paint as long as the end product looks good. In a way, I think all mask painters march to their own beat. When I was shopping around for painters, I sent out a bunch of emails, texts, and made a few phone calls. There's still some who have not responded and I started looking in August...

Okay so I'll elaborate a bit more. I worked with two other guys at Hockeymonkey/Goaliemonkey maybe 10 years ago. We are still friends today, which is crazy to me. Anyway, they are both in the market to get their masks painted. One of them (Jerry) is a huge fan of Quebecois goalies and liked the connection between Ross and these guys so he contacted her. She was a sweetheart on the phone and he was sold. My other buddy Chris talked to her too, and decided to send his in around the same time as well. So Jerry gets his mask back, absolutely mangled. Brand new Sportmask T3, was never worn. Crack down the center on the inside, a godawful beak looking cage got mounted on it. She refuses to fix it, compensate him for the damaged mask, lost cage, or anything. Chris gets his mask back several months later (remember- they shipped theirs within 2 weeks of each other). We were at the point of just declaring it a loss after seeing what happened to Jerry's (lost cage? how about she loses a mask this time??) She promised for 6 weeks straight that it was done and shipping next day. He eventually gets it. He asked for mountains in the background of his mask. He got trees. I don't think his was even clearcoated. Quality of the work up close is pretty amateurish. Look at her website. That grainy 1998 look is how her stuff appears up close. Just really unfinished and unpolished. I'm not surprised CCM/Reebok dumped her. Griffe is a far superior artist. To "illustrate" my point Check out these Cujo masks side by side (notice the blacked out Itech logo on the right). Both are for the same player and most likely the same shell, unless Joseph changed mask molds in this time frame. Left is a Cipra paintjob, right something done by Ross. All in all, same canvas, same concept, completely different execution. In terms of artistic talent, attention to detail, and utilizing the curves of the mask to accentuate the work - way more detail on the Cipra side. Check out the detail on the nose and fur, really fine brush work look at how Cipra used the ridges at the forehead to give a more pronounced effect to the muzzle and teeth compare that to what Ross did, it looks like she was drawing on a flat piece of paper and worked around the ridges instead of with them I'd say hers looks more like a mildly upset Sully (from Monsters Inc) than a mythical wolf creature thing. look under the teeth above the window on Ross'. Solid flat black. No depth. Just plain lazy. ... I could go on for days... Edit: Screw it, let's play portraits too. Mike Smith's "Tragically Hip" (?) tribute mask vs. Cipra's Maple Leaf legends (I wanna say this was Raycroft's mask?)

Here's a couple contributions to the thread. Jonathan Bernier Pro Return "Premier" - I think this was from his days in Los Angeles. I've also attached images of a "re-issue" retail P1 chest pad. I would say he wears something close to a stock Large based on the number of rows in the chest. Retail version is marked Medium and you can see 5 rows of horizontal blocks (not counting the rounded sternum blocks). Biggest differences you'll see: X-Pulse style arm floaters (segmented and scalloped outside) X-pulse style backplate Completely different harness Arm padding goes completely down to the wrist velcro (most stock models have minimal to no padding in this area) Note: the gray rib protection and waxed red skate lace at the elbows are things I added myself. I find the waxed skate lace tends to hold tension longer than the cord. Note2: You'll also see some stitching I did at the forearm. I added an elastic band underneath with a lot of tension to get a better "cinched down" feeling at my wrists. Note3: Bernier has long arms. I'm 5'11 and he's listed at 6'. I chopped off a couple inches in the arms and it's still a little too long.