Rayzilla

Although it's not good news, I appreciate the consistent and timely replies and messages from John regarding my order. He had the unit made very quickly but the delivery is being delayed by the courier, which is out of John's hands. The courier needs to wait until there is enough items to ship it since there are less deliveries coming this way these days.

Here is a photo of the lockers at the rink that I now play at. The equipment is dry by the next night.

That's a solid routine you have there. I'm lucky in that I am not a strong odour guy. I think I will be fine with the once or twice each year rinse even though my equipment is stored in a locker at the rink. I will see what the new locker will be like but the one that it is in now is completely wire/cage enclosure so the ventilation is as good as can be. The new lockers are way bigger but is shaped like a morgue where only the front door is wire/cage. I'll get a photo of the locker when I get the chance. Thanks.

Thanks. That's good to know and hear about your experiences. Here in Hong Kong, the summers get very humid. I keep my equipment stored in a locker at the local rink. By the way, I'll need to show you guys some photos of the new rink that just opened up near to my home. More on that later. Do you think it is ok to bring it home to give it a rinse in the shower without using any detergent? Just to rinse away some of the sweat that has built up over time.

Ha! I think I will give ArdeFIN's recommendation a try first and then I will consider your suggestion. I will fan dry it after but if I am just soaking up in the shower with it and not sweating it up, will it actually still stink afterwards if it were not fan dried? I didn't think just water would do that but I don't know for sure because I never tried that before.

Thanks so much for your response. It is GOLD! I like the recommendations that you made but more importantly, the reasons and understanding that supports them. It makes total sense to me and will be exactly what I will be doing when I receive the 2400CA.

Hong Kong has a national team in the IIHF. Need to have a Hong Kong Passport in order to qualify to be on the team. Unfortunately, politics in the game here have prevented the team from being the best that it could be. Barry Beck is one of the coaches here. Hopefully it will start moving in the right direction soon. I think China has a national team too. They built a record number of hockey rinks throughout the mainland country when they won the rights to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. It will be exciting to see Olympic hockey next year.

Ok. I'll do the warm/hot showers trick but not sure how long I will be able to withstand hot showers here in Hong Kong. It's still fairly warm here now. I guess it will still have some breaking in effect if I just leave it hanging on something in the shower with the hot water running? I'll try the skate laces trick to but maybe it would be better to use some kind of thicker ribbon or belt like strips to keep the arms bent up to spread the tension out more? I'll keep you posted on how this goes. Thanks!

I was on a secondment to work in Ottawa way back when I was still working for the government. It was the coldest winter that I ever experienced. There were a few days where it was -50 something. I can't remember if that was with or without the windchill.

Just received an email today that my 2400CA is starting its way to its new home. Here are two photos of the finished product. I love the protection on the biceps because I've had multiple bruises in that area and on the outside elbow area in the last two months. This will give me the confidence of protection when facing the guys coming in and winding it up from the slot. I can't wait. I've heard about some tips of working them in quickly. Since my season has already started, if you care to share your ideas here again I would appreciate it.

Are you in Toronto? If so, where do you tend to play? I was playing regularly with friends at East York Arena on Friday and Saturday nights. Sometimes I played on Wednesday nights at Seneca College (on Finch).

I had a big interest in getting some Smith gear but I don't recall pulling the trigger on it. My colour combos have typically been white with silver or white with red. Lots of Canucks fans here in Hong Kong though.

I just got an email from John. He sent me a photo of the cut out pieces that will go on my 2400CA and that it should be completed by the end of this week and shipped immediately after that. I've been taking this lightly and not thinking about it too much since I have no control over it but seeing these basic cut out pieces in the photo has me thinking about it some more now and getting a little excited.

No dreadlocks at all on him. I recall he had wavy, medium/longish length, dirty blond hair. lol

If you have ever been in the shopping malls in Hong Kong, heat is never a problem. You need to bring a jacket to go into the shopping malls, movie cinemas, and restaurants. You go to the rink to warm up. lol

I've already run out of reactions for the day so I will have to reply with an emoji.

I tried looking for photos that I took of the view from the benches that are located where the windows are but I couldn't find them. I found this one the web but it's not the best but gives you an idea. It's a shopping mall and office tower all in one. Even the parking lot goes all the way up to the 12th floor or so.

I was born and lived most of my life in Toronto. I'm older than most of you guys and when I met Dreadlock Goalie, I imagined a guy that really had dreadlocks. I can't remember if I met him at one of Dave's goalie training camps or somewhere else. Another possibility was that I put out a call for a goalie to cover my spot or the other goalie's spot for one of my weekly games? Or to hand off one of those custom goalie jerseys that we organised back at GSBB. We did a few custom jerseys such as the tuxedo jerseys and the GSBB jerseys where we decided on a few different designs. Those were the days...

I wonder if it is worse there or here in Hong Kong during the summer.

I didn't follow it closely but I would think that exposing him for the expansion draft after all that he did for them in the playoffs is a bit of a sting even if there was a super low possibility that he would have been selected. Even if it had to be done to protect the chance of losing Allen. But maybe there was a full explanation that it was the right move. I'm just wondering out loud I guess...

Perhaps, try taking the photo with the pads resting on a flat surface like the floor and then see how much taller the JRZ is at the other side. I agree with @AdamL, that looks like a lot more than a 0.25" difference from those photos.

Hey, I think I know you. Are you Dreadlock from GSBB? I am pretty sure we met up and you didn't look exactly like what imagined based on your user name. lol. Then again, I don't think I look like some kind of reptilian monster either. lol. If that's you, I remember that you were pretty good. ;) I'm the Asian goalie in the middle with the striped Coors Light jersey.

Ok. Finally straightened out the payment with John for the 2400CA. Initially a payment was made on September 17th but for unknown reasons, the bank later returned the money to me less about $25 to $40 CDN. Still no reason given for that yet. So just the other day another payment was sent via Interac online and John confirmed that this time he received the money. He will be starting on it this week and will have it ready to ship within a week. I'll post some photos when he sends me any updates on it. Here is a photo of my first season here in Hong Kong. This was for the All-Stars game. I think I started my first season in Division 2 and then I think I went up to Division 1 in the following season. I'll try to find some photos of this rink, which sits on the 10th floor of a shopping mall and that huge glass window in the back looks out to Hong Kong Harbour and the Hong Kong Island skyline. It's got to be one of the nicest views in the world for a hockey rink. I think I posted photos of this rink back in the Goaliestore.com days.

For some reason to me at least, it seems like seeing any HOF goalie in a Blues jersey just doesn't feel right. Nothing against the Blues and they've been around for a long time but somehow it just doesn't look right to me.

Just catching up on some things here. One of my all time favourites was the Vortek VK5 glove. I still have mine and maybe I'll take it out for a spin to see if it can still hold up. Anything up with Vortek these days?