My leg pad journey

[TDS-MN]

Hey All,

I am a life-long skater who picked up goaltending part-time.  Play occasionally for the most part, maybe once a month at random pick up games.  Have done a couple beer-league sessions between the pipes, but continue to skate out more often than not, as my league has had several returning goalies of late, less chances to fill one of the spots.  Have had a blast with it so far, though.  Have acquired used gear from Craigslist or Play It Again used sports gear retailer.

Have gone thru the following sets so far:

TPS Xceed, 34".  These were 12" wide pads, so pretty old, before required to be downsized.  Lightweight pad, played pretty well for me.  Had elastic strap and velcro at knee block and at calf, and had one side release snap-in buckle at knee, and a 2 into 1 side release snap-in buckle for the calf.  Kept the boot strap.

My next set was 11" wide, Found a pair of Vortek VK-7, these were 35"+1, and ended up being a little big for me.  Cannot find much on when these were manufactured.   But I fell in love with the Black/White/Navy color scheme, so gave them a try.  These were lighter than the previous set, had elastic w/ velcro at the knee block, and 6 side-release snap in buckles, with a traditional metal buckle at the boot strap.  But noticed that the slight increase in length was not consistent in having my knee land on the block square.

Next up a 34" +1 set of Reebok Premier III.  11" of course.  Similar strapping to the Vorteks, but each of the buckles in that traditional metal buckle.  These are the heaviest of the 3 sets so far.  Have only one game in these so far, but they felt really good as far as fit and puck rebound.  Don't love the color as much, but the length seems more appropriate for me.  But I have NOT been a fan yet of so many buckles, it takes increased time/effort over the old sets, to say the least.  I am old and not as flexible as I once was, at 56.

Does anyone have any tips or suggestions, that might improve my relationship with the array of buckles?  The straps on my set of pads really don't look to have seen a ton of play, as the holes all look pretty small and tight still.  Have not yet fully settled on "the one" to use each time, I like my pads a bit on the looser side typically.  I wondered about maybe punching them out a little bigger once I have the best one identified.  But I am sure that someone out there has spent time using something with straps like this, hoping there might be a chance to learn from your experience.  These are the only negative part of this set of pads so far for me at least.

[IpaddyTECH]

2 hours ago, TDS-MN said:

Does anyone have any tips or suggestions, that might improve my relationship with the array of buckles?  The straps on my set of pads really don't look to have seen a ton of play, as the holes all look pretty small and tight still.  Have not yet fully settled on "the one" to use each time, I like my pads a bit on the looser side typically.  I wondered about maybe punching them out a little bigger once I have the best one identified.  But I am sure that someone out there has spent time using something with straps like this, hoping there might be a chance to learn from your experience.  These are the only negative part of this set of pads so far for me at least.

I had a set of P2's back in the day, loved them for great rotation and good looks, but I also remember hating all the damn buckles. Once I got my Warrior's, my time getting gear on went down a solid 5 minutes. I don't have much for ya other than you'll get faster with time, and they should break in a bit. I had the middle shin strap super tight and left the one above and below loose and that made it a little easier. "Nodwadays" I would recommend experimenting with a "professor strap" as the Reebok premier line was notoriously loose and unresponsive compared to the modern pads with elastics and rotation straps. A professor strap will help with that. 

[Hockey School Dropout]

With my leather strapped pads I would mark them with a marker or paint pen, try it and adjust then mark again.  Repeat until I found what was comfortable and worked then put a mark at the buckle hole and just loop em through and pull to the mark.  Saved a smidge of time and took out the guess work.

[TDS-MN]

Thanks for the responses.  RE Professor strap, I have never seen one of these in the real world.  Looks to be a separate strap from the 'original' pad strapping.  I don't know, I felt that I had the expected amount of pad rotation and did land consistently on the knee block, I guess I am not sold on what benefit adding another strap might offer me.  Not saying there's nothing to the recommendation, but I just haven't got much from my limited research and exposure, that sells me on this yet.

I have been counting the holes and documenting which one I have buckled into but have not really developed much data here yet either.  Was easy with only a boot strap on both my previous sets, I was always hole 7 or 10 depending on the set.  I can see with this many straps, this getting a little more complex, and will probably want to make some sort of visual marking as suggested.  Expecting that this will dial itself in over time, but as I said, I seem to play maybe once a month, if I'm lucky.

 

Corrosion on the buckles?  Normal thing?  I do my best to dry my gear out well after playing, but haven't done much with leg pads, as I have had the snap type buckles, were mostly plastic.