New AB18, Beauty Stingers, and Addiction

[budgetwukong]

I have a really bad gear addiction and I lucked into an unused AB18. Can you imagine the dopamine I was hit with when this arrived?

After using it, I can confirm arm mobility is a bit restrictive, esp. for my style of trying to catch as many pucks as possible. Impact from shots hard and high can surprise you, and two snappers this week in the upper right bicep gave me the beauty pictured below.  1st time out with it, I caught one off the mask while in an insanely low stance looking for a point clapper through a scramble in front of my net (pic 2).

However, almost all other shots feel kitten soft.  I can eat point blank clappers to the torso and bombs to the ribs when I'm not square to the shooter as I seal my post. I dare not assert that the AB18 not a piece of legendary loot.  It's just that, I was all aboard the hype train after seeing a bunch of these pop up on the NHL chest protector database / gear "sitings" threads. I just didn't realize no piece of gear is perfect.

This post is probably more for myself any maybe anyone with gear addictions taking over their lives.  One of the tendies at my rink tends to sell off his units after one bruise, and is never happy with his gear.  I now realize I was going down the same path with pads and gloves every few games to the point that I'm never comforable in my stuff. Constantly changing glove breaks and going from 35" Brians pads (more coverage!) down to 32" Bauer pads (moar speed!) 

I'm going to be flamed for this post, but I'm going to try to stop being such a gear whore and try to be happy with what I have.  You may now throw tomatoes at me.

 

[Korppi32]

6 hours ago, budgetwukong said:

 

 

This is not C/A's fault. Do you wear a neck guard?

[ArdeFIN]

10 hours ago, Korppi32 said:

This is not C/A's fault. Do you wear a neck guard?

When wearing the original AB PRO (Black with red) and possibly even the NHL Pro AB in original form it is a known issue that the chest part is hanging low opening neck for puck. 

But I'd quess that too, no neck guard.

That shoulder hit looks bad for a NHL pro unit though since it's pretty much struck to the front of the arm? The older AB PRO has very minimal protection on sides but I don't know about the AB18? Arms in that one do look like they'd offer more cover around the bicep. 

 

[Hockeygoalie111]

I wonder if the arm stinger is due to lack of padding in that area.  I just picked up an AB22 and noticed the shoulder area is lacking protection (just above the bicep thick padding).

[mr_shifty1982]

Man, after getting stingers I would seriously suggest that you guys get a beefed up chesty to your liking.

After about 5 years I can't let go of my Premier, it's a tank.

[Chenner29]

22 hours ago, budgetwukong said:

I have a really bad gear addiction and I lucked into an unused AB18. Can you imagine the dopamine I was hit with when this arrived?

After using it, I can confirm arm mobility is a bit restrictive, esp. for my style of trying to catch as many pucks as possible. Impact from shots hard and high can surprise you, and two snappers this week in the upper right bicep gave me the beauty pictured below.  1st time out with it, I caught one off the mask while in an insanely low stance looking for a point clapper through a scramble in front of my net (pic 2).

However, almost all other shots feel kitten soft.  I can eat point blank clappers to the torso and bombs to the ribs when I'm not square to the shooter as I seal my post. I dare not assert that the AB18 not a piece of legendary loot.  It's just that, I was all aboard the hype train after seeing a bunch of these pop up on the NHL chest protector database / gear "sitings" threads. I just didn't realize no piece of gear is perfect.

This post is probably more for myself any maybe anyone with gear addictions taking over their lives.  One of the tendies at my rink tends to sell off his units after one bruise, and is never happy with his gear.  I now realize I was going down the same path with pads and gloves every few games to the point that I'm never comforable in my stuff. Constantly changing glove breaks and going from 35" Brians pads (more coverage!) down to 32" Bauer pads (moar speed!) 

I'm going to be flamed for this post, but I'm going to try to stop being such a gear whore and try to be happy with what I have.  You may now throw tomatoes at me.

I have two of these units; one brand new and the other well-used.  They are extremely stiff out of the box, but the mobility I get out of the used one is up there with the original ABPro/Premier 1 or any Vaughn unit I've ever used.

As others have mentioned - the low clearance at the neck may be a design flaw or intentional.  CCM chesties have always had low hanging neck "protection."  There is a decent subset of pros who wear this unit along with separate neck/collarbone protection.

That bruise looks pretty nasty - not sure how that could have happened with all the padding in the arms.  I think we get a 1/2" or 3/4" thickness of HD plastic and foam there - basically like wearing a player shin pad on our arms.  Most hard shots I take off the arms are negligible.  In the past 3+ years of owning the unit, I can think of 2 or 3 that hurt, and none of them left a bruise like that on me - could it be a sizing issue, or did the unit twist on your arm?  On the flip side - imagine what would have happened there with something less padded.