Van Cortlandt Rink Shuttered for 2014-15 Season

Sadly the outdoor rink in the Bronx did not reopen this season.  I'm not sure what the exact cause is, but I recall it had only a limited budget in order to promote the opening of a more permanent facility in the area.  This will be accomplished when the Kingsbridge Armory site opens in 2017.

The website for Van Cortlandt says there's a chance it will be back next year though.  This is too bad because they really did a great job last season with the upgrades, such as benches, full height glass, and heated changing rooms.  I really enjoyed those cold nights under the stars, and the El train, playing pond hockey with Steve and the boys (and that one girl from Michigan).

Hopefully it's back again next year as outdoor pond hockey is a truly unique experience.

Beer Hockey Philisophy

This photo sums up how one needs to play adult recreational hockey. Beer and pizza post-game celebration win, lose, or draw.  The difficulty, as my team has had the last few weeks, is just finding a pizzeria open that late.

Shooting Targets

My building recently added a golf cage to the basement gym area.  I noticed there’s enough room on the concrete outside the cage to use for ProPucks and do some hockey target practice.  I used some spare bungee cords to hang up a few beer cans as targets.  Hitting them gives off a very gratifying crunch.  

Really good timing as I need to work on my shot accuracy now that I finally got my wristshot power worked out last winter.  Still need to get better with my slapper, but honestly I always prefer a snappy wrister.

I was legit impressed with how my shots were at least shooting around the area of the can I was trying to hit.  But those cans are damn tiny, so I mostly missed them.  Ironically enough the first one I hit was a top shelf backhand.  Also hitting the 5-hole can seemed most difficult for some reason.

Kingsbridge Armory

North America’s largest indoor winter sports facility is coming to the Bronx!  In case you missed the news, Mayor Bloomberg and his cohorts announced Kingsbridge Armory will be converted in sports facility housing 9 ice rinks, 1 of which will have also have a 5,000 seat arena.  I had heard about this project last year when the Rangers and Mark Messier became attached to it, but by no means did I think it would get the green light.  Seriously, like Jagr once said, and I’m paraphrasing here, “hockey in New York is the fifth, or maybe sixth, popular sport, right behind golf.”  Well come 2018, when the project is expected to be complete, the Bronx to become a hotbed for all hockey activity in New York City.

Read more about the rink: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/kingsbridge-armory-house-world-largest-ice-skating-center-article-1.1326481

Van Cortlandt Park Ice Rink

This past winter a new ice rink opened its doors in the Bronx’s Van Cortlandt Park.  Previously it was the only borough in the city lacking a rink.  Not only that, but the rink was outdoors!  I heard it about it thanks to the news and facebook, since it’s operated by the same company which does World Ice Arena and City Ice Pavilion.  Typically I don’t head up to the Bronx much, but thanks to a good friend of mine, big Steve G, I had an excuse to go visit regularly this past winter.

Previously Steve and I played outdoors in the winter at Lasker Rink in Central Park.  Due to circumstances, we ended up both not registering there this season.  During the holidays Steve shot me a message to take a visit up north at Van Cortlandt’s new rink for pond hockey.  It turns out this was the same neighborhood he grew up in.  Next thing you know it was Thursday night and after a quick 22 minute drive from North Flushing, I made it to the rink.

Parking at the rink is really simple thanks to the metered parking on the street right next to it.  Because of the meters which are in effect until 10pm, there’s ample spaces available to jump right out and into the facility.  The facility is an outdoor rink built atop fenced in tennis courts.  Next to it is a building, which appears to be temporary for the winter.  There’s no locker rooms, although there are bathrooms in a separate temporary building which you walk outside to get to.  But it’s not really an issue because the place is pretty much dead around the time pond hockey starts.  On average we would only have about 4 skaters every Thursday, so it wasn’t a big deal changing in front of 3 other dudes doing the same thing.

The rink itself is a bit different.  There are literally only boards, no glass.  Because of this you were advised to keep your shots low.  There are no goalies either for pond hockey.  Instead you shoot on mini-goals, like the ones  used in knee hockey, albeit made of metal.  Early in the season I did want to work on raising the puck with a new SE16 stick Ray had given me.  I went to one end of the ice and swung the puck up high.  It really looked like it was going to sail straight out of the rink and right into the glass window of the building, but thankfully I didn’t have enough on it to go that far.  Whew.  Although the last night we went there I did ring one off the crossbar, but thankfully this was on the other end of the ice and the puck just went over the chain-link fence into the park.

It wasn’t packed since the rink is in its first season.  We did however get to meet a rotating cast of players who would show up every week as Steve and I were typically the only regulars.  The small amount of players made the games casual and fun, and best yet you really felt like you were out there on the ice alone on a lonely cold winter night.  Not only do you get ample time with the puck, but it really gave you a lot of ice time to work on things, such as I did to practice hockey stops on my offside foot.  I started off very awkward, but by the end of the season I had finally gotten the muscle memory down.

There’s really no better way to experience ice hockey than outdoors in the winter in a park.  It’s why I liked playing as Lasker Rink so much, and it holds true at Van Cortlandt as well.  In fact Van Cortlandt beats out Lasker, because it’s also located right next to the street under the shadow of the elevated 1 train.  On one side you get views of darkened outlines of trees, while on the other you get sounds from the train rolling into the station and applying air brakes.  Very uniquely New York.

Playing out there with Steve was a pleasure.  We were able to play 2 on 2, do drills, joke around on the ice, and then head out for a few beers a Riverdale Diner down the road.  A true hockey winter experience.  The rink closed up shop for the season last month, but I’m looking forward to seeing it again next year.  I did bring my helmet camera one night, which you can see the highlights below:

Skating Dead Jerseys

Originally written last October.  Forgot to hit post. ;-)

It was a complete bitch to make, but after over a month in development, the team jerseys finally came in.  I’m probably biased, but I think they’re really sweet looking.  The logo is 100% original, and I specifically designed it as a simple single color stencil for the jersey.  I kept our original green/white color scheme as well.

Putting together the logo was a real pain in the ass.  I won’t go over every pain staking detail, but converting the small tiny logo I had made last spring into something that could full on be printed in huge size on a jersey was hard.  Had to learn a bunch of stuff in Photoshop and Illustrator.  In late August I made a first attempt at a logo and printed it on a t-shirt celebrating our championship from last season.  After that I made a bunch more tweak to get to the final design.

For the actual jersey printing I went with Hockey Tron.  They had both the jersey color I was looking for, kelly green, and they could screen print the jerseys for us too.  It broke down to $28 for the jersey, logo, name, and number.  Pretty good deal.  I did try to go with Hockey Giant, Hockey Monkey, and even a local store; but they all either never got back to me or took way too long to answer questions.  Hockey Tron did a great job at responding immediately, putting all the info on their website, and making it really easy to place the order online.  They did forget to send me one extra blank, but quickly responded back and are sending me a replacement already.

Initially I was weary of their jersey quality as I had never seen one before.   I only even thought about getting Hockey Tron jerseys because someone on the SAS forum Hockey Players thread posted a little info about them as their rink used them for house leagues.  When I got the jerseys I was worried they might be too thin, but it’s actually really great as it makes them very breathable.  The shoulders are double-layered for extra strength, but then rest is kept light.  They still feel high quality and strong though.  Overall a great buy.

We may not be a pro team, but at least we now had a pro look.   If you want to join our fan club, you can also buy this as a t-shirt: http://www.redbubble.com/people/loqieu/works/9406304-skating-dead-hockey-club

The Skating Dead, Season 3

The Skating Dead arrive for Season 3 at World Ice Arena tonight at 10pm!  Talk about life after death.  As recently as 3 weeks ago I thought this team was going to have to take a season off.  But after showing up for the free try out skate, we found enough people to make it work.  After a frantic month of trying to put the team together, it all comes to fruition tonight when we face-off against Local 3.

This season should be very exciting as not only have we ordered custom jerseys like a real team, which hopefully should arrive in 2 weeks, but also because a bunch of teams from Midnight Hockey are joining in.  Add them to the 3 house teams from World Ice and we’ve got the makings of a legit league, finally.

Skate Mate

The last time I paid to have my skates sharpened was 2 years ago.  I went to DePhilip’s on Francis Lewis in Bayside and paid $10.  They didn’t bother to ask what hollow I wanted.  Most likely they have no idea what a hollow is.  Ever since then I’ve found it more economical, and consistent, to sharpen my own skates by hand.  I can do it whenever I want, and try to keep it about the same level.

I use the Skate Mate skate sharpener to keep my edges clean.  This is one of the few hockey related purchases I made at a Modell’s.  I would say 95% of Modell’s don’t have any hockey related equipment.  For whatever reason one of them had this way back in 2009, and I decided to pick it up on a whim.  It’s pretty simple to use.  You expand out the sharpener to fit over the blade, tighten it to just where you can freely move it, and then push it back and forth against the blade for about 3-5 minutes while applying little pressure.

The Skate Mate

It won’t get you the sharpest edges, but it will keep them sharp.  For me personally, I would prefer to keep a clean edge consistently, rather than have something extremely sharp for a few games and slowly degrade.  This way it’s easier to balance on the ice every week when you have the same edges, and you always know how hard to dig in for stops.  On average I sharpen my skates about every 6-10 games, mostly out of laziness.  Otherwise I would keep it to 4-6 as a happy medium.

The reason it works for all types of skate hollows, supposedly, is because the SkateMate cylinder which does the sharpening is cardboard coated with a ceramic abrasive material.  According to the marketing material, it’s better than the competition which primarily use whetstones instead.  The ceramic material wears down as you use it, but you simply shift the cylinder over a little, or can buy replacements should you wear it down completely.

One technique I like to use to ensure I sharpen enough is first color the bottom of my blade with a marker.  After that, perform the sharpening steps with the Skate Mate until all spots of the marker have disappeared.  Sometimes a little streak can still remain which you otherwise wouldn’t see, which is why you need to slowly wait for it to wear down during the sharpening.  Also I’m not picky, so even if a little streak is there, it’s good enough for me as long as the edge is still sharp.

My only qualms with the Skate Mate is sometimes the fasteners used to tighten or widen the blade holder get stuck.  I’ve had to use pliers to get them loose enough to use my fingers.  Also the Skate Mate also has two flat ceramic abrasive pads on the bottom, which are to be used to debur the edges causing by sharpening.  Unfortunately there are no replacements included in any of the kits, so once those wear down you’re out of luck.  But for me deburring isn’t a big deal, and I don’t bother wasting time on it anyway.

Overall I rate this product an A.  It keeps your edges sharp, although isn’t a replacement for professional sharpening.  Definitely worth keeping in your hockey bag just in case.

Waxed Laces

Do yourself a favor, and buy a set of waxed laces.  It wasn’t until last Fall where I switched over thanks to Ray buying me a pair, but it’s a huge world of difference.  As soon as I got them, I knew I need it on all my skates.  Your skates become easier and quicker to tie, the laces won’t bite your hand anymore because of the fabric, you’ll be able to easily get the laces in tight (and probably too tight), and they’re barely more expensive than a regular pair.  It will also allow you be to an egregious attention whore like myself by getting them in the glaring neon colors available.

City Ice Pavilion @ Long Island City

Located in Queens on the roof of a Sleepy’s Mattress store is City Ice Pavilion.  Even though you’re across the street from a prison and right in the middle of a warehouse district, the location is pretty central to the city.  The rink is right off the LIE one exit from Manhattan, and two blocks from the 7 train.  For any New York hockey player, this is probably the second most popular rink, right behind Chelsea Piers.

The rink is very unique.  You may have noticed I said it’s located on the roof.  But it’s not outdoors.  It’s actually situated in a bubble, the same as what tennis courts use in the winter to stay open.  With all this considering, they still have decent lighting and netting hanging from the ceiling, but things can get a little dicey with high winds and precipitation.  There are times the weather causes the rink to close as a precaution.

Inside the bubble

In addition to this the ice quality is somewhere between a C+ or a B-.  This may be due to the constant use of the ice surface due to all the programming, the compressor size since it’s on a roof, or the warmer temperature found inside the bubble during certain times of the year.  But if you get used to the bouncing puck, then you’ll be able to skate fine.  Although the wait time during surfacing can be quite considerable since occasionally you have to wait for it to dry.

One interesting thing is the rink stays open almost all year, with only 1 or 2 week breaks.  But like I said, the constant programming might also add to the wear on the ice.  The silver lining is not only is the surface full NHL regulation size, but they also have a mini-rink in the back which you can rent for $10.  There are also a decent amount of bleachers available around the rink should you have an audience as well.

Only the rink is on the roof though.  The second level of the warehouse consists of a pro-shop, offices, lockers, and other random stuff.  This means you need to take an elevator or stairs to go between the rink and locker room.  The wait is not bad at all though, especially during late night games.  But the elevator can smell, although no worse than the locker will.  One the bottom floor is the a parking garage, and there is also ample street parking for the late night league games since it’s a warehouse area.

One thing this rink does very well is organization.  The rink constantly updates scores, reminds you about upcoming schedules, locks the locker room during games, tells you how long you can stay in the locker to drink beer, and even puts your team logo on the locker room door to know which room you have.  The price of the rink is also the cheapest in the city for ice hockey.  And with an ample pool of players, there are enough teams and divisions to make play equal.

If you’re an open hockey player, then times are about the same as all the other rinks.  During the week open hockey is scheduled for the lunch hour.  On Friday and Saturday nights you can find it from 10pm-11:50pm.  Price is $25 to skate.

Overall I would give this rink a B+ and recommend it to anyone looking to play.

City Ice Pavilion
47-32 32nd Place Long Island City, NY 11101

Smooth Ice at Ice Works

Over the summer I was lucky enough to get  invited to a skate at Ice Works.  It was just a pick-up game that some guys put together on early Sunday evening.  For those who are uninformed, this is the practice rink for the Islanders in Syosset.  The thing that struck me of course was the ice.  It was like skating on a sheet of glass.  It was so unbelievably smooth that you could go so fast and glide so easily.

The facility itself was very nice.  Even though it was the middle of the summer, everything was kept cool.  Syosset is a relatively quiet town, so you pull up to a well-kept parking lot with lots of greenery around.  The Isles have a store/pro shop here, but it was closed at the time.  Although I saw they already had printed shirts to commemorate their upcoming pre-season game at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

There’s two rinks here.  One is a small rink shaped more like a circle or small oval.  The second is the NHL regulation sizes rink.  Locker rooms were decent, but nothing to rave about.  Although the showers have typical bad temperature control.  Funny to think of John Tavares and Mark Streit having to deal with the same issues as any rec league player.

Definitely enjoyed playing here and hope to come back soon.  Midnight/Island Ice Hockey have regular open ice sessions here Sunday at 9:30pm, Wednesday at 9:40pm, and Friday at 9:40pm and 11:50pm.  I'll likely stop by more in the Fall.

Ice Works
175 Underhill Boulevard  Syosset, NY 11791

Spring 2012 Champs

Picking up my posts here as usual.  Expect a few down the pipe this week to catch up.  Wrote this a month ago, sitting in my drafts.

This Spring was one of the high notes in my hockey career (obviously I’m using that phrase very loosely).  My team, the Skating Dead, won their first championship at World Ice in only their second season of existence, albeit with a huge roster turn over.  World Ice decided to do a draft to even the teams, thankfully, which made this season possible.

In the pros when a team plays really great and leads to the cup, such as this season’s LA Kings, the players frequently say it was a magical year for the team.  I can definitely understand their sentiment now, as being on the Skating Dead was such a great experience thanks to the unbelievable team play everyone together.  Never before have I been so confident about a team, and especially impressed by the great passing and in-sync thoughts everyone had.

I’ve played many a season with a team that doesn’t click, and this was the polar opposite.  It’s seasons like this where you can really appreciate and clearly see the difference between why everything goes right, and everything goes wrong.  Guys call out their own plays, have confidence in their teammates ability to handle the puck, balance their ice team efficiently, and always come to the rink with a good attitude.

Although we didn’t win all our games, we always had great efforts.  It really began to shine as the season went on, and we solidified our lines.  Our first line primarily of Will, Brad, and Mike were as swift and smooth as the French Connection.  Guy LaFleur would be impressed with those types of drop passes and give-and-go’s.  Contrasting this was our second line of Ray, Adam, and Rubin.  It was all dump-and-chase here, with Adam providing the big speed to dig it out, and Ray and Rubin with the positioning to tap it in.

Typically our D was short staffed, but like most players, they play better when they play more.  Nothing can quite capture that than Josh, who was ironman on D.  Josh played pretty much the entire game.  Several times it was Kevin and I would constantly be switching off to get a breather, but Josh stayed in there.  It was impressive, and needed since typically our lungs were dead on the bench.  Kevin as per usual was the customary D man with a big body, long stick, and huge effort.  As for me, I think I got better with my speed and positioning, but I’m not Chris Pronger.

Like most teams, we had a bit of a revolving door with our goalie situation.  This was primarily because Andy’s work schedule changed half-way through the season.  He played great for us though, and I think we would have still won it with him in net.  Regardless, we were lucky enough to get Earnie as our new starting goalie.  After seeing him play really well at Harvey in roller, and I knew if he could play there, then he would definitely dominate on ice assuming he became comfortable.  I would say it took maybe 3 or so games for him to get into the groove of the new surface, but once he did was it akin to riding a hot goalie.  Combine this with the slick offense we had, and we had a team that was practically unbeatable (I think we actually went unbeaten near the end).

Thanks to everyone for playing, and to Sam for donating the championship cup.

World Ice Arena Spring 2012 Champions

Holiday Deals!

Just letting everyone know that there have been insane deals on hockey equipment for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  I recommend icewarehouse.com for the best deals.  They have 20% off for IW members.  And you can easily become a member by purchasing a water bottle or t-shirt.  Otherwise dickssportinggoods.com has 25% off any one item today only.  Great if you're looking to buy a high-end stick.

Get Those Rinks Ready

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, which marks a big day American families to be together. It’s also a good marker for when you should start preparing to make your backyard ice rink. You don’t want to wait much longer as the temperature will drop considerably soon, and this long weekend makes a good time to put it together. You’ll notice it’s been about a year since I made a post. This is mostly due to the fact that I went through the crazy effort of making a backyard ice rink last winter. Because of that, I’ll export some of my hard earned knowledge to you.

My rink from last year

Before even thinking of what you’ll need for a rink, you should first ask yourself whether or not you really want to make one. From January to February last year, a lot of my free time was dedicated to keeping up the rink. Although truthfully that’s right in the middle of the winter, where you’re probably not going out too often to begin with. These nights were filled with going out after work into the freezing cold, working with freezing water, and staying up at late hours while the temperature was its lowest. But I did it because I wanted to know I could build that, and I knew it was the last year I would have a backyard for awhile since I moved in the Spring.

Once you do decide that you want to spend the long hard winter outdoors in the cold rather than inside, then here’s some things you should do to get going this weekend.

1. Measure the perimeter and area of the rink you want. Don’t bother trying for curved corners. 
2. Figure out the height of the boards you will need. This is mostly important if you’re working with uneven ground. The backyard I used was about a foot lower in one end than the other, so it needed higher boards on one side. The normal height you should use is 1’, and increase it on the lower end to make it level. If you’re low end is 1’ below the high end, then make the low end 2’ boards and the high end 1’ boards. 
3. Purchase your boards from a home development store like Lowe’s or Home Depot. Just go cheap with the untreated 4’ x 8’ plywood, and have them cut it into smaller segments. I did four 1’x6’ segments since that was the max size I could fit in the car that was useful for the rink size. The extra wood you end up with can be cut up into small stakes and joints. 
4. Purchase ample nails and screws which are long enough to go through the boards. Just ask someone who works at the store what they suggest. I used a power drill for putting this together, so I used a lot of long nails. 
5. Make sure you have a vise grip so that something can hold the stakes or joints to the boards while you nail or screw them together. It just makes it easier. 
6. Lay down painter's plastic tarps over the boards and cover the entire ice area. It shouldn’t be water tight, as you want the melted runoff to drain.  The plastic is just there to assist with building a proper ice base, though compacted snow can do this job too, but the sheets are easy to put down.  I used 10'x100' plastic sheeting.  Just tape the sheets together at certain points so they don’t fly away. Use a staple gun to attach the plastic to the boards. 

After all these steps are done all you have to do is wait for the temperature to drop and the first snow to come. It’s just a matter of time in December. Once you get your first snow fall, compress it down (like step on it or sled over it), and add lots of water to turn it into slush. Let it freeze, then keep adding water until it evens out into a smooth ice sheet. Alternatively if it doesn’t snow for awhile, but it’s really freezing (like lower than 20 degrees), you can probably just puddle the water outside and let it freeze. But that will take more water and time on your part.

I’ll put up another post detailing some temperature and watering guidance, and some gritty details on how to avoid having your hose frozen. At least for this weekend you’ll be all set for the rink before the temperate drops. Probably by this time next month you’ll be out there on the ice.

-Drew

Proper Warm-up

There are a few specific things I always like to do during a warm-up in order to get ready for a game. Every player is a little different though. In men's leagues you don't have practices, so the warm-up is really your only time to get ready for the game. The time available is usually too short to attempt specific plays, so I prefer to just get myself ready.

First thing I do is jump out onto the rink to get myself pumped up. It's an easy way to get yourself psyched up for a game when you rush out onto the rink. Once I'm out there I look at whether or not anyone has setup the goals and it's pegs. The last thing you need is a goalie with all his pads on trying to fumble around digging spikes into the ice. If it's not setup, I'll skate over and do it first.

Once that's done I like to make a lap or two of my team's end of the rink. I then do some forward-to-backward transitions, and practice my backwards c-cuts and backwards cross-overs during additional laps around my zone. Finally I start practicing my stops, making sure I can get a good deep cut with my skates. I find it important to go through all the skating techniques I use during the game.

Once I'm done with my skating elements, I go over to the side and do some streches. The last thing you need is a cramp during a game. Just a few light streches like calfs bends, thigh extensions, and rotating your torso should be enough.

I then grab a puck and practice some shots into the boards. This includes wristers, backhands, and slapshots. But the most important part of a warm-up is getting shots on the goalie. Not for yourself, but to make sure the goalies is all set to go.

Many guys attempt "shootout" attempts on the goalie to warm him up. I suppose this is fine, but it really doesn't replicate what the goalie will face at all. The best things to do are slapshots or throwing wristers at him so can get some positional practice in. Attempting to guess at where or when you'll deke isn't exactly the average shot he'll face in-game.

Now you're all ready to go for the game. If you still have some extra time, pull another guy aside and practice passing. Besides skating this is the most frequent thing you'll actually do during the game. You can also practice setting up some one-timers to your teammates as well, as that is the regular shot you'll get on the powerplay. Some guys like to practice deflecting shots in front of the net too, but I prefer not taking a puck to the groin until at least the start of the game.

Roller Hockey Stop

Doing a hockey stop is a key fundamental to skating. You go from a fast speed to a dead stop very quickly. This is fairly easy to do thanks to the sliding nature of ice, but when on roller it can be a little tricky. It's really only tricky because everyone is used to the motions of the hockey stop on ice. Roller requires a slight variation.

Inline skates have a higher amount of friction compared to ice no matter which surface you're playing on. This means when you attempt to do a hockey stop similar to how you would in ice, then you're really just going to fall flat on your face since the wheels will grip the surface quicker.

When I perform a hockey stop in roller I'm actually doing a wide semi-circle turn, then pivoting my hips similar to how I would on ice. After I turn I dig my wheels hard in the mid-heel section to come to a full stop. If the surface is wood with really good grip, then I come to a screeching halt. If the surface is something with less grip though, such as asphalt, then I slide a bit.

If you're having difficult picturing this, think of a regular ice hockey stop as a straight line where you pivot your hips to keep in that straight line, and scape the ice to stop. But in roller hockey you start off in a straight line, make a quick semi-circle, then dig in your mid-heel and return to the straight line direction to stop.

Here's a video of myself doing this at the rink. Notice I'm doing a semi-circle turn before I go into the stop.

Style Design Tape

Thanks to the great deals icewarehouse.com ran for Black Friday, I picked up a few items. Mostly it was just some extra pucks, a wood stick for outdoor roller, and some tape. Tape is one thing you really tend to blow through since it gets scuffed up regularly.

I always am a bit stylin' with my two-tone tape jobs, but this time I went all out and bought some kick-ass new tape they had in stock. That's right, skull & bones! True, it's not quite as stylin' as the guy who shows up to the rink in Coach loafers, but it's the best I've got going for me.

Now in order to keep the design obvious, putting this tape on requires a slightly special method when putting it on the stick. Rather than just wrapping around, which is actually what I did for the first part, you need to individually tape on strips. You can see I applied a strip from the top of the blade while aligning the design, and wrapped it around the bottom. Very important that you wrap around the bottom, since that's what is touching the ground and will get the most wear.



As you can see this leaves a lot of excess. But similar to taping the rounded end of the blade, you simply cut it with a scissor. Here's the sweet finished product when all is said and done.



Now there's only one thing left. That's to show up with this flask to the rink with my water instead...

Gatorade Water Bottles

Now this may be a silly thing (probably is) but man these bottles are great! There was even an epic thread discussion on them on the gsbb forums. Usually I don't care for this kind of stuff but having a bottle with a 1 way valve is a huge thing especially for goalies who don't get a lot of breaks/time to drink.

So lets take a look at these bad boys. Pretty good construction, thin bottle with a 1 way valve cap. The importance of this is, you don't waste time taking off your gloves, lifting your mask to open and drink. Just pick it up and squeeze for refreshment. Hasn't leaked in the few times I have messed with it and when squeezed you get a super soaker like stream of water. This is definitely a time saver, especially at some pick up games where there are only 2 goalies and all the out players just want to skate non-stop. You can grab these at Modells or Dicks if you can find them for about $3 a pop and cheaper on Ebay. You can also order them direct from Gatorade like I did for about $8.99 for a 6 pack.

Skate Collection

Skates are the most important piece of equipment you wear. They effect everything to do with your ability to play. Because of this it's very important to spend time and think about which skates to use. My skate collection is pretty comprehensive, and not quite ridiculous. At least once you consider I play on 3 different types of surfaces. Thanks to upgrades, most of them are fairly new. Here's a run down of the current skates I use. I'll spare you from reading about my old terrible skates. That's for another post on what happens when you DON'T spend time thinking about what you strap on your feet.

Outdoor Skates

These are the Bauer Vapor XVR Lite's. I bought them off of inlinewarehouse.com about 2 years ago mostly because they were on sale. They're no longer made, so you would have to get a newer model. Not that you would want these anyway, as I mostly got them because I was still new to playing and wanted to get things on a budget.

The bearings they came with were ABEC 7 and the wheels were Hyper Razors, which are multisurface 78A hardness wheels. Once I joined the indoor roller league at Hot Skates earlier this year, I swapped out the bearings for ABEC 9s. I highly suggest this for any roller hockey player. You don't want to be left in the dust because of your bearings when in a league.

Right now the wheels are Rink Rat Hot Shot XXXs, which are soft wheels for indoors. This is strictly because I had used the skates indoors earlier this year for my roller league. Once I bought a new pair of skates specifically for the indoor league, the Vapor XVRs became my outdoor only skates, but I didn't care if the wheels wore down so I kept them in there. The downside is I can really feel these wheels sliding. It might be because they are so soft. Once I wear them down a bit more, I'll change out the middle 2 wheels with my old Hyper Razors for a more balanced hardness.

Indoor Skates

As mentioned above, I previously was using my Bauer Vapors for both indoors and outdoors. Once I got sick of switching the wheels every week, I decided on purchasing a new pair specifically for the indoor league. After a long study of what was out on the market, I purchased Mission Solder SEs for a few reasons.

Originally I was thinking of purchasing another Bauer Vapor skate since I'm a real big fan of their design, both lightweight and aggressive stance. But Mission was recently purchases by Bauer, confusing since Bauer is also in-turn owned by Nike. Back on topic though, this model of Mission skates were the first ones made using similar molds to that of Bauer. Even the sizing is the same, whereas previously Mission skates using a different sizing model. Because of the similarity, I was willing to switch over.

The Soldier SEs are right in the middle of Mission's skate line. Even at the mid-tier though, they still come with ABEC 9 bearings and Rink Rat Hot Shot XXX wheels. These were the same specs of what I had in my Bauer's, so it would be an easy transition.

Ray has also recently purchased these skates too the previous season. His opinion of them being a pretty good skate and a great deal was enough to convince me. If you want a more detailed review, you can also check out this video from inlinewarehouse.com.

Oh one other big reason I got these too. These skates had just gone on sale! At the time the newest model of Mission skates, the Axiom line, were just announced. The price for these skates dropped by $30, so I figured it was worth getting.

Ice Skates

Being the fan of the Bauer Vapors I already owned for roller, I figured I would get the same for ice. I had read that Bauer Vapors were the most popular skate in the NHL. After seeing that I knew what I was going to buy when I upgraded my skates for ice hockey.

I ended up getting the Bauer Vapor X:30s. These are also mid-tier skates, ranging about $180 currently. Ice skates tend to be a little more expensive than inline skates. I'm not exactly sure why, but I suspect it's because they have to be a bit more stiff. For an in-depth look, you can check out the video from icewarehouse.com.

The Vapors are a great line. They're ultra lightweight, so you'll get that quick jump when in a foot race. They also have a very aggressive stance which you can slightly notice. These skates are made to be worn when you're in the forward leaning position, the typical stance to balance yourself when skating.

All Bauer skates come with Tuuk blade holders since they make them. These are also extremely popular holders, although I can't find an article on their popularity. You'll notice many players in the NHL switching out their skate holders with these all the time. The main reason they're popular is because they have a higher rocker number. In laymen's terms, the blade is more curved. This allows for quicker and sharper turns, which are very important in hockey.

Conclusions

If there's anything you should take away from this is that you really need to spend time and consider what skate to get. I highly suggest reading reviews online and even trying different types on at the store. It's ok to get a starter skate when you're first joining, but don't be surprised when a few months later you decide to check out something else. Also be sure to have a skate for each surface you play on in regards to roller. It's just too annoying to constantly be switching back and forth.

Lock Down at Harvey

I mentioned it in the comments of my George Harvey Park post, but the news deserves its own small update. The rink at Harvey is in lock down mode. Previously just the bench doors were chained and padlocked, but they added another chain and lock onto the end boards door behind the goal. Also there's additional fencing between the rink boards and the bench boards, where thin people used to be able to slip though. That mean's no way to get in.

I'll give Eric Goetz of the Parks department another call. I had spoken to him previously in September when the benches were first locked. For anyone else wishing to leave him a message, please dial (718) 539-6657. He's the park manager for Harvey. Hopefully the additional fencing and chains are a good sign in that the rink will be fixed soon. Otherwise it's going to be a long lonely winter for pick-up roller hockey.