To any and all beer leaguers,
I’m well aware that many of you, if not all of you reading this have never played hockey with me. Lucky you! But for real if you did, you would know that I somewhat consider myself to be a Gear Guru. Any guy I ever played with I can almost 100% tell you what hand they were. If we were currently on the same team, I could tell you what gloves, stick, tape, even the curve you use, no joke. I bet that some of you think that may be a little serial killer like, but to me it’s just a deep obsession.
Shit started when I was probably a squirt or even earlier for all I know. I have a picture of me at a hockey tournament when I was a kid sleeping in the hotel room in the new gear that my parents had bought me. Kind of fucked up right? Just wait it gets much, much worse. So imagine sleeping with a chest protector (the dope Vic one with a gel pad), a helmet (old bubble ass CCM), gloves (unreal Hesplers), you name it. If it was new, I slept with that sexy little bitch. But don’t worry I grew out of it…into bigger gear.
Every piece of equipment fascinated me and it still does to this day. I am a fucking Friday Night dud and I currently have six sticks in my room, the only room in my little ass one bedroom apartment. So as many of you could imagine my girlfriend is over joyed looking at six sticks sitting in the corner. Speaking of her, that poor woman would have to sleep in bed with me and my then fresh SE 16 when we first started dating. I would fucking kiss her good night then my new one piece. Holy fuck I’m a loser, it’s cool you can say it. Recently went through like six pages deep of Google to find some new wheels for my budget. Pretty decent, copped a pair of Bauer Supreme 190 for $375.00 with free shipping and no tax. Pretty fucking cheap for skates that when new were the step down from the MX3s and were originally $700. That’s another thing I love doing, cruising the web for clearance deals.
Phenomenal skate, have had this model for three consecutive years (one100, one.9, 190)
Mom and dad don’t buy gear for me anymore, and well to be honest they started cutting that cord in high school. I would buy new twigs with my lovely minimum wage paycheck, that’s when I learned to shop thrifty. I advise all you beer league ballers to spend less on gear more on beer. New motto I am living by. Now I’m not advising you to buy a spanking new Harrow twig, because let’s be honest, they are fucking horrible, even if they are free. But there are plenty of outlets for you to go to in order to find the best bang for your buck. I look at hockeymonkey.com fucking weekly. Like I said, I have six sticks and I still am looking at clearance deals.
Make no mistake a cheap hockey stick is not $170. When I say deal I’m talking picking up two True 6.0 twigs for a total of $120 altogether, original retail, $260 a pop. Trust me I thought it was maybe a suspect deal, how would these sticks be $60 a piece after being originally two hundred more. I am by no means just saying this for this article, but anyone who has used these sticks I am sure would say the same, they are fucking great. This isn’t me endorsing True Hockey, but it is me saying they are damn good sticks. I actually just got sidetracked looking at buying a new pair of gloves on totalhockey. The addiction is real, intervention I’m sure is coming soon.
Stick looks fucking amazing too
On a serious note though don’t waste money on the brand new twigs, skates, gloves, etc. Go buy last year’s shit, it is so much cheaper and still great gear. I don’t think I will ever buy a full priced item ever again. Also stay away from pro shops, they are a joke, clearance sticks shouldn’t be $200. A lot of companies online now do free shipping or some sort of coupon code. Always around the holiday, no matter what one, they have codes for anywhere form 15-25% off. Right now they all have back to school savings/labor day weekend deals. Now go out and get some new gear at a good price, you deserve it. All of those Herbies you don’t do anymore show that you have earned the right to pamper yourself. Cheap sticks, big lips, and cold sips, life of a beer leaguer.
Sincerely,
Howie
The Gear Guru
Little list for the boys of good websites, I’m sure some are obvious but oh well.
The Morning Skate 
Thanks for your feed back dad! Loved it
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Where do you turn for equipment reviews? I’m also a golfer and the amount of reviews you can find on a golf club compared to a hockey stick is insane! Especially considering they cost about the same. Would love to find a place where they have real reviews of equipment.
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