Smoothing Things Out

I'm in no position to complain about this (so I won't), but I scored some incredible hockey sticks for N, but they weren't exactly what we were looking for. We are stoked on them in almost every respect - they are high end sticks that retail for more than I am willing/able to spend, though we got them for a fraction of that (they are discontinued models); they are super light, and they have the blade curve we were looking for. My friend gets them for his players but when they move on or change teams he has all these overstocks left over. Occasionally they make them available to the public, but timing is everything. We connected just in time. The only caveat is that they have "grip" shafts, which seem to be the sticks that people want today. When I go to Stateline almost every stick they sell has a grip shaft, and when you look online, grips seem to be the most prevalent. I'm not sure what most of N's teammates use, but I'm guessing they have grips, as well.

Grip sticks, as you can imagine, have this thin film of rubber over the finish that gives them... you guessed it, grip. I guess in certain ways this helps with puck handling and even your shot, but I'm not a fan of them. If N liked them, then we'd be all set, but he's lukewarm on them, as well. When I went to meet my friend to get the sticks, he handed them to me and I felt the grip but couldn't say anything. He was doing me a big favor, one which I would never take for granted, so I bought the sticks. As I mentioned, they are awesome in every other way

Anyway, I was talking to the guys at Stateline and one of them mentioned that you could simply put a light layer of clear coat over the grip, and it should work. I wasn't even sure what clear coat was, so I did a little investigating and decided to give it a try. You can get the stuff at any auto parts store, and it's basically clear spray paint. I took N's new stick out the barn, sprayed a couple of coats, and voila, goodbye to the grip. It was pretty cool, and there was absolutely no effect on the weight of the stick.

So N went from having one undersized intermediate stick to having two new sticks in the correct size. Plus, they're nice sticks, and he's stoked on them. I love when that happens.

Now we're ready for hockey season, except that it's all over until October. Oh well, at least we'll be prepared.

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Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to Leilani and Jade for the pic.