We made it to 2018! Incredible.
Hydro has now relocated, and we are firmly established further up New Zealands Northern Island. Looking back.... moving is hell. It really is.
We have a wee garden here and there's a psychotic Pumpkin plant already making a bid to take over the place, but the kids are obsessed with finding worms and ladybugs so it's all working out.
It's a sunny corner of the country, but can get a bit warm working conditions...
Enough babble. Hockey! That's what you tuned in for right, to see what's been happening on the workbenches in our mad gear kitchens! Well...
soft Soft SOFT it's all about soft here. Soft covered sticks, that is. We have made some good progress updating more of our range of designs to have that amazing grippy comfy covering...
Tomahawks and Katanas are now soft... Style points for the best name we've had the pleasure of personalising... kudos to you, SPONG.
We also have Katana 260 soft in Left-handed, might not be on the site but email about it and we can make you some up lefty people.
Here we have one of almost every soft design we have... Katana, Pixie, Tomahawk, Numbat, Rocket and Shiv. These fellas are heading to Belgium to a fantastic new club ZZO there that have done a great job getting some local sponsorship.
Had the opportunity to try to make a copy of the stick of the legendary Kelly Geddes, Australian bulldozer and all-around nice guy.... here's his original, the prototype shape and final plastic stick, it's got soft coating on the handle for comfyness. It's a bit heavier than the pine wooden original, but we have been working on something to combat that down the track.
Beautiful eh? You only get the full effect when you see it coming at you underwater... then it's burnt into your nightmares forever afterwards.
What else... well, we have been experimenting with holes and cutouts all the way back to 1993 making our first sticks. Well I remember those woody things, and how long they took to carve, and how quickly the things broke.... finally our technology seems able to support the idea, so at Aussie nationals Liam trialled a "Ghost Tomahawk" with a cutout to reduce weight and surface area. It turned out pretty good, so we are looking to develop this further. Here's a prototype Ghost Rocket (chunky!) ready for Rob Tinkler to destroy at the upcoming Nz camp in the name of progress. There's some super materials behind these designs, the main benefit being much faster handspeed. 75% reduction in surface area, which takes the surface area resisting water when you move sideways down to significantly less than if you were using a Pixie. We'll see how it goes.
Ready for a Bert-bashing.
That's about all for now, more later. Happy hockeying!
