Bauer Vapor 2 Blocker – Could it be, an excellent product with the Vapor tag?
Written: May 13 '05 (Updated Dec 13 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: It actually is Stronger, Lighter and Faster
Cons: High Price, odd fingertip protection
The Bottom Line: If the price doesn't give you an involuntary bowel movement, this one is fantastic
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| puckmugger's Full Review: Bauer Vapor 2 Blocker |
Vapor 2
I just realized something. The Vapor gear with Roman numerals is far inferior to that with standard numerals in the name. Granted, most of the gear uses roman numerals. It seems like the newer the Vapor gear is, the worse it has performed.
The problem has been that Bauer has become so focused on reducing the weight of items that they’ve taken out the durability. Much of the new Vapor gear is incredibly light. It is also built incredibly poorly. I recently spent some quality time with their new Vapor 2 goalie line in the hopes that it was better than the player line. For the most part it is.
The Basics
I’ve already reviewed both the Vapor 2 Leg Pads and the Trapper. I found the Vapor 2 Leg pads to be a little heavier than expected. In all they were a pretty average set of leg pads. The Trapper was a little bit better, but it still failed to amaze me. In all the Vapor 2 line is better than expected thus far.
The Vapor 2 Blocker is a new style ultra low-profile blocker. This is a style that CCM first introduced us to in their Blockades. I was a big fan of the Blockade gloves as they were the lightest thing on the market and offered outstanding protection. Bauer has always made decent goalie gear. I wondered how their new low profile might stack up.
What is low profile?
On a traditional blocker the actual blocker pad is about an inch and a half thick. Inside the pad is a hard plastic piece and a couple of pieces of foam rubber in various densities. The plastic piece disperses the blow of a puck to the foam pads which lessen the blow to the hand.
However the new low profile pads have all but eliminated the foam pads in the blocker. The blocker itself is about a half inch thick. While at first glance this makes for a rather odd looking hockey glove, it is a very light, and as the result, very effective puck stopping device.
The Vapor 2
The low profile blocker pad is essentially nothing more than the hard plastic shell in old style blockers. While a hard piece of plastic strapped to your hand is certainly going to reduce the injuries from being hit by a puck, there needs to be more to make playing goalie pain-free.
Fortunately Bauer did more than just crazy glue a glove to a slice of plywood and toss a little glitter on it. Like CCM’s Blockade, the Vapor 2 has excellent absorption properties that make even the hardest shots painless. While CCM placed a large amount of padding between the back of the glove and the blocker pad, Bauer achieved this in a slightly different manner.
They used air. Yep, that’s right. The leg pads aren’t the only thing in the Vapor 2 line that has air bladders in it. The Vapor 2 blocker has an air bladder as well. A vent beside the player’s hand just outside the pinkie finger side of the glove is the only sign of this vent. My first thought was what are they venting there? based upon the thinness of the padding. It didn’t seem possible to have an air bladder.
However, closer inspection indicates that the air bladder the impact absorption system between the hand and pad. This makes pretty good sense since air is generally lighter than sponge rubber. It can also be controlled a little better as it doesn’t deteriorate over time. Sponge tends to get harder while to the best of my knowledge air never really gets hard.
Other aspects of the blocker
The fingerstalls are well protected in this blocker. A double baffle on the thumb side of the glove will give more than adequate protection from pucks that hitch a ride up goalie’s sticks. Fingertip protection is excellent as well with a much longer than normal pair of flaps here.
The split between the finger ends protectors is the only area that concerns me as far as coverage goes. Typically gloves have a three/one split that allows the index finger to move separately from the other three fingers. Bauer has this arrangement, however the gap between the fingers is pretty substantial. One thing that I’ve learned as a goalie is that pucks will find their way in every chink in the armor. This chink seems a little bigger than most. Having been hit in the finger by a hard shot more than once, I would like to have seen a little more comprehensive coverage here.
Tightening the wrist strap is very easy. Bauer eliminated the wraparound wrist from the side baffles. This enabled them to mount the adjustable strap a little differently than most straps I’ve seen. The wrist strap on the Vapor 2 attaches to the baffles on the thumb side of the blocker. It is very easy to access as the result.
Materials and Workmanship
The glove of the Vapor 2 is Clarino. This would be the obvious choice of materials for a lightweight yet durable blocker. Clarino is an excellent material that lasts longer than calfskin (still very popular for blocker palms), is lighter and stays much softer.
While I’m more or less on the subject of weight, the Vapor 2 is excellent in this category as well. The senior size blocker comes in at less than 2 pounds. Bauer isn’t claiming it as the lightest on the market (a rare thing for them), but I will go ahead and say that there isn’t going to be another blocker that is noticeably lighter.
The materials for the majority of the blocker are the excellent new roboweave synthetics. Roboweave is a fantastic looking material, much like a carbon fiber stick. It appears to be a woven metallic substance but in fact is just as pliable as real leather. Roboweave has proven as durable as the more traditional JennPro materials. Some people like the way it looks, some don’t. However, I doubt that anyone would argue that it isn’t flashier.
Comfort
The lack of an outer cuff feels a little weird at first. The single inner cuff isn’t quite normal. However it is something that most people will grow accustomed to very quickly. The single cuff provides excellent flexibility for the wrist. As long as the strap is adjusted properly there isn’t any increased potential for the glove falling off or becoming uncomfortably loose. I imagine that in a game or two you wouldn’t even notice the different design
The Clarino palm is reinforced, but still offers better feel for the stick that what you would find in cowhide. Clarino is much thinner than cowhide which explains this. Further despite the excellent protection to the thumb side of the goalie’s hand there is nothing in the blocker that hinders the grip on the stick. A few poorly designed blockers that I’ve used felt uncomfortable in this regard.
The glove also slides smoothly up and down the stick. There is no blinding or stickiness that would make a switchblade style poke-check a problem. Of course not having enough tape on the end of your stick for such a maneuver would be a problem. Flying goalie sticks will almost always garner a penalty.
Parting Thoughts
Of the Bauer goalie line, the blocker was the one item that impressed me the most. I looked over their gear with high hopes and low expectations. The leg pads are rather ho-hum. The Trapper is pretty good. The Blocker is excellent.
Not only is the Vapor 2 Blocker light, it is well designed. The only question I would have on the durability issue is the longevity of the air bladder. It does have some potential to break and cause problems. However as I mentioned sponge rubber wears out as well. Only a few years and a lot of feedback will answer the question of the air bladder.
I think what impresses me the most is that Bauer took a CCM innovation and made it all their own in this product. While the Blockade Blocker obviously had an influence on Bauer’s Vapor 2 Blocker, it isn’t just a copy of a very good product – it is a improvement on one.
The Vapor 2 is a pro level blocker. It will work well for goalies at any level of play. However, the price for one of these is more than that of most catch gloves. At about $280 the Vapor 2 Blocker might be the most expensive blocker on the market right now. This will certainly eliminate it for many less serious players. It will likely eliminate it for a lot of serious ones as well.
A few of my other reviews that you might find helpful:
Fitting Goalie Gear
CCM Blockade Blocker
Bauer Vapor 2 Catch Glove
Bauer Vapor 2 Leg Pads
Battram Custom Goalie Equipment
© 2005 Scott Noble – All rights reserved. Unauthorized use prohibited.
Thanks to openroad for adding this item so I could review it.
Recommended:
Yes
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