Right I'm going to admit that I really don't know what I'm doing because I've never bought, seen or touched any sort of hockey equipment before. But for some really obscure reason I quite fancy having an in line hockey goalie mask for Christmas. Now, before I send my letter to Santa Claus he's going to need to know how big my head is. However, every site I seem to go to either sells Junior or Adult sizes, without any actual measurements shown. I'm 24 years old but I'm quite short (5, 11) and after seeing the sizes they give out for jerseys I could quite easily fit into their junior size jerseys. So do I take this as a guide and buy the junior mask or should I really stick with the adult size? I'm asking all these questions because every UK site is vastly overpriced compared to US sites and if I get this wrong it's going to cost me loads to send back to NA. So I was hoping if someone could help me, who maybe has experience with this. Or if someone even knows of a site whereby they actually list some measurements? I'm currently looking at the following masks... Junior Adult Thanks for any help.
You mean five foot, eleven inches, right? That's not "quite short" or even "short". It's about average for a 24-year-old male.
What level inline hockey are you playing at? Here are some 'street hockey' masks that Itech sells for $40. I used to have one of these for my ball hockey league.........but from experience, taking shots off the noggin wasn't the best feeling: http://www.goaliemonkey.com/itechstreetdragongm.html http://www.goaliemonkey.com/itech-gmstreetcoloavalanche.html http://www.goaliemonkey.com/itechstreetdetroitgm.html That's about the cheapest stuff available. Unfortunately from there, any other decent mask will run at least $150 US or so.
Hawk Hockey in California actually runs a site designed for European players: http://www.hockeymonkeyeu.com/ Maybe shoot them an email or phone call to see what they can do for you in terms of shipping.
Thanks for the help everyone. Believe it or not I'm actually the smallest in the family, so I suppose I underestimate my own height. However I am quite light in terms of weight, at just 8 stone. But anyway, enough of my personal statistics. I'm more than likely going to go with the Tour H-33 Inline Hockey Goalie Helmet from either hockeygiant.com or 247hockey.com. It's listed as an entry-level helmet, which is "perfect for players just starting". Sounds good to me. Again, thanks for all your help.
Are you playing hockey with a puck or a ball? That is the most serious consideration. If you are playing with a puck...make sure whatever helmet you get has a CSA/HECC certification...otherwise...you're taking a serious risk every time you put on that helmet in a game.
Don't worry I'll be using a ball. The link for 247hockey.com (that I gave above) has a useful indicator as to what level a goalie mask can be played with.