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Cowling Vs. Non-Cowling Skates

Pretty much every goaltender that I meet asks my opinion on this topic. Cowling Vs. non-cowing has become a huge subject in the goaltending community. I personally still own and use a pair of Bauer Reactor 6000 skates but have attempted to use the new non-cowling skates. And I'm one of the last of my goaltending friends to still use skates with a cowling on them, so here's my opinion on the matter. 

Being a Bauer skate user myself, I understand the argument from both sides. But after wearing and testing the cowlingless Bauer 1S I can't say there's a whole lot of difference between the two. The weight is not a huge difference and I couldn't really tell if the skate was making a huge difference with full gear on. And for the current price of the 1S skate being at $749.99 for a pro model, I expect a massive difference. The trigger release for the blade is a nice addition though, as it makes replacing blades pretty easy. As much as I would like to move into the "future" goalie skate, I can't bring myself to paying that kind of money for something that I don't feel will improve my game in an overall sense. The story would be different if I were in some old Graph or Nike-Bauer models, but I don't feel like the technology has changed enough quite yet. Now those of you reading this post wearing the new VH cowlingless skates, I'm not speaking at all for that particular brand. I've only heard about but never tried the product, so your take on the cowling Vs. non-cowling argument will most likely be different.

As always thank you for reading and please post your thoughts, I'd love to hear your experiences from withing the pipes on this subject! 
     







For a different perspective on the argument and more info on the 1S skate visit: In Goal Magazine- The new 1S skates giving an edge
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