As
the idea of hockey started to gain some steam as people started to
realize its potential as a fun, competitive, team-oriented sport,
everyone was quick to conclude that there was one serious barrier that
halted hockey season dead in its tracks: Any season that WASN'T
winter. When the lake or river unfroze with the changing season, people
were completely out of luck. Its dependence on a cold climate made
hockey a very unique but equally challenging sport to create an arena
for.
Thankfully,
with technology bringing ice rinks to a desert like Phoenix or busy
cities like Los Angeles and New York, hockey found new life, being able
to be played in ice rinks all across the United States and Canada. But
even still, the ice was the key component that remained constant
throughout it all... that is, until hockey made another HUGE adaptation
that literally made hockey playable virtually anywhere: Instead of
steel holders and runners, it was metal chassis and wheels... Roller
hockey was born.
Equipment
had to be tweaked around a little bit to handle the generally "rougher"
conditions of roller hockey. Sometimes you're playing on a smooth
concrete, so the wheels needs to act differently. Sticks would get
eaten alive on surfaces like streets, so new ideas went that way. And
of course, there was the puck. While the 6oz puck we know glides
effortlessly on ice, it was horrendously grounded on any surface but
that. Some opted for balls instead, but many felt it truly just wasn't
the same. Then, another breakthrough...
Soon
TRON will have the Speedy Puck in stock. When designs initially hit
the scene to attempt to create an object similar in shape to the puck,
but with greater resistance to wear and tear of hard surfaces, as well
as an increased ability to slide on surfaces ranging from grass to
asphalt, the design we used for the Speedy Puck was widely regarded to
be a gold standard for playing roller hockey on any surface. Hockeytron’s president had an initial patent on a similar hockey puck in 1995. The
plastic "pegs" raised the puck ever so slightly, but it allowed for a
"surface" for the puck to slide freely on, similar to pucks on Ice. The
grooved design and holes in the middle allowed for the puck to behave
the same way ice pucks did at relatively the same weight. It was so
good, in fact, that when roller hockey had its greatest high, a
professional roller hockey league founded in 1993 called Roller Hockey
International (or RHI for short), the design used for the puck for that
league was almost identical to the TRON one we have coming in.
Professional level construction, professional specs, and a professional
look at price even a recreational player can smile at: a mere $4.99 ( buy 10 for $3.99 each).
As most of you already know, TRON already has a roller puck. The TRON S10 Inline Puck has
a similar "plastic peg" system that allows it to glide with great ease
across smooth concrete or sport court surfaces. The design we used for
it has been around for quite some time as well. But, like anything
else, there is always room for touches of improvement year to year.
Between our first batch of pucks and our newest batch of the S10 Inline
Puck, the key difference was the overall hardness of the puck. While
before the pucks only averaged about 70a (You see similar notation for
wheel hardness’s), the new pucks average closer to 90a. This makes the
puck all around more durable to handle the abuse of roller hockey. It will also glide a little bit better. You've always known this puck to be $3.99 ( buy 10 for $2.99 each ), and even with an upgrade that assuredly makes it better, you can bet you'll still continue to enjoy that price.
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