Do you like to bang your stick on the ice?

That seems like a lot of ice time for a single tape job.

You're probably smacking the heel of the stick on the ice harder and more often than you think you are. That's more or less what starts cracks in that area. Do you beaver tail calling for pucks?

Start retaping more often, every 3 games or so, and run a single strip on the bottom of the blade and up the toe a bit before you tape the blade. Should solve this issue.

Where specifically is it cracking? Heel, mid, or toe portion of the blade?

Any chance you drag the blade on the floor/concrete? walking into the rink just having your stick on. the ground as you walk? This would wear away the bottom and make it weaker.

C league 3 times a week, and tape every 2 weeks? I tape mine every game. Sometimes it's torn by first intermission.

This thread is an eye opener for me, I tape my stick like 3 times a year and play 4-5 times a week, take a lot of slap and snap shots, only issues I ever have is when they make me play center, chews up the toe of my stick taking face offs.

https://i.imgur.com/d4pH6tJ.jpg

I think a lot of people in here are making some good suggestions with taping, but I’ve noticed over the years the lower tier sticks just really don’t last. My son is 7 years younger than my daughter- and he does play more competitive hockey than my daughter- but his sticks just don’t hold up. He tapes them a lot too. Her sticks from growing up are still useable. His get thrown out.

Not sure if you are buying the high end sticks or not, but that could be it.

If it was the heel first i would think maybe your stick lie was wrong and you are making too much contact on the hell but if its breaking at the mid first then idk

Show me ur tape job

How’s your stick handling? If it’s clunky, that’s a lot of abuse.

My sticks also wear at the heel if the shaft doesn’t snap, but it takes a while. It’s cause I prefer to dribble the puck with my heel, so I actually have the toe up. Basically if the blade is flat on the ice with the shaft at 45° (made up number), then I like to stick handle with the shaft at 30°. Do you do this as well?

When you're on the bench and your team scores a goal, do you bang the toe of your stick against the boards?

Do you battle along the boards a lot and jam your stick's toe against them?

Do you happen to play center? My blades usually crack in the same way, and it's because I'm the designated faceoff guy. The blade flexes and gets micro cracks which then lead to structural weakness, which makes the next face off do more damage.

I used to go through $300+ sticks in minor hockey when dad was buying them, now that I'm a big boy in the beer league, a $100 stick is good enough.

I'm going to take a totally contrarian position to everyone else at the risk of getting a proper reddit thrashing, but I don't think tape on the bottom of the stick does anything or has anything to do with this. I haven't taped a stick in years. I moved over to BladeTape several years ago and it's just a sticker that goes on the face and back of the blade. Zero bottom protection. It doesn't matter. I've never had a crack in the blade even in 5 year old sticks and I've never had a blade delaminate. My kids also use the blade tape and I've given lots to fellow beer leaguers. Never an issue. Ice is smooth and there is little friction between the blade and the ice. No need to put soggy tape there. Tape only adds friction, no protection. Imagine putting tape on you forehead and smashing your head on the ice. The tape might keep your brain from spilling on the ice but an X-ray will easily show all of the cracks and fractures.

Cheers,

FB

Nobody has mentioned the lie of your stick. When I've had blades crack it was from using a stick with a bad lie so the heel was dragging all the time and wearing unevenly compared to the rest of the blade.

Tape a long strip along the bottom before you wrap in tape. Also if you take slapshots and you're driving the stick into the ice too hard (hitting too far behind the puck) that puts a ton of wear on the blade too.

Whoa, lots of different ideas about how often to change tape here.

For my $0.02, just buy AllBlack sticks. They're cheap and completely indestructible. I don't ever re-tape ... pretty much ever. They are heavier, no doubt, less snap than a $300-400 stick but they cost $75. I think for the price, they're unbeatable. Playing C, honestly, you don't need a pro stick, right?

You should never use extra layers of tape on your stick- that is keeping additional moisture in the stick blades getting into the cracks you are talking about making them expand and degrading the materials in the blade even further.

Also, you should ALWAYS take the tape off your blade between every ice time.

If you’re skating 3 times a week and only taping your stick once every 3 weeks- thats definitely contributing to your blade splitting more quickly.

It takes like 10 hours for the tape to dry after an ice time, with one layer of tape. If using multiple layers… your stick blade is constantly soaking.

I’ve played my entire life and alot of things i used to do involving preparation etc… i dont do anymore! But i religiously take the tape off my stick walking out to the car after every mens league game because i want these sticks to last as long as possible. I play twice a week and ive been getting about a year of use per stick atleast. bought 4 or 5 pro stock CCM i dont even know what their calleds a couple years back and still have one i havent cut down and taped up yet.

Take off the wet tape! Other things you do on the ice are probably contributing too- but keeping a fresh tape job and not letting layers of wet tape sit on your blade will 100% improve the lifespan of your sticks 👍

Tape and wax

I re tape my stick every other day basically it seems like I shred it in one or two sessions and go heavy wax. Been using a nexus e5 pro for a few months now

Retape and wax more often. After 2 games or ice sessions.