How often should I retape my hockey stick?
We have already covered why we tape our hockey stick, but now we need to figure out how often we should be retaping. We need to retape our sticks when the cloth starts to wear out, falls off, or is ripping from the stick. All of these instances can be caused from puck marks, shooting the puck, ice and snow getting under the adhesive and more.
Let’s start with shooting and passing the puck. This wears the tape out because the edges of the puck start to scrape the tape and also leave puck marks. Like any tape, anytime you start to scrape it, the edges can start to pull up more and more when you use it. When those edges start to pull, more issues start as dirt, dust, and snow gets under the tape causing the TJ to wear out. Then there is also the ice and snow that can cause your tape job to fall apart faster. When the ice gets underneath the tape, it starts to loosen the adhesive which will make your tape fall apart.
While both of these things are unavoidable while playing hockey, there are some things you can do to lengthen the life of your TJ. Make sure you are taping around the edges tight enough to not leave any holes under the tape. When taping all the way down to the toe, make sure you cut and fold over the spare tape properly to not expose the adhesive side of the tape. Finally, the last thing we recommend for extending your TJs life, is to use Howies Stick Wax. Our Stick Wax was created to give you better puck control and help seal your TJ so it prevents ice and snow buildup, oh and it smells great too, so that's a bonus.
How often should you be retaping your stick really? Well, for some players, they wait until the tape is about to fall off and is in NEED of a retape. On the other hand, there are some players that use taping up their twig as part of their pregame ritual and need a fresh one before every game. It really just is up to your preference and how often you want to break out the rolls of Howies!