Playing defense in box lacrosse, I needed a shaft that really takes the abuse of a ton of cross checks and slashes. The new Era Scandium provided that in a way that's quite impressive.
I have been using the Era Scandium for about a month as my main stick for Senior B box lacrosse in both practice and games and I am quite impressed with the durability of the shaft. Besides some minor scratch marks and some graphics wearing out, there is literally no damage to the stick. Not even one dent. Being just scandium (no titanium mix), I expected it to be a little less durable, but it seems I'm wrong about that.
Although the durability is great, the shaft is a bit smooth, so with some gloves and not taping the shaft much, your hands could slide up and down it pretty easily. In dry conditions it isn't bad but in the rain the shaft does get slippery. The Era Scandium is quite thick and a bit heavy compared to other Scandium, which are usually pretty light. I actually liked this added weight, as it really made checks feel heavy and powerful and I wasn't worried about snapping the shaft in half on hard cross checks. The shape of the shaft is very concave, but has nicely rounded edges which felt pretty good in hand. It does give the "notched" feel with it sitting between the palm and index finger.
I really liked the graphics on the shaft. The all white look with the simple black text looks super clean and easily matches with any head/mesh combo. It also comes in the same design but in black with white text.
The other nice feature with the Era Scadium shafts is that they can be order with completely custom graphics. The guys at Era sent me a Mars Hill University one as an example and the detail of the graphics are great. The graphics are right on the shaft so they won't easily wear off or fade either.
Although the Era Scandium shafts might not be for everyone since they are a bit heavy, I like the shaft a lot. I'd recommend these to anyone who is looking for a heavy duty shaft that could take a good beating.