My Son (10) has used an Ultrasonic for a few years now. He uses a slightly lower flex # than recommended based on his weight, but is able to get some impressive slap shots off with it. His first one did break after about a year of service, but I think that's about standard. We liked it well enough that we bought another one from Perani's. I've never been inside a Perani's store as they do not have one in Minnesota currently, but I can honestly say, shipping times from Perani's have been much faster than from other big boys that ship, thus, they are my first stop for online hockey shopping.