Footstop Showdown

Ghetto VS. Ballin:

A choose your own adventure gear comparison of EXTREME proportions!

 SO, WHICH IS BETTER?

(NEITHER, THAT’S A TERRIBLE QUESTION!)

Most everybody and their younger brother have heard of this revolutionary new-ish way to keep your feet on your deck and not the pavement at high sideways speeds – they’re called Footstops, and they stop your feet from moving too far foreward on your longboard – pure and simple.  These can be found, or coaxed into, a variaty of sizes, shapes, colors and wavelengths and in a multitude of dimentions.  Instead of telling you whats good and whats not, bellow you will find a ‘fair’ overview of both options, and the cons and benefits of each, so that YOU can decide using your own faculties of judgement and evaluation, assuming you possess those things.

Lets start with the Ghetto Footstops:

Skaters, being clever and industrius beings, are often reclaiming old gear for new and possibly exciting aplications. Pictured here are repurposed, or “Ghetto” Footstops.  One is a cored Flashback, another is a cored Rayne Envy 62mm, and the last is a 87a Venom barrel bushing. Not pictured are other options, such as bearing spacers, speed rings, rocks, peices of wood, viscious griptape or used condoms.  None of those were designed to be used as foot stops, but with a 2.5 inch piece of hardware and a few minutes time, you’re good to go.

The benefit of using ghetto footstops include:

– Urethane is soft and wont dig into your shins (or your buddy’s thigh) when you fall, or scratch your buddys board in the car.

– You probably have  gazillions of random bushings/wheels/speed rings lying around on your floor anyway, might as well put ’em to good use (that’s called opportunity cost, kids!)

– You get mad AFB powers with the low-pro spacer footstop.

– Is a clear sign to other skaters and skater chicas that you core wheels and shred gnar, making your skate-weener increase exponentially in size.

– What else are you gonna do with that 97a khiro bushing that your fat friend left at your house that one time?

Which brings us to… Ballin Footstops:

On the flip side, a clever someone will always find a way to turn DIY into a mass produced widget, and the “longboard” industry is no different.  What started out with how-to’s on Silverfish for making your own bushings (hole saw and an old wheel), pivot cups (various types of cut down tubing, slide gloves (cutting board and a blow torch)  and rain wheels (a hill and a file) has become a manufacturing revolution.  Now, instead of having to make everything yourself (and lets face it, you’re no engineer), you can buy the tried and true product that suits all your aestetic and functional needs… right at your local skate shop!

The benifits of having a sick, manufactured Footstop include:

– Supporting your favorite companies, or the homies.  Love Bombsquad but don’t NEED a new deck right now?  Buy a banger footstop instead!

– They actually work!  Most ghetto footstops only provide a little nubbins to lean your girth in on – pro footstops actually cradle your foot so you can dive into corners with impunity and not have to worry about changing your stance up a whole bunch

– They’re pretty!  Granted, these two pictured examples are diametrically opposed in material, structure, color… but they were both designed to be aestetically pleasing in their own way, and look better than a cored wheel any day of the week.

– You can tune the board for your stance and keep your goofy friends from trying out your setup and flatspotting your wheels.

– Since they are designed specifically for the purpose of stopping feet, they generally do a better job all round.  

…So now you know everything in the universe there is to know about footstops (hopefully, sorta).  You should probably also realize that their function is reminicent of W-Concave: it is designed to be used only in dire extraneous situations, like when your foot slips foreward while you’re sliding on rough roads at 80K.  If you are relying on your footstop to complete certain slides or stay alive in everyday situations, you are blowing it, and might as well be rocking sky-hooks or pine tar on your wood.

TL:DNR: If you’re gonna rock a foot stop at all (your choice), ya better get one that has the most foot-to-stop contact, and actually looks halfway decent on your descent.

From Chinatown With Love,

Flatspot Longboard Shop

P.S.  Anybody caught rocking a footstop on a deck with a kick-nose will have their gear confiscated due to lack of common sense/unexcuseable kookery.