We have all had to deal with road vibration and shocking surfaces when Skating Further on our boards. Over time the infamous ‘white foot’ might even stop you pushing to get of for a few jumps and get some blood back into your feet. Loaded have come to the rescue with their ‘Pushin Cushion‘. The 3mm thick Poron® sheet goes under your griptape and provides an extra layer of vibration absorption. Nat puts it to the test.
I have been riding on Pushin Cushion for over 4 months now. It has probably had 500km on it and it has been through everything from near freezing rain during the New Zealand winter to 35°c + 95% humidity in the Canadian summer. From 100km races on silky smooth park paths, to 2 day camping adventures on long straight chip-sealed roads to exploring the insanely cracked back-country roads of Ontario.
Applying the Cushion
Putting the Pushin Cushion on is as simple as gripping a board. As I was cutting my grip into a particular shape, I cut the grip first, applied it to the Cushion then used the grip as a template to cut out the cushion. Peel of the back off and ta-daa!
One thing I noticed was that in this order, the grip and cushion together worked like a laminate and it stiffened up. This made lining it up easier as it didn’t flop about.
If I was gripping a whole deck, or part of the deck right to the edges, I would apply the cushion first, then the grip and then cut the edges like I would with regular grip (edge of screwdriver to remove the grit and a sharp craft knife to cut FYI!).
So, how does it ride?
Standing on my board in the kitchen I really couldn’t feel much difference – maybe a bit more ‘squishy’? The first thing I noticed when pushing was that my front foot sank into the Cushion. This had a similar effect of the inserts I used to have on my slalom setups – your foot felt planted to the board, the grip seemed more grippy. Race starts, cornering and hard steering whilst pushing all felt more secure – my front foot just wouldn’t budge! Hilariously, after a good 20 minutes of pushing you could see the grip pattern from my shoes in the surface.
The next thing I noticed was that I forgot about the fact it was there. Within minutes I wasn’t thinking about it, and it was only after I went on a 130km 2-day skate on some shocking surfaces that I realised that I hadn’t thought about my feet – they just weren’t an issue. The Cushion was doing it’s job!
500km later – any problems?
500km+ later and the Cushion is still looking and feeling like new, despite the grief I have put it through – and it is still doing it job – less whitefoot from vibrations and more grip.
All the Cushion on my board was covered by grip – I’m not sure how it would hold up when there was no grip protecting it. The other thing is my grip was shaped to for my push foot and had a couple of sharp corners – one corner took most of the pressure and the griptape was coming loose. This was the grip separating from the Pushin Cushion – the cushion was still stuck fast to the deck.
Another issue was to do with fittings. Where you attach your trucks the Pushin’ Cushion is compressed and if you are using bridge style bolts this can lead to the Cushion lifting between the bolts and the edge of the deck. I solved this by putting my bolts under the grip – if one of them blows then I would cut a line into the grip and push the bolt through. Another option is to do a Leander Longboards grip job and go around the bolts.
The next time I re-grip my board I will use the Pushin Cushion in strips under the grip and have the grip go past the cushion, this will solve the issues with the grip lifting and the issues with the bolts compressing it.
The issues I have found are all easily solved with a few minor tweaks. These are far outweighed by the advantages of the Pushin Cushion for a distance skater. There is nothing like Pushin Cushion on the market.
SkateFurther 