Bounce!

I've tried several different toe stops throughout the past 5 years and have found quite a few that I liked; Gumballs, Big Blocs, Li'l Blocs, and Bionic Super Stoppers.  Until recently, I was using the Bionics and was quite pleased with them...then I tried some Crazy Bounce toe stops.

Crazy Bounce Toe Stops

My first practice on these started off with a bunch of suicides involving sprinting and turn around toe stops. The first thing I noticed about the Bounce stops was that I was able to run and stop on them without having to break them in like other stops I've worn.  They performed really well straight out of the box, which I attribute to the holes on the running surface of the stops as well as their pliability.  When you push off the stop to take off on a run, the stop creates a flat surface so it feels really stable.  Once you are done pushing, the Bounce toe stops rebound to their original shape and are ready for action.

Something else I like about the Bounce stops is that the actual stopper is nice and thick.  When I was screwing them onto my plates, I ended up turning them for about twice as long as I usually would with other stops to get to the point where they were the same amount of distance off the track.  If you are like me and like to have your stops close to the track, when using Bounce toe stops, you won't have to worry about your toe stops stems or plate's toe stop inserts stripping or about your stops falling out due to not having enough threads screwed into the plate.

I have been skating on these toe stops for the past 5-6 weeks and they look about
the same as when I took them out of the box.  Pretty amazing considering, at one point, I was replacing my Gumballs every other month.  I'm interested to see how long these will last and if they will gradually wear down or end up losing chunks.  Once I find out, I'll come update this post.

Photo by David Bedard - Over a month of use on these puppies.

Bounce toe stops have now become my top recommendation for new skaters as well as veterans and are my only recommendation for skaters needing new stops on bout day.  To understand why, here are the Pros and Cons that I came up with:

Pros:

• No break in period.
• Won't pop off the stem.
• Nice thick stop with a long stem.
• Slow to wear down (so far at least).

Cons:

• Retail at $25, which is a bit more than Gumballs or Super Stoppers.
• Only come in one size and color.
• So popular, we keep selling out!

The October G Spot post offered a chance to win some rolls of KT Tape to readers who posted reviews on the 2N1 Skate Shoppe FaceBook page.  So, without further ado, the winners are Charlotte Mahoy, Zack Sherman, Rebecca Kathleen Buss, Shayla Hamilton Urevich, and Melissa Manna Micoogullari!  To claim your prize, send me an e-mail at 2N1SkateShoppe@gmail.com with your mailing address and what your top 3 preferred colors of KT Tape are and I'll get your prize to you ASAP.

This month, I am please to be able to give away some Bounce toe stops!  To enter this contest, just go to the 2N1 Skate Shoppe FaceBook page and post "Bounce Me Crazy!"   I'll announce the winners when I post my next G Spot article, which is titled "Project: Roller Girl" and will focus on Derby clothing.  If you have any specific requests for items you would like me to review, please send me an e-mail at 2N1SkateShoppe@gmail.com or post a comment here. 

Until we skate again!
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