Shoes. The single most important piece of slalom equipment?
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 5:47 pm
I've been practicing slalom/pumping for a while now, and being new to the sport- I've discovered that pumping really hurts my feet, specifically my heels and arches. I am pretty sure I already know the answer to my question, but I wanted to hear everyone's opinion anyway.
When I forget my skate shoes, I use my Doc Martins. With these, I can get about 4 short runs in before my feet feel like someone is stabbing them with daggers. I randomly had some shoe inserts in my car, put them in, and was able to go a couple more runs. Being that I go through shoes obnoxiously fast (chucks last about 5 months for me) I didn't want to splurge on a very expensive skate shoe. So I picked up some $15 "skate shoes" from Walmart. With these, I am able to go about 10 runs or so before my feet are arching.
So clearly, it seems that the better (or more appropriate) the shoe, the better my feet feel. So my questions are:
1) Do you guys recommend a name-brand skate shoe?
2) When learning to pump, or to ride slalom, is it common for your feet to hurt big time?
At this rate- I don't know that I'd ever even want to attempt a half mile LDP. Yikes!
When I forget my skate shoes, I use my Doc Martins. With these, I can get about 4 short runs in before my feet feel like someone is stabbing them with daggers. I randomly had some shoe inserts in my car, put them in, and was able to go a couple more runs. Being that I go through shoes obnoxiously fast (chucks last about 5 months for me) I didn't want to splurge on a very expensive skate shoe. So I picked up some $15 "skate shoes" from Walmart. With these, I am able to go about 10 runs or so before my feet are arching.
So clearly, it seems that the better (or more appropriate) the shoe, the better my feet feel. So my questions are:
1) Do you guys recommend a name-brand skate shoe?
2) When learning to pump, or to ride slalom, is it common for your feet to hurt big time?
At this rate- I don't know that I'd ever even want to attempt a half mile LDP. Yikes!