How to Choose Skateboard Grip Tape

Video Transcript

"Grip tape, it may seem like an easy thing to pick out, but what you're going to want to do, is find grip tape that is grippy, but isn't too thick with grit, so that it wears out your shoes, or sticks to your feet too much. So you're going to want to find that mid- grade somewhere, that works well for street skating, with flipping the board and being able to ollie. So when looking for grip tape, usually a skate shop will carry a roll of grip, that's some kind of a generic brand of grip tape. Now, you just want to make sure that it's good, so ask the shop if they recommend it. And you'll also find that sometimes shops carry sheets of pre-cut grip tape, sometimes with a die- cut logo, of the skate shop put into it, like this FTC logo here. So when you get your grip tape, you want to make sure that you get enough grip tape to cover the entire length of the skateboard. There's nothing worse than putting grip on a board, and having it be a little too short of the length, and not cover the entire thing. You're also going to want to make sure that you grip the skateboard, before you put your bolts on, because you want the bolts to go through the grip tape, and you don't want to cover the bolts, with the grip tape. Now, some people decide to cut out the middle of their grip tape, and show a graphic on the top of the board. This board in particular, doesn't have a graphic on it, but sometimes you'll find that there's a graphic on the top. Now, this sometimes does not work well, because if you cut your grip tape out, there will be a spot that will slide a little faster. Your shoe against wood is not as sticky of course, as your shoe against grip tape. So the best policy is to usually get a piece of grip tape that fits the entire top of the board, and covers the entire board, maybe except for a small logo, and this way, there's no spots on the board that can slide or act up, and this is how you pick out the proper grip tape."