[zzzmarcus]

Absolutely. The weight difference is definitely the biggest difference.

I've ridden longboards with both foot and hand brakes. All the hand braking boards I've tried had a cable from the board to the controls and even with that hassle, I much prefer them to the foot brakes. Moving your foot around and trying to get even pressure at 20mph is a lot more tricky than squeezing a lever.

[MartinCron]

I'm interested in getting into longboarding. Would you be willing to share the name of the hand braking board you've used?

[zzzmarcus]

Looks like it's evolved some since I used it, but this is the company: http://www.skatebrake.com/products.html