I had that pingpong gripped board, and it was the heaviest board I've ever tried skating.
seriously man, it felt like longboard territory.
but the grip totally does work (and yeah, also gets dirty fast)
if you're going for an alternatively gripped board, just get one of the corktopped cruisers habitat puts out, or buy one of my carpet cruisers (if I do wind up going through with making an online store 2012.