Picking Your First Board
If this isn’t your first board, please click this link for the general Gear Guide (coming soon).
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So, you saw some videos online and skateboarding looks super fun. You saw longboards and heard that they’re easier to begin on than traditional street setups (small, popsicle shaped board with hard wheels)… and that’s true!
Things to consider first:
- Are you naturally athletic and learn physical things quickly?
- This isn’t an insult, trust me I’ll explain why this is important when I get to the details of the gear.
- Do you want to just cruise around and commute only?
- Do you want to do this for fitness reasons?
- Do you like getting deep into hobbies?
- Would you ever try dancing and freestyle?
- Would you ever try downhill or freeride (if you weren’t afraid that you’d get seriously injured)?
- Did you skate in the past and hate how hard it was or how the board felt?
What you should know about boards:
When it comes to skateboarding, there are multiple different types of boards and each of them do different things. There are also different types of trucks and different types of wheels which also do different things.
When buying a board, you can either purchase complete, meaning it comes with every component that you need, already built.
Or you can purchase all the separate components (if you like tinkering or would like something more custom).
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Ok, here’s how to pick out some gear.
Cruising, Carving, Commuting – If you’re looking for a smooth, stable ride to get you from point A to point B—or just want to cruise around the neighborhood, beach, or campus—here’s what you should be looking for:
Components and things to understand:
- Deck: The piece of wood under your feet. It comes in different shapes, sizes and concave (curvature) for a different feel.
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- ⭐ Beginners that want to ease the learning curve – Get a bigger board, 34” or larger.
- Ideally a drop-through (meaning the trucks go through the board) or a drop platform (meaning the standing platform is dropped). Or you can get a Double-Drop (both in the same board).
- The lower it is to the ground, the easier it is to push and the more stable it is for beginners.
- Also, you’ll want just a little bit of flex in your board for extra dampening.
- Ideally a drop-through (meaning the trucks go through the board) or a drop platform (meaning the standing platform is dropped). Or you can get a Double-Drop (both in the same board).
- ⭐ Athletic beginners – Pick anything you want honestly… smaller is easier to maneuver around and screw around on.
- Top mounted boards (trucks completely underneath, w/o a drop) are more versatile and bode better in downhill and freeride if that’s something you’ll want to do eventually.
- The higher up the board is the more turny because of the increase leverage that you get.
- Top mounted boards (trucks completely underneath, w/o a drop) are more versatile and bode better in downhill and freeride if that’s something you’ll want to do eventually.
- Kicktails– If you want to maneuver your board around more or do tricks, get something with a kicktail (an upturned tail), as it allows you to navigate tight areas or learn to ollie
- Concave (deck curvature under your feet) – Don’t worry about it yet unless you’re extremely analytical. It’s hard to know what you like in the beginning.
- ⭐ Beginners that want to ease the learning curve – Get a bigger board, 34” or larger.
- Trucks: These are the T-Shaped metal things under your board that control your turn and stability.
- ⭐ Acts like the suspension of a car. They can be tweaked and modified to fit you better. People in this sport are obsessed with playing with their trucks. ⭐
- There are two types:
- Reverse kingpin trucks (RKP) are ideal for larger boards and complete beginners. Traditionally seen as the longboard truck.
- Traditional kingpin trucks (TKP) are ideal for smaller boards with smaller wheels and more athletic beginners who learn faster, as they turn sharper and are good for tricks. Traditionally seen as the skateboard truck.
- There are two types:
- ⭐ Acts like the suspension of a car. They can be tweaked and modified to fit you better. People in this sport are obsessed with playing with their trucks. ⭐
- Wheels: Wheels come in various shapes, sizes and hardnesses (durometer). Shapes will matter more once you figure out a discipline. just know, the meatier the better as a complete beginner.
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- For cruising you want bigger, softer wheels:
- If on a smaller board – 60mm to 65mm
- If on a larger board – 70mm +
- Pick any durometer (hardness) between 74a - 86a – as it will give you a cushy ride and roll over rough pavement, cracks, and small curbs, like it’s nothing.
- The larger and softer, the more cushy.
- For cruising you want bigger, softer wheels:
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- Bearings: These are the metal things inside your wheels that allow them to turn. Bad bearings will slow you down and shorten how far you'll roll on one push, making it harder to push. These are rated in ABEC sometimes.
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- Screw the ABEC rating. Just make sure they’re from a reputable brand, and you’ll be good to go.
- Quality over labels. Dragon, Zealous, Boa, Bones all have high QC with their bearings.
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- Griptape: This is the sandpaper-like material on top of your deck that keeps your feet from slipping off. The underside has an adhesive to make it stick to the board.
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- Don’t worry about it yet. You won’t notice much of a difference between different griptapes in the beginning.
- Just don’t start with 36 grit or super coarse griptape. It’ll ruin your shoes and it’ll be hard to shift your feet around as a beginner.
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- Hardware: These are the metal screws that hold your trucks to your board.
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- The average size screws for a basic longboard are 1 1/4".
- Sizes can vary depending on if you're using a riser or how thick your deck is. If you're confused. We can always help.
- The average size screws for a basic longboard are 1 1/4".
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Please note that most boards can do most things ok.
Don’t get too concerned with your first board if you still need to learn to push around and get the absolute basics down, but the stuff above will make progressing easier.
Understand that we recommend you scoop a board, figure out what you like then buy a different setup which is more catered to what you want to progress into, BUT… if you want one board to do everything, that is possible, it just might not be 100% ideal for complete beginners.
If you want a higher end setup that can do everything super well (commonly called a "Quiver Killer" - term dictionary coming soon), you’re likely the more analytical type and we recommend you check out the actual gear guide.
Final Note:
Ok, so you’re this deep and I want to make something clear… We use the word longboard a lot, but genuinely, longboarding and skateboarding are the same sport. They’re just skateboarding. Longboarding is just a term coined almost 15 years ago when 55” boards came out of the woodwork and became super popular. The disciplines that we discuss on this website are all just different disciplines of skateboarding. Longboarding isn’t a separate sport. The boards we’re going to talk about are just different skateboards. We’re just going to use the term longboarding a lot, specifically for keyword purposes. Many people search the word “longboard” on google and we want our stuff to be able to be found easily by those people, since what they’re looking to do… is skate, it’s just misnamed.
With love,
Christian
