Starter skateboard recommendation?

Don’t be such a tightwad! What’s wrong with spending a couple hundred bucks on it?
It’s no fun trying to skate on a cheap board and it can in fact be more dangerous.

 

I started skate boarding in1964 or 65. We built our own board to look like a surfboard, 2ft' long and we used steel skate wheels. We didn't have adults reading us the Rules and giving us stupid safety advice, we were making it up and didn't need no stinking adults, good times. Oh, then we discovered wooden wheel from shoe skates, huge break thru. My friends and I went to the state fair and I took a 1st or 2nd place, a 3ft. long board was the prize, which I thought was lame and took the wheels off and put them on a shorter board. This craz lasted until girls and guitar replaced it, also good times.
My advice to the poster, don't go crazy on an expensive board and leave those kids alone. 22" sound about right for length.

 

I m in the spend $ on the suspension camp. No matter what it is, a decent version always engages the user more. I still have my board from when I was ten ! Just going from the hard composition wheels to Urethane (when they came out and the cost went down to sane) really got me back into it.

 

Longer wheelbase = more stability. 28” is what you want.

Buy whatever you want, take off the trucks , palm sand off the existing graphics, put the trucks/wheels back on - then she can decorate it how she wants.

 

Good thing the girl has friends.

 

Probably...but ya never know...

 

A number of years ago there was an Ebay store that sold "kits" with decent plain decks, trucks, wheels/bearings that were definitely better than a cheap target/walmart buy. I got my son a kit for his 4th bday that we built it together. He was still a bit young to appreciate the process, but he used it a bit through the years. He never got really into it, but could at least ride and do some basic tricks. I was that age when I got my first skateboard, so I figured what the heck. My dad took me to the old original Hobie surf shop in Dana Point on my 5th or 6th bday, and had the folks put one together with individual parts. Had those old soft Bones wheels - I think they are a collectors item now. It would have been around '77 or '78 or so.

I enjoyed it as a kid, but never got any good, either. I bought a longboard from the same company, and still have it. I don't ride it much since I'm getting a little older and am less confident in my balance and injury recovery. The stock wheels are too small for riding hills and road cruising, but I haven't bothered to change them. Maybe I will someday.

I remember the basic kit being around $40-50 or so. There are also tons of distributors of plain decks for dirt cheap. Buy a bunch and decorate them. Can be a fun father-daughter project!

My son doing “tricks” with me. He’s 16 now.

 

But the narrow boards were easier for "hobie catting". Anyone here remember that?

 

Build it and it will roll, (air brushed grip tape)

 

SacDAve . . . . Nice

 

Wow. I wondered where my old Bones ended up.

 

I would suggest letting her pick out the board with her friends along to help. And bump up your budget, so that she can have a good experience. Cheap boards are for a younger group than your daughter.

Yes, and I lived through the pioneering days of dry swimming pool boarding.

 

I'm not a skateboarder (was more into the tricky inline skate thing), but I built a board around her age and went all-in. One place where I think you can save a little money and make the board maybe safer is to not go for the slickest bearings you can buy. There's quality and then beyond that friction. Buy good ones but know that the fanciest bearings will be like wet ice, which is great when you're good but maybe not as much when you're starting out.

 

I'm not a techie by all means on this stuff. But I have noticed a huge difference between even basement stock (ABEC 5, I want to say?), and what comes on walmart/target/amazon skates and boards. The cheapest barely move, have too much friction. I actually think that's more dangerous, not less. The bearings that come with even the most basic DIY kit from an actual skate store (not pre-packaged walmart kit) are good for a general board, and fine for beginners.

https://www.warehouseskateboards.com/help/Skateboard-Bearings-Buying-Guide

 

We need the advice of a rad dad

 

Just my own $.02 on decks. The deck is where the merch money is made. Kinda the reality for skate/surf/bmx culture ever since the 70s is that branding and image is 90% of product and marketing. Growing up in a beach town in OC in the 70s and 80s, I have to say this is one thing that I find very tiresome and annoying after all these years.

The reality is that the vast majority of decent decks are all come from a few manufacturers in Canada, US, and maybe Asia. They are all maple ply, and shaped accordingly. You're likely paying for little more than branding when in comes to brand name decks. Buy blanks and paint 'em yourself. Plenty of bulk distributors on Ebay and such. Done with my rant.

 

Just don't get the mini ones... plastic board & much smaller than normal.

For some reason my wife got it in her head from some facebook mom's group that those were the right thing to start the kid on. Despite the fact that I skated as a kid and right through college (I really never got beyond ollies & basic ramp stuff but I had a lot of fun getting around) she can't even get on one she wouldn't listen and ordered one anyway. Moms know best, facebook knows everything, etc..

He can't learn on it.. it's way too small, wheels are sketchy, trucks don't like to bend/lean. They say 220lbs but my brother (who is a really good skater) warned me not to put any pressure on the tail or it will break despite me being < 180lbs.

On top of that those mini ones are so small that even if you as the parent can skate you can't really get adult feet on a board that small. I have skated around the driveway a teeny bit to show how him what to do but I'm really uncomfortable on it and won't do kick turns or anything. (The tail is no more than 1/4 the size of my foot, maybe less)

I don't think you need anything fancy but you want a full size board/wheels/trucks. The length & width make them much easier to learn to balance on.

 

I second this. Even the old small skinny boards of yesteryear were not as short as some of the newer 'mini' boards. Plus, the more modern style of shorter wheelbase and extended kick on both front and rear makes the mini boards all the more unstable, IMO. They are a novelty to be avoided at all costs.

Edit: Well, modern to me, anyway.

 

The skate shop ones are what I mean by good ones - but I think it could be dangerous to put an inexperienced skater on a set of Swiss Bones. That's all I'm getting at.