CHOOSING THE RIGHT BOARD
The top 3 factors for buying a skateboard deck is age, size and experience. Ages 6-10 can go with mini-sized or full-sized skateboard completes. Blind, Tony Hawk Birdhouse, Enjoi White Panda, World Industry, Flip, Speed Demons, Toy Machine and now the 3 most popular skate decks because of MTV reality shows are pro-skaters Ryan Sheckler Plan B, Bam Margera Element and Rob Dyrdek with “Big” Alien Workshop. Mini-size is 7.0 and full decks are 7.5.
Ages 10-15 tend to like skateboard companies and their sponsored pro-skaters such as Darkstar, Shaun White Birdhouse, Chocolate, Eric Koston Girl, Habitat, Shorty’s, Zoo York, Element, Geoff Rowley Flip, Alien Workshop and Zoo York. Skate deck size is 7.5.
Ages 16 and up select a larger deck 7.75 to 8.0 because of their shoe size 11+ and choose pro-skaters Jamie Thomas Zero, Rodney Mullen Almost, Andrew Reynolds Baker, Stevie Williams DGK, Jereme Rogers Plan B, Mystery and Black Label.
You can build your own custom deck with separate skateboard equipment parts such as trucks, wheels, bearings, grip tape and hardware. Popular name brand trucks are royal, venture, independent (indy), silver, grind king, destructo, element, krux, tensor and thunder. Wheels are classified by size. Beginners like larger wheels 53-54 mm with Abec 3 bearings. More experience skaters like wheel sizes 50-52 mm with Abec 5-7 bearings or top of the line Bones Swiss ceramics. Grip tape comes in colors - red, black, camo, pink, clear, striped or blue with stenciled or dye-cut logos. Hardware is universal, either phillips head or flat 1 inch bolt with nut.
TRICKS
1) Push at a comfortable speed, remember the faster you go the better the pop.
2) Place your front foot near the middle of your board, about two inches under your bolts. Put your back foot on the tail.
3) Squat, so you can spring yourself up.
4) Kick your back foot down so you can pop as you jump up, your front foot should rub upward on your griptape.
5) Make sure you tuck your knees to your chest, picking up your back foot as well to level the board at a good height. REMEMBER you are jumping forward.
6) Then come down comfortably, both feet on the board. It will look better if both your feet are over the bolts as well as lessen the stress of impact
7) Finally bend your legs as you touch down to give it that smooth style and roll away stocked.
SKATEBOARD MAINTENANCE
This page contains information about maintaining your skateboard and basic instructions with regards to cutomising your skateboard and your quiver so it feels right for you, after all it is your skateboard and you are different to other people you may skate with.
TRUCKS: All hardware (nuts and bolts) on a skateboard tighten in a clockwise direction. Check all hardware, wheels, deck hardware and trucks on a regular basis to ensure that they have not worked loose.
If they have, tighten them up with the appropriate tools. Never loosen nuts beyond the nylock/plastic section unless you are removing specific parts on the skateboard and intend to put the nut back on, if there is no nylock on the nut, replace it!
DECK: Always take care of your skateboard, use it with clean shoes, keep mud and dirt off your skateboard so the griptape remains like new.
Riding your skateboard in wet weather will wreck your deck and make it fall apart, it will rust your bearings and parts of your trucks. Treat your skateboard like your best friend. If the griptape gets dirty, it can be cleaned with an old toothbrush and some mild soapy water. Dip the toothbrush into the water and scrub the griptape being not to let it drip into the deck bolt holes or any exposed timber of the deck.
Once you have finished, towel dry and go skating. After a while your griptape will need replacing, you can buy it at the local skateshop and they will generally put it on for you. The better care you take of your skateboard the longer everything will last. Better quality decks are generally made of Canadian rock maple. It is an idea to have a couple of different boards for various types of terrain.
BEARINGS: Your bearings, just like you need to be cleaned once in a while. This is how it's done ...
First of all, remove them from your wheels using the end of your trucks axle, as you remove them put them into a small container. If you have removable shields, use a fine pointed object like a safety pin to remove the c-ring which will allow you to remove the sheild. Be careful when doing this so that you don't prick yourself or loose the c-ring.
Once all the bearings are in the container, pour in some solvent or mineral spirits, taking note of the instructions for use and disposal, use a toothbrush to clean the bearing removing each bearing as it is cleaned and placing them onto a towel or clean dry surface.
Allow the bearings to dry, then lubricate them with a fine oil like sewing machine oil. Place the sheild back on the bearing replacing the c-ring. Put the bearins back inside your wheels and roll like you've never rolled before. At some stage you will need to replace your bearings, and ABEC means the amount of noise that your bearings make, NOT how fast they are.
WHEELS: The wheels and bearings control the roll and dictate how fast you will be hitting the terrain.
The softer the wheel, the smoother the ride and more suitable for rougher terrain or a stealthy, quiet and criusy ride.
The harder the wheel, the faster yet rougher the ride. Softer wheels grip much better and harder wheels slide much easier. Rotate the position of the wheels once in a while, so that the wear is even. They will last longer and look much better than having one or two wheels looking completely thrashed and coned out.
Some wheels have cores, flat-backs, radiuses, conicals, no cores come in different colours, they could be bigger, smaller, flatter, wider, these all have specific purposes for all different types of skateboarding.
Better quality wheels are made from urethane, cheaper ones have a plastic appearance. Hard wheels are generally anything from 95A upwards and softer wheels can go as low as 78A, which is a super soft gooey ride. Choose whichever wheels suit you needs, it is an idea to have a few sets of wheels, all different hardnesses for different terrains.
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