Skateboarders, front and center please!

[wvjohn]

need some advice. Want to get a skateboard for #1 son and the variety is a bit overwhelming.

he is

15 yrs old
novice
5'3" 110 lbs
athletic

don't want to spend a fortune but want something that won't break in half - looking at all the different types and materials is confusing

8 ply maple
fiberglass

etc.

any recommendations/advice greatly appreciated

[eGoCeNTRoNiX]

I did a lot of skateboarding when I was in high school (that's been a few years now, but not that long). I wouldn't go with a fibreglass board, but that's just me. Most people prefer wooden boards. I don't see why you can't get him a nice board for between $100-$150. I had an Old School Wooden Click Board. I think it cost about $120 back then. It had 38mm wheels (looks like most use the bigger 52mm wheels now). You can go here and build your own custom board, or you can choose from prebuilt ones as well. They seem to be a good site and also have boards similar to what I used. Hope this helps, maybe somebody that's been skating more recently will chime in as well.

eGo

[Augix]

try looking for somthing like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 3&tc=photo

[shaggy]

Walmart and similar stores carry pretty low grade generic stuff, they would probably be ok for learning to balance on but not much past that. Once you get into stuff past rolling around the weaker parts on department store cheapies give out pretty quickly. If you can I would mail order it or go to a local shop. If you have a mall with a Zumiez they usually have complete setup deals and they carry pro parts. Probably a little more expensive than mailorder to buy local but you get to see it first hand.


For professional grade parts you can get a prepicked setup for around $100 from skatewarehouse or Active mailorder. If you want to pick your own trucks and wheels it will bump you price up anywhere from $10 to $50. I pieced together one that I would be happy with for $109 from Active. The $78 complete from skateboard.com that eGoCeNTRoNiX posted would be perfect for a beginner, you do get a little more choice on the pre selected completes from Active and they have free shipping on orders over $89 so price is a wash.


If his friends are into skating and he is new to it I would ask if he has any prefrence in what brand parts he gets. There are quite a few different "cliques" in skating, sometimes to newcomers the graphics/brands are more important than anything else.

If you have any other questions about specific parts or anything in general post back or message, I'll be happy to help.

[wvjohn]

Thanks all!

he went to visit a friend yesterday who gave him his old skateboard 'cause he got a new one for Xmas

I was leaning towards the ones like augix mentioned in his post from what I was seeing but of course free is better - if we need to upgrade down the road now I've got some ideas.