Guide to choosing the perfect longboard for beginners and expert skaters. Follow our advice and discover the best board!
How to choose the longboard ? What is the best longboard to start with ? And what are the characteristics that distinguish a longboard suitable for beginners?
Choosing a longboard to start with requires evaluating several aspects:
- Rider skill and ability
- Discipline and riding style
- Board dimensions
- Deck profile and shape
- Flexibility of the table
- Wheels and bearings
- Longboard trucks
In this short article we will try to answer these questions to make the choice of your first board simple and quick , because we know well the feeling of when you wait for your new board to be able to start… and the last thing you want in these cases it’s a waste of time.
Once you have read this complete guide on how to choose your first longboard, enter the Leafboards LONGBOARD SHOP and choose the perfect board for you!
1. Rider skill and ability
The first thing to keep in mind in the process of choosing your first longboard to start with may seem trivial, but the biggest difference in this case is between having a board and not having one . So, if you have friends, siblings or other relatives who can let you try their table, always seize the opportunity, so it will be easier for you to understand the differences between one and the other.
It is very important to be aware of your abilities, so that you can guide your choice towards the longboard best suited to you and your needs.
There are boards for beginners and boards for experts , each with their own characteristics. Often, the first longboard you buy is the cheapest and after a couple of months, when you start to improve, you find yourself dissatisfied with your board.
The advice that we at Leafboards can give you is that obviously it is better to have a bad quality longboard than not to have one, but if you consciously choose a first board of a superior level and quality , you will never be disappointed by the vehicle you will have underneath. the feet!
By reading this guide to the end you will be able to get a clear idea of what is right for you based on your level, discovering the world of Leafboards and all the best longboards and skateboards.
2. Discipline and riding style
A fundamental point to evaluate when choosing your first longboard is the discipline you want to practice. Depending on each riding style, there is a different type of board, with different characteristics, dimensions, shapes and features .
The disciplines in the world of longboarding and skateboarding are many and different from each other; among the best known we find:
- Dancing
- Cruising
- Freeriding
- Carving
- Downhill
- Freestyle
- Sliding
For each of these disciplines, the aspects and characteristics to take into consideration when choosing the board to start with vary. To guide you in purchasing our boards within the Leafboards longboard shop, we thought we would create a short video that will guide you in choosing the right board .
By virtue of the size of the boards, their shape, flexibility and stability, and the types of wheels and trucks, we have assigned the best longboards from the Weird Fishes and Big Bang collections to the respective discipline categories.
In this way, choosing the right deck in our online shop will be easy and immediate.
3. Table size
The size and shape of the longboard are probably the two elements that must be evaluated as a priority when purchasing the board. While other components such as wheels and trucks can be changed, a board of the wrong size and shape depending on the discipline you intend to play leads to the need to purchase a new one.
Among all the characteristics of a beginner’s board, there is one that this one absolutely must have: stability . The more stable the board, the easier it will be to learn to start using it.
The length and width of the deck will determine the surface the rider has to rest his feet on and consequently the overall stability. These elements are particularly important when the board is used in those disciplines where the speeds achieved are particularly high and therefore the sensation of balance given by the board becomes a very important characteristic.
To start, we recommend purchasing a longboard, rather than a cruiser, as the length of the board gives greater stability.
Unlike what we hear, skateboards like the Penny are not recommended for beginners who want to start skating, as the very small size of the latter means that the rider must be very precise in positioning the feet on the board and furthermore, any slight shift in weight will cause the board to bend rapidly, making it unstable.
A cruiser or a longboard makes the impact you will have with the board softer, ensuring that you improve quickly and quickly, being able to move on to more complex disciplines in a very short time.
Our advice is therefore to choose a board with dimensions between 85 and 110 cm in length , in this way you will not waste unnecessary time learning to push yourself and turn with your longboard and you will be able to start having fun from the first moment you get on it.
In particular, in our longboard shop the best boards that we recommend you consider are:
- the Malila
- the Single Fin
- the Fat Bonkers
- the Thruster
This last board, unlike the others mentioned above, has a tail with an upward concavity (kicktail) which makes this board extremely versatile and suitable for every type of rider but above all for those who have recently approached this sport and still He isn’t clear exactly which discipline he prefers: downhill, dancing or simple cruising .
4. Flexibility of the board
The flexibility (or “flex”) of the board is one of those characteristics to be evaluated especially by virtue of the discipline performed and the riding style adopted.
“Flexibility and speed don’t go together”
For disciplines such as freeriding or downhill, where the speeds reached are particularly high, the flexibility of the board must be decidedly low. In fact, a stiffer board guarantees greater stability when tackling a descent at maximum speed.
On the contrary, for those who want to use the longboard for cruising, carving or dancing , a board with good flex will facilitate movements and make them softer and more fluid, giving the rider a feeling of stability and continuous control, even when you find yourself faced with a disconnected and non-linear surface.
We want to give you our advice on the right board to buy based on their flexibility , if you want to dabble in cruising, freestyle, free ride or downhill.
- Cruising: soft and very flexible board, capable of absorbing shocks while ensuring continuous stability
- Freestyle : medium-flexible board, slightly stiffer than the cruising board and perfect for doing tricks without feeling an exaggerated kick when landing from the jump.
- Free ride : medium-stiff board, which guarantees stability even downhill.
- Downhill : deck that is absolutely rigid and capable of giving absolute control when high speeds are reached.
5. Deck profile and shape
The profile of the board means the shape that the longboard takes when viewed from the side. There are basically three different types of profile, each of which is ideal for a specific category of longboard:
- Camber: presents the central part of the board slightly raised compared to the rest. In this way the rider will be able to turn the board more easily, as if he were in the ocean surfing the waves with a surfboard or snowboarding on the snow in the middle of the mountains. It is the ideal shape for those who want to do cruising.
- Flat : a flat board, i.e. flat, is the perfect board for freestyle lovers. It is ideal for beginners, giving a constant feeling of balance, control and stability.
- Rocker : unlike the “camber” profile, in these boards the central part takes on a slightly concave shape towards the bottom. Perfect for downhill or freeriding.
6. Trucks and wheels for the longboard
Another component of the longboard are the trucks and wheels .
These elements are fundamental in the economy of your board, but if you are a novice rider we advise you not to lose sleep over them, because these are components that take on secondary importance for a beginner who is buying his first board.
Buying a deck first and then a set of trucks, wheels and bearings separately is something that we strongly advise against doing for an inexperienced rider who does not yet have all the knowledge needed to make an adequate choice.
The risk is purchasing a setup that doesn’t integrate well with the board, making it difficult to start skating. As the years go by, you will gain more and more experience and therefore you will be able to decide on the setup suitable for your board based on your tastes and preferences.
For now, what we can advise you is to buy a complete and ready-to-use longboard (deck+truck+wheels) , without having to ask yourself the problem of which is the right setup to combine with the board.
For novice riders, a truck measuring over 150 millimeters is a good starting point, being wider than average and therefore guaranteeing greater stability and balance.
As for the wheels, for a beginner they are a fairly irrelevant component to which it is not necessary to give excessive importance. This doesn’t mean that any type of wheels is suitable for any board, but if you heed our advice to buy a complete longboard, you won’t have any problems!
The tip we can give you is to avoid buying a longboard with hard wheels , which have less road holding. On the contrary, soft wheels will ensure greater stability and better road holding.
THE LEAFBOARDS ADVICE:
– TRUCK WITH A WIDTH BETWEEN 150 AND 190 MM
– WHEELS WITH A DIAMETER > 60 MM and HARDNESS 78A
7. Wheels and bearings
The hardness and size of the wheels are quite irrelevant for a novice rider but the advice we give you is to choose wheels that are not too hard because they make road grip during bends less reliable so the best thing is to choose soft wheels with a value around 78A and with a diameter greater than 60mm .
8. Longboard trucks
As regards the trucks and wheels, our advice is to choose a complete and ready-to-use board as the first board , because the choice of these pieces can vary greatly depending on the type of board you choose but requires a certain experience to match the right setup to the right longboard.
Reducing this topic to the bare minimum, what you need to know is that a wider truck will be more stable than a narrower one , so we recommend purchasing a board with trucks measuring over 150mm .
Summing up what has been said so far, a good first longboard for beginners must have the following characteristics:
- Length between 85 and 110 cm
- Trucks with a width between 150 and 190 mm
- Wheels with a diameter greater than 60 mm and hardness around 78A
This concludes this guide to buying your longboard to get started! For any doubts, questions or clarifications, do not hesitate to contact us from our ” contacts ” page.
Now that you have clear ideas about the world of longboarding, don’t miss the opportunity to visit our online longboard shop !
