Parents Posts

Starting Kids Out Skateboarding

Thursday, May 17th, 2012 at 1:14 pm  

A great stance, and a real skateboard

If you’re looking to safely start your son or daughter out skateboarding, here are 5 tips to get you going in the right direction. While these are common-sense tips for most skateboarders, as a non-skateboarding parent you might not realize that you can easily make some common mistakes when getting your young skater started.

  • Buy a real skateboard. You may think that to invest one-third or half of what skateshops charge for a complete skateboard is a good idea to start your son or daughter out skateboarding. Don’t do it! You could actually be messing them up. Toy skateboards from sporting goods stores have plastic wheels which are slippery and unpredictable, as well as plastic trucks that don’t turn as well. Even first-timers should have a real skateboard from a specialty shop.

Read the rest of this entry

Parents – buying a skateboard for kids

Thursday, May 17th, 2012 at 10:43 am  

Skateboarding's fun for young ones too!

Browsing the content from our coaches manual below, you’ll see that it’s easy to make the mistake of buying a “toy” skateboard at a big box store or sporting goods store. A new skater, especially those who are smaller in size, perhaps ages 4 through 8, can benefit from having a “real” skateboard, and one that’s sized-down. At a skateshop, you can find a “mini,” or a smaller skateboard for kids.

The biggest problem with the imitation skateboards you can find at non-skateshops, is that the trucks don’t turn as well as real skateboard trucks, and the bearings don’t spin as well. These two factors hinder the new skateboarder’s learning almost immediately, making it harder for them to learn how to turn the board. Kids on these “toys” will also form the bad habit of bracing against wheel that don’t roll freely, hindering their learning later, and promoting falls that could have been prevented had they been on a real skateboard from the beginning.

Read the rest of this entry