Top Ten Skateboarding Questions

We Answer the most asked questions on skateboarding

Our SkateHut team have taken some time to answer the top ten most commonly asked questions about skateboarding. Tyler gives some great advice, especially for beginner skaters, so check out the video or alternatively, see the transcript below.

Hi, I'm Tyler from skater and these are all most commonly asked questions about skateboarding.

What is a good beginner skateboard?

So obviously, you get this question quite a lot. It's one that we come across all the time. So I always find something you want to start with is something towards the lower price and something like maybe a Rampage skateboard. They're really great for low price, high value parts. What this means is you can sort of get a feel for what sort of skateboard and you want to stick with. And then if you do, you know, few months down the line where you're really getting into it, you can look at something a little more on a higher price and start picking out certain parts and see what you want to get into in the long run.

I'm just getting into skateboarding, what equipment do I need?

This is obviously another really common one that we get. You want to stick to your fundamentals here, you've obviously got your skateboard and then beyond that, you want to look at elbows, knees, and wrist guards. These will be triple pads, tons of brands do these. And then obviously, you want to helmet on top of that as well. But beyond that, you can look into some smaller items such as a skate tool that will allow you to adjust your board however you see fit. And of course, you can go for little things like skate trainers on top of that sort of lean into more advanced tricks.

Is a custom skateboard or a complete better?

There's no right or wrong answer to this one, it sort of depends what stage of skateboard and you're usually sort of beginners might want to be looking towards a complete, then you can work out what parts of skateboard and you want to focus in on. And then when you get to a custom build, you're obviously picking out your individual components, so you can tailor make it to whatever you want to be doing the most.

How much should I be paying for a beginner or intermediate skateboard?

This is entirely up to you to be honest with you, if you're a beginner, I'd say yep, there's nothing wrong with going down to £30-£40 price range. All of our boards around that are going to perform absolutely fine for you and they're going to feel great while doing so. Alternatively, if you have given that a go if you're looking to graduate up a bit, and maybe go more towards the £50-£60 price range. Or of course, if you do know what you want to specialise in, you can start looking at custom builds and picking out your own parts to make your own personalised skateboard.

What size skateboard is best?

The main things you're looking at are the length of the board and the width of the board. Both of these questions were answered and our own size guide. So the best advice I can give on this one is to scroll down to the bottom of the SkateHut website, check the little link that says buying guides and it’ll give you everything you need to know to size up the board to be right for you. All sizes are available on the SkateHut website including 8.25 Skateboards and 8.5 Skateboards.

How can I find a skateboard coach?

There's a couple of ways you can go about this, actually. If you've got a local park near you, they've usually got some tutors signed up for them, so you can always ask at the desk, they'll probably point you in the right direction. Or if you are at your local park, a great way to make new friends is to actually ask people. If you struggle with anything specific just walking up to them and see if they can help you at all. Alternatively, YouTube is one of the best tools out there. Obviously, it's free for everyone to use on the SkateHut owned YouTube channel, you'll even find loads of videos on there. So definitely worth checking out.

One of the best skateboard wheels big or small?

Like a lot of things with skateboarding, when you're picking out individual parts, you want to be thinking about what you're doing with them. Small skateboard wheels will pick up speed much better, but they won't maintain them like big wheels. It means that big wheels are really great if you're thinking of cruising or doing some vert skating. Alternatively smaller wheels for much benefit Street as well as Park, anything technical, where you're not quite looking to go high speeds.

What a riser pads and do I need them?

This is another one that depends on what you're going to be doing really, generally speaking you don't need risers, but some people like to have them to raise the deck up a little bit higher, which allows you to turn much more sharply. The only time you're going to need rises is when you've got really big wheels. What this avoids is your deck rubbing against your wheels and causes something called wheel bite, which will stop you dead in your tracks. So big nice wheels such as 5960s; you're definitely gonna want to put some risers on them just to make sure that you're avoiding that wheel bite.

How wide should my trucks be?

This all depends on the size of your deck as well. What you don't want to be doing is your trucks poking too far out from underneath or alternatively being too narrow and hiding under. The best advice I can give is to check all of our listings, they'll always say what sort of trucks you need in regards to your deck. Alternatively, just scroll down to the bottom of the SkateHut website, go to the Buying Guide in there as well, so you can make sure which trucks you need for the deck which you've already got,

Hard wheels or soft wheels?

So like all skateboard parts, this depends on what you want to be doing with your wheels. If you're looking at more parks skating, you want to be going for some nice hard wheels really. Alternatively, if you're out on the streets taking the roughs, then you're gonna want some softer wheels to take that much better. Otherwise, you'll be popping all over the place.

And that's our 10 most commonly asked questions about skateboarding. If there's anything we haven't answered for you today, feel free to email us at sales@skatehut.co.uk. Okay, I've been Tyler from SkateHut. Thanks for watching.