How to Buy a Longboard Skateboard

For years, the media has been saturated with events like the X-Games, and movies like Jackass and Lords of Dogtown.  Skateboarders have been portrayed largely as hooligans and street punks who have nothing better to do then ride their skateboards.  Honestly, looking at the professional skateboarding scene, this is generally true. There’s nothing wrong with that, I might add. But the incredible technical ability of modern professional skateboarders has set the bar so high that skateboarding seems like a talent that one needs to be born with.  The truth of the matter is that such isn’t the case at all.  Everyday schlubs like you and me can ride a skateboard for fun and transportation without the need or compulsion to attempt to ollie down flights of stairs and bust our heads open.

   I, myself, have been riding a skateboard since the age of 6.  I’ve rode every type of board that you can imagine.  My first board was a banana board, I had an old-school Christian Hasoi signature model, I’ve owned a fair share of “trick boards” with small wheels and such, I even had a skateboard that was made out of an old water ski.  For a few years, I tried to do all the fancy tricks that the rest of my friends could do, but I was a little too heavy set, or maybe my feet were too large, or maybe my balance was just bad.  Point is, I stunk.  By eighth grade, I was putting 70mm Kryptonik wheels on my boards, and using just using them to cruise. The following year, I bought a Sector 9 long board, and I’ve been riding long boards ever since.