Help me chose my skateboard!!!

[Rider-trx_250ex]

So my wal-mart board is on its last legs and it is rather hard to do anything on becase of its design and weight. I'm going to get a new board sometime but I can't choose the size and brand I want. I want a smaller board for flips, tricks, ramps, street skating, etc, but I don't want it so small I feel unstable. Also, I would prefer it be concave. I'm somewhere around 5' 7"(don't know the exact), weigh around 156, and wear either 11 or 12 in shoe size(in skate shoes). What width and length of the deck would you recommend? What about width of the trucks? Should I stick with the original 1 inch hardware? Any brands that are better than others?

Thanks

[atvRiDa400ex]

i ride birdhouse...lasted a long time!

OK first of all, no more walmart boards. The part where you said I want concave made me laugh. Every GOOD board is concave.
Go to one a skate shop and ask the person that's working there, they'll help you out. If your ordering online go to one of the stores below. They all sell good stuff. The best bang for the buck is a blank deck, meaning no graphics, just a color. I would get a 7.5 or a 7.75 board, stay away from 8, also your wight doesn't really matter for skateboarding, as long as your not 300 pounds. For trucks, just get something simple like Independent. Wheels are all the same IMO. Bearings are pretty important, don't buy anything cheap. The best bearings that I rode are Bones Reds and Bones Swiss. The bones Swiss are a little pricey but there worth it. Don't buy anything under ABEC 5.

You sound pretty new to skateboarding, so your best bet is to go to one of these sites and use the "board builder" to buy all of your stuff, its gonna be anywhere from $100 to $150. Another easy way is to buy a complete board. You just pick out a board that is already put together, those are usually only a 100 bucks.
Good sites to buy from
www.skateamerica.com
www.ccs.com
www.activemailorder.com
www.skateparckoftampa.com

[brapbrap13]

get a ccs board. pick you size. i loved my mini wax deck, i could flip it all the time, i just got on it. after it had been sitting for a year and landed a kickflip 3rd try. :D i should go pro.


butt go with ccs i have had a bunch and they all last. and if u dont want a ccs i would say flip, then a habbitat.(sp)

[Rider-trx_250ex]

Originally posted by nofearrider1
OK first of all, no more walmart boards. The part where you said I want concave made me laugh. Every GOOD board is concave.
Go to one a skate shop and ask the person that's working there, they'll help you out. If your ordering online go to one of the stores below. They all sell good stuff. The best bang for the buck is a blank deck, meaning no graphics, just a color. I would get a 7.5 or a 7.75 board, stay away from 8, also your wight doesn't really matter for skateboarding, as long as your not 300 pounds. For trucks, just get something simple like Independent. Wheels are all the same IMO. Bearings are pretty important, don't buy anything cheap. The best bearings that I rode are Bones Reds and Bones Swiss. The bones Swiss are a little pricey but there worth it. Don't buy anything under ABEC 5.

You sound pretty new to skateboarding, so your best bet is to go to one of these sites and use the "board builder" to buy all of your stuff, its gonna be anywhere from $100 to $150. Another easy way is to buy a complete board. You just pick out a board that is already put together, those are usually only a 100 bucks.
Good sites to buy from
www.skateamerica.com
www.ccs.com
www.activemailorder.com
www.skateparckoftampa.com

Ya I am rather new at it, I got it about a year ago and it just sat in my garage because there is no where to ride where I live and I rode it once in a while. But recently I started walking downtown and riding it down there when the weather got warmer until the wheels expanded like 1" 1/2. Now that I'm not riding it I miss it. And the local skate shop just closed to re-open in a month down by walmart. But back to the subject what is ABEC 5 for bearings?

get a 7.5, 7.75 popwar,hollywood,or flip.

trucks should match your board width


venture, or royal trucks are THE BEST!

[Mean250r]

Originally posted by Rider-trx_250ex
Ya I am rather new at it, I got it about a year ago and it just sat in my garage because there is no where to ride where I live and I rode it once in a while. But recently I started walking downtown and riding it down there when the weather got warmer until the wheels expanded like 1" 1/2. Now that I'm not riding it I miss it. And the local skate shop just closed to re-open in a month down by walmart. But back to the subject what is ABEC 5 for bearings?

I got a almost bord, spitfire wheels, bones bearings, grind king trucks i wuld let go very cheap, i recomend all the parts above

[CannondaleRider]

It's kind of hard for people to give you the size you need.

Example, me and my friend both skated for a year of so. I wore size 13 shoes, bigger guy, and always used a 7.5 deck, couldn't stand any bigger. He was smaller, size 11 shoes, used an 8 NO MATTER WHAT...could hardly skate a 7.5

Mainly personal preference.

Element decks and Destructo trucks always treated me well though.

I don't know the exact meaning of ABEC, but all bearings have a speed rating and it goes by ABEC.
Basically, ABEC 1 bearings= garbage ABEC 5 bearings = good ABEC 10+ bearings= amazing.

Originally posted by nofearrider1
I don't know the exact meaning of ABEC, but all bearings have a speed rating and it goes by ABEC.
Basically, ABEC 1 bearings= garbage ABEC 5 bearings = good ABEC 10+ bearings= amazing.

the higher the a.b.e.c rating is the less friction it has so it goes faster

abec 3 slow,abec 5 ok, abec 7 (good i skated) abec 10 i wouldnt use