Hello everyone, I'm trying to help out my cousin thats planning to upgrade his sons skateboard (target mongoose POS) to something better, since he's actually been using it alot. He's already doing ollies and manuals and he will start making frequent trips to the skate park where he wants to learn how to ride in the pools and learn some more tricks. Of course, NOT with his current board, but I was trying to piece something together for his size that will suit him for pools, verts, and tricks.
I'm thinking something that is maybe 31.__inches long and 7.5 inches wide, some 139mm indies, and some 53 - 58mm wheels. Any suggestions for his size? he's less than 100lbs for sure, don't know his weight exactly. Am I going on the right track? I was looking at some enjoi and almost boards. What wheel brands should I be looking at? Powell, Alvas?? I really don't know nothing as far as park/trick skating is involved. Any help would be great.
129mm Indys for a 7.5" board, not 139mm, the stock soft Indy bushings will probably be just right for him. For wheels, Rainskates has various wheels that will be good, check out Tailtap.com - Skateboard Shop For Pools, Parks & Pipes
a basic street setup will do him well (7.5 board, 129 indys, ~52mm wheels). get him a brad edwards deck for his 13th birthday and keep him stoked on wide wheelbases!
Here is what my 11yr old uses. he's 51" tall/75lbs and 8-10 size clothes
27"-28" long x 7"-7.5" popsicle (blank, termite, speeddemons, etc)
129mm tracker darts, with blue doh-dohs 88a (red khiros would work equally well)
56mm-90a powells.
the whole secret is in proportioning the board to the rider. this also pertains top the wheels. A hard wheel will ride like a rock to a real lightweight rider. We used the 56mm-85a filmer wheels till he wore them smack out, and we could not get replacements at the immediate time. Now he is on the powells and they work perfect. similar type feel to a big person being on a 98a(ish) wheel
Another problem I had was in getting some junky replica trucks, typical newschool stuff with respective brand, but hideously engineered. So I got him the tracker darts, and finally they work fine and he has no problem on them street-wise or bowl-wise. the newschool trucks turned great right off center, then never got sharper as you leaned more. Worked great for street antics but when you really needed to crank a deep turn, they were useless. and when you only weigh 70ish lbs, truck action and response can be critical.
It also depends on what the intent is. Is it basic street type stuff, park, or longboard style cruising. My son has an equally down-sized slalom board, that he rides much of the time.
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My comments represent a selfishly one sided 1970's skateboarder mindset, and do not reflect the current fashion-skate-lifestyle industry's views.
Setup for 7 yr old skater??
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