We are starting out here with the components that make up a skateboard, I’m going to use our six year old son Billy’s set-up as an example of some of the thought process and learning from skating with other kids and what I see on lessons. We’ll go through all the separate components and then look at completes once we know what we are looking at a bit more.

The Deck

Seven ply Canadian Maple, pressed and glued together to make a strong wooden board with ‘pop’, that is a stiffness that allows the board to feel lively under foot, particularly when performing Ollies or other tricks where the board ‘pops’ off the floor into the air.

Boards come in different lengths, widths, wheelbases and amounts of concave. Most skaters don’t concern themselves too much with these details and focus instead on the width mainly and the companies they like. For a kid however, the other stuff is quite important.

Billy started on a DEATH Skateboards mini deck - £39.99. It was 7.25” wide and 28.75” long with a 12” wheelbase, for reference my board is 8.38” wide, 32” long with a 14.38” Wheelbase - pretty standard dimensions.

After that, I got him the above Native Mini (£32 but out of stock), a touch wider at 7.5” and a touch longer at 29.5”, wheelbase unknown but a touch bigger than the Death.

My board looks huge on him, his little kids size 11 feet don’t make as much impact on turning as my UK9’s and if he puts the tail on a ramp to drop in, he can’t support the weight of it, his stance is really wide (unnaturally wide) and for him, skating a normal sized board would hold him back massively. His board looks just right on him, he can kickturn and tic-tac and drop in just right on it.

Decks like to be kept dry, they don’t like the wet. For a kid, you can expect to get around a years use perhaps out of one deck depending on the frequency of them skating - it’ll be worn out when the tail is square and ‘razored’ or it makes a dull noise as you tap it on the floor - usually because its got a bit wet.

Decks usually come with free griptape.

As your child grows, they will need a bigger deck. Between the Minis and the standard size decks, there isn’t much on the market but I would be sticking around the 7.75-8” mark until they’re about adult size, particularly if they’re interested in learning kick flips etc. It’s harder to flip a wider board. Look at the wheelbase too, if they’re shorter than an adult but bigger than a kid, look for closer to 14” than 15” for example.

The size chart for my Toy Machine Deck below- I got the 8.38”, you can see it’s longer with a longer Wheelbase than the 8” version.

vs. the size chart for a MEOW deck - not a mini, but you can see proportionally it’s a smaller board.

vs. the size chart for the MEOW mini deck -

Trucks

We got Billy the Film Trucks 105’s for his 7.25” deck, I’ve kept them for the 7.5” but they look a touch too narrow for it but not enough to buy new ones, the next size up (125’s) would be a touch too big anyway. It’s really important that the trucks and the deck are similar width. When the board is stood on edge, as in resting on two wheels and the edge of the deck, it wants to be close to vertical; trucks too small and it will slant towards the trucks, too big and it will slant towards the deck.

The Film trucks were a good option because they were £33.99 and are a great skater owned company with a really decent product. Indies (Independent), Thunders, ACE etc are all £70+, I ride Indies but I’ve had them a few years and will use them for a few more years to come. A kid would do well to wear a set of trucks out, especially if they skate a park mainly. You can get a few years out of a set.

Look for the size guide to get the right trucks for the deck your kid has.

Bushings

Bushings are the rubber bits inside a truck (the red bits on the image of the trucks above) that allow the truck hanger to pivot and thus turn the skateboard left to right.

I changed Billy’s stock bushings out for these Bones softer ones, this is mainly because he is light, for him to effect change on a board is harder without the weight, so softer bushings make the board a little easier for him to carve. These were maybe tenner. I’d recommend doing this. You can still tighten and loosen the trucks with a skate tool by tightening or loosening the nut that hold the truck together.

Wheels

Billy has been riding these Birdhouse wheels, they’re 52mm which is a standard size wheel but I ride 56mm, I figured 52 was about right for his set up where everything is a touch smaller.

The 99a is the Duromenter or hardness of the wheel. Thats a standard ‘hard’ wheel; the harder the wheel the better they slide - a bit of slide = a bit of forgiveness when it comes to kick-turns and other rotational tricks. Soft wheels stick on impact. I just went standard and cheapish for him at £17.99.

Wheels last a while, they just get smaller. Sometimes they ‘cone’, which means they wear more on one side than the other, switch the lefts for the rights and visa-versa and they’ll cone back. You should get a good 2/3/4 years of heavyish use out of a set of wheels for a child.

Bearings

There are loads of bearings on the market, ranging from £6 - £130. I got Billy some Bronson Speed Co ones for £16 but prior to them he had Mini-Logo ones for about £8 but we left them in Morocco with his old wheels and trucks for a kid. I spent £16 not £8 because I think Bronson Speed Co are a cool company and I like cool companies who make cool videos and sponsor cool skaters to exist so I chose to spend my money there.

Bolts

Again, pick a company you thinks cool or whatever they have in the shop, I’m an Indie guy so I use Indie bolts. These are 1” Allen ones, I like the Philips ones too; either works and they’re £2.69.

So, that makes a total of £103 for Bills board, with the cheaper bearings, £93 with stock bushings.

I personally liked doing it this way to have 100% choice over all the components.

Completes

This Native complete is £70. I’d have probably bought this for Billy if it was in stock at the time, but it wasn’t. That said, I started him on a set of trucks and wheels that came from a complete he was given and just got him a new deck and it worked out well. Some of the completes are really good, some less so. If you’ve read the above and you see a complete like the above, with the right width, length, decent wheels, trucks, bearings etc. then its probably a good start.

Some of the cheap cheap ones are awful quality, some are actually really good but keep the price lower by using some cheaper components - usually bearings, kingpins and bushings etc, so if your child likes to skate and they get into it, a skateboard becomes like ‘Triggers Broom’ anyway, start by upgrading the bearings, then the deck, then the wheels etc.

Some of the better completes are around £100 anyway (Creature, Monarch, Krooked etc); I know Billy loves to skate so I was prepared to invest the extra few quid to get him proper skateboard parts from a proper skateboard shop and know that price-per-use, that £103 was paid off long ago in terms of the free fun and resilience skateboarding has taught him.

If you aren’t sure that this isn’t just a phase, or they are just trying skating out, I’d make a few notes on sizes on this blog and find yourself a complete that seems like a good fit and not a million miles away from the sizes and go from there, if they enjoy it, give it time and see what needs upgrading if it does. Give yourself a budget of at least £50-60 if you can, look for ones on sale too.

Please, please avoid Amazon or toy shops, skateboarding is fun, BUT a skateboard is not a toy (well a real skateboard and a toy skateboard are very different things) and the industry relies on people investing in it. Thats another reason Billy was on a £100 board, because we are avid consumers of skate culture and without companies like Independent, Bronson, Bones and our local shop Native, we wouldn’t have favourite skaters, or skate videos to watch, articles of team trips to read or great DIY ramps to skate in Newcastle built by the scene.

SUPPORT SKATER OWNED AND OPERATED BUSINESSES where you can folks!

Most of all, have fun with your kids.

Other essentials -

Buy a skate tool! One side fits the nuts and the pull out bit in the centre is for the bolts - allen and philips fit. Then one wrench for the kingpin to tighten or loosen the trucks, the third side for the axle nuts, it’s all the tools needed to put together and adjust a skateboard.

Shoes

Decent flat shoes, like Vans or Etnies are the best style, non-skate trainers will not be so good in terms of control and last about five minutes.

Pads

Knees are a great idea, wrists and elbows a good idea too.

Helmet

Billy uses a Bell, they’re a great fit and quality, adjustable and super light. Don’t scrimp on the helmet; my mate once told me that ‘if you have a ten bob head, wear a ten bob helmet’ - Mike, Via John Hill.

Kids Skateboard Buying Guide