5 SKATEBOARD MEASUREMENTS EVERY SKATEBOARDER SHOULD KNOW

skateboards are relatively simple if you think about it it's really just a piece of wood with four wheels on the bottom I mean it's not that complicated but with that said there's a lot that goes into skateboards and even the smallest change can make a huge difference in the way that a board works and just you're skating in general there's certain aspects about skateboards that every single skateboarder should know because it can have a huge impact in the way that you skate blocks my grump tape and every other truck stuff I need it seems like nowadays a lot of kids barely even know their board size so I figured that I would just make a video explaining the basics that every single skateboarder should know about their skateboard if you feel like I left anything out feel free to leave a comment let me know and with that said let's just get right into the video arguably the most important measurement you should know on your skateboard is of course your board size now there isn't a specific board size that's best like most things in skateboarding it really just comes down to preference most skateboards are between seven and a half and eight and half inches with a few outliers on each end of the spectrum boards below eight inches tend to have more concave to them and are typically better for people who are short and light while boards that are larger than eight inches are more suitable for larger people because they're just a bit more durable this doesn't mean that you have to skate a big board if you're tall or a small board if you're short but you should at least take into consideration again there's no one size that's better than the other because there's pros and cons to every single board size there's usually quarter inch increments in the sizes of skateboard decks so for example it'll go from seven five to seven seven five to eight two eight to five and so on but there's also some pretty common sizes that are more precise like an eighth one to five now the size of the board you skate doesn't have to be set in stone it can be good to try out different sizes just to see what you like best and you can always move up or down after a while if you want to this is especially true if you're still young and you're still growing because as you get older you're probably going to want to move up a few sizes keep in mind though that it can take a while to adjust to a new size so if you do decide to move up or down a size then try to only do so by a quarter-inch or maybe a half inch Jason told me to grab more of this board so I just have to grab one this one for sure so next up we have wheels the type of wheels that you skate make a much bigger difference in skateboarding than most people realize so there's really only two major things that you need to know about skateboarding wheels and that's the size of the wheel and the hardness of the wheel the wheel size is the diameter of the wheel and it affects a lot of things like how high the board is the amount of pop how easy it is to roll and even the speed of the board wheel sizes tend to fall between 52 millimeters and 64 millimeters with smaller wheels being better for our technical Street skating and larger wheels being better for skate parks and just cruising around the hardness of the wheel is the durometer which affects how easy it is to slide speed how quickly your wheels wear down and the impact you feel when you're skating you're broke off is very staid on and his wheel just ripped off through the bearing oh I've never seen wheel durometer czar more or less measured on a scale from the low 70s to just pass 100 depending on the company with harder wheels having a higher number and softer wheels having a lower number hard wheels are usually better for skating streets since they slide better and they last longer and soft wheels tend to be better for skating parks since they grip better and they go faster now there's also wheel shapes which can be pretty important but there's so many different styles that I'm not even gonna bother going into it wheel shapes can affect the way you lock in to grinds it can affect your speed and it can affect your grip again there's just too many different styles of wheel shapes to explain them all but every major wheel company has a chart that explains their wheel shapes so if you want to know more about them then it's pretty easy to read up on it's always good to know the kind of wheels that you like to skate because it can have a major impact on the way that you skate but it's also something that's gonna vary from person to person so along with your wheels you should also know about your bearings bearings are pretty straightforward and simple but there's a few things that you should know that a lot of skateboarders don't skateboard bearings are pretty universal so you can use just about any skateboard bearing with any skateboard wheel assuming that it's actually for a skateboard and not a longboard a lot of skateboarders will use the ABEC rating to the side which bearings to get but the ABEC rating system was actually designed for industrial bearings so it doesn't really apply the same for skateboard bearings instead it's a lot better to go off of the material that a skateboard bearing is made of skateboard bearings are typically made of steel stainless steel or ceramic do yourself a favor and just skip the steel bearings altogether and either get stainless steel bearings or if you have a little bit of extra money then get the ceramic ones stainless steel bearings are pretty much the standard and they're the go-to they're solid good quality they last a long time and they're not too expensive but if you can afford to pay a little bit more the ceramic bearings are going to be a little higher quality up next we have skateboard trucks skateboard trucks are probably the most confusing part of a skateboard when it comes to sizes and measurements I'd even go as far to say that skateboard trucks aren't just confusing but they're needlessly complicated the reason why is because truck companies have different standards and methods when it comes to the sizes of their trucks so to start things off skateboard trucks basically come in two options lows and highs however you may also see trucks labeled as mids or standards but they're essentially just the same thing as highs but under a different name it seems simple enough but this is where things get confusing the terms lows highs mids and standards are all used differently by different companies and there's no set standard to measure them so one company's mids might be the same height as another company's highs but then that company's highs it might be taller than another company's highs because there's no set standard to go off of to keep things simple the main thing that you need to take away from this is whether you skate low trucks or high trucks now when it comes to deciding which trucks are better they each have their own pros and cons load trucks have quicker pops since they're lower to the ground and they also have a better center of gravity and high trucks have more clearance so they're a little bit easier for turning and it also makes it easier to skate bigger wheels since you won't get wheel bite most people tend to skate higher trucks but it really just comes down to preference now the measurement of the height of trucks is already weird enough but the measurement of the width makes even less sense independent and thunder are two of the largest skateboard truck companies and they both use millimeters to measure their trucks but just about every other truck company uses inches to make things even more confusing the number in the name of the trucks isn't always the exact measurement of the hangar for example one to nine Indy trucks are the same size as a five inch hangar truck but they don't measure 129 millimeters exactly when it comes to figuring out the size of trucks that you need it's gonna vary depending on your board with trucks that are too skinny will make it harder to turn and trucks that are too wide will stick out on the sides which will not only catch your foot when you push but it'll also make it a lot harder to flip because it'll give the board a wider center of gravity the best way to figure out what size trucks you need is to just size them up on your board or you can also measure them with a tape measure if you want to get more exact and regardless of which trucks you have every single skateboard truck company has a sizing chart that you can use if you want to be sure that you're picking the right size try not to get too hung up with skateboard trucks but definitely try to figure out which trucks you like because once you figure out the sizing system it makes it so much easier moving forward the next thing you need to know about your skateboard is your hardware now I'm gonna keep it pretty brief when it comes to hardware because honestly there just isn't much to know when it comes to skateboard hardware you should almost always use 7/8 inch screws this allows the ring inside the knot to lock in so it's less likely to fall off whenever you skate if you happen to use risers or shock pads then you may need to move up to one inch hardware or maybe an inch and a half but for the most part you're probably going just standard 7/8 inch screws skateboard hardware is either a Philips head which is the bolt that looks like a plus sign or it's an allen key which is the one that looks like a hexagon most skateboarders use Philips head hardware because it's so much more common and it's so much easier to find a tool for and it's also a lot harder to strip allen key hardware can still be good and it's a lot faster to put in just because of the shape of an allen wrench but if you're unlucky enough to strip one then it can be a pain to get out even though skateboards are relatively simple generally speaking there's a lot of details that go into them so it's definitely good to at least understand the basics I learned a lot of this stuff pretty late but once I started to figure out the different styles and sizes of things that I preferred it made a major difference whenever I would skate so that's basically it for the video if you found any of this helpful do me a favor leave a like leave a comment follow me on Instagram all that good stuff and thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: Skate Box

Views: 501,779

Keywords: skateboard setup, skateboard sizes, skateboard measurements, what size skateboard to get, size skateboard for beginners, skateboard sizes explained, skateboard sizes chart, what size skate wheels should i get, skateboard essentials, best skateboard size, what skateboard wheel size should i get, what skateboard trucks should i get, best skateboard bearings, skateboard gear for beginners, skateboard parts explained, what size skateboard hardware should i get, beginner skateboard

Id: HV7fK2tJtSg

Length: 7min 48sec (468 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 27 2020