taking up skating in late 30s

[o.t.h.punk]

I watched Duane Peters giving "crops" in the bathroom of the Big O skatepark in 1979.

[rutabowa]

the secondhand board i got is 7.5" which i believe is pretty skinny these days. the wheels are super hard too which isn't great for pavements here ha but it works.... I also found another guy at work last nights who goes to the south bank on lunch breaks!

[rutabowa]

For you, I think learning new stuff as an adult is cool. Helps keep you from being a boring old shit who thinks they already have everything all figured out.

ha i love this

[Spacecase Records]

the secondhand board i got is 7.5" which i believe is pretty skinny these days. the wheels are super hard too which isn't great for pavements here ha but it works.... I also found another guy at work last nights who goes to the south bank on lunch breaks!

7.5" is skinny. London ground -- probably want at least 53mm wheels. There's a reason those Philadelphia Eastern Exposure videos were big in the UK. Similar terrain was skated. Real rough. 

[rutabowa]

yeh i got recommended these by someone local http://www.routeone.co.uk/spitfire-beach-break-80hd-speedies-mash-up-team-wheel-54mm.html?dfe_c=209&dfe_t=fb92073000b9b031daaa3ee1a2af5f11&dfe_s=froogleproducts&utm_source=adwordspla&gclid=Cj0KEQiAm-CyBRDx65nBhcmVtbIBEiQA7zm8lcaO3nqJMClpkrGpwqGLK-uhwESadhoolyVN0axk4_IaAh9u8P8HAQ

Is a skinny board alright to learn on you reckon?

[Spacecase Records]

Yeah, those Spitfires at 54mm will be great. I also like those classic profiles. I really hate the "wedge cuts" (or whatever they're calling them) that park wheels have. They're the worst.

Skinny board: yeah, it'll be fine. It's not going to help you any -- I'd recommend jumping up to 8" and seeing how that feels -- but for your purposes, there's no point in dropping a ton of cash right now. Enjoy it until you get more cash or get frustrated by how narrow it is. I lived in NZ for a while; those imported prices on hard goods was a bummer.

When you get a new board, one thing folks fail on is they don't match up truck and board size. So if you're riding an 8.25" board, you're not going to want 129 Independent trucks, but 139 at the least -- probably 149. You can usually spot someone's new if their board and truck sizes are totally mismatched. It makes for a harder time turning and doing tricks. If you get to that point, ask someone at a shop or I'll recommend a truck to you. Stick with Independents or Thunders.

[rutabowa]

ahh so i won't just be able to swap in the trucks on my current board (they're Ventures) if i get a wider board, yeh i didn't have a clue about that i thought I could just swap piece by piece, thanks.

I quite like how it looks skinny, it is like the ones kids used to ride when i was growing up...

[Spacecase Records]

Here's the deal: Skateboard hard goods (decks, wheels, trucks, bearing, etc.) are all standardized. All the products (with few if any exceptions) are compatible: any size Venture truck will fit a Santa Cruz/Flip/Krooked deck, as will Thunders, Indy's, etc. You'll notice that Indy's still have two rows of bolt holes in their base plate; that's a holdover from '80s decks that had different bolt-hole patterns. They just kept it around.  Anyway, that's minutiae. Point is, you can put whatever you want together on a board.

While you can ride an 8.5" wide board with, say, Indy 129s -- it will work -- but it's far from ideal. Those trucks have a short axle and are meant for 7.5" to 7.75" wide boards (approximately). If I tried to Smith grind with that setup (wide board, skinny truck), I'd likely end up breaking the board -- I have anger issues -- before I pulled the trick. There just isn't enough room on the truck to do a Smith with such a wide board. Also, when you turn, relative to the width of the board, it's just not going to feel right. I'd venture to guess wheel bite is going to be easier as well, as the concave allows for more clearance the further out your wheel is from the middle of your board.

I skateboard one to four times a week, depending on weather and work. And I have for twenty years. I'll notice this stuff immediately. If you're having fun and starting out, you won't. And there's no point in sinking a lot of money when you don't have to. However, when you upgrade, it's good to know this stuff so that you can make informed purchases. Nothing worse than seeing brand new Indys on a board either too big or too small. You're going about it right. Those Spitfires will work great. Get some Black Panther Abec 3s or China Reds. No point in dropping stupid money on Powell Swiss, but you need something that'll roll. If you want an honest opinion -- of if anyone else on here does -- about what a good setup will be, ask. Occasionally shop folks will recommend shit you don't need, but most are straight shooters. Skateboarding was/is the main focus of my life for twenty years. 

[Spacecase Records]

I should also state that stuff like deck size, wheel size and truck size are all up to the user. I actually ride Indy 159s that might be considered a  little "too" wide for 8.25" decks (and I skate mostly street). I used to ride 149s, shop didn't have any in stock after breaking a base plate. Tried 159s and I liked the extra room. I had previously ridden 149s for over ten years.

What I'm giving are just general rules that will help you dial in your setup as you develop your own personal preferences with your setup. It'll take some time and your preferences will change gradually over the years. 

[publicimagedanno]

I watched Duane Peters giving "crops" in the bathroom of the Big O skatepark in 1979.

That rules!!!

Is a skinny board alright to learn on you reckon?
[/quote]
What Spacecase is saying is right on. All the shit I ride is bigger, as far as boards I won't ride anything other than a 9" and wider, my wheels I actually went down to 56mm from 60, however I only like 97a(the hardness of the wheel),it grips to the wall, yet you can still, slide,etc., 99 and 101 are to slick for me but others swear by it. My trucks are 169 Indy's as well. You will figure out what you like and dislike, everybody is different, all the people I ride with have their own OCD set up,ha,ha!  Like I said before I am more carving and grinding,sweepers,etc. nothing technical. So a bigger set up is what I have always felt comfortable riding.
"Gearing Up For What They Call Getting Down". Neil Blender   

[P-TNT]

Indys, Spitfire 54-56mms, Bones bearings and a Deluxe deck around ~8.5", usually Anti-Hero has been my go to complete for years! Best combo.

Damn I want to go and skate, last winter I didn't go once but I compensated it by skating more in the summer than in the past 2 years combined (that is multiple times a week instead of maybe once).

[Spacecase Records]

I watched Duane Peters giving "crops" in the bathroom of the Big O skatepark in 1979.

That rules!!!

Is a skinny board alright to learn on you reckon?

What Spacecase is saying is right on. All the shit I ride is bigger, as far as boards I won't ride anything other than a 9" and wider, my wheels I actually went down to 56mm from 60, however I only like 97a(the hardness of the wheel),it grips to the wall, yet you can still, slide,etc., 99 and 101 are to slick for me but others swear by it. My trucks are 169 Indy's as well. You will figure out what you like and dislike, everybody is different, all the people I ride with have their own OCD set up,ha,ha!  Like I said before I am more carving and grinding,sweepers,etc. nothing technical. So a bigger set up is what I have always felt comfortable riding.
"Gearing Up For What They Call Getting Down". Neil Blender
[/quote]

That's a really good transition setup.

P-TNT: We ride basically the same setup. Deluxe wood only -- preferably Krooked for my old friend Van Wastell -- with 159 Indys, 53mm Spitfire Classics, China Reds or Black Panthers. 1" Phillips hardware.

And about trucks: I mentioned dialing in a size relative to the board you're riding because, having skated for so long and having worked at skateshops when I was younger, that's the last thing people seemed to figure out. They'd get the deck size and wheel size dialed in, but matching up trucks seemed to be the things folks overlooked the most.

[rickparkerz]

I saw this video about 3 weeks ago, then had off work for a week over thanksgiving so i decided to buy a skateboard and wanted to see if i could learn to do a kickflip at 45 years old

https://youtu.be/0fzst0kM8pI

I ended up trying to ollie for about 25 minutes, got tired and sat down to rest for the remainder of the week off.
Maybe over xmas...

[Sal]

I started skating in 1989 and boards/wheels were still pretty big then (and had varying nose/tail shapes).  I liked when decks got more uniform (nose/tail wise) in the early '90s (tho I think noses were slightly bigger?).  I hated tiny 30-something mm wheels, even when I skated them.  I was happy to get back into the mid-50 mm range.

Since I've been more out than in skating in the past 10-12 years, I've had the same deck (John Cardiel, Anti Hero maybe?)  I got it in 2001 when George Bush gave out the original round of stimulus checks, thought I'd support my local skate shop!  My trucks/wheels are from maybe '96, and held strong through my waning majorly active days (Indy trucks, Spitfire wheels... the only way to go!).  I don't know who makes boards these days, but I used to love Real/Stereo/Anti Hero... I think they were all made by Deluxe?  I got into Consolidated for a while in the mid-'90s when they held the price line at $55 for decks, but I always went back to Deluxe.  Their shit took abuse and kept their pop, unlike whoever was manufacturing World Industries and their subsidiaries, which had a good pop at the start but would snap on gaps/stairs.

Since I was born and raised in northern NJ, I was always loyal to NYC skate style, but felt that in the mid-'90s, Philly and Zoo York were innovating the going super big style (gaps, stairs, huge wall rides).  I remember Ricky Oyola (?) being the sickest and he always had bigger boards.

Damn, I love this thread!

[Spacecase Records]

Yeah, Stereo (at least during the '90s) was through Deluxe, as was/is Anti-Hero. Ricky Oyola was pretty great. His part in Eastern Exposure 3 is really awesome. There are only a few woodshops making boards. Most of the manufacturers use the same three or four. Unfortunately, China has gotten into board production within the last decade or so and their boards are really, really bad. I think Schmitt Stix and one or two others are located in the US. The US and Canada make the best boards, hands down. Like tool production, it's about quality control, and you get that with US and Canadian made boards. Canadian maple is really good; it has a great reputation. Mexico is making a lot of boards these days -- they have been for a while -- and they do a good job. I've got no problem buying a Mexican-made board. The quality is generally satisfactory or better. But the Chinese boards are garbage. I was getting decks from my friend who rode for Workshop; he was out of town so I bought an Alien board (I was getting boat loads for free, so I guess I felt like paying it forward). It broke in two days on a fucking manual. I've broken a new board in 45 minutes; it was my fault and not the board's and I owned up to it. This wasn't my fault; the board was simply defective. He mentioned some of the boards were Chinese made and that was likely one of the bad ones.

COO on boards is sort of disguised. I think you occasionally get a "Made in Mexico" sticker, but most of the time you don't. Like I said, if it's being produced in North America, it ranges from satisfactory to great. The Chinese boards should not be on the marketplace. Skate companies have a tendency to keep skaters in the dark about who's manufacturing their boards and where they're being made.