Following is a guest post written by Ritch at Heelsidechill, a website dedicated to all things Skateboard. If you are an avid skateboarder or looking to begin, Heelsidechill is a great resource. This post on How to Find the Right Skateboard for a Girl provides solid and hands-on information on selecting right skateboards for girls. Enjoy! 

 

Gender doesn’t have a place in skateboarding and don’t let anyone tell you different. Any skateboard marketed to a given gender group is simply being done so that the company making it can make money.

Especially if it’s based simply off of color. Anybody can enjoy any skateboard they wish to ride. That being said, when it comes down to the individual level and if we generalize, some factors can affect their overall experience.

 

How to Find the Right Skateboard for a Girl

 

For example, girls tend to be of a smaller build than boys on average, and thus they would benefit from a skateboard that is slightly easier to push and slightly more maneuverable.

For skateboards, these factors are minimal, but for longboards and cruisers, they can really make a difference.  

Taking things like this into consideration can have positive effects on the riding experience and how much your child actually enjoys skateboarding. It can also determine how safe and comfortable the board will be.

In the rest of the article below, I highlight factors you can look out at, to determine whether a longboard would work really well for a girl.

What type of skateboard should you get?

 

You have to choose something that’s easy, fun and safe to ride, so you don’t simply pick something that sits in the house without being used.

A cruiser or a longboard should work well.They roll and turn pretty well so they don’t require a lot of strength… perfect for a little girl?

They are also relatively stable so they will be easy to handle and they can learn how to use it really quickly. They are the safest boards to ride, with comfortable standing platforms and big wheels.

They also serve well to teach the fundamentals of skating. If they are really young, these would be great beginner boards for them.

Traditional skateboards are more suited for use in skateparks than in the streets. This is mainly because of their smaller and harder wheels. They only roll great on smooth surfaces so wouldn’t be very suitable outside a skate park environment. They aren’t the safest and don’t ride very smoothly.

 

What you get with the different types of skateboards:

Cruiser

These are fun to skate. They are generally shaped like skateboards and are around 32in in length and 8-9in in width. They have relatively big wheels so they are easy to push around and they roll over pebbles easy. I think they are the most fun boards as they are a perfect size. You can carry them with easy and store them pretty much anywhere.

They are safest to skate with big wheels to allow them to roll over most road imperfections.

Being wider and longer than the average skateboard makes them more stable and they are also easier to turn and remain very controlled turns.

 

For example – a Penny board is a popular type of cruiser board. In many cases, it’s probably the best option for kids as they have many colors to choose from and they are extremely durable.

Longboard

A longboard is pretty … long, with some of them coming in at 40in. 

Being that big, they can be slow to turn and slightly hard to push. That being said, there are smaller longboards at 36in in length. These are at the midground and still give that stability and board real estate, but aren’t unnecessarily bulky. The wider and longer it is, the harder it might be to control it. Unfortunately, the bigger they are they harder they are to store and carry around.

There are also a variety of shapes available, so it’s easy to get what you want.

Longboards use bigger wheels, providing a more comfortable ride and are able to roll over small rocks and cracks. They are also very long, making them super stable. They might be hard and difficult for a small child to ride, but they are still fun to cruise on.

Skateboard

These are pretty straightforward. The main difference between decks might be the size of them. This is determined by the width and goes from 7in up to about 8in.

They say that the narrower boards are easier to turn on, but that is negligible on a skateboard. The narrower it is, the easier it will be to maneuver and turn the board. People with smaller feet would benefit from this, they might find it easier and more comfortable to ride and turn.

However, the wider boards will be more stable and safer to ride.

In the end:

If you pick a board, select one that suits your children’s needs. Skateboarding is probably one of the most rewarding and fun hobbies out there. I personally think it’s unfair that there aren’t as many girls part taking in it.

From our three categories, longboards and cruisers are probably the safest, most fun and easiest to ride. If you can’t decide – a plastic cruiser board would serve your kids well. They are easy to skate, roll great, are safe and kind of indestructible… perfect for most kids.

 

At the end of the day – girls need to have the same opportunities to participate in sports like this. So even if there isn’t something like a gender-specific board, you can always pick a female longboard that looks nice and there are more reasons to use it.