Hey guys, I'm here at No-Comply Skate Shop in Austin, Texas, and today I'm going to show you
what to buy and how to put together your first skateboard.
Now before you start shopping for skateboard parts...
"Hey, what's up man?"
"What's going on, player?"
...first you need to check to see if there's a skate shop close to you, and if so, that's
where you need to go. Once you get into skateboarding, you're going to want to have a place you can
just go to and get what you need right away, and the only way you'll have access to a skate
shop is if you support it every chance you get.
Alright so if it's your first time buying a skateboard, you can usually just tell the
person working at the skate shop that you need help, and they'll guide you through the
whole process. If you're shopping online, or if you just want to get an overview of
all the skateboard parts, we'll talk about those next.
Ok, so the first thing you want to pick out is a deck. When you're starting out, the brand
doesn't matter at all, but you do need to pay attention to the width. After skating
a few different sizes, you'll easily figure out which size you like best, but for starters,
you can just pick one out based on your shoe size. Here's a chart showing what I would
recommend to a beginner.
Every time you buy a deck, you also need to get a fresh sheet of grip tape for it. Some
brands are grippier than others, but you really can't buy the wrong kind, so if your shop
offers a free sheet with a deck purchase, just get that one.
Next on your shopping list is trucks. Trucks are the metal pieces that hold the wheels
and connect them to your deck. Again, you don't have to worry about the brand, but you
should buy a pair of trucks that are the same width as your deck.
To attach the trucks to the deck, you'll need to buy a set of 8 nuts and 8 bolts, which
are sold separately.
Now it's time to get a set of wheels. Wheels differ from each other by hardness and size.
When you're starting out, I'd recommend getting something between 99a and 101a durometer,
and either 52 or 54 millimeters wide.
Ok so now that you have wheels, you also need to buy a set of 8 bearings. Bearings are inserted
into each wheel to allow them to spin effortlessly around the axles of your trucks. You don't
need to spend a lot of money on bearings when you're a beginner, so just get something inexpensive
and you should be fine. Remember, you can always upgrade them later.
OK, so the last thing you might need to get is a pair of risers to put in between your
trucks and your deck so that your wheels don't come into contact with your deck whenever
you lean it to one side.
Alright, so now that we got all the parts, let me show you how to put everything together.
The main tools you're going to need are a razor blade, either a phillips head screwdriver
or allen wrench, depending on what type of bolts you bought to attach your trucks to
the deck, and a wrench set or a skate tool. A couple of other tools that would be nice
to have are a metal file and a hole boring tool.
Let's start by applying the grip tape to the deck. I like to just peel off the backing
all at once and position the grip tape over the deck so that it overlaps a little bit
on all sides. Once you're satisfied with the positioning, press it down firmly with your
hands. If you get an air bubble trapped underneath the grip tape, you can just poke a hole in
the grip tape with a safety pin to let the air out.
Now we're going to trim the grip tape exactly to the edges of the board.
Before I start cutting, I always like to rub a metal file around the edges of the griptape
so that I can see exactly where I need to cut. Once you have a nice outline, carefully
cut off the excess grip with the razorblade like this, cutting from underneath.
Next we're going to put the trucks on. To do this, first poke 8 holes in the top of
the grip tape above the 8 holes already drilled into the deck. Insert 4 of the bolts into
the holes on one side and position one of the trucks over the bolts from the bottom,
with the large nut in the center of the trucks facing inward. Tighten the nuts onto the bolts
and repeat the process for the other truck.
To put the wheels on, first we need to insert 2 bearings into each one. You can do this
by sliding a bearing, face down, onto one of the truck axles, and then pressing a wheel
down into it. Make sure that each bearing is flush with the wheel so that it'll spin
straight.
Once you've got both bearings in, put the wheel on with a speed washer on each side,
and tighten it down enough so that the wheel has just a tiny bit of wiggle room, so that
it can spin freely.
Once you do the same for the other 3 wheels, the setup process is complete.
If you have any questions, feel free leave them in the comments section below, subscribe
for more skate tutorial videos, and as always, remember to have fun.