Free Sample
The Complete Guide to Skateboarding
The honest, no-fluff guide to the real costs, gear, time, and first steps of learning to skateboard as an adult beginner
by Alumigogo Books
Chapter 1: What Is Skateboarding and Why People Love It
Let's clear something up right away: skateboarding is not what it looks like in the X Games, and it's not what it looks like in a sneaker commercial either. It's not standing on a piece of wood and rolling down a hill gracefully on your first try. It's not flipping a board under your feet while flying down a handrail. Those are things that happen after years, for a small fraction of the people who skate. The real day-to-day of skateboarding for most people is far more humble, and far more accessible than you probably think.
The Actual Day-to-Day
First, the board itself is deceptively simple. It's a wooden deck, usually about 8 to 8.5 inches wide and around 32 inches long. It sits on four wheels with two metal trucks connecting the wheels to the board. That's it. You stand on it, and you push off the ground with one foot to move. That's the entire act. But the moment you step on, you'll discover that a skateboard is not a stable platform. It rocks side to side, the wheels roll in a way that feels like they might slide out from under you at any second, and even the simple act of standing on it requires muscles you didn't know you had in your ankles and core.
When you first start, a single session looks like this: you find a flat, smooth patch of pavement in a parking